EPISODE 106 ROMANS CHAPTER 14 " Navigating The Grey"

Welcome to Share the Word. In Romans chapter 14, Paul talks about the instructions for Christian living, realizing not everything is black and white, and as Christians, we need to recognize how we see things. Remember, judgment belongs to God, and Paul warns us, don't be a stumbling block for others. What a great subject. Paul? Romans chapter 14, Navigating the Gray.

We get quite a bit of fog around where I live because we're near sea level and near the ocean. Pretty common to be driving at night on a back road, come around a curve, and suddenly find yourself immersed in fog, and everything is grayed out. You can only see a few feet in front of you, if at all, so you slow down, way, way down. Ever experienced this? Fortunately, more cars these days are coming equipped with fog lights. You know, I once thought those things just were for show.

I never needed them other places I've lived, but now I understand better. Fog lights don't penetrate the fog for hundreds of feet down the road, but they do for a few yards ahead of you. They point down and out to illuminate the center line and the outside edge of the road so you can keep yourself between them safely. We're in the practical part of the Romans epistle now with instructions for Christian living. I entitled this podcast from chapter 14, Navigating the Gray, and I'll tell you why. It's because not all the life's decisions for a Christian are as clear as thou shalt and thou shalt not.

The New Testament is a pretty extensive guidebook, but it doesn't address every possible issue that individual Christians might face. So this lesson is about equipping you with some spiritual fog lights, some insights and principles that'll help you live your life more safely and safely for others around you. It's practical guidance to inform your decisions and behaviors in situations where what's right or wrong is not clearly spelled out in God's Word. There have always been gray areas facing Christians, questions that come up at different times and in different places that are not precisely answered in Scripture. And there certainly were in the first century, as you'll see from the text I'm about to read. The gray areas will change from place to place and from generation to generation, but the principles about how we ought to navigate them remain the same.

Two passages in the New Testament directly address this subject, here in Romans 14, and again in 1 Corinthians 8. Listen to the opening verses in our chapter. As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over his opinions. One person believes that he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. By the way, he doesn't mean a 98-pound weakling. He's talking about someone whose conscience is heavily restricted.

He goes on, Let not the one who eats everything despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It's before his own master that he will stand or fall, talking about Christ. So let me explain what Paul is specifically referring to here. The early churches he and his team planted, as well as this one in Rome, were made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers, people with very different cultural backgrounds. This might seem strange to us, but one of their burning debatable questions, living in the first century in their world, was whether it was okay to eat meat that had been offered to idols in pagan temples.

In those cities where Christianity was taking root, people worshipped all kinds of pagan deities. Worship often involved animal sacrifices. The less desirable portions of an animal were burned up on the altar in the temple, but the choice parts were saved to be eaten or to be sold in the marketplace. This meat was more affordable than buying meat from animals slaughtered specifically for the market because it had already been serving its primary purpose in the temple. It was kind of leftover meat. But buying and eating meat that had been part of a pagan ritual, now that was problematic to many Christians, especially those who had come to faith in Christ out of those pagan religions.

Many of them now wanted nothing to do with that life. So what do you think? Was this meat that came from the pagan temples okay for Christians to eat or not okay? This was a gray area question for them. Listen how Paul further addresses it in the parallel passage in 1 Corinthians 8. Now about food sacrificed to idols.

We know that we all possess knowledge, but remember, knowledge puffs up while love builds up. We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and there is no God but one. But not everybody understands that. Some people are still so accustomed to idolatry that when they eat such food, they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol. Since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food doesn't bring us near to God.

We're no worse off if we eat it or if we don't eat it. But be careful that in the exercise of your freedom, you don't create a stumbling block to someone who is weaker. If you sin against your brother in that way and wound their conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, Paul said, if what I eat causes a brother to fall into sin, I would never eat meat again so that I will not cause my brother to fall. Do you understand what he's saying? He's saying for some people, if they would eat meat that came from pagan temples, all they could think about was their past association with idolatry.

It would remind them of the false ideas, the immoral practices, all the stuff associated with the pagan religions that they had been saved out of. It would bring back bad memories and bad feelings. It would trouble their conscience. Maybe not you, Paul says. Maybe those thoughts and feelings would never cross your mind because you haven't had their experiences, and you realize the pagan deities are nothing. They're made-up stories.

