Opinions & Attitudes

Introduction

You mean making your way to Romans chapter 1, Romans, sorry, excuse me, chapter 14 and verse 1. We’re going to read, beginning there in just a moment, a little sub four-minute read from chapter 14 through chapter 15, verse 7. I timed it. So it’s about four minutes. We’re going to read that because the text is what actually matters most here. And then I want to work through that text, getting some ideas about this concept of how we handle opinions. We like opinions. Opinions are the good part of this, but it’s the attitudes where there is struggle, where there’s difficulty. And so kind of combining those two ideas or thoughts together is the challenge. I have my opinions, you have your opinions. We like those, that’s why we hold them.

But then it’s learning to interact on a level in which we have harmony and unity with each other that Paul’s concerned with here in chapter 14. In Romans 13, which we looked at not too long ago, I want you to understand where we’re coming from and the context of what Paul’s about to do. Of course, the whole letter, he’s been working on this potential problem between Jews and Gentiles, saints who have very different backgrounds, and he’s worried that they’ll not be united, and that this would cause problems, that it would diminish the effect of the gospel in Rome. And so he’s wanting to make sure they’re united as these Jews begin to return to Rome after Claudius’ edict was revoked at his death in AD 54.

And as he’s working through some of these ideas about Christian living, at the end of chapter 13, he focuses on this key concept that really is carried through a major part of 12 through where we are now, that is to love your neighbor as yourself. And so he goes in this thing, he talks about being subject to the government, own nobody anything except that you love each other. you fulfill the law. He says this twice in verses eight through ten. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love is the fulfilling of the law, he says in verse 10. And then he says that all things are summed up in this word. The Greek word there is logos in this report, in this concept, even this way of life, this reason that we would work through.

It’s all summed up in this. And he quotes Leviticus 19, 18, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And then he joins this call to love with a call to arms. He says, Know the time you’re in. Now it’s time to fight. Fight evil, not each other. Right? So stop fighting and having issues with each other and stop and put on the armor of light and fight darkness. That’s what we need to be fighting. Is not in fighting, but fighting against the powers of darkness and evil. And then he goes into this statement beginning in chapter 14 in verse 1. As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 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. 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. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

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 die to the Lord, so then, whether we live or whether 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. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you? Why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, for it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But it is unclean for anyone who thinks it’s unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 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. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for any one to make another stumble by what he eats.

It is good not to eat meat or drink wine, or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up, for Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

And to live in harmony, fighting darkness and wearing the armor of light, what he just talked about in chapter 13. When it comes to matters of difference, opinions I have versus opinions you have, and the way we interact about that, and the way we treat each other, this can be a huge sign of whether or not we’re actually accomplishing the things that Paul has been talking about from chapter twelve onward in the book of Romans. Am I really giving my body as a living sacri sacrifice, holy and acceptable? Am I really being renewed in the spirit of my mind? Am I really being transformed? Am I serving in a way that is good for everyone, not just good for myself? Am I focused only on my own opinions and getting what I want?

Or am I really looking out for the best interest of the entire group? And yes, this can matter even in matters of opinion. What he’s talking about here in Romans chapter 14. It’s not that these things are unimportant or that they don’t matter at all. It’s that they’re sort of a different level of issue, which we’ll talk about here in just a moment. But I want to kind of set the stage for the attitude we should take going into this and maybe having some consciousness of where we all are in the continuum of strong versus weak. Now, when Paul talks about strong and weak faith here, he’s not really talking about whether someone’s saved or not. It’s more about kind of the strength in their belief in something in a certain thing, like eating meat, right?

Or observing a certain day. Sometimes our conscience restricts us, other times it gives us liberty, and that’s really the idea he’s getting at here. And he’s dealing with Jew and Gentile diff differences, backgrounds, where Jews would have had a dietary code, they would have observed certain days like Sabbath, and the Gentiles would have not done those things. And so there could potentially be some conflict in the way they see some of this. And Paul doesn’t want this to be a hindrance to the gospel. But if we think carefully about this whole scenario, and if we begin to make some applications, some modern applications, which I will sort of try to carefully do. Not that I am opposed to offending people, but I also don’t want to try to offend people, but I think we have to bring some of this forward and think about matters of opinion today that we deal with.

