Make Every Effort
Romans 14:1–23
INTRODUCTION
Sibling relationships are, at best, sometimes strained. I can remember growing up, the fights my brother and I would get into. I forget what the fights were about, only that we fought. Most of the time, I’m sure, it was just nitpicking things. I wanted to do everything my older brother was doing and he didn’t want the bother of his kid brother around.
Occasionally, when these arguments would drag on for hours, my mother would do what I thought at the time was surely the dumbest thing she could have done. Instead of separating us until things cooled down she would force us to stay in the same room together until we could “learn to get along.” “How crazy is this,” I would think? “Maybe she is hoping I’ll go ahead and put the entire family out of its misery and kill my brother during this, surely, unlawful imprisonment,” I would think.
After time would pass, we would come around to the fact that, if we were going to be cooped up with each other we might as well make the best of it. Soon we would be playing with each other and getting along in spite of our differences. It wasn’t until I had children of my own that I realized my mother’s wisdom and then later that my mother had gained her wisdom from God.
• I am firmly convinced that more than a timeless letter about the gospel of Christ, Paul as an effort wrote Romans to unify a church on its way toward division.
• Romans starts with a reminder of The Promise of God.
• It continues by showing that all people are alike under the condemnation of sin.
• We all share a Common Bond of Sin.
• Paul then shows us the common denominator that brings everyone together and that is the Righteousness that comes through faith in Christ.
• Christ paid the price through His work on the cross and everyone who comes to Him in obedient faith becomes a part of His glorious church.
MAIN BODY
I. Receive your Brother. Romans 14:1–6
A. The wisdom of my mother was that she knew we were a family and in that respect, my brother and I were stuck with each other. We had no choice but to work out our differences. Where else could we go? We are family.
B. Paul uses the same idea here by admonishing us to accept the brother who is weak in faith. Why?
1. He is a brother. 14:1
2. God has accepted him. 14:3
C. “Disputable Matters” or “Doubtful Disputations” or “decision of scruples”
1. The weak brother should be received, scruples and all.
2. Although the brother is received, it should be done in a way as to not make his differing opinion the rule of the congregation.
3. Neither should he be received for the purpose of pressuring this brother to change his opinion.
4. Receive him, plain and simple.
D. Paul’s admonition here clearly shows that Christians can disagree on certain matters and yet still fellowship one another.
1. More than that, Paul commands it by stating, “Accept him.”
2. Any question that arises among the brotherhood that does not violate a command of Christ is by very definition secondary and of minor importance.
a. This applies especially to situations where division is apparent.
b. Eph. 4:2–6 “2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
II. We will all give a Reckoning of our lives to God. Romans 14:7–18
A. The very fact that we are all sinners has been driven into the bedrock as a reminder of our need for justification before God.
1. Romans 3:23–24
2. 2 Cor. 5:10 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
B. The danger of trying to find the wrong in someone else is evident throughout the bible.
1. Luke 6:41–42 41“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
2. Galatians 6:1–4 1Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else,
C. Paul says that Christ died “For this very reason.”
1. Not to condemn everyone for every misstep but to give us a way of forgiveness.
2. John 3:16–17 16“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
III. Be Reconciled. Romans 14:19–23
A. Our purpose and goal for the church should be the same as Christ’s.
1. John 17:20–23 20“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
2. “Make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” 14:19
B. How tragic it is that the trivial opinions of man are destroying the work of God.
1. Paul’s advice is “Just don’t do it.” Don’t destroy the work of God over man’s opinion.
2. Are you the strong in faith and know that this idea is merely opinion and not doctrine? Put the matter to Paul’s test.
a. Is it better to swallow your pride or to cause a brother to fall?
b. Matt. 18:5–6 5“And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. 6But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
C. ILLUSTRATION Leonardo Da Vinci, just before he commenced work on his “Last Supper” had a violent argument with a fellow painter. Leonardo was so bitter that he decided to paint the face of his enemy, the other artist, into the face of Judas, and thus take his revenge by handing the man down in infamy and scorn to succeeding generations. The face of Judas was, therefore, one of the first he finished. Everyone could easily recognize it as the face of the painter with whom he had quarreled. Yet when he came to paint the face of Christ, he could make no progress. Something seemed to be baffling him, holding him back, frustrating his efforts. Finally he came to the conclusion that the thing that was frustrating him was that he had painted the face of his enemy onto the face of Judas. He painted out the face of Judas and was then able to resume his work on the face of Jesus and this time did it with the success that the ages have acclaimed. When Da Vinci moved past his will to take revenge and made the right response instead, he broke the power of hatred and allowed Christ to be seen!
Illustration taken from Jeeva Sam on semoncentral.com
CONCLUSION
• Whenever you bring together a group of people under a common banner there are bound to be disagreements. This is true in business settings, families and the church.
• When disagreements occur in a family you have only two choices: 1. You can decide to no longer live as a family or 2. You can decide that the good of the family is better served by accepting your family member and their opinion.
• The church is a family. There will be disagreements.
• In the church we must put our disagreements to the test. Is it a matter of faith. Do we have a “thus saith the Lord” or is it an opinion.
• If we cannot appeal to scripture for our opinion then we must preserve the unity of the Lord’s church.
• To decide that we can no longer live together as the family that we are, in this case, would be sin.
• It is for the good of the church and the work of God, that we receive our brothers as Christ has received them.
• I think back to the wisdom my mother showed in raising me and my brother. If we as a family of God would realize that we have no choice but to work things out then we would find that we have more things in common than we realize. As a result, the work of God can continue unrestrained and God will be given the glory.
