Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

The apostle spends quite a bit of time and energy on this question, and this is why we are doing the same thing. What will distract us from the those things on which God places great value? It will be those things on which we try to place high value, and all on our own authority or in our own name. But we are creatures—we need to submit to God’s set of values, and stop trying to generate our own.

The Text

“Let not then your good be evil spoken of: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:16-23).

Summary of the Text

Do you believe that “this thing” of yours is the greatest? Then don’t behave in a way that makes people speak ill of it (v. 16). The reason is that the heart of kingdom values can be found in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (v. 17). The kingdom is not about food and drink—God doesn’t care what you eat. In these things— whether eating or not, drinking or not—a man who serves Christ is acceptable to God, and is not a pain in the neck to other men (v. 18). So, then, let us adjust our values, and follow the things which make for peace, and things which build up our brothers and sisters (v. 19). Important note: your particular hobby horse is not what Paul is referring to. You calling it “edifying” doesn’t make it edifying. The work of God is not to be destroyed for the sake of meat (v. 20). This means that your brother is the work of God, and not your dinner fetishes. Paul reiterates the correct position again (all things are pure), but another man can still stumble in his conscience (v. 20). Should his conscience be stronger? Sure. So give it some time to get stronger. Stop kicking it. Don’t swing your liberty around on the end of a rope (v. 21). Are you the strong-faith-boy? Great. Prove it by shutting up about it (v. 22). The man is happy who does not choke on his own liberty (v. 22). And the weaker brother should be careful not to try to rush how quickly he grows stronger (v. 23). Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (v. 23). The Christian life can be described by rule, but it is lived by faith—not by rule.

A Deeper Right

We have already noted that there is a deeper right than being right. Paul is teaching this principle here, but he is also taking it a step or two further. Often those who are in “the right” are that right’s greatest and most tenacious adversaries. Who better to give sabbath keeping a bad name than gnat-strangling sabbatarians? Who better to give sexual decency a bad name than censorious prigs? Who better to give liberty a bad name than the libertines? Pretended friends are often far worse than staunch adversaries. Do not let your good be evil spoken of. We can misrepresent in this way our own standards of good, and we can do the same thing slanderously to God’s standards of good.

A Deeper Wrong

When someone is in the right, and is willing to destroy a weaker brother for the sake of that right, then not only is he missing the deeper right, he is embracing a deeper wrong. “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.” Do you allow it? Well and good. Are you correct to allow it? Good, even better. Allow away. But to stop there is to condemn yourself, and to condemn yourself with something that is perfectly fine in itself. There are a great many twists and turns involved when the righteous ones choke on righteousness. It is a terrible thing to choke on.

Righteousness, Peace, and Joy

What is the kingdom about? It is not about food and drink. God doesn’t care. It is not about robes and candles. God doesn’t care. It is not about music with a back beat. God doesn’t care. It is not about buying things from corporations or not. God doesn’t care. It is not about meat offered to idols. God doesn’t care. It is about your brother and sister—God does care.

The center of kingdom life is righteousness, peace, and joy. This triad of blessings is not something that we gin up to present to God. It is God’s work in us—note that Paul says righteousness, peace, and joy “in the Holy Ghost.” This is the environment that the Holy Spirit creates in order to work in. If it is any other kind of environment, the Holy Spirit’s work is limited to conviction of sin—sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8).

God is the only one who gets to define righteousness. Righteousness is an expression of His holy character, and is described in His law. Sin is therefore lawlessness (1 Jn. 3:4, and nothing else. We don’t get to take away, like the libertines, and we don’t get to add or substitute like the legalist. When we let God define what sin is (righteousness), and we pursue peace, just as He instructed here (v. 19), the end result is joy.

This joy is the work of God. It is not the joy of “being right.” It is not the joy of persuading people to adopt your dietary regimen. It is not the joy of seeing others proven wrong. It the joy of your salvation—your citizenship papers in the kingdom of God.

Whatever Is Not of Faith

Paul concludes this section by noting that if it doesn’t proceed from faith, then it is a sin. It is sin to eat, and it is a sin to not eat. Faith relates to a person. We cannot stay out of sin by relating all our behavior to an external rule alone. Live in the presence of God.

Read Full Article

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

We are continuing on the same theme so that we might remember the importance of loving our brothers and sisters in the faith, but doing so in a very spacious context. Learning the extent of that context will be what enables us to live rightly with one another in close quarters.

The Text

“For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died” (Rom. 14:9-15).

