“To Eat, Or Not To Eat—
That Is The Question”
Text: Romans, Chapter 14
Introduction.
Food, food! Everywhere is food! Food truly is something “big” in our lives, isn’t it? We come together and have food—and when we think about coming together, we think about having food—and when even when we don’t come together, well, we still have food!
How can food and drink divide Christians?
We have one great example of how food can bring us together to successfully finish a task. What about this example?
“Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean—
And so between the two of them,
They licked the platter clean!”
Together, they worked as a team!
Stone Cold Peas
Oh, Momma, please!
Don’t make me eat these stone-cold peas!
They’ve grown eyes and they’re looking at me!
I love to eat
Strawberries, oranges, broccoli with cheese,
Apples, pears that hang on trees,
Corn on the cob is really a treat;
But peas on a plate are no fun to eat!
I’ve grown attached to these peas,
We’ve both been here so long.
Would setting them free be so terribly wrong?
Just look at them now, so green and so lowly,
They will just sit here and wrinkle up slowly.
If you listen carefully, you can hear their pleas—
“Peas, oh peas, let us be frees!”
So Momma, things will be just fine—
If you don’t make me eat these friends of mine!
Some people don’t like what other people eat and drink. They say, “Watch out for the fat in that meat!”, or “Red meat is bad for you!”
One young man was trying to impress a certain young lady he went to church with. One week, her mother invited him to their home for Sunday dinner. Now, this young man loved to eat like most growing young people; however, there was one food he disliked and refused to eat—and that food was liver!
The young man was excited about Sunday dinner, because he would get to be with the love of his life and also because the rumor was that her mother was a great cook. Guess what?!? Everyone sat down at the table to eat and the Mother brought in fried liver!
The young man later told a friend that he looked at the girl he wanted so badly to impress—then he looked at the fried liver—he looked at the girl again—then he looked at the liver again. And then he proceeded to eat every bite of the liver!
It just goes to prove that sometimes we might eat foods we don’t like to impress others.
Now, Methuselah, the oldest man in the Bible, had no problem with food.
Methuselah ate what he found on his plate,
And never, as people do now,
Did he note the amount of the calorie count;
He ate it because it was chow!
He wasn’t disturbed as at dinner he sat,
Consuming a roast or a pie,
To think it was lacking in granular fat,
Or a couple of vitamins shy.
He cheerfully chewed every species of food,
Untroubled by worries or fears,
Lest his health might be hurt by some fancy dessert,
And he lived over nine-hundred years.
Read Romans 14:1-12.
Paul addresses food, drink, and elevating one day above the other. Maybe today we don’t have as a big a problem as people in that day did with these issues. But, we don’t like our personal opinions and convictions judged, do we? No! We don’t!
Years ago, there was a sweet little elderly lady who attended a particular congregation, and there she was, sitting quietly with her friend as the preacher preached.
The Preacher said, “Woe to those who make and sip that corn sweezin’!”
The little old lady said, “Amen, Preacher!”
Then the Preacher said, “Woe to those who grow and smoke those cigars and cigarettes!”
And the little old lady said, “Amen, Preacher!”
Then the Preacher said, “And woe to those who dip that Sweet Garrett Snuff!”
The little old lady turned to her friend and said, “That Preacher has stopped preaching now and he’s gone right straight to meddling!”
The Leaders of Israel Judged Jesus.
Jesus was judged by many people during His ministry. Some judged Him a sinner, but we know He never sinned. Some looked at His disciples and said, “They eat with unwashed hands!”
Some saw Jesus heal people on the Sabbath and said, “That’s sin!” Now listen to what Jesus told a group of people who judged Him for what He ate and drank.
Matthew 11:18-19 (Jesus himself is speaking here.)
---18---“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
---19---The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
There was no guilt found in Jesus, because He was not gluttonous or a wine-bidder.
Romans, Chapter 14.
As we come to Chapter 14 of the Book of Romans, Paul is not talking about the outside world judging Christians. He is talking about Christians judging other Christians and how divisive that was. Before we can fully understand what Paul is talking about in Chapter 14, we need to understand what he is not saying!
What Paul Is Not Saying.
The issue to which Paul speaks is the matter of personal convictions! Individual Christians will often differ over matters of conscience and matters of certain liberties. Paul is not talking about scriptural absolutes; nor is he talking about fundamental doctrines of the Faith.
When we understand that Paul is speaking with regard to individual liberties, Christian rights, and personal convictions, then it’s easy to see the difference in Paul’s attitude in Romans 14 as compared to his attitude in the Book of Galatians. In Galatians, Paul told his audience of the importance of maintaining sound doctrine—and he told them it was not a matter of personal conviction!
Galatians 1:9 & 10
---9---“As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a Gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.
---10---For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I seeking to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.”
When “Judaizers” came down teaching that the Gentiles also had to keep the Law to be saved (Acts 15:1) Paul was very severe with them, because their doctrine was false!
The difference can also bee seen in why Paul had Timothy to be circumcised but did not have the same done to Titus. Paul had Timothy go through circumcision so as not to offend the scruples and customs (or prejudices) of those who knew his father was a Greek and not a Jew.
However, in Galatians 2:3-5, Paul refused to circumcise Titus, because in that instance the heretics were insisting that circumcision was essential to salvation.
