A Blossom Bible Podcast
A Blossom Bible Podcast
Romans 14 -Cultivating Community Beyond Church Disputes through Christ's Example
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Study given Sunday February 11, 2024
Alright. Romans, chapter 14. We come to a section of heavy application. There's been a lot more practical application in the book of Romans as we hit chapter 12, you know that Paul takes a turn from talking doctrine and theology to talking devotion. What does it mean in our lives that, in light of everything there chapter 12, verse 1, in light of all that God's done for us, we want to offer our lives, our bodies, a living sacrifice to Him, and that comes out in so many different parts of life. Essentially, though, to the way we treat other people, the way we love other people, and this chapter 14 is probably some of the heaviest application for those in Rome. You remember we started this whole thing.
Speaker 1:Rome was kind of an interesting spot, right, because there were people from all over the empire there in Rome, and people all over the empire considered Romans, right, jews and Gentiles, descendants of Abraham and everyone else right, and you know that dynamic in the church was something that Paul was writing towards. So he's come all this way to talk about salvation and how we all got here to talk about offering our bodies and our lives a sacrifice in response to that, and then he comes to this very personal time where it perhaps is one of the biggest things that he really wanted to tackle as he looks at this division in the church between Jews and Gentiles. There was judgmental attitudes on both sides. Right, there was some pride. Perhaps on one side it was legalism, on the other side it could be license, and Paul wants them to know that. All this theology of what God has done for us it applies to that part of their life too. We have fellowship with God, but we also have fellowship with one another, and that's beautiful, but it wasn't really the reality of the church there in Rome. There were some divisions, and that's obvious.
Speaker 1:Now we're going to try to hit chapter 14 and a little bit of chapter 15, which is totally outrageous right, totally outrageous, but I think it's the best way to cover this. I probably won't read every single verse, because that would probably take at least 10 minutes to begin with, so my encouragement to you is to read it later. Chapter 14, maybe even better, maybe I could see this Bring up a Bible app like Blue Letter Bible and listen to it. Just listen to it. Chapter 14 in light of what we talked about today. So a little different, usually a lot smaller portion we're going to try to hit chapter 14 and we'll see how it goes. But here's the divisions in chapter 14. The divisions were generally things of culture and you could say even race. The divisions were, to put it simply, food and festivals.
Speaker 1:Let's look at verse 1 through 6 here, real quickly, receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things, For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. That might be a life verse for some of you. Anyway, moving on Verse 3, let him who eats, and let not him who eats, despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him. Who are you to judge another's servants To his own master? He stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind he who observes the day observes it to the Lord, and he who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. He who eats eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks, and he who does not eat to the Lord. He does not eat and gives God thanks. So here we are.
Speaker 1:The division in this church, in this group of people, was primarily food and festivals. To be clever with it, potlucks and parties. Right, and that sounds kind of silly, but at the same time we get it, because potlucks can be some of the most divisive times. I thought about one church that's having a chili cook-off. Is that not the most divisive thing you could ever imagine? To have beans or not to have beans? Right, how dare you. Let's not talk about it now, but you look at it and you go, I get it. Potlucks can be very divisive things.
Speaker 1:I learned this in my relationship with Leela. Our families are very different. Her parents are both from a very Mediterranean kind of background, mine not so much. I walked into her house. There were fruits and vegetables and just fresh stuff everywhere. My house casseroles, cream of mushroom soup did it all, and that's the way I grew up. And so when I got to Leela's house the first time, I was invited for dinner and I did kind of trick my way over for dinner. I got invited by her brother and I was there and what was for dinner? Lime beans, that was what was for dinner Lime beans, just lime beans. I think there was something else, but mostly lime beans.
Speaker 1:Now my mom made a casserole type thing of lime beans covered in velvita cheese with diced ham, right. So you took the diced ham and the velvita cheese and it just kind of slid right down your throat. The lime beans were just there. You know, I went to Lila's house and it was just lime beans, so, being that they weren't like my favorite, I just swallowed them whole. I ate them up very quickly, swallowed them whole.