Summary of the Text

Living and dying and everything in between is rendered unto the Lord (v. 8). And it was for this very purpose that Christ died, and rose again, so that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living (v. 9). The ramifications here are enormous. In light of the fact that Christ is Lord of both the dead and the living, do not judge your brother (v. 10). Judging him is equated with setting him at nothing (v. 10), and zeroing him out. This is identified by Paul as a bad idea, given that we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (v. 10). We know that we will all appear before Christ because of what Isaiah prophesied in a collation of Is. 49:18 and 45:23 (v. 11). Every knee will bow. Standing before the judgment seat of Christ is identified with each one of us giving an account of himself to God (v. 12). As we are doing so, nobody else will be craning their necks trying to hear how we are going to explain our peculiar beliefs about food allergies. Everybody will have something else on their mind. In the light of that coming judgment, our judgments of one another (on issues like this) should be set aside, with the exception of judging that we ought not to stumble one another (v. 13). Jesus Christ Himself persuaded Paul that nothing is inherently unclean, but Jesus also taught Paul that someone’s scruples about some things being unclean ought to be respected nonetheless (v. 14). If Christ died for a man, that man being your brother, then you are not to take your liberty concerning meat (or whatever) and destroy him with it (v. 15). To do so is to refuse to walk in charity (v. 15).

Foundational Charity

We have been considering some of our modern disputes and practices in the light of what Paul is teaching here. We have our debates over food, birth control, home education or day school, conventional medicine or alternative, home birthing, and so on. What should we think about these things? Again, Paul is not relativistic here. Read your Bible. Study it through. In his example of food, he is fully persuaded by Jesus Himself that no food is inherently unclean. Jesus taught him that, but Jesus also him that He is willing to let people be wrong, and that we should be willing to do the same. But remember—the person who must be right probably isn’t.

Judgment Perspective

Revelation 20:11 talks about a great white throne judgment, one that is based on the book of life and the book of deeds. Matthew 25:32-33 addresses a judgment that will separate the sheep from the goats. This judgment separates those who are in Christ from those who are not in Christ. In order to stand in this judgment, it is not necessary to have anything covering you but the righteousness of another, the righteousness of Jesus. No one could stand otherwise.

But do not conclude from this that genuine Christians will not be judged in the particulars. You are accepted into life on the basis of the obedience of Jesus Christ. But what happens in this passage? Paul says that “we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ,” and he further adds that “every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.” The central thing we will have to give an accounting for will be our petty judgments of our fellow believers—so, the Pauline advice would be, knock it off. The judgment with which you judge you shall be judged (Matt. 7:1-3). If each one of us remembered that each one of us will have to stand before God to give an accounting for how much we pestered the saints over insignificant issues, life in the body would be much improved. Just imagine yourself approaching the throne of Christ to explain to Him how Suzy over there used way too much eye liner.

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10).

Lord of the Dead and the Living

If Jesus is the Lord of both the dead and the living, then this means that He is the absolute Lord of all history. Earthly kings rule over those who are alive, and once a man dies, he passes out of their jurisdiction and realm altogether. But Jesus died and rose to this end, for this purpose (v. 9). He died and rose so that He might be Lord (Paul does not say Savior here), and He died and rose so that He might be Lord of those who have died and those who are alive. His universal lordship is precisely the conclusion that Paul draws here. This makes Him Lord of history.

The section of Isaiah is a section that exalts in the Lord’s sovereignty over all the earth, and in His
intention to save the entire world. The promise that Paul quotes is Is. 45:23. The verse immediately before that says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Is. 45:22). Paul ties this entire section together by introducing the quote with a phrase from Is. 49:18. God swears by Himself, and He swears that He will not forget Zion (v. 15). That would be impossible—He has graven them on the palms of His hands, which He did in a singularly bloody way (v. 16). God’s purposes are glorious.

Read Full Article

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

As we work through this chapter of Romans, we will find ourselves reinforcing the same principle over and over— love your brother, while keeping the big deals big, the middle deals middle, and the small deals small. Keep a sense of proportion—and as you monitor these things, look to your own sense of proportion first . . . not the other guy’s.

The Text

“One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:5-8).