Here’s the reality. Even within single issues, we exist somewhere on a continuum. Your conscience may be more at liberty than mine on a certain issue, but I might be more at liberty than someone else on that same issue, depending on where I am with my conscience on whatever that issue is. Similarly, on a variety of issues, I may be weak in one area and strong in another. I may be restricted by what I think or what I believe in one way, and I may have liberty in something else. Right? So this is not that there’s just weak people and then there’s strong people, and you are in one or the other. It may depend on the issue we’re talking about and the opinions that we’re working through.

And so the bottom line here is I should be very interested in this working well. I should be wanting others to be considerate of my restrictive beliefs, the things that I think I shouldn’t be doing and by faith, I won’t do because if I don’t act in faith, it’s sin for me, right? Because the conscience cannot make evil good, but the conscience can make good evil. He makes that very clear in this passage. And so just as I want people to be considerate of my restrictive beliefs, I also don’t want others to force their restrictive opinions on me. And so there should be a balance there in how we see this and how we approach it. And the bottom line, loving neighbor as self, loving my fellow brethren in a way that I’m not trying to force my conscience on them or force my opinions on them, just as I don’t want them forcing their opinions on me and judging me based on their opinions.

Now, I did a two sermon series on the whole concept of conscience, and I can’t cover all that this morning. If that’s something you’re interested in, I can try to help point you in the right direction to go see that. It was dealing with 1 Corinthians 8 through 10 and Romans 14 and 15. My goal this morning is really to cover this text in the context of Romans. and that’s the nature of what textual sermons are, and I think they’re extremely important. They’re maybe not as exciting as topical sermons or things we can dig into, but the reality is, through all sorts of research, what we find is people in our country and in the world in general are biblically illiterate for the most part.

1. Some Differences of Opinion Do Not Demand Agreement

They don’t understand scripture in context. They just proof text and pull things out everywhere to prove what they want to prove. So it’s vitally important that we actually understand a text within its context. And that’s the mission of a sermon like this is to follow the trace of Paul’s arguments from Romans 12 and 13 into Romans 14 and then beyond, so that we actually understand what’s going on here, not just taking what we believe and forcing it into the text, which is not really an appropriate use of scripture. And so I don’t have time to go into all the depths of conscience this morning, but I do want to cover some basic concepts and overview of what’s happening in this passage. The first thing we have to understand what Paul’s getting at here is just simply that some differences of opinion do not demand reaching agreement.

Nowhere does Paul say here or in 1 Corinthians 8 through 10 that we have to change somebody’s mind. On this matter of eating meat or observing certain days, they can exist as a saint, as a holy one, throughout their entire life and not change their mind on either of these positions. Right? And so he says here in verse 1 for the one who’s weak in faith, or the one who’s restricted in this way, and Paul actually gives an opinion here on what is actually right and wrong. So he’s saying, you can eat meat. You’re not restricted. Right? But some people think they can’t, and if they think they can’t, we shouldn’t try to get them to do it. We should welcome them, and we should do so, but not to quarrel, not to argue over opinions.

2. Three Levels of Issues

So let me go into some a breakdown of different issues and kind of how this works. Now, this is there would be some disagreement, since we’re talking about disagreement on how some of this would work. I think there wouldn’t be much in some areas, but I’m going to give you three levels of issues. The first level is simply that you cannot be a saint. You cannot be a follower of Jesus Christ and deny some things. Those are level one issues. You cannot believe that Jesus did not come in the flesh and be a Christian. You can’t do it. It’s made very clear in Scripture that he came in the flesh. That he is both deity and he is human, is made very clear in Scripture. God has a plan through Jesus Christ.

We are justified by faith through grace. This is like the whole point of the book of Romans and what he’s arguing here and trying to help them understand. You can’t deny that or come up with your own plan and be a saint and follow Jesus. God has a plan. This is sort of a level one issue that everyone has to agree with. Now there are level two issues where unity is hard in leadership and membership if we disagree on certain things. Right? So we may have disagreements on, for example, how money should be used, or proper worship, the way worship should take place, or how we should be organized. And don’t get me wrong, there is right and wrong on that in scripture. So I’m not saying you can just believe whatever you want and just go find people who agree with you, but it’s just a simple matter that we can’t disagree on how worship should take place, for example, our elders and our members, we can’t disagree on that and then have unity in how we do things.