Speaker 1:Now, the problem with this was that Lila's mom saw that and she said oh, you like lime beans, do you have some more? I said oh no, I'm fine, thank you, no, no, no, no, don't be bashful, here's some more. And she put another pile of lime beans on my plate, which, foolishly, I ate rather quickly. She said whoa, you really like lime beans? I must have had about five servings of lime beans that night. And it's still a point of much humor as I tell her that I wasn't really that much into lime beans, you know, but our households were very different. But check it out, and this actually applies. You think it's just the time to tell a story. What was the answer? Love, right, I had a major crush on Lila and I would eat all the lime beans in the world if it meant that I could spend time with her. Love bridged the gap between our two households and that is actually where, of course, we end up in chapter 14.
Speaker 1:There was some serious divisions in the early church. Now, for the Jews it wasn't lime beans, it was whether or not food was kosher. Right, you know, in Leviticus God gives a list of things you should eat and not eat, right. And so for the Jews had to be kosher. For the Jews there was a very, there was a big division on whether or not you could eat food sacrificed to idols. That was the grocery store, essentially the butcher shop in the Gentile world. You would go to the back door of the temple there in Rome or Ephesus or wherever, and you would get some decent stakes at a discounted price sacrifice to the idols, but hey, it was cheap, right? So Gentiles grew up eating food sacrificed to idols. Oh, bacon, cheeseburgers all over the place. The Jews, no, that's not the way I grew up, that's not what God said. So there was this division.
Speaker 1:You could see there was a dispute. Each side came with a dispute and we see that in verse one Don't be given over to disputes over doubtful things. Verse two we see it spelled out One believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. So the Jews here couldn't just eat whatever came to them. It had to jive with God's law. Now, both sides had their point right. Both sides had their point, but both sides could be proud in this right. Doubtful things, disputes over doubtful things. Both sides had a point.
Speaker 1:The Jews would say this is what God told us. We're not to eat these things. They're unclean. The Gentiles would say oh no, I remember a story from Acts, chapter 10, where God said it's not to be that way anymore. Take Peter, kill and eat right. That Jesus, even there, in Mark chapter seven, said all foods were clean. Mark chapter seven, verse 18 and 19.
Speaker 1:And the Gentiles would say it doesn't have to be that way, it doesn't matter. Perhaps they had read Paul's letter to the people in Corinth where they're dealing with this same issue of food sacrifice to idols in chapter eight, 1 Corinthians, chapter eight, and Paul said this they might bring out their proof text, therefore, concerning the eating of things offered to idols. We know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no other God but one. You silly people. It doesn't make any difference. An idol is just a piece of stone. It's not a God Doesn't matter if this was set before a piece of stone, we can eat it all. And it's wonderful. Right Now, each side could come at this with a certain amount of pride, right?
Speaker 1:The Jews could say well, we're staying true to what God said in the book of Leviticus. We're a little holier than you, gentiles. The Gentiles could say you're so legalistic, we have liberty to eat whatever we want. And the end result was division, a little bit of fights. You can kind of picture the church in their day, with the Jews sitting on one side in their little corner and the Gentiles sitting on the other side in their little corner. There was division.
Speaker 1:Now, what's the answer to all of this? We see in verse seven, for none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself. Now, this is kind of where it starts. But we have to understand that the things that we do affect other people, right. The decisions that you make, they affect other people. Your decisions affect your family, right. We know that as fathers it's terrifying. Our decisions affect the rest of our family, but our decisions affect the people around us. That's true, notice there.
Speaker 1:Also, paul challenges this in verse 10. He says but why do you judge your brother? Why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. He says you're not here to judge others. Now, this is something we could definitely talk about later. What is God's word on judging? We are to judge things that are sinful, right, paul got on the people in Corinth for just being kind of wishy-washy and says you're gonna judge angels. Come on, step in and give the truth. But then there's that judgmental side. And Paul says your decisions affect other people. But why are you judging? Why are you so judgmental?
