If you want to follow along, the primary passage we will be looking at is Romans 14. We will be skipping around a little bit, but that is the area we will be in. The good news is that my sermon will probably be a little bit shorter than normal. The bad news is it might be very convicting for some and confusing for others. I will just give you that warning. You know we have been going through the series called The Story: God’s story as told through the people, places, and events of the Bible. Most recently, the part of the story we have been in is the book of Acts. Over the last few weeks we saw how God used people like Philip and Peter and Paul to plant churches around Judea and Samaria and on to the known corners of the earth at that time. They would convert these people and put them into communities that we would think of as a church and that place would be a place where they could learn about God, each other, and themselves. Now, as we go toward the end of the year, we are also going towards the end of the series called The Story. We are really getting towards the end of the Bible.
For the next few weeks, we are going to be looking at the portion of the Bible that is collectively referred to as the Letters or Paul’s epistles. As many of you know, Paul wrote the bulk of the letters. He was the one who was planting most of the churches. He didn’t want to abandon the churches out there in the middle of nowhere, so he would do his best to keep in contact with them. His first preference would be that he would go and visit them himself, but it wasn’t always realistic to do that. Sometimes he would send delegates like Timothy or Silas or Barnabas to go and check on the church. If he couldn’t go and the delegates couldn’t go, then his third choice was to simply write a letter to the churches. I suspect if Paul was around today, he wouldn’t be writing letters but he would probably be using things like email and texting. He would use every means available to keep in touch with his church. What we find in these letters is really that Paul was writing these letters to deal with specific situations. In fact, they are called situational letters or occasional letters because he is writing to deal with different things that are going on in the church. Some of those things were not always good. He was dealing with all sorts of problems. We know even nowadays when you put a bunch of people together from different backgrounds, from different races, with different personalities, and a lot of different opinions, there is a chance you might have a little bit of challenge. Paul knew that. He could easily turn his back on those challenges or he could face them. He faced them because he knew if things like division and loyalties and sin and gossip and those types of things were to continue on unchecked, they could destroy the stability of the church. Paul wasn’t just about maintaining the rights of the individual. He was about maintaining the stability of the church. He would deal with a lot of different issues. Not only issues related to things going wrong like sin and that sort of thing. He would deal with what we would call theological issues or doctrinal issues. Basically things that had to do with right belief about God and man. You have to remember at this particular time in the church, we are still talking first century, there was a lot of confusion. This thing called Christianity was just getting off the ground. Everything was up in the air. There was a lot of confusion going on. Nowadays, occasionally we have doctrinal issues, but for the most part most of our theology has pretty much been settled a long time ago. Back then, everything was pretty much up in the air. It was a work in progress. Paul didn’t have manuals to draw from. He didn’t even have the completed Bible that we have to draw from. He had to piece it together.
One of the biggest challenges he had was trying to help explain how the Jewish people, particular the first five books of the Bible, fit in relation to this new thing called Christianity. People were very confused about it. As you can imagine, Paul was just bombarded with question after question about things. Things like do we have to keep all the old laws now that we are Christians or can we just keep the big Ten Commandments? Do we have to go to all the Jewish festivals? Do we just have to honor the Sabbath? The one that is addressed in today’s book of Romans is whether or not it is acceptable to eat meat that has already been sacrificed to a pagan God. We think about something like that as just bizarre. We don’t have to worry about those things. Back then it was a very real issue. The Jewish people were taught don’t mess with any food that has been used in sacrifice to a pagan god or goddess. This was a problem because when somebody wanted to buy meat down at the meat market they don’t know where the meat has come from. Because there were so many pagan cults, there was a good chance that probably half of the meat down there may have come from a pagan temple or something like that. It was a valid concern. With the coming of Christ, all of a sudden those types of laws didn’t matter in the way that they used to matter. Paul would probably say when it came to things like meat sacrificed to idols it really doesn’t matter. If we had time we would look in the book of Corinthian, and in his view these idols were nothing. They were not gods and goddesses. They were just stone or wood or whatever. There is only one God. That is our Father and Lord Jesus Christ who is our Messiah so there is no such thing as other gods. A sacrifice of meat offered up to this god or goddess would be basically okay. If the god or goddess that you are trying to sacrifice to is meaningless and has no value, then the meat is fine. His view is go ahead and eat it. We know there is nothing to it. It is not tainted. It is just meat. He was experiencing and a lot of the people following him were experiencing this new found freedom from some of the Old Testament regulations.
