Strong And Weak Christians Series

A man wondering in the woods was caught in a bad storm. It was very dark, and the only light

he had was from the flashes of lightening which were followed by deafening thunder. He fell to

his knees and prayed, "Lord, if it will be all right with you, please give me more light and less

noise." This should be the standard prayer of believers when wondering through the dark woods

of controversy. In a religious argument the louder the noise the less anyone has a chance to see the

light and learn anything. A Christian controversy should always be kept in the realm of light and

not sound.

Man is made in the image of God with an infinite capacity for variety. Each man has a unique

individuality that he is to develop for the glory of God. This means men will differ in their likes

and dislikes; in their tastes and interests ; in their personalities, and everything imaginable. The

glory of man is that he is not like a herd of cattle or flock of sheep.

This blessing, however, leads to inevitable conflict of opinions. Differences are impossible to

escape, and unless people learn to accept differences they cannot live in association. You may

have heard the story of the three monks who lived in the woods and seldom spoke. One day a

knight came riding through the woods past their place of seclusion. About six months later one

monk said, "That was a beautiful black horse that knight was riding." About six months later

another monk said, "That was no black horse, it was white." Several months after that the third

headed for the door with his belongings in a bag. He said as he left, "If you two are going to

argue, I'm getting out of here."

Such an excessive dislike for disagreement would make it hard to live anywhere but alone. No

marriage can be happy even without an acceptance of the inevitability of differences. Richard

Armour may be putting it too strong, but he has a point that cannot be denied when he writes-

Some

Some hoist the windows, gasp for air,

While others find it chilly.

Some turn up thermostats a hair,

While others think them silly.

Some like cold, some like hot,

Some freeze, while others smother.

And by some fiendish, fatal plot

They marry one another.

Differences within marriage between two people who love each other are so common that it is a

mystery why anyone would ever expect conformity of views within a church where people of

every conceivable background and personality are mixed. There is no organization on earth that

includes a greater variety of people than the church. This means acceptance of differences is a

must for Christians. None is all wise but God, and none except God is wholly good. This then

makes it folly for the Christian to expect unity of belief or action on the part of men who are both

sinful and ignorant. Paul said at best we know in part, and this means every Christian is ignorant

about many things, and imperfect in all things.

Humility and honesty demands that Christians be tolerant of differing views among themselves.

Not to be tolerant is to set one's self up in pride as having reached the ideal. Even if this was true,

if we from our platform of perfection reject those who do not conform, we are not being Christ like

at all. Christ in His perfection does not reject the imperfect, but in love seeks to lift them to his

level. This means that if we cannot accept those whose opinions differ from ours, we are

sub-Christian and worldly. Many Christians who do not do all of the things we usually consider to

be worldly are still worldly because they live on the worldly level of pride which says, "If you

don't agree with me, you are wrong, and I am not interested in you." This is worldliness at its

worst, for it is being sub-Christian in the inner man where Christ is to reign as Lord.

Paul makes it clear in this passage that both the strong and weak in faith are in danger of

slipping to a sub-Christian level. The issue here is not to determine who is right and who is wrong,

for the fact is you can be wrong even if you are right if your attitude is wrong. If your attitude

toward a fellow believer is not one of acceptance, and open-minded toleration of his differing

conviction, than you are wrong and sub-Christian even when your particular conviction on the

issue is right, and the one God hopes all Christians will come to in full maturity.

A Christian must be one who is concerned, not just about the truth in a conflict, but about the