Speaker 1:Now, we don't always see it when we're being judgmental, but we can definitely be, have a judgmental heart. And the Jews, on this side of things, they look down on the Gentiles. You can picture it those dirty Gentiles eating all that nasty stuff. Pink, can you imagine eating pork? Yeah, I can. Anyways, but the Jews looked at it and for them it truly was something that made them want to vomit. It was an abomination, right. They looked at the Gentiles and they go dirty Gentiles and their dirty eating habits and they look down on them. The Gentiles, perhaps filled with pride over their own liberty, those legalistic Jews missing grace. If they were really spiritual, they could enjoy this bacon cheeseburger with us. Oh the goodness of God, right, and we can get so ungracious in our own grace. We can have a judgmental heart over other people. Now, you can think about this this week. In what ways do we have a judgmental heart towards other people? I have so much in a judgmental heart. Right, we do, we all tend towards it, but that's not grace.
Speaker 1:Now, obviously, in this idea of legalism and liberty, food is probably not the issue. Right, most of us aren't thinking about pork or cheeseburgers. Well, we may be thinking about it now, but that's not the thing that divides us in our liberty In the church today. It might be what to drink? Right, to drink alcohol or not drink alcohol. The Bible doesn't say that you can't have alcohol. It just says don't be drunk. And there are many, there are many of us that have a real problem with alcohol. We grew up that way. Don't do it, don't even look at it, don't even talk about it right and that's God's conviction in our heart. But then there's another side that also thinks well, if you were really spiritual, you'd be okay with it. Right Now maybe they don't say that, but we can go to both sides in this issue.
Speaker 1:It's an issue that causes disputes. Now, it's non-essential. That's something we don't really want to say too much in the church. Something is non-essential, but this is not a salvation issue whether a Christian can drink or not drink. But both sides, you see, in that can lead to pride.
Speaker 1:We can get judgmental. Maybe it's not food or drink. Maybe it's whether or not you have a TV in your house. Right, there are Christian convictions that would say we don't need a TV in our house, there's nothing good on TV, and that's probably mostly true. Right, there's nothing good on TV, we don't need a TV. And others might say well, I don't want to be naive to things. I just, you know, I have a TV for entertainment and that's fine Christian liberty.
Speaker 1:Maybe something a little more intensive how you school your children. This gets painful, doesn't it? There's been some serious fights and disputes over these things, whether you homeschool or whether you send it to public school, and the Bible doesn't really specify how good parents should school their kids. I encourage you to pray about it every year. If you have kids at that age, just pray about it. God, where do you want my kids? But we disagree over these kinds of things and we can become very judgmental. Right. A couple of years ago I don't know why I'm doing this A couple of years ago, vaccinations was a thing Should a good Christian be vaccinated or should a good Christian not be vaccinated and there was a lot of dispute. This year it'll probably be politics. Right, we'll divide over politics and of course, there are Christians on both sides of the issues. But we divide over these things.
Speaker 1:Like, maybe there's not a clear cut thing in the Bible. Now, again, we need to understand that there are some things that are very clear Sin and salvation and how that goes about Very clear. There are other things that are matters of conviction and they can be very divisive. Now check it out On these issues. Have conviction. Conviction is what God's doing in your heart. If it's a matter of sin, just read what God's word says and land on truth, right. But these matters of conviction, god will speak to our hearts as we seek Him and sometimes we just step out. You know, in the thing of schooling man Every year, it was a thing with us, god, what do you want us to do with our kids? And we did all sorts of different things, but it was a matter of conviction. Now check it out.
Speaker 1:That's what makes a Christian life authentic, I think, is to sit and say God, what do you have for us, god, what do you have for me? And the interesting thing, I think, is that on a lot of these issues, god leads us all differently. Right, and if it's truth, land on truth. But if it's just a matter of conviction, land where God convicts. And we'll see here that we're not to really worry about other people on these kinds of issues, not to dispute over it, but let people be led by the Holy Spirit. That's again what makes a Christian life a real thing, is where we say God, what are you telling me about my family and my life and these decisions? And we want to listen to that.