While it was good for some people, other people really stressed out about it. They were thinking I grew up studying Judaism my whole life and following the laws that have been passed down from generation to generation and now here is Paul coming in and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and preaching the freedom that comes through Jesus Christ, specifically freedom from the law, and pretty much throwing everything that I have ever believed out the window. That is probably what some people probably believed. Paul would confirm the fact that when Christ came, Christ himself said that he was the one who had completed the requirements of the law. The Jewish people could not hold to all the demands of the law. When Christ came, he became the law unto himself. He satisfied the requirements of the law. It is Romans 10:4 that says “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” That is the core of what we believe as Christians. Christ did on the cross what we could not do ourselves. We could not keep all the laws. Christ became the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Pretty much the bulk of the Old Testament teaching is gone and Christ has replaced that law. You say if we don’t have the Jewish law, what do we have? Christ would say you have the law written on your heart. In fact, the law has kind of been expanded. In the old law, it says you should not murder anybody. But the new law says you shall not be angry with anybody. The Old Testament said you should not commit adultery, but the new law is you need to not even lust after another person. So in a sense although he has replaced the old law, he has kind of expanded it. He is making it larger. But he is not leaving people abandoned. He is saying I placed the law in your heart, but I have also given you the Holy Spirit along with the body of believers, the church, to help you discern whether or not something is right or wrong and how the law that is on your heart applies to a given situation. He would say if it comes down to it and you just do not know how you should respond, then just remember the overarching law of love. The overarching law that Jesus said basically love God and love others and you will be fine. If you keep that in mind, pretty much you will be safe going through society with all these things that come at you.
But even with that, some of the people were just not comfortable letting go of the Old Testament stuff. That was part of their identity. That is what they grew up hearing all the time. They were not comfortable with just giving it up. You had this group of people who were transitioning in. Although Paul was opposed to people who would mandate some aspects of the Old Testament law on the new believers like circumcision and things like that, he was also a little bit graceful towards some of the people that just chose to retain aspects of the old law because they didn’t feel comfortable giving it up. These are things that Paul would refer to as things that are basically matters of opinion or things indifferent. In fact, there is a fancy Greek word, adiaphora, which basically means things indifferent. There are things that people chose to hold on to, but when it all boiled down it really didn’t matter which side of the fence they fell on. In his mind, if you want to continue to go up to Jerusalem and go to the all the holy festivals then fine, do it. If you want to abstain from eating meat in the marketplace that you know has been sacrificed to idols because you grew up your whole life feeling that meat was evil and tainted, then fine, don’t eat it. He didn’t have an issue with those indifferent things. What he did have an issue with was the people he would call the free Christians, the ones who were free from the Old Testament law, looking down on the people that decided to hang on to aspects of the law. At the same time he had an issue with the people that held on to aspects of the old law criticizing the ones that didn’t hold on to the old aspects. That is why he writes in Romans 14:3 “The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has created him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.”
So you had these groups of people in the same church in Rome. Some of them wanted to hang on to some of the traditions and they thought they were more pious because they held on to them. Then you had the other people that may have been Jewish or maybe not that decided I am free. I don’t really have to deal with this stuff. I am free to have my own convictions. That is what Paul basically decides. When it comes down to these disputable things, these matters of opinion, really what he wants to get across is that in these situations each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. “He who regards one day as special does so to the Lord. He who eats meat does so to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.” In a nutshell what he is saying here is figure out what is important to you. Figure out your belief and what you believe about this thing, whether it is the holy days or eating meat sacrificed to idols, do your homework, do your research, talk to people in the community, and after doing all that, if you are convinced that it is wrong to eat meat sacrificed to idols or you must continue to practice the holy days then fine. Live with it. If you do that, what he is saying is if you decide to hold on to those, give them up as an offering to God. On the other hand if you say I have studied the scripture and done all this stuff and I really think it is okay to eat this meat and I think it is okay if I don’t go up to Jerusalem for every holy day, then if you have studied the scriptures and looked at that, he is saying just believe it. In faith believe it and offer that up to God. God, I am believing I am free from these things and I thank you for it. That was Paul’s way of dealing with some of these matters of opinion in a very good way.
