Dealing With Our Differences | Romans 14

Romans 14:1 “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.”

This is a difficult passage for me wrap my mind around because I love to debate. While there are basic tenets of our faith that we should stand and fight for (the deity of Jesus, our salvation by grace alone through faith alone), over the past few years I’ve been exposed really for the first time to differing views about what the Bible says on issues of practice. All these are coming from people within the church who love Jesus. Most of these debates/discussions are good and healthy, but if I am honest with myself, most of the time I engage in these discussions I really just want to know who is right…and 10 times out of 10 I want the person who is right to be me.

Leading up to Romans 14, Paul is laying out what the life of a Christ follower looks like in light of the incredible sacrifice Jesus made on the cross to absorb our debt and bring us into the family of God. How shall we then live? Paul specifically addresses the issues of judging and quarreling with each other in this passage.

His primary example is quarreling over what to eat.

“One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.” (vs 2-3)

It’s interesting to note that Paul refers to the one who continues to practice the Old Testament dietary laws as the weak one, but goes on to say that both are upheld by the Lord. God isn’t judging here; He is upholding. I am the judge in this passage when I insist that I am right and another is wrong, and ironically I am the one Paul is angry with!

“Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (v4)

If I really understand the picture of God that Paul is painting, my understanding of who God is and how he relates to other believers I disagree with radically changes. I have to acknowledge that the only judgment God passes here is the irrevocable slam of the gavel pronouncing that the one whose facet of theology is put on trial by a brother or sister is upheld. Is clean. Paul is speaking about the person, not the theology, and saying that God upholds and values and pronounces the person clean. How awesome God is and what hope there is for sinners redeemed by grace and faith alone! There is such peace in the knowledge that God upholds me when my idea of who God is is a work in progress!

Here is where it gets difficult and where I struggle. How do we balance this understanding of the grace of God with the truth that what we believe about God really matters - that there is a right and wrong way to approach God? We can’t just pick and choose what we want to believe about God, and some ways of living truly are in opposition to the word and character of God. True theology matters, and it matters a great deal.

Paul addresses this question in v 5-9, where we see a startling truth. It is possible and acceptable for two people to love the Lord fiercely and passionately and come to different conclusions about what living for Jesus looks like because ultimately, they aren’t living for themselves.

“For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.” (vs 7-9)

The bigger question then in our inter-church debates, far more important that the question of who is right and who is wrong, is the question, who are we living for? If I am ultimately living for Christ and aligning my life with the truth He has revealed to me through his Word and through my relationship with him, then my life will look like the Gospel even if I disagree with some of my brothers and sisters on matters of theology held with an open hand. Furthermore, I don’t have to get my nose bent out of shape, fight for the fleeting security of being right, or judge one of my brothers and sisters in Christ if I see by their fruit that they are living for Jesus, too. Just as I trust Christ as the source of truth, I can trust the motives and intentions of my brothers and sisters even when we disagree. And if I find myself in an argument with someone who isn’t living for Jesus, is the discussion really fruitful on a fundamental level anyway?

Paul does have some strong words for people who don’t live by faith (“For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”). This is an all too easy trap for me to fall into, if I linger too long on the fence while continuing to live the way I want to live. However, even here Paul isn’t condemning an opinion about an open-handed issue, but rather the lack of faith-living. We get into trouble when we either don’t live by faith or if we judge another for holding an opinion by faith that may or may not fit our precise orthodoxy.

Perhaps we can go as far as to say that within the Body of Christ, there are both Republicans and Democrats, Calvinists and Arminians who have at the core of their beliefs a fervent love for God and the people of God. Would that we could even revel in the diversity emanating from our core knowledge of God!

“Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God.”

PRAYER

Father, teach us your ways! Let us not taint your work in our lives and in the world around us for the sake of food. We confess that half the time we know your ways and don’t do what pleases you. We hold beliefs that justify the desires of our flesh. Give us the wisdom to see these areas in our lives and struggle with them before we criticize our neighbor. Give us wisdom to discern what is true,which teachings and opinions about You spring from hearts devoted to you, and what views come from the desires of the flesh. May we trust our brothers and sisters who love you fiercely, and may the collision of differing views among us on theological issues challenge our thinking, teach us new things about You, and ultimately lead us into praise as we exult in how big you are. May we praise you by uplifting our brothers and sisters and delighting in the unity of the saints.

 

 

tom albers TOM ALBERS | Elder Chairman

Tom committed his life to Christ as a junior in high school in 1975. After moving to Austin in 1995, Tom and Cindy attended Hill Country Bible Church in Cedar Park before becoming part of the HCBC Pflugerville and Hutto Bible church plants. Tom serves as a Small Group Leader and in Youth ministry and in other ministry oversight roles. Tom and Cindy were married in 1986 and are parents to Will, Emily, Clare, Hannah and Nathan and grandparents to Owen. 

Leave a Comment

Comments for this post have been disabled.