Speaker 1:Now skip over to verse 23. On this, he talks about faith in verse 22,. And that's really this conviction, this trusting that God is leading you. He who doubts is condemned if he eats because he does not eat from faith. So whatever is not from faith is sin. So in this thing of conviction, god leads us and we do the best to hear what God's saying, but when we're convicted over something, we really want to listen to it. Notice he says there whatever is not faith is sin. So what becomes the new sin in our life? That sounds horrible. What becomes the new sin in our life is what God has convicted us on, the conviction that he's given us. We need to listen to that or else we harden our hearts to what God's saying. That's the most dangerous thing we can imagine is hardening our hearts to what God's saying.
Speaker 1:I remember at Bible College funny, it happened at Bible College I had a roommate who was from Slovakia, peter Kudsek from Slovakia. It was great. The first night he was at Bible College in California, we had an earthquake and it was dark in the room, but man, I could see his eyes. It's just huge, right. Well, we had discussions about alcohol, because in Europe not a thing After church go out to the bar and have something to drink.
Speaker 1:And I was talking to Peter. I said, well, maybe the thing that I need is just to go for it. You know, I was young and out of high school. Maybe the thing I need is just to go for it, because I'd never been there before and he said this same verse. He said you know what? Don't do that. Right, if it's a conviction, don't do it Now. I got other reasons for why I do what I do and whatnot now, but that's important. You want to listen to what God is telling. You. Don't want to harden your heart and go against that, because God doesn't want us to have a hard heart.
Speaker 1:So here you see this kind of thing playing out right when the Jews and the Gentiles got together, they probably talked about it, they debated it, they had these discussions and disputes. But Paul says there, you know, you don't live to yourself. And everyone look at verse 10, is going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, that's kind of ominous, isn't it? We're all going to stand before the judgment seat. Now picture that. This is how we picture that the judgment seat, that God's going to look at us and say you, you didn't do what. You were supposed to depart from me, I never knew you. Now, that's not what this is. And just look, make sure you hear that that's not what this is. We're judged by what Jesus has done for us. That's, the whole book of Romans has been pointing that out. You're saved because you trust what God has done for you on the cross.
Speaker 1:This judgment seat is something a little different Now come back a little different. This is, you know, the Bema seat. That's what that word judgment. There is Bema seat, which means absolutely nothing to us, but in those days they would have known it from things like the Olympic Games. Right, it was the judges up there on their stand. They would judge a person's performance and perhaps they go very, very good, you ran that race well, and it wasn't a judgment of condemnation, it was a judgment of reward, right?
Speaker 1:So Paul here says we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And it brings us back to this illustration that life is a race. Like the author of the Hebrews says, it's a race and you want to run with endurance the race that's set before us. Each one of us has a life that God's given us. What we want to do, we want to run it to the best of our ability. We want to do our very best. And so Paul reminds them in this disputing that they had guys, we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. You're going to get a reward not salvation, but you're going to get a reward for what you've done. I don't know what that's going to look like. We talk about crowns and stuff and I go not really into crowns, you know but there's going to be some kind of a reward for a life well lived. Now I think the cool part to see is we're going to lay our crowns down at his feet. So, even in spite of that, we're not going to go well, thank you very much. Yes, my crown. We're going to say you know what? It was all Jesus, and we're going to lay it in front of him. But the thing is we want to run this race the best we can, and Paul says we're all going to stand before this judgment seat of Christ.
Speaker 1:Verse 12,. Each of us shall give an account of himself to God. Now, I don't really know exactly what that means. If we're going to go. Well, you know that one day I was having a bad day and you know, you got to understand God. I didn't have enough sleep and I was kind of angry and I kind of blow up. You know, sorry about that, god, I don't know. I don't know exactly what that's going to look like. He knows all of it but that ought to make us think. Verse 12. We're all going to give an account of what we've done.