That’s just not practical. It doesn’t work. And so these are kind of level two issues that are vital and important that have to be worked out, and that you’re gonna have to find some agreement on to worship together, or to agree how you’re gonna use funds that are collected, or any of those sorts of things. There has to be some kind of agreement. And then really what we’re talking about this morning in Romans 14 are sort of level three disagreements. These are disagreements that should not disrupt unity. I say should not, because sometimes people allow them to disrupt unity. But these disagreements, like Paul’s talking about here in Romans 14, are the sorts of things in which people may disagree, but they can still exist together in harmony.

And so often these things are related to maybe ethnic or cultural or sociological or generational differences. And so, like any place, we have our own that we’ve dealt with here. Many churches deal with these kinds of things. What is the way that worship should be done? Who should be leading worship? Should everybody have a chance to get up and lead, or should we be having the people who do the best at leading worship? Those are matters of opinion. Should we use old songs or should we use new songs? Or some kind of mix? And some people have very strong opinions about some of these sorts of things. More recently, we’ve talked about things like should we be passing trays? Should we be passing contribution plates? Should we just have a box in the back where people can contribute?

Or views about clapping or verbal reactions during baptisms or at other times.

Most of this is just cultural, ethnic, sociological, generational differences. It doesn’t mean they’re unimportant. But they are dictated by what is proper or most effective within a certain context. They are not God’s doctrine. And so we have to work through those, trying to think what’s best for everyone, not putting myself in the highest place, valuing what is important and good for the people around me. But think about, for example, and I’m going to use this idea of respectable dress a few times this morning. I think it’s something that we can kind of we still sort of deal with, but there’s I think a level of we won’t be offended by talking about this issue too much. But just think about respectable dress and AD 300 in comparison to today.

There’s a reason why God is very free with how this is to be interpreted. Or maybe some of you have been some other place in the world. I’ve been a number of places in the world. One of them that sticks out to me is a place like Jamaica. What is respectable dress in Jamaica compared to Houston, Texas? Well, they’re not the same. And so these are matters of opinion that we have to admit are matters of opinion. And we have to be very careful about the way that we address these and talk about them and the judgments we make about matters of opinion. Right? Welcome, but not to quarrel, Paul says. We shouldn’t be coercing people into debates over matters of opinion. Doesn’t mean we can’t talk about them or discuss them.

Sometimes it’s important that we do that. But our purpose is not to quarrel, it is to live in harmony and to put on the armor of light and to fight together for God’s purposes. And if you are fully convinced, you live to the Lord, you give account to him, not anyone else, and you allow the other to do the same. This is the message Paul’s speaking here to these brethren in Rome, who are Jews and Gentiles, very different backgrounds. And he’s saying, hey, you don’t live to give account to each other. Right? We should consider each other and we should love each other and we need to interact in a way that allows us to live in harmony. But the bottom line is you live to the Lord, and you give account to him.

And it’s interesting some of the statements Paul makes here. God has welcomed him, verse 3. And he will be upheld, no matter what my judgment is or your judgment, he will be upheld for the Lord is able to make him stand, verse 4. Interesting. So although some of them may disagree with a matter of opinion with me, Paul makes very clear here that God is able to make him stand, and it’s before God he has to stand and give account. He doesn’t have to give account to me. Right? So these are level three issues. These are things that we should be able to exist in harmony and in unity, even if we disagree on some of these matters. And yet it is a struggle very often, isn’t it?

3. The Real Threat Is Poor Attitudes and Behaviors

Part of the human condition is that we become very selfish and we demand that our opinions be upheld and that people see it our way. Rather than simply being content with if I’m fully convinced I can live this to the Lord. Now, Paul has a lot to say about this in terms of the real threat. The real threat is not whether someone eats meat or not. The real threat is not how we come down on specifics on some of these other opinions I mentioned that we’ve even dealt with here. The real threat to unity, the real threat to the progress of the gospel, is poor attitudes and behaviors. What we tend to do as humans is we either descend to chaos or we descend to man-made authoritarian order.

So the difference is I either think, well, I can do it any way I want, and nobody can tell me any different, or we sort of go the other direction where everyone must do it this way, or else they’re unfaithful. Right? It’s like one or the other. And the conscience has a very hard time with anything that is not black and white. We have our opinions, we’ve made our decisions, and this is the way we see it, and so we struggle with things like nuance. I think this is true probably of all of us. It’s very hard to see it any other way than the way I see it. To me, it’s black and white, whatever the issue might be. I’ve decided what I think. Very often, this is the nature of how the conscience works, and we ought to be working and recalibating our conscience to be in alignment with God for that very reason.

