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ROMANS ROAD
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Modified from Irving L.
Jensen's excellent work "Jensen's
Survey of the NT" |
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Romans 14:1-6:
Our Responsibilities
Under Grace - Part 13
by Dr. Wayne A.
Barber |
|
I love
it when God just moves and you don’t know what to do. So often He chooses
to do it that way, and I just appreciate it. We are living in a day when
the word "celebration" is very important. We come together as a church on
Sundays to celebrate what Christ has done for us, not just the fact that
He died for us but that He resurrected, that He ascended, was glorified
and, even more, that He has chosen to live now in the lives of those who
put our faith into Him. We celebrate.
I want us to understand from Romans 12-16 that our celebration of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not just to be in places like a church building. Sometimes
I am like Simon Peter. I would love to build a tabernacle and just stay
right there. Wouldn’t it be wonderful? But our celebration is not just to
be with our lips, it is to be with our lives as we go outside the church
walls into the community where people can see that what we are saying with
our lips inside these walls is so real that it has literally dramatically
changed our life.
Well, let’s turn to Romans 14, beginning with verse 1. The first thing
Paul does in verses 1, 2 and 3 is lay out a principle. Here is the
principle: We are never to judge a brother, especially those who are
weaker in the faith, because we have been accepted solely upon our faith
in Christ Jesus. I am not accepted by Christ because what I do or don’t
do. I am accepted by whether or not my faith has been placed in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Paul is going to be talking about food. Now please understand what is
going on here. When you talk about eating food and not eating food, it
doesn’t have anything to do with diets. It doesn’t have anything to do
with when you go to the doctor and the doctor prescribes a certain way you
are supposed to eat. What it has to do with is that some people actually
thought that if they ate this or didn’t eat this, it would affect their
relationship to God through Jesus Christ under His grace. Others were more
mature. They understood grace and they realized nothing could infringe.
Paul even said in another place, "all things are lawful to me." But he
went on to say that "not all things are expedient."
That doesn’t mean I do all things, but there is nothing I could do or not
do that would cause in any way a break in my relationship with God. My
relationship is founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ and that is eternal.
Now my fellowship with God can be severely affected by some of the wrong
choices of my freedom. But nothing I can do or not do can break my
relationship. So Paul says never judge a weaker brother on the basis of
what you know and what he doesn’t know. That is the principle. We are all
accepted by God by our faith in Christ. That is the only way, by faith
alone in Christ alone.
He says in Verse 1, "Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for
the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One man has faith that he
may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. 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."
Now a little background might help you. There were a lot of people, mostly
Jews, who felt there were certain foods they could not eat as believers.
This was a carry-over from the Mosaic Law. In the covenant that we are in
with the Lord Jesus Christ there is no ceremonial or dietary restrictions.
This was hard for a lot of the Jewish believers, particularly in Rome, to
understand. They struggled deeply with this. In 1 Timothy 4:1-3 Paul warns
that even in latter times this is going to be a problem. He says, "But the
Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the
faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by
means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a
branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods,
which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and
know the truth."
This was a struggle. You have to understand what he is dealing with here.
The Apostle Peter had much difficulty with this. On three different
occasions God Himself had to declare to Simon Peter that the food that he
would eat would be clean. There is no such thing as an unclean food
anymore as far as it is affecting our relationship and our righteousness
that we find in Christ Jesus. Over in Acts 10:15-16, after God had lowered
a sheet with all these foods on it and showed Peter, He says to him, "What
God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." Part of that teaching was to
bring in the Gentiles who would eat a lot of these foods. He says it is by
grace you are saved, not by what you eat or don’t eat.
Well, aside from Simon Peter, the Gentiles had a struggle. You see, the
Gentiles would offer meat to idols. As a result of that, they were afraid
that all meat then was unclean. So what you have is a group of Jewish
Christians and a group of Gentile Christians eating vegetables and scared
to death to eat meat, thinking that if they ate meat somehow that is going
to affect their standing with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is
what Paul is addressing.
