On Wednesday our nation celebrates its national independence. As you well know, the fourth of July commemorates the day when representatives of the thirteen colonies signed The Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. By signing that Declaration, those thirteen colonies were announcing their independence from England. The Declaration of Independence affirms that certain truths are self-evident, namely "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these rights are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." So for the past 225 years, Americans have gathered on the fourth of July to celebrate these God given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Whether you celebrate by watching fireworks, having a BBQ, going to the beach, or working on your home, this is a time for us to reflect with gratitude on our nation’s freedom.
However, in recent years our celebration of individual rights has gotten a little out of control in American culture. Yale Law School professor Stephen Carter has observed that our emphasis on personal freedom has gotten out of control (Carter 219). As an example, Dr. Carter cites a legal case about a California university student who decided to attend all his classes naked. When challenged on his conduct, the student claimed his right to attend classes in the nude was protected by his right to freedom of speech. For that student, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness meant attending classes without clothing, even though his behavior was illegal and offensive to those around him. He claimed that forcing him to wear clothes to his classes was an infringement on this inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our culture has become so bound by radical individualism that our rights have eclipsed any sense of responsibility for the common good.
We’ve been in a series through the New Testament book of Romans called Good News For Our Times. And when I think about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, I think the words "life" and "liberty" are a pretty good summary of what we’ve looked at in Romans so far. We’ve learned from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians living in the city of Rome that although the human race has joined in a mass rebellion against the creator, that by believing in the good news about Jesus Christ, we can experience new life. According to Rom 6:11, when we trust in the good news, we become dead to sin and alive to God. We receive new life as we’re made right with God through our faith in Jesus.
And the word "liberty" sums up our condition after we’re received this new life through Jesus. Back in chapter 6 of Romans, Paul said, "You have been liberated from sin" (6:18). Our condition is described in chapter 8 as "the glorious liberty of the children of God" (8:21). So life and liberty are key themes in Romans.
But is it happiness that this life and liberty frees us up to pursue? This is where the theme of Romans parts company with the vision of our Declaration of Independence. You see, it’s not the pursuit of happiness that’s to characterize the follower of Jesus, but the pursuit of love.
The last few weeks we’ve been looking at "The Good News About God’s Community" in chapters 12-16 of Romans. These five chapters show us how the good news of Jesus becomes embodied in a community of Christians, as we seek to live as Jesus Christ’s Church. The key to embodying the good news of Jesus has been love, love for one another, love for our enemies, and love for those in our government. Our faith in Jesus will bind us together in such a way that our faith in Jesus works itself out in love toward each other.
But sometimes we’re tempted to think that this spiritual life and liberty from sin was given to us so we could pursue our own happiness. We’re tempted to think it’s all about us, our preferences, our needs, our ideas, our values. We’re tempted to make ourselves the center of our Christian devotion, rather than realizing that genuine faith in Jesus leads us to pursue a life of love.
Today we’re going to look at five ways we can use our liberty to pursue love from Romans 14:13-23.
1. Contributing To People’s Spiritual Growth (Romans 14:13-15)
Now the specific issue Paul is addressing in chapter 14 of Romans is how Christians should relate to each other when they disagree about "disputable matters." There are certain topics that followers of Jesus have honest differences of opinion about how to best apply biblical principles. I’m not talking about differences in areas of essential Christian doctrine or clear moral absolutes, but I’m talking about differences in how to best apply a biblical principle. The issue back in Rome was over food and days, over whether Christians should only eat kosher food as defined by the Old Testament law of Moses and whether Christians should continue to observe the Jewish Sabbath and Jewish festivals like Passover. You see, some Christians from a Jewish background couldn’t imagine pleasing God unless they continued to follow these practices, so their spiritual liberty was narrow because it excluded things they were perfectly free to do. However, the majority of non-Jewish Christians in Rome had no problem eating all kinds of foods and worshipping on any day of the week, and they felt no need to celebrate Passover or any other Jewish holidays. Last week I gave some other examples of disputable matters, things like debate over drinking alcohol socially, debate about contemporary or traditional worship style, and debate about whether to homeschool, public school, or private school your kids.
Let me give you an analogy to help you understand how important this issue of food and Sabbath was to the church in Rome. Imagine a married man named Joe who’s been taught all his life that if he ever takes off his wedding ring he breaks his marriage vows. This belief about his wedding ring--a belief we might consider odd--has been passed down in Joe’s family from generation to generation. You can imagine that Joe would be very cautious about never taking off his wedding ring, because in his mind that means he’s unfaithful to his wife. Now imagine Joe has a friend named Randy who’s never even heard of this teaching. Joe and Randy decide to get together on a Saturday to work on Joe’s car, because Randy is a good mechanic. As they get ready to work on the engine, Randy takes off his wedding ring and puts it in his pocket so it doesn’t get engine grease on it. Can you imagine Joe gasping as Randy takes off his ring? And can you imagine Randy saying, "What’s the big deal? I just don’t want to get it dirty. It has nothing to do with how much I love my wife."