4. Why Do You Despise Your Brother?

So we’re always, this is where the humility comes in, and recognizing my conscience can actually be wrong. And I need to be working at all times to be trying to see things from God’s perspective and work things in his perspective rather than just my own. So Paul has some questions for them. The first one is why do you despise your brother? Right? On whatever this opinion is, here he’s talking about meat, these dietary codes.

I don’t know if this is to kind of make sure that they don’t think he’s hitting more on one or the other. I don’t know. But he talks about in verse 3 why do you despise the one who abstains? The first danger here in attitude and behavior is arrogance through condescension. Right? Elitism. Well, I have figured this out and I know better. And so we look down on the person who doesn’t agree with our position. Ultimately, this leads to things like lawlessness or chaos. I can do whatever I want, and they can’t tell me any different. Paul himself actually even talks about this concept within scripture. We can just use this idea of meat sacrificed to idols or this meat and dietary code. The context is a little bit different between 1 Corinthians 8 through 10 and Romans 14, but there’s a lot of similarities as well.

And a Christian can say, well, I’m free to eat meat. And those who don’t are unreasonable and foolish. Well, Paul says that’s arrogant. It’s arrogance and condescension. And he warns in Romans 14 20 that you can actually destroy the work of God. You can diminish the gospel with such an attitude. Well, I’ve figured this thing out, and I feel free to do it. And anyone else who doesn’t see it that way, well, they are just a lesser Christian. And they are foolish and silly. And they’re all caught up in their traditions and they don’t see truth for what it is. This is the sort of condescension that Paul is warning them against. But then it can actually progress into heresy. And it seems that it did in Corinth.

To a point where they are saying things like, I’m free to eat meat and even go to parties at idle temples. You see how this progresses to chaos? And Paul says, no, you should not eat at the table of demons and the table of the Lord. Now you’re missing it. Right? You were correct before that you had freedom to eat meat, whether it’s sacrificed to idols or whether it’s against the Jewish dietary code, whichever setting you’re talking about. The problem there was the arrogance of looking down on somebody who doesn’t see it the way you see it. But then the even greater danger is then they progress to the idea that I’m so excelled in Christ. My knowledge is so high now that I can even go to idols’ temples and go to parties.

Because we know that gods don’t really exist, and we know we’re really not serving anything. So I know that I’m actually not worshiping this idle God, and so in my conscience, I can go and take part of the table of demons. There’s some big problems with some of that anyway. But Paul says that’s wrong. Don’t do that. Now you are not only arrogant, but you are distorting the gospel. And that should be denounced. Well, let’s pull it forward to maybe something today. By the way, I’ve pointed this out before, this whole issue with Jew and Gentile, or Gentile and Gentile and Corinthians, and eating meat sacrificed to idols or Jewish dietary codes and all these cultural differences, I would suggest are actually much more severe than a lot of the things we deal with.

I mean, can you imagine? You’re coming out of the Jewish code. This is what you’ve done your entire life. Or you have been in paganism worshipping idols and partaking in all of this, and now everything is changing, and now you serve Christ. I mean, these are huge issues. And Paul says, matters of opinion. Wow. That’s that’s pretty amazing. Maybe we should slow our roll on how we judge people about the things they’re struggling with. Well, what about this? I can wear jeans to worship, and those who don’t are just old fashioned. Arrogant condescension. Looking down on others who don’t see it the way that I see it. That’s dangerous. Doesn’t mean you’re wrong about your opinion. But then forcing others or judging others who may think differently about this is the sort of thing Paul is worried about here that is arrogance.

That then can actually progress into something like this. Maybe you haven’t heard this before. Maybe you have. It is real and it exists. I am free to wear clothes with bad words or bad messages because words are nothing more than symbols to which culture supplies meaning. God doesn’t care about our cultural symbols and sounds. There’s truth in that. Anybody take in a foreign language? Yeah, there’s just the reality sometimes as you’re taking foreign language that some foreign words actually sound like bad words in our language. Right? And you begin to feel out, figure out real fast that words are just sounds. Right? But they do have a cultural context to them. And they do mean something, even though culture supplies the meaning. And scripture actually talks about this.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, Peter says, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. There are principles within Scripture that don’t allow us to descend to this kind of chaos. Where we can say, well, I can just do whatever I want because words are just symbols and we supply the meaning, and you’re just being judgmental, you have a dirty mind, whatever the thing is to say that I can do what I want. The goal here is that as a sent to chaos where I can justify doing whatever I want to do. It’s my opinion. You can’t tell me any different.