Verse 1 says, "Now accept the one who is weak in faith." The word "accept"
means to receive, to take unto yourself. It is proslambano—pros, to or
toward; lambano, to take or to receive. The idea is not that we scorn
anyone, but that we continue to bring people alongside us, that we don’t
look down on them, that we don’t talk down to them, but to bring them
alongside, certainly to encourage, certainly to instruct, but never to
scorn, never to judge, never to demean in any possible way.
It says "weak in faith," but it is "the" faith. When a definite article is
there, it is not referring just in their ability to believe God, it is
referring to the gospel of grace. Paul is saying there are going to be a
lot of weaker brothers who don’t understand grace. I don’t know of a city
in America where this message doesn’t need to be preached. There are
people in our midst who do not understand grace. They don’t understand
that you can eat whatever you want to eat. Obviously whatever you eat or
drink you do unto the glory of God and it is all by the Lordship of Christ
whether we eat or drink, but there is nothing we can do that can affect
our eternal standing in the Lord Jesus Christ. There are some who just
don’t seem to understand that.
So the Apostle Paul says, "Just because you are a little more mature in
the faith, just because you understand grace better than somebody else,
your brother who is just as sincere as you are but in the context would be
the weaker brother, you take them alongside yourself. Don’t scorn them.
Don’t make them look like fools. Don’t demean them. Bring them alongside.
Keep them in your company."
He goes on to explain why that is such a significant thing that we do in
verse 2: "One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak
eats vegetables only." It is very clear there what he is saying. The word
for "weak" is astheneo, and it is in a participle form which has the idea
of a temporary weakness. It is not always going to be that way.
How many of us remember times in our lives when we did not understand what
grace really meant and we were still hung up with certain things we had
better do and if we don’t do them, somehow God is going to smite us or God
is going to get us? Paul is saying is, it is not a permanent thing. It is
a temporary thing. They are weak in the faith. They don’t understand
grace. But you have no right to judge them. You have no right to act as if
you are their lord. What we understand is only by His revelation anyway,
it is only by His grace. So he says the weaker brother is the one who only
eats vegetables in this context and the more mature realizes he can eat
anything. It doesn’t matter. Nothing is going to affect his relationship
with God unless the Holy Spirit of God would lead him not to. There is no
dietary law to this covenant of grace.
Verse 3 continues, "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." Now that goes on both sides. The weaker brother is denoted
here in this context, but I guarantee you, if you are the weaker brother,
you really think you are the stronger brother. That is the weakness of it.
When you are not eating certain things, you are more spiritual than the
other. Isn’t it funny? Spiritual pride doesn’t matter if you are strong or
whether you are weak. It has exactly the same temperament. It judges, it
tends to treat with contempt. That is what that word means, to scorn, to
demean in any way. It means to despise or to treat with contempt. So if
you’re the weaker, don’t you do that to the stronger. If you’re the
stronger, don’t you do that to the weaker. Why? He says, "for God has
accepted him." The word for "accepted" is the same word when it says
accept the weaker brother. It means that God has brought that brother
alongside. God has not demeaned him. God has accepted him. Of course, he
is accepted in the beloved just like we are accepted in the beloved.
You know, sometimes we forget that our faith does not come on the basis of
what we eat or don’t eat or what we do or don’t do. Our faith is by the
grace of God. Let me just read from Romans 3:21 to remind you of the
context of what we have already studied. It says, "But now apart from the
Law [apart from anything you can do to think that somehow that is going to
give you a better standing with God], the righteousness of God has been
manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who
believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the
redemption which is in Christ Jesus."
We have no right to ever scorn or demean a brother who does not understand
God’s grace. Now that is Paul’s principle. He lays it as solid as any
foundation that could be laid. You may have come out of some situation
where the people do not understand grace the way you do, and the first
temptation is to make fun of the way they are. But remember it was by
God’s grace that you came out. It is by God’s grace that you see it
differently.
Well, then Paul makes the point of that principle. What is his point? Why
does he bring out this point so strong that we are never to judge or to
treat with scorn a weaker brother in the faith? Well, he makes the point
that Jesus is Lord of both the weak and the strong. And not only is He
Lord of them, He will be their judge. We are not to be the lord and we are
not to be the judge. We are brothers on equal ground with those people.