That’s kind of like what the food laws and Sabbath laws were to the Jewish people. The Jewish people believed breaking the food laws and Sabbath laws violated their vows to God. So when the Jewish Christians saw non-Jewish Christians eating non-kosher food and not observing the Sabbath and festivals, they gasped in horror, because in their mind that meant unfaithfulness to God.
So some in the church in Rome were strong in faith and others were weak in faith in this area of food and days. Now that doesn’t mean that the strong in faith were better Christians. It simply means that the faith of the strong gave them freedom of conviction in areas where the weak in faith didn’t have freedom of conviction. Remember, we’re not talking about doctrine or morals, but about honest differences of opinion in how to best apply biblical principles. Now Paul wants to motivate these two groups to pursue love rather than their own happiness, because he knows that selfishness will destroy the church in Rome.
So the first way to pursue love we’re going to find is this: We use our liberty to pursue love by contributing to other people’s spiritual growth.
That’s what we find in vv. 13-15. The command to "stop passing judgment on each other" is addressed to both groups--the weak in faith and the strong in faith--and that command really sums up the first 12 verses that we looked at last week. Now, in these verses, Paul uses several words to describe what might happen to a person who’s weak in faith if a person strong in faith flaunts his or her freedom. In v. 13 talks about putting a "stumbling block" or "obstacle" in another Christian’s path. In v. 15 he talks about the weak in faith being "distressed" because of the behavior of the strong in faith, and that when the strong in faith parade their liberty risk "destroying" their Christian friend.
Although Paul agrees theologically with the strong that there’s no such thing as unclean food, he warns us that this issue is not just about theology. There are relationships at stake in this issue. Probably, Paul is here echoing Jesus’ teaching that it’s not what goes into a person that makes that person unclean, but that it’s what comes out of the heart that defiles us. In fact, Mark 7:19 tells us, "in saying this, Jesus declared all foods ’clean.’"
A lot of people misunderstand what Paul is saying here. Paul is not saying, "If your freedom irritates another Christian, give up your freedom." A stumbling block is something that trips a person up in their walk with Jesus, causing them to fall away from their faith (Moo 851; Schreiner 734). And the Greek word "destroy" (apollumi) in v. 15 refers to total ruin or utter destruction, and usually used of people who end up forever separated from God (Cranfield 2:715). So Paul is talking about more than hurting someone’s feelings or irritating a person’s preferences. He’s talking about injuring a Christian’s spiritual life to the extent that they risk falling away from their faith in Christ.
I heard of a pastor who grew a beard. One of the older members of his congregation told the pastor she was going to buy him a razor for Christmas. She suggested that his facial hair was distressing to her and causing her to stumble. What she really meant is that she didn’t like facial hair, but it was cloaked in spiritual terms. The pastor felt obligated to shave his beard off. Now I’d submit to you that shaving his beard off had absolutely nothing to do with our text, because I find it highly unlikely that the presence of a beard was risking this lady’s relationship with Jesus or somehow tempting her to grow a beard herself.
Let’s go back to our imaginary friends Joe and Randy as they talk about wedding rings. Imagine Randy pressures Joe to take off his wedding ring. Joe gives in to the pressure and takes off his wedding ring. Now in Joe’s heart, he feels as though he’s broken his marriage vows, he’s been unfaithful to his wife. Even though there’s nothing inherently wrong with taking off your wedding ring, to Joe, he’s just violated his promises to his wife. Now imagine how that action might effect his marriage. As Joe goes home, he inwardly feels guilty. For the first time in his life, Joe has crossed that line, at least the line in his own mind. Perhaps Joe might be tempted to do other things to cross that line as well, perhaps like take his new secretary to lunch, even though he knows its not a good idea. You see, what’s no big deal to Randy could ultimately destroy Joe’s marriage.
What Paul is telling us here is to contribute to people’s spiritual growth rather than tearing it down. If we’re really going to pursue love, as v. 15 tells us to do, then we’ll think about how our liberty will effect other people’s spiritual growth. When we use our liberty to tear down people’s spiritual growth we’re no longer using our liberty to pursue love.
2. Embracing Kingdom Priorities (Romans 14:16-18)
Let me give you the second way: We use our liberty to pursue love by embracing kingdom priorities.