5. Why Do You Pass Judgment on Your Brother?

It’s heresy. It’s completely against the message, love your neighbor as yourself, and to look out for the interest of others, as we’re told to do in Philippians chapter 2. But not despising is not where he stops. He also says, why are you passing judgment? There’s two sides of this. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? He asks. This is arrogance through judgmentalism. That leads to authoritarian slavery to idology ideology rather than Christ, it’s codifying men’s opinions as God’s law. That everyone must believe in a specific way, or else they are a heretic and they are unfaithful. It is sinful to eat meat, and Christians who do are unfaithful, right? This is the concern that Paul has about the Jews coming back to Rome. That’s judgmentalism.

It’s diminishing the gospel over untrue judgments, by the way. Paul says this isn’t true. It’s not true that you can’t eat meat and be a Christian. And yet, this is the opinion that some held for themselves at least, that they couldn’t do this. But then to bind that or to make judgments about someone else now is actually in opposition to the truth of the gospel. Or maybe take it a step further, where now we’re codifying man-made rules and laws and saying other people have to follow them. All Christians have to follow Jewish dietary rules. This is the sort of thing that Paul’s fighting in Galatia. Or even in Colossae, and certainly within Rome. People taking things that are not actually what God has said in God’s law through faith in Jesus Christ, and now demanding that people follow them.

Arrogant judgmentalism. This kind of attitude doesn’t help anyone. Just like the attitude of I can wear jeans to church, and anybody who doesn’t is foolish. Also unhelpful, unloving. Or it can be taken a step further to heresy. All Christians have to wear their Sunday best, suits, and dresses to worship where they do not honor God. Authoritarian heresy, distorting the gospel message. This is nowhere in Scripture. It is an opinion that men have made up. But it is very easy to take our opinions and make them into God’s law. In fact, between these two, despising and passing judgment, Jesus spends significantly more time on the latter. Taking my rules and acting like they’re God’s rules.

It’s the work of worldly social works, the person was saying. It’s not the work of the church. I can’t think of a more anti-gospel statement than that. We have subjugated ourselves to a man-created concept of the work of the church. Now there is work of the church, that’s clear within scripture. But I guarantee you that helping people who are enslaved to sin is a gospel work.

And to say otherwise must be denounced as anti-gospel. And the rules and the creation of human thinking. For whatever reason. And so these things do exist. They are real and they do create problems within congregations. Every congregation faces matters of opinion and things they have to wrestle through and try to think about what’s best for everyone. And we’re not always all going to be happy with all the decisions that are made because we all have different opinions. And that’s the importance of a passage like Romans 14 and 15, where Paul is saying, no, we need to work together despite some differences. Not every difference means we have to fight tooth and nail for agreement. There are some things that it’s okay to disagree on, and we can still be unified over, those level three issues.

If someone wants to come in and say that Jesus Christ had not come in the flesh and he’s not God, he’s only human. We have a problem with that. We all have to agree on the basic tenets of Christianity. But there are some things that are not that.

And be honest that they are merely our opinions. Sometimes we back up with some thoughts from Scripture, sometimes not. Sometimes it’s just tradition. And traditions can be valuable, they can be helpful, but if it’s not the law of God, there may be other things that come up that are more helpful or more useful, and we have to be willing to admit that a creation of man is not something worth defending. It’s not something worth creating problems over. It’s not worth destroying the work of God. It’s not worth diminishing the gospel or being anti gospel. And so some things we must oppose to the face, just as Paul did with Peter when he stepped away from the Gentile Christians as they were eating together, and he says, this is anti-gospel.

6. Keep Your Faith Between Yourself and God

And then there are other matters where we can disagree. And it’s all going to be okay. This is what Paul says. Verse 22 the faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. There’s some things that can be between me and God. And that’s okay. And here he’s actually talking to the strong. Don’t create problems for the weak. You can eat meat. You know, do it in a way that’s not going to cause a problem for your Jewish brother or sister. You know, why create issues, right? This is possible. And on the other side of that, you have to live and exist by faith and not in doubt. So if you don’t believe you can eat meat, if you think that’s wrong for you, then don’t do it.