Maybe we understand more than they do. Maybe they think they understand
more that we do. It doesn’t matter. Join hands and as long as we remember
it is Jesus who is Lord of both the strong and the weak that is what
affects the way we celebrate Christ. This kind of relationship is where
you see more than ever His life alive in you when you don’t put another
brother down for what you by grace have come to understand.
Verse 4 of chapter 14 says, "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." The word "judge" is krino, which means to
separate or to discriminate, to form or give an opinion after considering
the particulars of a case.
Let me give you an example. I go overseas a lot, and a lot of the people
there just don’t understand grace. They are so tied to the law. They are
tied to so many things. I walk in and see these precious, precious people
and immediately the discernment comes. But you see, I can’t take the next
step and make a judgment. I am there to encourage and instruct. By the
grace of God they will be able to come to the light of realizing that
Jesus Christ determines their eternal security with Him and that nothing
they do or don’t do affects that. It may affect their fellowship, but not
their eternal standing with God.
You see, it is immediate that we realize we are not somebody else’s lord.
He is Lord of both. Paul says, "to his own master he stands or falls." In
other words, it is his master that is going to cause him to stand or
determine whether he is going to fall. It is not our determination. Our
determination is to love without hypocrisy. Our determination is to make
sure that whatever we do builds up, encourages and instructs. We are never
to take the place of lording over or judging that individual for his lack
of understanding of grace.
Then Paul goes on in verse 4 to say, "and stand he will, for the Lord is
able to make him stand." The word "to stand" there means to be established
and to confirm. Thank God for that. God will establish both men. He will
establish the strong men. He will establish the weak men.
Thank God for that back when I did not understand grace. Folks, I didn’t.
And I tell you what, hiding behind the corner of great things that God is
doing in your life is that temptation to be spiritually proud and to judge
your brother because he hasn’t done what you have done. There have been
many, many times when God has led me to a fast that nobody knew about.
Those times of fasting are those times of deep commitment. Somehow you
think you are in a realm that nobody else is in, and you become
spiritually proud and begin to judge others because they don’t do as you
do. I had that judgmental "I can tell you how to live if you will just ask
me" attitude.
That is the biggest problem in the body of Christ today. People are
spiritually proud of what they know and what they understand, so they take
that and use their freedom under grace to become a stumbling block for
somebody else. We have no right to do that. It says that He will be the
one to establish them. I am so glad that God loved me when I was so
arrogant. I went from ignorance to arrogance in about six weeks. When I
was so arrogant, I had an answer for everything. Buddy, if you wanted to
know how to live your life, just ask me and I would tell you. The word
"lovingkindness" is one of my favorite words in scripture. God just loved
me.
Finally through people and situations He began to bring me into an
understanding of what grace really is. When you come to realize it that
way, who are you going to throw a rock at? You used to be in the same
boat. You see, this is what this love is all about. This is the thing that
distinguishes us. Let’s don’t get proud of what we know or what we do or
don’t do. It is not that at all. My spirituality is not ever determined by
what I do or don’t do in the sense of that. It is in the sense of whether
or not my relationships are totally wrapped up in such unconditional love
that nobody can question that God is doing something in this person’s
life. That is the key.
Verse 5 continues, "One man regards one day above another, another regards
every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind." Here he
shifts from food to days. It is the same thing, isn’t it? You had better
get this straight in your theology. A lot of people who love God believe
that you have to meet on a certain day. That is exactly what Paul was
dealing with. Paul was dealing with the Jewish mind-set there. The Jews
felt the Sabbath was the day to be revered and set aside. That is the last
day of the week. Sunday is the first day of the week. Not only was the
Sabbath a particular day but it also was in regard to other periods that
were reserved. The word "Sabbath" doesn’t just mean the Sabbath as we
think about it. There were several Sabbaths they would honor. They would
fight to keep this day very special.
The Apostle Paul was the greatest preacher of grace in the New Testament.