He doesn’t leave it there. He says “So, therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.” Let us stop passing judgment on each other, which the people were doing. One thinking they were better than the other because they held to or didn’t hold to a particular law. But then he goes on, and I think what he is doing now is directing his focus to what he would consider the mature believers or the strong believers, and in fact he refers to in that section to the weak and the strong. The weak believers were really the ones that felt the need to hold on. The strong believers were the ones that felt free in the law. I think he is pointing this to the mature believers and saying stop passing judgment but instead make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. What he is saying here is you mature believers understand that you have this new found freedom in Christ. You can decide what is permissible and not by discussion with the Holy Spirit and community of believers and that sort of thing.
But then he would also say, in fact he said it in 1 Corinthians but I don’t have that on the screen, all things are permissible but not all things are beneficial. You are permitted and you have the right to eat this meat sacrificed to idols, but maybe it is not beneficial that you do so in all occasions. He is saying there may be some situations where you have to put aside your rights for the benefit of other believers. Paul says that in the next line where he says “As one (basically being Paul) who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.” What he is saying is if somebody regards eating meat that has been idol worshipped and you regard that meat as unclean, it is unclean. If you go ahead and eat that meat, you are violating your conscience. You are sinning. If you determine something to be unclean, then for him it is unclean. “If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you no longer are acting in love.” He is telling the people some of you are totally free to eat this meat, but it wouldn’t be very loving if you are free to eat this meat because you know it doesn’t mean anything and isn’t tainted, but you invite a brand new believer over for dinner that night and he asks where you got the food and you say I got this lamb that had been sacrificed to Zeus or whatever. That would not be very loving. All kidding aside, to eat the meat in front of somebody who you know has a problem with it is wrong because you are tripping up that person’s faith. You are creating a stumbling block. Some would suggest that what you are doing is possibly opening the door for the person to return back to idol worship because in his mind now idol worship is okay. That is a stumbling block. You are causing a stumbling block in their faith.
Paul is saying there comes a time where you have to put your rights aside. When you don’t know what to do, try to operate from the overarching rule of love. Does what I am doing or am about to do really demonstrate love of God and love of others? The question that he is trying to get them to think about is not whether I have the right to do whatever I want. I can eat meat or not eat meat. I can go to the festivals or not. That is not the right question to ask. The right question to ask before engaging in those sort of activities is to ask yourself is what I am about to do loving. That is a different frame. The other one is more self-centered. I have the right to do this thing. He is saying well you do, but you don’t have the right to be selfish. Let love rule. If you don’t allow love to rule, you can destroy another believer just like that. If you destroy enough believers, you can destroy a church. He goes on to say “Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.” It’s not worth it. “All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes anyone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.” Does that make sense? It is a hard passage to explain but I think you get the general gist of it.
The question is how does that apply to us today because obviously we don’t have to deal with whether we buy meat at Giant Eagle or Kuhn’s and whether it has been sacrificed to idols or not. We don’t have to worry about those things too much. There are other things that we have to worry about that, if not dealt with, could really upset the stability of the church. A few things to consider. There are things that I would call disputable items. Things where Christians can have valid differences on. The first one and I think the one that is most obvious is the idea of drinking. Some would say that a Christian should never drink beer, wine, or whatever. They should never step foot in a bar. There are people that just believe that. They might try to make a case out of it biblically. Then there are other people that say I grew up and my parents always drank wine. They never abused it. I like to have a glass of wine and I am going to drink it. Besides that, we know that Jesus’ first miracle was a wedding feast at Canaan and he multiplied wine so that everybody could keep their buzz on. They could make probably a better argument. Another example would be gambling. There are people that would never buy a lottery ticket. Never play bingo. Never ever step foot in a casino. They would never do that because gambling in their mind is wrong. They might try to make a case out of it biblically, but there are other people that say I don’t see the issue. To me it is a form of entertainment. What is the difference between spending $200 at a Steelers game or going down to the casino and throwing $200 down on the slot machine? In Debbie’s mind they would both be a gamble. She is a Browns fan. The next thing is movies and TV. It is questionable. Some people say don’t ever watch a Harry Potter movie or Gremlins or The Simpsons. They would never watch anything beyond a PG rating. Others would say that is kind of sad because you are letting Hollywood put a label on what you watch. Besides that, when you restrict yourself to certain movies and you exclude yourself from all R-rated movies, you may be missing some very good movies including The Passion of the Christ, which was rated R. Oh. You have all been to an R-rated movie. One of my favorite movies as I have said before is The Book of Eli. It is very Christian-oriented. It is violent, but it has one of the most phenomenal Christian themes that I have seen. God can use even R-rated movies as themes of redemption. Then you have the whole idea of whether you have to be at church every Sunday. Where does it say in the New Testament that you need to be at church every Sunday? The Old Testament says the Sabbath but the Sabbath used to be Saturday for one. And two, if we are free from that aspect of the law, we have an option there. Some people say I am never going to miss a Sunday. I will never miss a Sunday. That is the Lord’s Day. Other people say I don’t get much time off. I can’t always take Sunday off, so I am going to choose to take my Sabbath on the golf course. There are some that will rationalize that. Or out in the woods. In their mind it doesn’t matter. They can worship God on the golf course. They can worship God out in the woods. Again, it is a disputable item is all I am saying. Then you have the issues of tattoos. I think last week I asked how many of you have tattoos. About half raised your hands but I know three-quarters of you have them. Tattoos are a piece of art for some people. If you look at the Old Testament, you are not supposed to mark up your body, which means most of you shouldn’t have ear piercings. Others would make the case that my tattoo I see as a form of worship to God. I see it as taking a beautiful piece of artwork that often has scripture or crosses and I see this as a way to share my faith to people when they ask about my tattoo. So they can rationalize it.