Look at vv. 16-18. The phrase "what you consider good" refers to the liberty enjoyed by the strong in faith. To the church in Rome, what they consider good is the fact that all foods are clean and every day is sacred in the eyes of God. The path of God’s grace is a broad path with lots of freedom, not a restrictive path of arbitrary rules that make no sense.
But when we make disputable things central to our relationship with God, things like what we eat or drink, whether to dance or not dance, homeschooling or private schooling, or whatever, we give the impression that those things central to God’s Kingdom (Moo 855).
We imply that the Kingdom of God is about what you eat or drink, or what day you worship on, or how you educate your kids, or whatever the issue happens to be.
But, the Kingdom of God isn’t about those things, but it’s about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness is a key word in Romans, and it’s used to describe what it means to be right with God through the good news of Jesus. So the kingdom of God is about helping people be right with God through Jesus. Peace describes the harmony and mutual support Christians are supposed to enjoy with each other (Moo 857). And joy is a state of gladness that comes when followers of Jesus are united in faith. That’s what God’s Kingdom is all about: helping people be right with God, living in harmony with each other, and experiencing the joy that comes as a result of God’s Spirit among us. When we embrace kingdom priorities, our service to Jesus is pleasing to God and vindicated in the sight of people, even people who disagree with us.
When we make disputable issues central to our spiritual lives, the liberty of the strong is spoken of as evil. I read a story recently about a church that got into a fight over whether or not to put a Christmas tree in the church (Stedman from SermonCentral.com). Some members argued that Christmas trees were inherently pagan--much like the "weak in faith" argued that certain foods were inherently unclean--while other members said that there was nothing wrong with having a Christmas tree in church. The two groups got so mad they actually got into fist fights with each other, with one group dragging the tree out, and the other group dragging it back in. They filed a lawsuit against each other (if you can imagine that), and the fight became public for the entire community to see. Can you see how something the strong in faith considered good--in this case a Christmas tree--was spoken of as evil in the community? People would think that being a Christian was all about whether or not to have a Christmas tree.
But God’s Kingdom isn’t about what you eat or drink, or Christmas trees, or days of the week, but it’s about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Are you embracing kingdom priorities? Is it your aim to let gray areas stay gray, and to focus on important issues like helping unchurched people be made right with God through the good news? Is it your aim to display God’s peace in your willingness to forgive other Christians, or are you more obsessed with having it your own way? Is it our passion as a church to experience the joy that comes from God’s Spirit rather than pursuing our own happiness at the cost of others?
We use our liberty to pursue love only if we embrace kingdom priorities.
3. Building Up the Church Community (Romans 14:19-21)
Now let’s look at the third way: We use our liberty to pursue love by building up the church community.
Look at vv. 19-21. The fact that the Bible tells us to make every effort to pursue peace reminds us that peace never just happens. If we sit around waiting for peace to happen in our relationships, we’re fooling ourselves. Peace is a result of a passionate commitment to pursue it.
Now I love this word "edification." The Greek term here is a construction term that was used to describe the process of making a building stronger. When I think of this word, I think of the retrofitting of the overpasses our state did back in the 1980s to make them more earthquake safe. This is talking about retrofitting the church community by strengthening it and fortifying it. The opposite word is used in v. 20, the word "destroy" that’s also a construction term for tearing down a building, like a demolition team.
Whether we like to admit it or not, our actions as followers of Jesus either strengthen or weaken our church. We like to think that our lives are entirely private and individual, that the church community isn’t really effected by our choices one way or the other. But the Bible clearly teaches that what we do in our spiritual life has a significant impact on our church community. This is at least part of what the Bible means when it calls the church "the body of Christ." When we refuse to use our freedom to pursue love, our church community is weakened. When a group of people refuses to pursue love, the church community is significantly weakened, they become a kind of demolition team. In fact, when an entire group refuses to pursue love it can totally destroy a church.
I’ve been a pastor here in the Inland Valley long enough to see lots of churches split and several other churches close their doors. Some of you have come from those churches, and you’ve shared your stories with me. In many cases there were one or more groups of Christians who refused to act in love, and by their actions, they refused to build up the church.
Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to break the color barrier in major league baseball. During his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson received constant verbal abuse and jeering from the fans. During a home game in Brooklyn, Jackie committed an error. Even Jackie’s own fans started jeering and ridiculing him, and he just stood with his head down in shame. As the fans shouted insults, Brooklyn Dodger shortstop "Pee Wee" Reese walked over, put his arm around Jackie, and then turned and faced the crowd. The crowd was immediately silent, and Robinson later said that that arm around his shoulder saved his career.
Sometimes we do things in the our lives that leads even fellow Christians jeer and taunt us. Thank God for those people who come over, put their arm around us, and help us face our critics. The jeering dismantles the church, while the arm around the shoulder builds up the church. Are you a retrofitter or a demolition expert when it comes to the church?
