This entire week we've been trying to get to bottom of the situation in Rome that sparked the writing of this letter as well as trying to get at what Paul is saying here in all of its complexity. Sometimes when we study scripture the application is obvious and even provided for us as it is in the imperatives of chapter 12. This one is a bit more difficult because today we simply don't face the same issues that they were facing in the first century Roman churches. Yet, the teaching here and Paul's reasoning for his conclusions are broadly applicable today. We must however be careful not to inappropriately apply these conclusions to today.
Although there are not exact comparisons to today there are some similar situations.
- Sabbath observance: There are streams of Christian teaching today (more popular in past generations) that frown upon Christians doing any work or play on Sundays. In a conversation with my friend Chuck Beckler he told me that when he was a young man he would get in serious trouble for playing catch in the backyard on a Sunday because he was to rest on the sabbath. This one seems strange to me since Paul most likely has sabbath regulations in mind in Romans 14. So, Paul's message would likely be that everyone should be convinced in their own mind what they are going to do on your sabbath day. Feel free to practice it if it aids you in your worship of God. If it doesn't you are not obligated to practice it. If your conscience convicts of mowing the lawn on Sunday, don't do it. If it doesn't, go ahead.
- Alcohol consumption: This is another step removed even from the sabbath example. The Bible nowhere tells Christians that they cannot consume alcohol. It does say Christians are not to be drunk, but drinking alcohol without getting to the point of intoxication is appropriate for Christians. For some, particularly those who have grown up in a more restricted church culture, consuming any alcohol will activate your conscience. For you then it is sin. This is where I was when I first came to faith in Jesus. I felt convicted about drinking any alcohol, so I decided to abstain. Over the course of a few years however, my conscience didn't bother me at all anymore about having a drink so now I'm free to have a drink fully embracing the freedom that I have in Jesus. However, I try my best to be aware of anyone who I may be influencing by me having a drink. If I am in an environment where I know someone's conscience convicts them, not allowing them to drink alcohol, I will willingly refrain and not put them in an uncomfortable position, or worse, cause them to sin and excuse their sin.
- Practices of high church denominations: If you grew up in a high church like Roman Catholicism or Lutheranism or Anglican there may be some practices that you've developed that are just hard for you to let go of. Infant baptism, confession, saying certain prayers at certain times of the day to name a few. If you have fully placed your faith and trust in Jesus for your salvation and are not trusting in those practices for salvation (be sure of this!) then perhaps you may find some of the practices helpful for your faith. To those I think Paul would also say that you are free to practice them and others should not pass judgment or despise you for those practices.
That said, there are a few general principles that we can take from these teachings.
- Beware of Self Righteousness: The allure of self-righteousness will tear church families apart. The seed of thought that says, "I'm a better Christian than so-and-so because I do this or don't do this", is poison to our spiritual life, leaving us dangerously close to trusting in our actions for our salvation rather than the finished work of Christ on the cross, and destructive to our community life. Paul warns us that this goes both ways. The one who abstains from eating meat can boast of their holiness and self-sacrifice. The one who partakes can boast of their freedom in Christ and their strong faith.
- Be willing to lay aside our own rights and privileges for the benefit of our brothers and sisters in Christ. If taking advantage of the freedom we have in Christ causes another to sin we should willingly restrict our freedom out of love and concern for others. This is what love looks like. This Paul will say directly in chapter 15, which we will cover next week.
- Beware of Legalism: requiring others to follow our personal convictions in disputable matters is prohibited. Paul makes this abundantly clear here. We have great freedom in Christ and each Christian must seek the Holy Spirit and listen to his guidance in these matters. This is certainly not the clear communication approach but it is right according to scripture. How easy would it have been for Paul to just say do this or that? Instead he spends an entire chapter exploring the nuances of the situation. We must however be aware of what constitutes essential doctrine and ethics and what constitutes a disputable matter like this. Paul treats the essential matters of the faith very differently in Galatians. He also calls us to conform to ethical behaviors. These he leaves less room for disagreement.
- Show grace for one another's differences: Unity in the church is really important, yet we often seem to undermine it and enjoy the constant bickering with one another in the church. Your culture, your family of origin, your religious expression of your childhood have left you with a lot of assumptions about how Christianity is to be practiced. For the church to get along we must give grace for many of these differences.
This is the teaching that allowed the gospel of Jesus to be the most diverse movement in the history of the world! The gospel can be applied to any and every cultural expression. This is absolutely amazing when you think about it and it is precisely the point of the book of Romans. The gospel is for everyone! For this to work then, the former practices that distinguished the people of God from the rest of the world (dietary laws, sabbath laws, circumcision) must no longer be mandated for all of God's people.
We, therefore, must constantly examine, re-examine and re-examine again our practices in our niche of the Christian community. If someone from another culture doesn't practice this are they sinning? Is this expression of the gospel necessary for salvation? Is our form of doing church mandated by Scripture? I would posit that most of our arguments across denominations and within individual churches fall into this category rather than in any essential doctrine. This is a sad phenomenon in the church since Paul and the original apostles worked tirelessly to keep the church unified even in the midst of these rather important, religiously informed matters. Saying circumcision, the food laws and sabbath laws were obsolete was a MAJOR theological move for the first century Jewish Christians. It's not hard to imagine the difficulty of abandoning a practice they had been committed to their entire life. This being the case we need to be aware of any ingrained pattern in our church life that unnecessarily excludes anyone from our community of faith.
Additional Content
Reflection
How important is the unity of the church to you? Do you tend to be so dogmatic about nonessential things that you have pushed other Christians away? Let's commit to not putting any stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. Let's commit to love being the basis of our ethic and our relationships.