Speaker 1:Skipping over To verse 19 again, you need to read this on your own and maybe listen to it. Maybe we'll go back and hit some more next time. But therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. So check it out. Paul brings them to this point where he says the point of the Christian life is to edify one another, to build other people up, and the encouragement here is you're part of a church. You're part of the church. Let's say that your purpose in life so many different purposes in life for you, as a mom, a dad, a worker, student, whatever it is but our purpose in life is to build other people up. That's what edify means. Check it out. Your purpose, your calling, is to build other people up, to make other people better, to make other people stronger. Encourage other people.
Speaker 1:If life is a race, a ministry that God has for each one of us is to come alongside other people and say you can do it. Let's do this together. Let's run this race together. Keep going, don't give up. I know it's been hard. Don't give up. You've got to keep going. That's the ministry of building other people up. And Paul says Romans, jews, gentiles, don't give into disputes, but live to build other people up.
Speaker 1:In 1 Corinthians, chapter eight, he deals with the same thing. Right, and he says these same things. Like I'm not going to cause somebody else to stumble, I'm going to build people up. And in chapter eight, verse one of 1 Corinthians, he says this now, concerning things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge, but knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. So Paul looks at the situation with the Corinthians same situation and he says knowledge puffs up. That's great, you have answers right. But knowledge puffs up. Now picture how pointless being puffed up is right. I mean, it seems as if air is kind of involved. I'm just picturing my own head in knowledge and there's a bicycle pump, you know, and it's like, and my head is like I'm really smart, you didn't know how smart I was. And he says knowledge puffs up. How pointless if we puff ourselves up with our knowledge of even spiritual things. But he says love edifies, love builds up. It would be an amazing thing if each one of us looked to build other people up Right here. That would be so sweet If we just aggressively look to build other people up, to encourage each other in good works, encourage each other to just endure and keep going to pray for one another. If we all had that ministry, this would be the most amazing place to be, just to be encouraged. But how do you do that? Well, that takes love, which brings us back to the kind of the fruit of everything that Paul's been talking about the life of sacrifice. It's a life of love. It's the heart of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Skip over to chapter 15, verse one. He says more about this. He says when we, then, who are strong wherever that might be, ought to bear with the scruples of the week and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good leading to edification or building up, for even Christ did not please himself. But, as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning that we, through the patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like, minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may be of one mind, one mouth and glorify God and father of our Lord, jesus Christ. So Paul here says it's a life like Jesus. We're not surprised, right, this has been it all along. It's putting on Christ. This is what it looked like for Jesus to humble himself and come to us to look out for our needs and not his own right To come as a servant.
Speaker 1:Philippians chapter two is a good one for that. Jesus came, loved us and encouraged us and built us up. But look at verse six that with one mind, one mouth we may glorify the God and father of our Lord, jesus Christ. So this kind of unity and this building up that God wants in the body, that happens in love as we represent Jesus in our world. It glorifies God. You know there's a lot of things we could build.
Speaker 1:I think as a group of people we could build a big ministry. We really could. We could do lots of things and that wouldn't be bad. I'm not saying that's bad, but we could work really hard. But if we really just could edify and build each other up, if we could represent Jesus to one another, people would look and they would actually be surprised, not for us, that's not what we're looking for but that they would glorify God. How in the world does that happen? A church where they don't argue about what's for lunch, you know, a church where they don't argue about this little thing or that little thing, a church where they just love each other and build one another up, would bring more glory to God and bring more people to Jesus than anything else.
Speaker 1:So, god, as usual, the big problem here is our own hearts. God, I'm just selfish and I'm self-centered. I can be proud and arrogant about things that make no difference, and yet, god, to really just, in humility, put on the heart of Jesus is what we want. God, help us to not look out for our own needs, but the needs of others. God, give us eyes to see people here, the way you see us, god, wanting to build up. God, I pray that we would just have your grace in all these things and what we say and what we do. We would just have grace. God, help us now to live these things out by the power of your spirit. God, we can't do it on our own. Just pray that you fill us and use us this week, even in these moments that we have together here before we leave, god, use this time of ministry as we just encourage one another and love one another, that you would be seen in our lives, god, thank you so much. In Jesus name, we pray, amen.