This sermon is our first installment in a seven-part study on what I’ve referred to as the ‘one another’ verses. These seven sermons do not represent a comprehensive coverage of the verses in the New Testament that address our relationship to one another as believers in Christ; but they will certainly constitute a good cross section of those verses.
We’ll talk about building up one another, admonishing one another, bearing one another’s burdens, being subject to one another, forgiving one another, encouraging one another, and confessing to one another.
Some of it, I promise, will be a little difficult for us to take. Some of these admonitions concerning our relationship to one another in Christ go diametrically opposed to our human nature. But they are the teaching and exhortation of the Holy Spirit nonetheless, and we’ll not cut corners in our study for the sake of personal comfort.
A theme you’ll hear running through all seven of these installments will be the one foundational truth, without which none of it could make sense or serve a purpose; that theme being; love as Christ loved us. You’ll read it again and again; and if you retain nothing else out of this series, I pray that the Holy Spirit will etch those words deeply into your minds and your hearts. LOVE AS CHRIST LOVED US.
He told us with His own lips that this is the fulfilling of the Law; and it is also the only real and lasting fulfillment of these verses we’re about to study.
So keep that phrase in mind if you please, LOVE AS CHRIST LOVED US, and let’s go.
In part one we are studying specifically, verse 19 of Romans 14. It says,
“So then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.”
I want to look most closely at what we mean by ‘pursuing the things which make for peace’, and ‘building up of one another’. But first, as always, we have to be careful to look at what is being said in this chapter, to keep us from straying from the primary focus of the text verse.
Paul spent chapter 13 of this letter exhorting believers to proper behavior toward God and men, emphasizing the need for love to be the foundation of our behavior. It is there that he says, ‘love is the fulfilling of the law’.
In chapter 14 Paul goes deeper into what a ‘love’ relationship with those in the church is. He talks about gentle treatment of weaker vessels (brothers/sisters in Christ), and the fact that we should be accepting of one another, not judging (condemning), for Christ has died for each of us, and we each shall give our own account of ourselves to Him.
Now I’ve moved quickly through, just giving a very brief overview, up to verse 13. I’ll slow down just a little now to bring out his thoughts and the Holy Spirit’s teaching up to verse 19, but I’ll only slow down a little.
If you read verse 13 carefully and take time to think about it before moving on, you’ll see that Paul is slamming his hammer right down on the head of one of the most destructive problems in Christ’s church.
He exhorts not to judge, saying that we should instead determine not to put stumbling blocks in a brother’s way.
I am seeing two things here:
1. The act of judging (condemning) is putting a stumbling block in a brother’s way, and
2. While we are judging, some of the liberties we allow ourselves are indeed a stumbling
block to the brethren...maybe even the one we’re condemning.
Now I ask you; if a Christian man has a habit or a short-coming that is unattractive to the collective body of Christ, and those who are condemning him for it both, fail to love, AND have sins in their own lives that are causing that weaker vessel to stumble; who has the greater sin? You know the answer already.
Paul, the spiritually mature Paul, says in verse 14 that nothing is unclean in itself.
Did you hear that? Can you read that in your own Bible? Some translations say “No food”. But ‘food’ is not even implied there in the Greek. The text says ‘nothing’.
No Thing.
Now a big stumbling block to the early church was food that had been sacrificed to idols. That issue is addressed in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.
And food that had been sacrificed to idols was probably on the minds of many Roman Christians as they read this letter.
In our day it wouldn’t be food sacrificed to idols. It might be smoking, or going to the movies, or eating at a public place on Sunday, or accepting a glass of wine when a friend has invited you over for Thanksgiving dinner.
Those are just some of the things that the Bible does not address, but our Christian culture has placed taboos on over the years, so for some, it is “Food sacrificed to idols”. It can be a stumbling block.
Paul says, “nothing is unclean of itself”.
BUT...
“...to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.”
What does he mean by that?
1. If you can not do that thing with a clear conscience before God, then to you it is
unclean. DON’T DO IT!
2. If you can do it with a clear conscience, yet you know that to other believers it
is unclean, DON’T DO IT FOR THEIR SAKE. That is love.
I’ve simply paraphrased what Paul says in verses 15 and 16:
“For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer
walking according to love.
Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
Therefore do not let what is for you a
good thing be spoken of as evil;”
I want to reemphasize here, that although Paul refers to food, that does not restrict the truth of what he is saying to the partaking of food items. Our liberties and our sins extend far beyond the realm of what is ingested...so please don’t ever excuse what you are doing, and the fact that you may be causing weaker vessels to stumble, with the lie that these verses do not apply to you or your situation.
When Paul says in verse 17 that “...the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”, he is saying that food (and these other things that in themselves are not unclean) should not be the cause of our judging of others OR means by which we cause others to stumble, because they are all temporary, physical things that will pass away and therefore do not matter in the eternal scheme of things.
But...righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are eternal, and should be diligently pursued, and shared. They are the fruit of true, Christian love, and it is impossible to be an offense to the brethren while pursuing those things diligently.
So that brings us up to verse 19.
“So then, let us pursue the things which make for peace”.
What could he mean by ‘pursue the things...’? This.
Rather than pursuing the things that give us some brief physical gratification, but may cause a weaker vessel to stumble; and, instead of putting such a priority on these physical things that we’re ready to condemn a brother if we think he is doing them, rather, let us pursue the things which make... {...NOT FOR CONDEMNATION AND SEPARATION AND DIVISION AND HOSTILITY AND GRIEF AND REJECTION...} ...for peace.