Summary of the Text

Paul’s first example was dietary, and he now moves to calendar observance. One man thinks one day is more important than another, and another man doesn’t (v. 5). Each one should be fully persuaded. The man who observes the day, does so before the Lord, and the one who doesn’t is rendering his non-offering to the Lord (v. 6). Paul hearkens back to his point about eating, and makes the same point. One man says grace over what he eats, and the other man gives thanks for what he does not eat (v. 6). We are not individuals; we are interdividuals (v. 7). If we don’t live or die to ourselves, then we don’t mark a day or set a table to ourselves. Note the phrase “to himself,” contrasted with the earlier (and later) phrase “unto the Lord.”If we live, it is unto the Lord (v. 8). If we die, it is unto the Lord (v. 8). And therefore, whether we live or die, or do anything in between, we belong to the Lord (v. 8).

Fully Persuaded

Let us reiterate the principle by coming at it from another angle. If you are loving your brother, and are grateful to God, then you have the right to be fully persuaded in your own mind about “whatever it is”—whether homebirthing, cancer treatments, biblical diets, “green” concerns, or whatever will be the hot item two years from now. If you are not loving your brother, and are not giving a life of gratitude, then you do not have the right to be fully persuaded in your own mind. Any lack of charity and a lack of thanksgiving means that you have forfeited your right to your own opinion. If you reel it in again, then you do. Go ahead, read that book, or visit that web site.

You love your brother by not judging or despising him (as we saw in vv. 1-4), and you render thanks to God in deep contentment, as we see here. Opinions, of whatever stripe, must be built on the foundation of love for those who differ, and gratitude to God for all things. In contrast, faddists ride roughshod over those who differ, and are driven by discontent with what they are rejecting more than gratitude for what they are receiving.

Every Day Alike

Paul gives us another example from the first century, which is that of honoring one day over another. The apostle clearly teaches that (if the central principles are observed) one man has the right to esteem one day over another. He teaches just as plainly that another man has the right not to. Now in the first century, this would have meant Judaic calendar observance, with some Christians not honoring Yom Kippur and others doing so. Some would not have marked Passover, and others would have. Let it ride, Paul argues, and love each other.

20 centuries later, we would have an analogous situation with the observation of Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. The Bible does not require these days to be observed, and neither may we. The Old Testament festivals were God-ordained, but this was a time of transition. Other festivals were not demanded by the law (like Purim), but were God-honoring anyway. Neither may a man who does not observe Christmas demand that another man cease. If the law of love is remembered, then But remember the human heart—the farther we get away from Scripture, the more likely it is that we may be neglecting the law of gratitude and love. The Church should therefore not establish any festival honoring the death of St. Frideswide’s house cat.

But what about the Lord’s Day? Does that fall under Paul’s stricture here—is it okay for a man to consider all seven days exactly the same? Yes and no. To the extent that the sabbath was part and parcel with the old covenant calendar (seventh day observance and one of the days of Israel’s convocation), that obligation (and the particular manner of its observance) has now ceased (Lev. 23:1-3). The law, and this part of the law was nailed to the cross (Col. 2:14). The weekly sabbath died. But when something dies in this way, in God’s economy, it rises again (Heb. 4:9-10). This is why a sabbath-rest remains for God’s people today. The Lord’s Day is made new, just as all things have been made new. Mark the first day of the week in gospel rest; this is a glorified, resurrected sabbath. So do not retreat to Pharisaical corruptions of what was designed to be the lesser glory.

To Himself or to the Lord

We are not individuals; we are interdividuals. We are connected to one another, and we are connected to one another precisely because we are connected to the Head, in whom we are being knit together (Col. 2:19). If we look to the Head, we are going to be coordinated one with another. If we look to ourselves, and our own opinions, however right we insist they must be, we are living to ourselves. But a part of the body that lives to itself is a part of the body that is seeking to make the body spastic. Love gives the body of Christ hand/eye coordination. Self- absorption makes the body gangly and spastic, and is the source of one dispute after another. So do not let health diets, or homebirthing, or vitamin therapy, or partisan politics, or anything else you found on the Internet become a basis for judging. And if you see somebody in the church not heeding that exhortation, don’t you despise them.

Read Full Article

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

We are the beta test for the new humanity, but this might require some explanation. Jesus Christ is the perfect man, but we are not yet grown up into that perfect man (Eph. 4: 13). So, as far as we go, we are the working prototype of what God is up to. There are some bugs to work out yet, mostly having to do with our lack of love for one another. So let’s work on that.

The Text

“Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand” (Rom. 14:1-4).