I want to get you guys thinking about it. That is all I am trying to do. I don’t want to get you upset, which I am sure I am getting most of you upset. I just want you to be thinking about that there are things that as much as you would like to say this is the way it is, they are just not black and white. It is those things that cause the biggest divisions in churches. It is not the big things. It is the little things. It is the little foxes that spoil the vines as the saying goes. It is these little things. If Paul was standing here today, he would say this is adiaphora. These are things that really are matters of opinion. Going back to what his logic is in matters of opinion, he says each one of you should decide in your heart, should be convinced in your own heart after prayer, after study of the word, and after discussing in community. Because as I have said before if you read the Bible just on your own, you are going to turn weird. You have to read in community. I am serious. You need other people to help you. These are things that we have to be convinced in our own mind. When we are convinced about any of those things that I just mentioned, then be convinced. Don’t doubt. If you believe it is okay to drink, then don’t doubt it. Later on in the passage, it says whatever you do, do it in faith. Don’t doubt because anything done in doubt is sin. If you are going to take a stand on one of those things, believe it in faith that this is the right way to go until somebody convinces you otherwise. You are the one that has to answer up to God; not the person next to you pointing at you and telling you about it. You are the one that has to answer to God. Having said that, Paul would say to the mature believers, the ones who are free to do whatever they want, everything is permissible but everything is not beneficial. What he is saying to each one of us that would consider themselves mature and free, sometimes you need to set aside your rights for the benefit of your brother or sister. Which means you people who like to drink a little bit or a lot, when you have somebody over for dinner and you know it is a new believer or somebody who struggled with alcohol in the past, you don’t exert your right and say I have the right to drink my wine. Out of love, you choose to abstain because you are more concerned about the love. You don’t want to cause distress in that person’s life. The same thing if you are someone who likes to gamble. That is great. There are people that don’t like to even open a deck of UNO cards. They have been taught all their life that cards are bad. When you invite them over, don’t invite them in for a game of Texas Hold ‘em. You are going to cause stress in that person’s life. Same thing with movies or TV. If you invite somebody over, don’t pull out the R-rated movie knowing that the person is going to sit there the whole time just knowing that it is R-rated and just cringe and then begin to think maybe it is okay that I watch whatever I want to watch and all the while the person is just getting settled in their faith. What you are doing is creating confusion and doubt and all this kind of stuff. You are not acting out of love. It is the same thing with Sunday. I know there are Christians who say I don’t have to be at church every Sunday. I am perfectly fine if I take a Sunday off and go play golf. That is fine but don’t draw a new believer into that type of thinking. Don’t go out and schedule a foursome and invite the guy that was just baptized last week into the foursome on a Sunday morning. What does that say to that person? It says maybe church isn’t so important. You are planting a seed in that person. You may be mature enough but that person isn’t. You are causing distress and creating an unloving situation.
As we wrap all this up, you have the perfect right to live the way you want to live but making sure I qualify myself and say in discussion with the Spirit and understanding God’s word and in community, you will hopefully make good decisions. For some people it is not beneficial to engage in stuff yourself because of past addictions or that sort of thing. That is why we have community. That is why we have the Word. That is why we have the Holy Spirit. You are permitted to do these things, but it is not always beneficial for you or your brother and your sister. Again, the question isn’t is it permissible or is it right? But the question is is it loving? I close by a passage out of Galatians that Paul also wrote where he said “You my brothers were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Because as you love your neighbor as yourself, you are actually loving God. Let us pray.
