Romans 14:1-12
“Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”
By: Rev. Kenneth E. Sauer,
Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
www.parkview-umc.org
It may come as some surprise to us that John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, never preached a sermon on the Virgin Birth or the Second Coming.
Furthermore, Wesley always refused to write up a Creed containing a definite number of fundamental doctrines that a Methodist must believe.
There was no official confession of faith that folks had to recite in order to become members of the early Methodist societies.
The sole condition for membership was a person’s desire “to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins.”
About his approach Wesley commented, “The Methodists alone do not insist on your holding this or that opinion; but they think and let think….Now I do not know any religious society, either ancient or modern, wherein such liberty of conscience is now allowed, or has been allowed, since the age of the Apostles. Here is our glorying; and a glorying peculiar to us.”
And Wesley lived by these principles.
He allowed people to have a great freedom of belief, and wanted to avoid any controversy over minor points that might get in the way of the cause of Christ.
For example, George Whitefield was one of the greatest Methodist evangelists during Wesley’s time, but Wesley and Whitefield disagreed strongly on the doctrine of predestination.
Both of them were completely convinced that the other was wrong, and yet they respected one another, loved one another, and worked together for the cause of Christ.
As Wesley put it in his sermon on the death of George Whitefield, “Let us keep close the grand scriptural doctrines of a less essential nature,” that the Christian Church has been divided on for ages.
“In these we may think and let think; we may ‘agree to disagree.’ But meantime, let us hold fast [to] the essentials of ‘the faith…’”
It takes a person with a very strong faith to be able to do and accomplish what Wesley did.
What does Paul start out by saying in our Epistle Lesson for this morning…
“Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.”
This means that there are disputable matters in the Christian faith!
Not one of us has all the right answers!!!
None of us hold a monopoly on the truth!!!
What Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 is so true and so important for we humans to grasp, internalize and understand: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
He finishes by saying: “Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
It is love that is to trump!
When it comes to disputable matters…love must trump!!!
“Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”
Too often, we Christians act as though we have the right to pass judgment on other people.
But when we take it upon ourselves to condemn a brother or sister, we are taking upon a position of power that is not ours to take!
It’s like “who died and made you god or king or whatever?”
Every one of us, who call ourselves Christian, are Christ’s servant and if Christ is satisfied there is nothing further to be said!
Notice again that Paul says: “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”
It is not up to us, it is up to God.
God is in control, and God is much bigger than we sometimes make God out to be.
Paul is confident that when God, the Master of all Christians, judges His servants—they will stand!!!
And praise the Lord for that!
Paul writes in our Scripture passage for this morning: “One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him.”
In the great city of the Roman Empire most of the meat that was sold had been sacrificed to idols.
Could a Christian eat this meat with a clean conscience or had the idols made the food ‘unclean’?
Facing this same situation in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes: “So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one….
….But not everyone knows this. Some people are so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.”
Yes, “One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables…
…Each should be fully convinced in his own mind…
…He who eats meat, eats to the Lord…and he who abstains, does so to the Lord…”
Now Paul uses eating and or not eating meat and observing special days to the Lord or observing all days to the Lord to illustrate a much bigger point: The strong Christian is a person who see what is truly important, morally and spiritually, and what is not.
And the strong Christian is able to ignore--for the sake of unity, for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of souls—the things that don’t really matter so much, or at least treat them as if they weren’t the biggest deal in the world!!!
The weak believer is preoccupied with things that really aren’t that big of deal…
…in other words, they have nothing to do with the salvation of souls…
…and the weak believer magnifies these ‘disputable matters’ until they become the most important thing about the faith.
Instead of focusing on the salvation of souls, and the love for God and neighbor, we might, for instance become involved in some cause which, in essence, becomes the issue of whether or not a person is a Christian!
Do any of us see this kind of thing happening in the Christian world today?
Do we see Christians arguing and fighting with other Christians over dogma, political views, the Law?
Do we see Christians taking sides and breaking from one another over disputable matters?
Why are there so many denominations?
Why do some say we must only read the King James Version of the Bible or we are not Christians?
Why do some say we must only baptize in an exact manner…otherwise we are missing the whole ball of wax when the Bible never gives us exact instructions on how we should baptize or even why.
Jesus just tells us to do it.
Don’t fight over the ‘how’s’…just do it.
That is the Great Commission!
That is what we are to spend our energies on: “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit….And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age,” Jesus commands us in Matthew chapter 28.
Is this what we are doing, or are we fighting about whether one must be immersed under the water, or sprinkled with the water in order for the baptism to take effect?
My friends, the Bible never tells us.
Let each person be fully convinced in their own mind, and don’t look down on your brother or sister who does it differently!
We judge one another, do we not?
We fight amongst ourselves on matters that really have nothing to do with the core message of Christianity, do we not?
We “strain a gnat, but swallow a camel”, do we not?
And in Romans Chapter 2 Paul tells us that “God’s name is blasphemed among” the people of the world because of us when we do this!!!
Tolerance, mercy, forgiveness, we all have to work on these things, do we not?
In Romans chapter 14 Paul is telling us to be tolerant of one another.
Our United Methodist theme of “Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors,” hasn’t appealed to some folks in our denomination.
They think we are being too tolerant.
But, it was John Wesley himself, who, is lauded by nearly every Christian of every persuasion as being the pioneer of a movement called the “Great Awakening” which caused millions upon millions to accept Christ and be saved, who said: “think and let think…the distinguishing marks of a Methodist are not his opinions of any sort…We think and let think.”
When the Christian Church was still in it’s infant stages it was the view of so many: “Look how they love one another,” which caused them to seek the Lord for themselves, not the Creeds we recite or the style of worship, or the type of clothes we wear.
It was not whether or not we held certain political views, or backed the right candidate…
…and it’s still not about these things!
Those things that divide us cause others to look at the Church with a disgust that gives Satan the greatest pleasure, and cause us to have “a form of godliness while denying it’s power.”
In this morning’s Scripture Lesson we are told that God is concerned with our genuine convictions.
If someone eats only vegetables…fine…leave them alone.
Don’t judge them.
Don’t ostracize them.
Don’t call them non-Christian.
Don’t look down on them!!!
Love them, and work together on the things you do agree on---living and dying for the Lord!!!
Paul tells us that no matter our opinions on certain aspects of the faith, let us all live in community to the Lord!
This is why Christ died, this is why Christ is Risen, so that He might be Lord of us all!!!
“You, then, why do you pass judge your brother? Or why do you look down on you brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.”
Tolerance?
On a scale of one to ten, ten being the highest of tolerance, where are you, where am I?
Can we hold fast to the faith and respect one another as God’s fellow servants?
Can we hold fast to the essentials of the faith “without passing judgment on disputable matters”?
Can we ‘agree to disagree’ and continue to love one another and work for the salvation of the world?
Is our faith strong enough?
Can we “think and let think” and leave the judgment up to God, Who is able to make us all stand?
Tolerance is not really a choice in the Christian life, is it?
Rather it is the evidence of God’s love at work in us.
It is one of the “essentials of our faith.”
Our lives as Christians never follow the will of the God Who has saved us until God’s will is what controls us.
“We live to the Lord” only when we intentionally and honestly allow God to be in control…
…when we allow God to conform us to God’s will, and in everything—seek to promote God’s glory!!!
Are we doing this?
May this be our goal.
For the sake of Christ and Christ alone!
Amen.