Then what things make for peace? The answer I see jumping out of the New Testament at me for that question, is -relationship with the God of peace-
In John 14:27 Jesus promises that as He goes away He leaves with His disciples, His kind of peace. Not as the world gives, but a godly, lasting peace. Peace with God, peace with each other...the kind of peace that comes with knowing your sins are forgiven and you’re heaven bound.
In Romans 15:33 Paul calls God the “God of peace”
In Phil 4:7 he refers again to the “peace of God”
I don’t really see a formula given for peace; (do this, don’t do that). That is the world’s kind of peace. It doesn’t last, because eventually people DO do that, or DON’T do what they should and that kind of peace is broken.
The Bible calls God the God of peace, and exhorts us to pursue Him. In Him, there is peace. In a Godly, Christ-like love for the brethren, is a Godly, Christ-like peace.
We can’t take peace for granted: vs. 19 says ‘pursue’ peace.
I Pet 3:11 quotes Psalm 34:14, saying that the man of God should seek peace and ’pursue it’. The writer to the Hebrews, in (Heb 12:14) exhorts the reader to pursue peace with all men.
So peace is something that is actively pursued.
We have peace with God through faith in the shed blood of Christ. It is provided entirely by Him.
We have the peace of God in our relationship with Him, through study of the Word and prayer; and with men, when we act and react to them with a sacrificial, Christ-like love.
What do you do in your everyday life as a believer in Christ?
Do you actively pursue a Godly, Christ-like peace with the brethren as you enjoy the peace OF God through obedience and faith?
Or do you spend your days pursuing your own liberties and condemning others for their liberties?
I don’t want your answer. Go honestly to God with it.
Now let’s move on to this phrase: ‘building up one another’.
Some translations use the term ’mutual edification’, and that is accurate. The word ’edification’ means to build up. It comes from the same root word as ’edifice’. (or, structure...building).
So if we are mutually edifying one another, then we are indeed, building up one another.
Paul was expressing the same thought in chapter one verse 12, when he talked of being encouraged by one another through the sharing of their mutual faith.
So this ’mutual edification’, or ’building up of one another’, is likened to the on-going construction of a building. It is not over. It is not done. The church continues to grow.
“...from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” Eph 4:16
Furthermore, each individual stone in this edifice called Christ’s church, continues to grow individually.
“...you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
I Pet 2:5
In keeping with this metaphor then, what would be the building material that binds the living stones of the church together?
LOVE. Referring back once more to Eph 4:16, “...the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love”
It all comes back to that, doesn’t it?
LOVE AS CHRIST LOVED US.
Why do we need such constant reminding of this? It is the very foundation of our faith, and the thing that binds us together as one.
How did Christ love us? With an entirely self-sacrificing, unassuming, undemanding, unconditional love.
Keep that in mind as you consider the exhortation: LOVE AS CHRIST LOVED US.
Love each other because we’re lovable? Whew! Don’t hold your breath waiting for that!
Love each other because we’ll get equal love in return? Not always; in fact, not often!
Love each other as long as it is convenient and serves some selfish need?
That’s not how Christ loved us.
How then?
Freely, sacrificially, expecting nothing in return, requiring nothing in advance, knowing that we only know love because He first loved us.
Sound easy? Well of course it isn’t. Do you see it going on around you? Not nearly often enough.
That’s why within our own Southern Baptist organization there are so many churches splitting it’s a wonder they don’t cause a nuclear explosion. It is why so many of our associations have more churches looking for a pastor than with pastors. It’s why churches many times don’t keep them long once they are found.
That’s why so many churches ... really, ALL churches, fight a constant battle against gossip and backbiting; tension and strife; rumor and innuendo.
It is because the church is filled with self-seeking fat babies, who want to be fed until they think they are ready to lead, then they want to lead by lording it over the rest, being seen of men and receiving the applause of men. There is far too little true spirituality; far too little service for the sake of service. As a result, there is very little pursuit of the things that make for peace, and very little effort given toward mutual edification.
I’m not calling on you to do an easy thing today, Christian. I’m calling on you to do the thing that the Holy Spirit calls us to do. LOVE AS CHRIST LOVED US
Putting that exhortation in the context of the chapter, that means not conceitedly clinging to your liberty, puffed up by your own knowledge that nothing in itself is unclean and thereby selfishly causing a brother to stumble; but being willing to sacrifice that thing, die to that thing, for the sake of the brethren even if not for yourself.
It means not conceitedly condemning a brother for doing that which to you is unclean, but letting him have his own conscience before God, and simply loving him as Christ loved you; willing to let the Holy Spirit be the one who sanctifies through conviction and cleansing.
Read I Corinthians 8:1, and 11
“Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies”
(hear that word again?)
and verse 11
“For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.”
Not one of us, no matter how long we’ve been a Christian, or what our position is in the church, is called to be the ‘spirituality police’ for the rest.
Not one of us, no matter how long we’ve been a Christian, or what our position is in the church, is released to flaunt our liberties before the brethren with no thought for what it does to their conscience.
We are exhorted to fulfill the law of Christ in love. We are called to LOVE AS CHRIST LOVED US.
We’re called to pursue the things that make for peace, and for the mutual edification, or building up, of the body of Christ.
I’ll finish up part one by directing your attention to verse 20.
“Do not tear down...” Notice the contrast? The metaphor of building up, or edification is reversed... “Do not TEAR DOWN the work of God for the sake of food...”
What is Paul saying? Don’t destroy the eternal for the temporal. Don’t trample the spiritual underfoot in your lust for the physical. Don’t trade that which has an eternal value for that which is passing away.
And whatever you do, don’t be guilty of causing harm to a brother for the sake of your own freedom or for the sake of your own extra-biblical standards.
LOVE * AS * CHRIST * LOVED * US!
The church that is founded on that theme will grow and bless and flourish. I know it will, for love is the fulfilling of the law.
