One of my favorite chapters in the New Testament comes next. I think it’s some of the most practical instruction I’ve read in the teachings of Paul. It’s probably because of how it resonates with my mentality, but I love it nonetheless.
Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
First, there are, apparently, matters of gray in our faith; despite the fact that many would have us believe everything fits into neat black-and-white categories, Paul clearly says there are such things as “disputable matters.” For some of us, this teaching alone is hard to swallow. But if we think about it, our own lives show this to be true and we know it.
Second, Paul describes a world where there are two dominant camps (not to oversimplify things, but merely as a means of example): one camp wants to abstain from disputable things, and another camp wants to live in their freedom to engage the disputable matters. Sound familiar? Of course it does. This is our world. This is our “Christian” world. We find ourselves locked in morality wars over whether we should do something, or not even touch it with a ten-foot pole.
Paul’s ruling: The one who lives out of their freedom must not look down on the one who abstains, and the one who abstains must not judge the one who does not.
Following this one paragraph of Scripture would change the entire tone of the Church universally. And I know that I myself stand convicted first.
One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
We make the decisions we make (hopefully) because of our convictions and desires to serve the Lord. Yet this isn’t just about us as individuals and our opinions — this is about others and those around us. This is about how we treat one another. Most importantly, this is about us and God. No matter what decision we make and where we land in the larger conversation, this is about walking out our faith well with the support of and in the company of those around us. Whether we eat or drink, whether we live or die — we do it all unto the Lord.
This isn’t about a morality code. This isn’t about being right. This is about our sacrifice of worship.
You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:
“ ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’ ”
So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.
So why do we pass judgment on our fellow brothers and sisters when we’re all just trying to do our best? I think there are some great answers to these questions, but I will leave that to the psychologists and sociologists, and I will recognize it as being beyond the scope of this conversation and my expertise. I do know from life experience that tearing others down gives us a false feeling of being built up. However, we have learned how to trust the story, as we’ve said a hundred times before in this series — it allows us to stop worrying about ourselves and enables us to worry about others. If we worried about others more than ourselves, we would strive to help others toward their own success. We would work hard not to put stumbling blocks in front of others that would have tripped them up in their pursuit of offering their lives as an act of worship to God.
I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
Please notice that this “stumbling block” conversation has too often been co-opted by the abstinence crowd mentioned above. In our day and age of pop-Christianity, the “stumbling block” has become a buzzword used to justify our evangelical morality codes. That is not what Paul speaks of here. He speaks of making sure that our lifestyle and decisions have an awareness of the people around us and a desire to help them enter and experience the Kingdom of God.
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.
So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
Paul says that at the end of the day, in these “disputable matters,” we all have to do what we are convicted is the best decision. If we feel like doing something is wrong, we ought not do it. And apparently, according to this teaching, if we do engage it, it has become sin because we are acting against our conscience and what we believe is best. We have to follow the convictions we hold between ourselves and God.
But we also have to make sure we help others do the same. We cannot impose our convictions in these disputable matters onto others. We have to be concerned about their pursuit of a God who loves and accepts. Earlier, Paul said that if this God justifies, then who condemns?
Woe to us if we become the condemner. If God is the one who justifies, who are we to condemn? And why in the world should people experience condemnation because of matters that are as silly as food and drink, holidays and hobbies, entertainment and…
“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”
Amen.
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