I think he learned it certainly not from the apostles, but he learned it
in that desert when the Holy Spirit of God took him for three years and
taught him what grace was because as soon as he came out, he went
immediately to Simon Peter and told him, "Man, you are not living under
grace. You won’t even eat with the Gentiles and other like that when the
Jewish higher ups are around. You have got to get out from under that
mind-set."
Paul knew and understood grace. He says in Colossians 2:17, "Therefore let
no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a
festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of
what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ." Here is Paul, who
wrote that, telling them in Rome not to ever treat with scorn somebody who
doesn’t understand that, who still hangs on to a day. Others treat every
day the same. You see, when you understand grace, you realize that the
Sabbath is a shadow. The shadow means that it is a day of rest, but we
don’t have a day of rest. Every day is a day of rest for the believer when
he rests himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our rest. The reason
we worship Him on Sunday is because that is the day He resurrected. The
Psalmist said, "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be
glad in it." He referred in the context specifically to resurrection
Sunday. That is why we do it. It is a day of beginnings, the newness of
what God has done.
But what about a brother who loves Jesus just as much as you do but still
sees the Sabbath as the day that he wants to worship God? Does that mean I
become his lord or his judge? I pray that God may help me to instruct him.
I pray that God may help him to find the understand where he is wrong, but
I don’t scorn him and look down on him and demean him because God will
establish that brother. I am not his lord. Jesus is his Lord. God is the
revealer of all truth.
You see, the mature believer understands that he is free on any day. Every
day is the same as far as loving and praising and celebrating the Lord
Jesus. But Paul drives his point home. It is why you do what you do that
God is looking at. Look at what he says in verse 5: "Let each man be fully
convinced in his own mind." The word "fully convinced" is the word that
means to be fully persuaded. It comes from two words, pleres, which means
full and phoreo, which means to cover. So the two words together mean to
cover fully to the point that you are motivated, you are fully persuaded.
There is no doubt whatsoever in his own mind. The word for "mind" is nous.
There are different words for "mind," and this word has to do with one’s
understanding which leads him to deep convictions in his life. Let each
man do whatever he is doing. Now there are some people on both sides who
will do it for the wrong motive, and they are already out of the picture.
That is not what he is talking about. But a person who is sincere and at
that point in his life is doing it because he thinks this is what will
please the Lord, then let him do it out of that motive. One sees it one
way, and one may see it another way. But let them do it from their own
conviction. It is the motive of the heart that God looks at.
Now, before I go any further, let me draw a line and say he is not
referring to anything that is wrong doctrine or anything that is
intentionally deceptive. He is talking about a person’s walk with God and
his sincerity and purity of his heart. He may not understand grace because
of the trappings of what he came out of, because of other people’s
influence in his life. He may have it all wrong, but if in his heart he
really believes this is what God wants, you just leave him alone. Instruct
him if you can, encourage him if you can, but don’t demean him because God
will bring him out of that. He will come to understand it. If it is not
from your encouragement, if not from your instruction, if it is not
somehow from you, your love will keep him intact and not become a
stumbling block to him while God is able to bring him into an
understanding and revelation of what he needs.
Verse 6 says, "He who observes the day [that is the weaker], observes it
for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks
to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives
thanks to God." I want you to know the greater responsibility to celebrate
Christ moment-by-moment, day-by-day, falls upon the more mature believer.
The context is clear. Those of us who may understand grace and have come
further along than others in our own congregation and in our own city have
the greatest responsibility in this.
Listen to what some great mature believers have said over the years.
Ignatius, who was martyred for the faith in 115 A.D., said, "Those who
were concerned with old things have come to newness of confidence, no
longer keeping Sabbaths but living according to the Lord’s Day on whom our
life as risen again through Him depends." Justin Martyr, who was martyred
about 168 A.D., said, "How can we keep the Sabbath who rest from sin all
the days of the week." Yet, even with that maturity, Paul says that we are
not to use our freedom under grace to become a stumbling block to a weaker
brother.
In 1 Corinthians 8:9 Paul says, "But take care lest this liberty of yours
somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, who
have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he
is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through
your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ
died. And thus, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their
conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ."