Liberty must be used to build up the community or it isn’t love.
4. Talking About Our Freedom With Discretion (Romans 14:22)
The fourth action: We use our liberty to pursue love by talking about our freedom with discretion.
Look at v. 22. Paul is telling Christians who are "strong in faith" to use their liberty with discretion, to not trumpet it to others. Enjoy your freedom--absolutely--but with discretion. The blessing here is a blessing on the strong in faith: happy is the person who doesn’t feel guilty when he does something he judges as right (Moo 862). Let’s go back to our friends Joe and Randy. This is a blessing on Randy because he’s able to take off his wedding ring without guilt. Joe isn’t blessed with that conviction, so Randy shouldn’t try to persuade him to do something he’s not blessed to do.
Now this advice here sounds a lot like, "Don’t ask, don’t tell." In a sense, that’s exactly what Paul is saying: Don’t trumpet your freedom to others, and if you’re weak in your faith, don’t go nosing around in your friend’s life to see what freedom he has that you don’t have. Paul’s saying that there are certain things that are important to know, but these disputable areas are not among them. Now just as a reminder, this is not talking about essential Christian doctrine or clear moral teaching, but it’s in difference of opinion about how to best apply biblical principles.
Let’s go back to Joe and Randy. If Randy, as someone who has the liberty to take off his wedding ring, knows that Joe believes taking off your wedding ring is breaking your wedding vows, then Randy should just leave it on while they work on the car. Randy is perfectly free to take it off when he’s working on his car alone, but if he knows that Joe is weak in faith in that area and might be tempted to break his wedding vows, then he shouldn’t make an issue out of it. Remember, Randy isn’t just concerned that he might offend Joe, but he’s concerned that his freedom might tempt Joe to follow his example--which in Joe’s mind would be breaking his wedding vows.
Enjoy your freedom, but talk about it with discretion.
5. Making Decisions By Faith (Romans 14:23)
Now the final action: We use our liberty to pursue love by making all our decisions on the basis of our faith in Christ.
Look at v. 23. What counts here is our confidence and trust in God. Any action that doesn’t match our sincerely held convictions about what our faith in Jesus gives us liberty to do should be avoided, even if other Christians have different convictions. Whatever in our life is not an expression of our dependence on and trust in God is marked by human presumption and pride, and therefore sin (Dunn 829). So every decision in our live needs to be guided by our faith in Jesus Christ. Our decision about who to marry, what church to join, how to educate our kids, whatever. Every decision needs to spring up from a dependence on God, a complete trust in the total sufficiency of Christ. And any decision that isn’t an expression of our dependency on God is displeasing to God. So two Christians can face the same situation and come to very different decisions, yet both can be guided by their faith.
Conclusion
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of love, not the pursuit of happiness. That’s what God has called us as followers of Jesus to as we seek to embody the good news about Jesus in our church community. Our nation may be obsessed with using their liberty to pursue happiness that comes from focusing on our rights, but God calls us to use our liberty to pursue love. We do that by contributing to the spiritual growth of others rather than destroying it, by embracing kingdom priorities instead of getting caught up in disputable matters, by building up our church community rather than tearing it down, by talking about our freedom with discretion rather than trumpeting it, and finally by making all our decisions on the basis of our faith in Christ.
When we refuse to pursue love in this way, we put ourselves under legalism and we put others under legalism as well. We become like the guy who ordered a suit from Hans the tailor. Hans had a reputation for being an incredible tailor, so when an influential businessman came to his community, he asked Hans to make him a tailor-made suit. When he came to pick up his suit, he found that one sleeve was twisted this way, and the other sleeve twisted the other way. One shoulder bulged out, while the other shoulder caved in. The businessman struggled and struggled to put on the suit jacket, until finally, twisted and contorted, he managed to make his body fit the poorly designed suit. As he walked to his hotel, someone on the street asked if the suit had been made by Hans the tailor, to which the businessman answered that it had. The person responded, "Amazing! I knew that Hans was a good tailor, but I had no idea he could make a suit fit so perfectly someone as deformed as you."
Isn’t that what we do with these disputable matters? We have in our mind what a real Christian should look like, and so we push and shove them into grotesque configurations until they fit wonderfully? Yet we make them fit our wooden legalism rather than giving the grace of liberty in these disputable matters that honest Christians have different opinions about? May God help us not be like Hans the tailor as we seek to help each other grow into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Sources
Cranfield, C. E. B. 1979. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. T. & T. Clark.
Dunn, James D. G. 1988. Romans, Word Biblical Commentary Vols. 38 A and B. Word Books.
Moo, Douglas.
Schreiner, Thomas. 1998. Romans: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Baker Books.