Summary of the Text

Paul has been explaining the gospel, that message which establishes a new race descended from the new Adam, designed by God to replace the corrupt mass of humanity wrought by the old Adam. We are living in a time of great transition, and so we in the church must live in a way that displays to the outside world how this is supposed to work. The first thing to understand is that the church is not an exclusive club for spiritually superior people. Receive the one who is weak in faith (v. 1), we are told, and we are not supposed to receive him in order to argue with him (v. 1). For example, one Christian believes he can eat anything, while a weaker brother with dietary scruples is a vegetarian (v. 2). Paul sets down the principle of love—do not despise or judge one another, and this is a principle that goes both ways. It goes from the strong to the weak and from the weak to the strong (v. 3). If God has received someone, don’t you try to get more exclusive than God (v. 3). It is bad to try to have higher standards than God does. It is not our place to judge the workmanship that is submitted to another (v. 4). To his own master a man stands or falls (v. 4). And for Paul’s money, he is going to stand—because God is able to make him stand (v. 4).

What Love Looks Like

Paul has already defined the bedrock of love for us, which is the law of God. Love does no harm to his neighbor, and this harm is defined by what God says harm is. We don’t get to define it. In this area—the tangled debates Christians get themselves into—Paul says that love receives a brother without engaging in doubtful disputations. Paul says that the stronger brother must take care not to despise the weaker brother, and the weaker brother must not judge the stronger. These are different verbs, but they both have to do with “not receiving.” The one who despises looks down on the one who tangles himself all up in unnecessary rules and complications, and thus his despising breaks the law of love. The one who judges does so according to his own made-up standards, substituting them in for God’s actual standards. This means he has to judge uphill, which makes him cranky. Both are forms of acting like a supervisor over people you weren’t given any authority over. Your brother stands or falls before somebody else, and the One before whom he stands or falls loves him more than you do, and is not nearly as eager as you are to see him mess up.

Christianity And

This means that love—as God defines it—trumps everything. It is to be the governing demeanor in all our discussions, disputes, and debates, and it is this attitude of love that prevents us from becoming “faddists for Jesus.” C.S. Lewis warned against the error of what he called “Christianity and . . .” Christianity and vitamins, Christianity and homebirthing, Christianity and no cheeseburgers, Christianity and the grunge aesthetic, and so on.

Now of course, we have to make our decisions in these other areas, but we must never do so in a way that links them to the faith in the wrong way. Neither may we leave them unlinked—that would leave our fads without any regulating authority, which would be terrible.

So we must link them up intelligently and in love. In these other areas, we need to be fully convinced in our own minds—we don’t float through life—our ands must be followed by something. But if we accept the duty to love others along with being fully convinced in our own minds, then we are protected against most forms of faddism. This is because fads are not very much fun without the added fun of recruiting for a movement. The substance of the fad is just the raw material. The real attraction lies in supervising people who don’t answer to you, which is what Paul prohibits.

Love Is Not Relativism

But Paul is no egalitarian. He does not say that any decision made by any Christian is just as good as any other. He most emphatically does not say that. In the first of his examples, he takes sides. The weaker brother is the vegetarian. But at the same time, if a modern day Pauline carnivore takes this verse, and beats a veggie-brother over the head with it—“it says weaker brother here, el stupido . . .” it is clear that the stronger brother is not the stronger brother at all. He is right about the meat, but wrong about everything else. He is right about the meat, except for the meat in his head.

Paul comes to other examples in this chapter, but he begins with the food. This is a perennial problem area for a certain religious type of man. Men have a deep desire to have God care about what they put in their mouths. The problem is that the triune God of Scripture doesn’t care—bacon is fine, as are oysters, and refined sugar, and processed stuff made out of what used to be corn, and beer, and tofu, and wheat germ, and dirt cookies, and alfalfa sprouts from the coop. God doesn’t care . . . about that.

No Imperialism

Within the church, the imperialist for “whatever fad it is” struggles with Paul’s acceptance of his option as a mere option. He doesn’t want to define love the way Paul does—in terms of leaving your brother alone—and instead wants to say that it is only because of his deep love that he is urging his brother to start taking these pills “for what ails ya,” $4.99 a bottle. Love is what makes a helpful sister tell a newly pregnant woman a bunch of hospital horror stories. Right. Love meddles, love bustles, love volunteers information, love won’t shut up. Love refuses to listen to Paul, which can’t be right somehow.

The Real Test

Love and wisdom go together. If everyone loves one another, disagreement is manageable—even when the consequences of being wrong can be significant. The less able you are to keep your crusade to yourself, in line with Paul’s instruction here, the more likely it is that your wisdom on that issue is not wisdom at all.

Read Full Article