You know, this gets into several very, very complicated areas, doesn’t it?
You know there are balancing principles. Whatever you do, you do not cause
your brother to stumble. I have people coming to me all the time and say,
"Do you think it is alright in scripture to drink wine?" I think sometimes
people listen to me say something, but they don’t hear it. They just can’t
wait for an opportunity to ask me that question after it is over with. "Is
there a verse in scripture that says you can’t drink wine?" No, there
really isn’t. It just says don’t get drunk with it.
But there is another principle in Romans 14, and I want to tell you
something straight out, friend. If you are using your freedom under grace
to cause a brother to stumble, you had better get that stuff out of your
house because you are sinning against God. I say that on the authority of
Romans 14. That is not an opinion coming from this preacher.
Don’t we live in a day of the weaker and stronger brother? I am telling
you, they are on every corner. And what God is saying is, "Don’t you dare
use your freedom under grace to become a stumbling block to someone else."
Well, in verse 7 Paul says, "For not one of us lives for himself, and not
one dies for himself." If you are a believer, sincere in your walk, that
is who he is talking about. You don’t live for yourself, and you don’t die
for yourself because you are not your own. Verse 8 continues, "For if we
live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore
whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s." There is your principle. There
is no greater statement of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every single
believer’s life. If I am eating, then I ought to eat for Him. If I am
drinking, whatever I am doing, it is to Him. If I mess up and do it wrong,
He is the Lord and He is the judge and He will deal with me about it. So
every man is under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the stronger and the
weaker.
First Corinthians 6:20 he says, "For you have been bought with a price,
therefore glorify God with your body." Sometimes we don’t do that, do we?
Therefore we have to be chastened and disciplined, and God will do that.
But our motive is to live unto Him. Ephesians 1:7 says, "In Him we have
redemption through His blood." He paid a great price for us. We are His
property. We are His own. He is talking about people who love God, people
who have differing opinions on things but they are doing what they are
doing because they love God. It is the motive of their heart to serve Him.
He says, "You had better back off and don’t be their lord and judge
because if they believe that, then you are not to be lord over them.
Hopefully you will have an opportunity to encourage them and instruct
them." That is what the Christian community is all about. But don’t shun
them, don’t demean them, if they are doing with sincerity what they are
doing, for all of us live unto the Lord.
Verse 9 says, "For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might
be Lord both of the dead and of the living." I want to encourage you that
when you finish your life someday, you can look at others and look at God
and say, "I have lived my life, not perfect, but I have dealt with sin. I
have dealt with mistakes as best I know how, but I have lived my life so
as my convictions have never been compromised. Fallen, failed, yes, but
never compromised. But I have also lived my life so that because of my
life my brother’s convictions were never compromised or defeated." Now
that is the way we are supposed to live.
The Apostle Paul said something in Acts 23:1 that caught my attention when
he spoke before the council. It says, "And Paul, looking intently at the
Council, said, ‘Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good
conscience before God up to this day.’" Can you say that? Have you lived
your life that way? That doesn’t mean perfection at all. Paul wouldn’t
even want you to think that. It simply means that the convictions that
governed him have continued to govern him until that day but in such a way
that he didn’t take his convictions and cram them down somebody else’s
throat to where their convictions somehow were demeaned and scorned. That
is a balanced life.
You say, "I can’t live that way." Neither can I, but God never said we
could. He can, and He always said He would. You live Romans 12:1-2 and let
Him take care of the rest of it. A love without hypocrisy is going to be
developed in you. It is going to cause you to see people in the body
differently and people outside the body differently. It is even going to
cause you to treat people who persecute you in a different way than you
ever thought possible. As a matter of fact, you are going to have a
respect for government authority that you never dreamed you would have.
You are even going to pay your taxes without grumbling. But not only that,
you are not going to cause a weaker brother to stumble with the freedom
that you have found under grace.
How is your spirit? Is it celebrating Christ, celebrating His
resurrection, celebrating His life in you? Then it is going to be seen in
the way you handle people. It is going to be seen in the way you handle a
weaker brother. |
|