In Romans 14, Paul is talking about personal convictions involving their lifestyle and not that it was O.K. to have a different opinion on the fundamentals of Faith! Paul always insisted on sound doctrine!
The Strong and The Weak.
Paul seems to label these factions in Rome as “the Strong” and “the Weak”. The “Strong” group had Faith so as to allow them to exercise their Christian liberties. However, the “Weak” could not. Why?
Perhaps it was because of the customs with which they were raised. As I was researching chapter 14 of Romans, I discovered something I’d never thought about before and this occurred to me based on my study and my own personal experiences of being raised in the Lord’s church.
The story has often been told of two culprits who broke into a department store one night. They didn’t steal anything—they just switched all the price tags. The next morning, refrigerators were tagged for $9.95 and candy bars for $500.00!
As I studied this week, it occurred to me that someone had switched the labels on me. I had always been taught that the “Strong” Christian was the one who knew he couldn’t—and the “Weak” Christian was the one who spoke of “liberty”. If this has also been your opinion, perhaps you should also take a closer look at Romans 14.
In Rome, the “weak” were the ones who felt prohibited, but they could also be the ones that might follow the example of the “strong”, in spite of their own scruples. Paul said the “weak” should refrain, because if he followed the “strong”, he would violate his conscience—therefore, what he did would not be of Faith and thus he would sin!
To me, the unique thing in Paul’s teachings is found in Romans 14, and it is that both groups are acceptable to God and each will be welcomed into fellowship, IF each is doing what they’re doing based on Faith! Faith is what makes them acceptable to God.
Paul also explains how each—the strong or the weak—could fall into sin.
A Word of Warning.
To each of these groups—the strong and the weak—Paul has a word of warning and instruction. The instruction is to stop passing judgment on the convictions of the other, AND to welcome the other into warm fellowship and acceptance.
Romans 14:1
---1---“Now accept the one who is weak in Faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.”
Why? Paul gives us several good reasons.
· Personal convictions are private property!
Romans 14:5
---5---“Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.”
---22---“The Faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God…”
The point is painfully clear to some—maybe me! Mind your own business! We are responsible for our own convictions, but not those of our brother!
· Our acceptance of men into fellowship should be no more restrictive than God’s!
We cannot demand the other brother to conform to our personal prejudices. Our acceptance of others must be consistent with the acceptance shown by God.
Romans 14:3
---3---“Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.”
If God has accepted our brother as he is, then we must do no less. We should not try to change the one God has accepted as His.
· A servant is accountable only to his master.
We should keep in mind who Paul is addressing—he is writing to the Christians in Rome. Whether they are labeled “the strong” or “the weak”, they are servants of Christ.
· They are not heretics going around teaching false doctrine.
· They are not denying the virgin birth of our Lord.
· They are not denying that Jesus came in the flesh and was the only begotten Son of God.
· They are not denying that He truly was the Son of God, the Perfect Lamb that came to give His life for the ransom of many.
· They are not denying that He died on the cross at Calvary for the sins of the world.
· They are not denying that, on the 3rd day, He was resurrected from the dead by the power of God.
· They are not denying that He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God and that He was our own perfect High Priest OR that He would judge the living and the dead.
No, these people had differences with each other about meats, drink, and elevating one day above another. They had personal differences that should not divide them in the Lord’s church.
Romans 14:4
---4---“Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls, and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand. Some things are left to God, not us, because they are servants of their master.”
Romans 14:10
---10---“But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.”
Summing Up Verses 1-12 of Chapter 14.
If we wish to busy ourselves with the work of passing judgment, let us concentrate upon ourselves, rather than upon our brother, because we will all be judged by our Master!
Verses 13-23
Paul gives us an easy answer to this problem, because he says we must go beyond judging our brothers about personal convictions and trying to change them to fit our image. No, he says we must seek a positive course of action which seeks to build up the weaker brother in hi Faith.
Paul gives the correct verdict for all Christians in verse 13.
---13---“Therefore let us not judge one another any more, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or stumbling block in a brother’s way.”
There is something unusual here in the translation from Greek. In the Greek text, the words “judge” and “determine” are the same Greek word, Krinô. We might render the statement something like this:
“Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any more, but let us come to this verdict—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in our brother’s way.”
The ultimate issue is not one of right or wrong. Neither exercising liberties nor the abstinence from them is intrinsically good or evil. But being right or wrong is determined by our attitude toward them.
---14---“I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.”
I want you to notice that Paul uses the word, “unclean” in verse 14. That was a word the Jewish community used—clean and unclean. This indicates to me that these issues developed in a change from the Old Covenant to the New.
See the Jews could not enjoy a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich under the old dispensation, and eating ham with their eggs was unthinkable to them. Under Judaism they tended to associate holiness or uncleanness with the object rather than the person. But our Lord taught that it is not the object which defiles or purifies the man. Rather, it is what he is within himself that matters (Mark 7:1-15).
Romans 14:17
---17---“For the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Not A Matter of Right or Wrong—But Love.
The real issue is one of Love. Love seeks to build up, never to tear down or destroy. Now, Paul gives some words for the strong.
---22---“It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.”
Paul gives some words to the weak.
---23---“But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.”
The answer for all of us goes back to the law of Love. When we love our brother, we do things to build him up—not to tear him down.
Invitation.
