1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2 One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.This is certainly a long passage, so let me attempt to break it down for you. First of all, it is apparent that Paul wishes to reduce conflict in the church, especially conflict between people who's faith is weak and those who are more mature. Right off the bat, Paul serves us the example of vegetarianism; there are Christians who are very divided over this issue despite clear Biblical passages (such as Acts 11:9 and Matthew 15:11) that tell us that all food is free for our consumption without guilt. Although you can know for a Biblical fact that this position is correct, it does not mean that other Christians will agree with you. What are you then to do? You are clearly in the right, but the other Christian won't change his mind. How are you to respond? Paul clearly tells us not to judge him. We are told here that the vegetarian refuses to eat meat because he wants to please God and that we should respect that. He says that each person is individually set before God to be judged and that we have no part in that judgement. In the middle of his argument, Paul also extends this idea of acceptance of theological differences to what day you worship on. To me, this looks like it means we should accept Christians who treat Saturday as a special day instead of Sunday without forcing them to change their mind. Also, even if we were able to force them to act against this conviction, Paul tells us that this is sin for them at the end of this chapter (v. 23):
23 But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.Do you see what happened there? Even though eating meat is not a sin, if you convince that vegetarian Christian to eat meat (when they think it is a sin), you cause them to sin even though you, yourself, would not sin if you performed the same action! That means that there is a little bit of a difference of what constitutes sin from person to person.
Now, of course, I need to offer some major disclaimers about how to apply this passage practically. First of all, one should limit one's freedoms based on three things: Word of God, Prayer, and Considerations of what is Beneficial/Constructive for others (1 Timothy 4:4-5 and 1 Corinthians 10:23-24). If any of these tell you that you cannot do something, don't do it or it is sin for you. However, a second observation I must make is that Paul tells us to respect people who have MORE restrictions than us, not less. Therefore, Paul calls me to respect the boundaries of people who think there are MORE ways to sin (i.e. vegetarianism), but does not call me to respect people who think there are LESS ways to sin (i.e. homosexuality). In fact, in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, Paul tells us to push people who are in unrepentant sin out of the church and to do this with gentleness and love:
9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”This passage tells us there are three criteria for kicking someone out of a church. These are if someone is a 1) Christian, 2) has been involved in a regular sin and, 3) is not repentant of that sin. If they meet all three of these criteria, you are to exclude them from your community and, as tough as it is to say, avoid fellowship with that person. We see the motivation behind this in verses 4-5:
4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.So now you see that we cannot allow people in our community to actively engage in what we consider sin in our midst. Now, if you are the meat eater, and the veggie eater is in your midst, this means abstaining from eating meat in his presence and not pushing the debate with him. Paul tells us this in Romans 14:20-22:
20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall. 22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves.One last disclaimer that I would like to put on this passage is that Paul seems to be focusing on issues that are very small like what food you eat and what day of the week you worship on. Paul is not advocating a pluralistic faith where we all can believe whatever we wish in spite of the Bible and our Christian community. Nor are we told to simply ignore what we believe in. We see this in 1 Timothy 4:16:
16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.Therefore, we are called to be certain of what we believe in and to share those beliefs with others. However, this is tempered by what we have been studying in Romans 14 because Paul tells us that there are some beliefs that are meant to be kept between us and God. This is where the unanswered questions come in. Which beliefs are important enough to debate? Which should be left undiscussed? Which doctrines can I talk about just for fun and when? I think Paul helps us work toward some of the answers when he says that we are not to destroy the work of God for the sake of food. Therefore, if we know an issue will cause division, we should be more cautious about discussing it, even for fun. However, if a specific issue is bothering you in a Christian community, I would suggest that you go to your pastor or community leader for the answers to your questions. The pastor is there for your spiritual direction and provides an environment where you can discuss all your theological questions and concerns.
Since this material can be a bit touchy, please do not be offended or take me to be unable to change my opinion or take advice on both what I say and how I say it. Therefore, don't feel shy about letting me know that you disagree or if you want to add any thoughts or comments to my discussion. You can put those comments below this post or to my facebook or twitter accounts. This is a topic that I broach with many people, including guys I disciple, so if you improve me or my position, your effect will be multiplied out to whatever ministry I do in the future.
Peace,
Simeon Snow
The fact that Christians all over the world are divided on so many issues is so sad and shameful. How can we claim to preach 'The Gospel' when chances are no two Christians believe EXACTLY the same things? In other words, what gospel? This passage basically commands us not to fight over issues 1) that do not affect our overall status as God's children (eg. Circumcision vs. uncircumcision, what day you worship).
ReplyDelete2) that are fluid (eg the pharisees turned hygiene guidelines into divine laws.)
2) but most importantly, this provides us with a way of addressing biblical concerns. I find it frustrating that there are so many branches of theology fighting over differen doctrines that they almost overlook the message of salvation.
To me, the point of this passage is that you should never focus so much on one little thing that we neglect the rest of God' message.
I do have to say that I disagree with your claim that Paul want us to respect only people who have more restrictions. This isn't about more or less, this is about your conscience and scripture being in agreement.