Read Romans 14
We find ourselves well into the book of Romans, sometimes dubbed the Gospel According to Paul. This is a good moniker to place on this book. It simply means that it is jammed packed with Christ’s theology.
Paul the oddball Apostle if you will, he was not selected like the rest, wrote this very comprehensive letter to a church that he hoped to visit one day, but at the time he wrote the letter he had not yet made it to Rome. He would get there but for now, he had to put everything he thought essential into this letter.
He started by telling the Romans that by the evidence of creation itself, you should have figured out that there is a God. You might need some help from those who bring good news explaining this name you have heard by now—Jesus—but you are without excuse to think there is no God.
He moves quickly to reminding his readers that all have sinned. We have all missed the mark and thereby fall short of God’s glory.
Paul moves to the topic of faith and a critical figure in Hebrew history—Abraham. Paul is inserting this critical patriarch into his discussion of faith as he writes to a church where few know this story. Because of the diaspora—the scattering of the Jews over the centuries because of foreign armies that God permitted to pressure and eventually sack Jerusalem—there were some Jews in almost every major city of the world.
Here is a short rabbit trail that you might want to tuck away for future New Testament Studies. The diaspora put Jews all over the world. They should have been there already as they were blessed to be a blessing to the world, but they fell short on their own.
Next consider the Romans. Yes, they nailed a lot of people to crosses, including our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. Had the Romans not be in power, the Hebrew method of killing Jesus would have been stoning, and that would have broken a few bones that scripture said would not be broken.
Here’s the real thing that I ask you to file away for future studies. The Romans build not only fantastic aqueducts, but great roads. The idiom that we use today, All roads lead to Rome, originated with the fact that the Romans were great road builders. Roads increased the speed at which military forces could move and commerce would advance.
Good roads across a global empire also provided smooth ways for the gospel to move across that known world. The fact that many Jews and their faith had been dispersed throughout the world and the fact that this was the first time in history that the road system went world-wide enabled the gospel to spread quickly in this first Century. God is a very sound logistician.
Back to the letter. Paul talks about faith and joy and peace. Peace is our topic, but we won’t dwell long on his early comments.
Paul writes about death coming to the world in one man—Adam. He proceeds to telling us that life came through one man—Jesus. We should be dead to sin and alive in Christ.
We should not be slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. Paul used examples from marriage and begins a discourse on the law, noting that he did not know what sin was before the law said, thou shalt not…
Then we come to some of the most powerful words that we know. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This 8th chapter is back full of powerful words for us.
Paul brings life in the Spirit into the discussion. He tells us that whatever suffering we have now will be nothing compared to what is in store for us.
The whole creation groans inwardly for what has come by the grace of God. God’s own Spirit works within us even when we can’t figure out what to say.
Paul states that God takes everything that happens to those of us who are called by him for his purpose and he takes everything and works it for the good. This is just for those who have surrendered to Jesus as Lord. He is Lord! God takes our every circumstance and works it for the good.
Everything that’s happening all around us could seem overwhelming, but we are more than conquerors. We are not victims. We are overcomers.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul continued in an extended discourse of God’s sovereignty and patience and how his wrath was withheld. He noted that Israel was not lost but when the full number of Gentiles had come to receive this gift of grace, the original branch would be grafted back in. That’s a whole study unto itself, but it brings us to the 12th chapter and what today we might call consecration theology. Our entire lives are given sacrificially to God. We are set apart for his purpose.
We are a living sacrifice. That term is what I call a paradoxymoron. Google it.
Paul spoke of being transformed from what the world has done to us to having to what he would refer to elsewhere as the mind of Christ. We must make new our minds. Out with the old—the worldly. In with the godly. We see parallels elsewhere in his writings.
What should we think on? The things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy, or other good examples that Paul had provided.
The mind is where turning away from the world begins. We take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. No infiltrators will survive.
So when Paul wrote to be conformed to the patterns of the world no longer he met people where they were. The world had not only infiltrated our minds. It was in control. A total reversal of our thinking was needed.
We are to be transformed from our worldly model to Christ’s model by the renewing of our minds. We have discussed this before. I gave you three big steps to take.
First, put you nose in the Bible. Read it. Study it. Meditate upon it. Study it with other believers. As iron sharpens iron, so we sharpen each other.
Next, we pray. Pray early and often. In fact, keep the conversation alive all day. And remember that God knows more than we do, so dedicate most of your prayer time to listening.
Third, put his words into practice. We are not all just members of the same philosophy class. We build houses upon solid rock. We put his words into practice. We learn. We grow in grace and we go back to step one. Read the Bible. Then pray. Then practice.
We are turning away from the world. Salvation came all at once. Turning away from the world requires daily effort. Seeking God first is ongoing. Seeking his kingdom and his righteousness is a way of life. This part takes work.
Paul continued to humility, Spiritual Gifts, and of course, love. Love must be sincere. He called believers to clothe themselves with the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Realize that we have come quickly to this point. Visualize the graphic of the iceberg. What is on top seems huge but what lies beneath the water is enormous. We have just grazed the tip of these chapter icebergs to bring us to this point.