Right? Don’t be tempted to do it just because you know others do it. You have to walk by faith because violating your faith is sin, right? For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. But the one who feels free to do it, that’s not true of them. So don’t force your opinions on them. Right? We can exist in harmony and unity. And more than that, we can pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding, even through some of these disagreements. The goal is not getting my way, but truly considering what is actually best for everyone involved. And maybe asking some questions can help us with this. Am I truly tempting someone to sin by going against their conscience? Is there is it really a problem?

Like I know this person struggles with whatever the thing is. And yet in arrogance, I still just do it right in front of them. Is that really a problem? If so, I need to consider that. Can I exercise my freedoms more carefully so it doesn’t bother somebody else? Am I truly tempted to sin? Or am I just trying to force my opinions on others? The whole idea here of being offended or being caused to stumble is not just I don’t like it. It’s that I’m actually tempted to go against my conscience or against my faith and do the wrong thing and sin. So just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean I can then demand everybody do it my way. This has to do with am I really struggling and am I really tempted personally to sin because of what’s happening?

And then I have to think carefully about how to work through that. And maybe I maybe I never change my view on it. But I can keep my faith between myself and the Lord, and there’s times I can do what I need to do even if others don’t. Can I remain fully convinced in my mind and honor the Lord without forcing others to agree with me? These are questions that are focused on keeping people united and focused on the right things rather than merely demanding my way. This is about seeking to please my neighbor and not myself. This is about being in the form of Christ. Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who approached you fell on me.

He set out to help us. It was not what was best for him to get beaten and hung on a cross. It was painful, it was difficult. It’s not what he wanted. He said, if this cup could pass, right? He’s asking, I don’t want to go through this, but not my will, but your will be done. Right? It was not about Jesus. It’s about what he was doing for everyone else around him. And so at times I need to keep my faith to myself and to God. And I certainly need to make sure that I’m not seeking to manipulate to get my way. Manipulation does not honor God or make for peace. What I mean is if I suggest that I am weak in faith in order to strong arm others to bear with my weaknesses.

What that really means is I’m actually no longer fully convinced. I’m admitting that I have doubts about what I actually believe. And if I truly recognize my weakness and that there is some liberty that I’m not allowing myself, I should desire to seek the truth more fully and not restrict those freedoms from others. Don’t do this. It is infantile behavior. And Paul says we should have none of it.

Chapter 14 and verse 5. If you are fully convinced on these matters of opinion, that’s your call.

But what we are told to do is to live to the Lord. If I eat meat, I give thanks, and I eat meat in the honor of God. And if I abstain, then I give thanks to God for what I have, and I abstain in honor of the Lord. Same thing with recognizing days or not recognizing days. Whatever the issue is, the focus here is not pleasing self, not what I want, but it is done in honor to the Lord. And if we act in ways that are for the honor of God, this living in harmony or seeking to please neighbor or loving neighbor as ourself will be a natural part of this process. Where I can say, hey, I feel free to do this, but I know some people don’t, and I welcome you.

You don’t have to be like me. Or I personally, I can’t do that. I know some think it’s okay, and I welcome you. We can all strive together for the cause of the gospel on these level three issues that are matters of opinion, that we can’t prove definitively from Scripture, that are not matters of the tenets of basic Christianity, or what is necessary for common worship, or that sort of matter, but these are truly things that are opinions about how to live my life as a Christian that may be influenced by my background, my ethnicity, my age, whatever it may be. And a humility recognizing that reality. So we can love each other and we can together put on the armor of light and fight against the forces of evil and darkness.

Conclusion

This is what Paul calls us to in Romans 14 and 15. And maybe that the beginning of that for you this morning is recognizing the need to put off your old self, to do away with the man of sin, the one that’s selfish, selfishly oriented, looking out for self, wanting your own things, and fulfilling and gratifying the desires of the flesh, which he says not to do, right at the end of chapter 13, right before he goes into this. And you realize you got to stop. And you need to put on Jesus Christ and give your life to him, become a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him, both in body and in mind, ready to work with his people and work for his purposes for the glory of God.

Can we help you do that this morning? Why don’t you come as we stand and sing together?