Paul after 13 fantastic chapters hits his readers with this. There are some things on which you and other believers will not agree. There are disputable matters. The word dispute comes from a root word meaning back and forth reasoning. Both sides have their reasons for believing what they believe.
One of the big first century issues was meat sacrificed to idols. This was one of the findings of the Jerusalem Council where Paul came to argue against requiring the new believers who had not grown up as Jews to be circumcised.
The council found that they did not need to put all of Judaism on these believers who came out of the pagan world. Circumcision was not a requirement to receive Jesus. That would be the topic of other letters from Paul, but at this point we focus on meat sacrificed to idols.
The council said that these non-Jewish believers did not have to be circumcised but they should abstain from sexual immorality and from eating meat with blood in it or sacrificed to idols.
Paul, when he wrote to Rome, considered the council’s findings as legalistic—working from the outside-in, much like the Law of Moses. He noted that it’s less about the food and more about the believer. He did not reject what the council had done in trying to work out the logistics of believers who used to be pagans. He just went directly to the heart of the matter.
The meat was not affected in any way by the fact that someone said some words before a god that they had purchased down the road at GODZ R US. The wooden or metal icon had no real power and couldn’t make your ribeye any better or worse.
But, some believers are more mature in their faith than others. Some are just beginning. Some are wrestling with old ways. So, what should we do?
We should seek a diet of peace. We want the things that promote peace and harmony, joy and exhilaration, love and mercy among believers. That means that I might change my diet for my physical needs if it slows the growth of another believer.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
We want to please God. I would really like a little brisket today, but I am going out with a bunch of new believers. I don’t want to make them stumble. We will speak the truth about the fact that these fake gods that used to be important don’t have any say in our salvation.
Now, if someone is making a big deal about their meat having a claim of any kind because it was sacrificed to an idol, we just walk on by. We don’t give approval, even tacit approval, to such practices of ignorance. If it’s just meat on display in the butcher shop with no signage with an affinity for a false god, then let’s haggle on the price and break out the grill.
We will speak the truth, but for the sake of the less mature believer, today we won’t eat at Apollo’s Rib Joint. This choice is about my maturity. I can set aside my own personal, physical, worldly desires to help another believer.
I won’t not eat there because I think the false god holds any power. I know better. But I’ll pass on the three-meat special because helping other believers is more important.
Paul counseled us not to pass judgment—to condemn other believers—for where they were as far as growing in God’s grace goes. There are some things that we won’t agree on. We might agree later, but for now the more mature believer takes the lead and has eyes to see things that might be a stumbling block to another believer.
In 2018, meat sacrificed to idols is not a big issue. What is at issue is our faith and peace. Am I living out of faith or trying to conform myself to some worldly standard.
Make no mistake, the church has ventured into the area of worldly standards.
How about our giving? Do I give out of worldly expectation or desire for recognition or cheerfully and obediently to God? Do I wonder how much that guy who looks well off gave? Do I wonder if the guy in the worn clothes gave anything?
How about our attire? Do I put on my best set of clothes to come worship because the world expects that or is it more important that I come humbly before God in worship and approach his throne of grace with confidence?
Am I more concerned about others worshiping according to my standards?
We have things that are just between God and us. We are confident that God is good with the path we are on. If that were the end of the story, life as a Christian would seem fairly simple.
But we are examples not only to the unbelieving world, but to other believers. There are some things that we don’t agree on, at least at this point in time. Somewhere down the road, we may come into one accord on these matters, but for now they remain disputable. We each have our reasons.
But these matters and our reasons must not slow the growth of other believers.
Church denominations and congregations have different ways of baptizing, offering the Lord’s Supper, using music in worship, and governing their respective bodies; but none of these should get in the way of the work of the church. None of these unique perspectives should stand between the believer and his growth in grace.
None should rob a believer of peace. Our back and forth discussion may continue but we must not get in the way of the growth of another believer.
How do we do this? Faith. Faith is the key.
What we do out of worldly expectation is perfunctory and not pleasing to God. What we do out of faith is always pleasing to God. Faith rules. Faith gives us peace in disputable matters.
What we do out of anything other than faith is our sin.
Love from God has rescued us.
God’s own Spirit lives with us.
We are forgiven!
We are free to live lives of faith. Let us give all due consideration to our choices, but let faith in the promises of God, the love of God, and the peace of God govern us.
What we do out of anything other than faith is our sin. When we sacrifice something out of faith for the growth of another believer, we should hear God saying, “I’ve got something better in store for you than whatever it is that you gave up.”
We are talking about faith, growing in grace, and peace. This is not about tolerating evil, rebellion against God, or unrighteousness.
We are strangers in this world. The world does not know us. The world doesn’t like us. We will have trouble in this world.
We are talking about relationships between and among believers. Not everyone is going at our pace. Some may be faster or slower. We may think that they don’t get it because they don’t move at our pace.
Paul counsels us to allow for some disputable matters. A little back and forth is ok. We accept other believers as Christ has accepted us.
A little back and forth is ok. A little personal sacrifice for the sake of another believer is a good thing. A lot of faith that our choices are those that please God will grant us peace.
Trust your faith. Grow in grace. Enjoy the peace of the Lord.
Enjoy a diet of peace.
Amen!
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