But be carefully warned not to be callous toward those whose consciences are more sensitive than your own. Protect those who are weaker or younger in their faith. At verse 5 in Romans 14, we get a clue as to another problem area, gray area, for these Gentile and Jewish congregations. He writes there, In the same way, some think that one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor Him.

I think this is most likely a reference to the Jewish believers now who had always worshipped on the Sabbath, which for them began Friday evening and ran through Saturday evening. The Jewish religious culture had other holy days too, feast days they called them, that we've learned about like Passover, Pentecost, and several others. In New Testament times, in the church age as we've been calling it, Christians are not under the Old Testament law of Moses, and so those special observances are no longer binding on Christians. Yet, for the Jewish contingent in these early churches, those special days had been such an important part of their lives, how they practiced their Jewish faith, that they, maybe you can understand this, it was just kind of hard for them to let go of their traditions. So Paul is saying, worship God on any day you choose.

What's important is that you do set aside a time to worship Him, not which day of the week you do it. But again, don't be callous toward people who do honor special days. They do that as part of their worship to God. From studying Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8, we can get insights and principles we need to navigate our way through the gray areas that we make in front today. And what areas are foggy today? They're probably different, a lot different than those in the first century, maybe even different in place to place that you go in the world today among Christians.

But we still have our gray areas, don't we? Some places, like America, might be different than Korea or might be different than Africa, but we have gray areas today. Let's take this troublesome question about meat offered to idols just as an example. There were four attitudes to that question which people in the early church could have had. So try and imagine this. Try to imagine a spectrum, or better yet, jot this down on a piece of paper: four positions that you could take toward this difficult, debatable question.

Let's call the first attitude a Christian in the church at Rome may have had about meat offered to idols as a dogmatic, weaker brother. That's Paul's term weaker here for a person has a very bound-up conscience. The second person we'll call a genuinely weaker brother. The third person we'll call a sensitive, stronger brother. And finally, the fourth person we would call a callous, stronger brother. Got those four?

That's the spectrum. Let me clarify then what Paul meant when he used the term weaker and stronger in these passages. They don't refer to how spiritual somebody is. The way he used the terms, they had to do with a person's conscience and how it governed them, how restricted or how free they were in regard to their own conscience. You have to understand that part. In his terms, weaker, a weaker brother was someone whose conscience was bound up by unnecessary extra-biblical convictions, maybe the things that he carried from his past.

They weren't wrong ideas, just unnecessary now. The stronger brother was someone whose conscience was now free of those extra-biblical rules and regulations. So let me illustrate what I mean by the four categories using this question that was troubling them in Rome and in Corinth, the question about eating meat offered to idols or not. A dogmatic weaker brother, his attitude would be, Absolutely not. I would never eat anything associated with idolatry, and neither should any good Christian. Anyone who really loves God will turn away from such things.

What do you hear in that? A little of a know-it-all attitude, a pride attitude, a judgmentalism kind of attitude, sort of like the attitude of the Pharisees we saw in the Gospels who felt that everyone else should conform to their overly strict interpretations of things. Now, number two, a genuinely weaker brother might say on the very same question, You know, it bothers my personal conscience to eat that meat that was offered up to false gods. It makes me personally feel uneasy because of its past associations for me. So I'm not saying this is for you, but as for me, I don't eat that. What do you hear that's different there?

You hear some conscientiousness, some uncertainty. It would personally trouble them, so they abstain, but they're not pressing their convictions on you. They're just following their own conscience. Three, on the other hand, the sensitive, stronger brother, I'm calling him, might take this approach. I know that idols are meaningless chunks of stone, and the fact that this meat was offered to an idol doesn't mean anything to me. Nevertheless, people I care about feel differently, so I've decided, for their sake, that eating it is just something I can do without.

I'll get my meat someplace else, or at least I would never eat it in their presence. What do you hear there? You hear knowledge. You hear sensitivity. You hear humility. You hear maturity.

But then we come to the callous, stronger brother. He would probably react like this. Meat offered to idols? Idols, schmidols. Get over it. Of course I would eat it.

Why wouldn't I eat it? It's cheaper. It's better. I have the freedom to eat whatever I want. What do you hear there? Callousness, pride, self-centeredness.

Now, the meat offered to idols controversy that was causing problems among Christians in the first century is not a burning issue today, at least not anywhere I know. But we do have our own sets of gray areas where Christians don't agree, don't we? Like what, Paul? Well, among Christians I've been around in my lifetime, and it might be different from you wherever you're listening, but questions like what kind of entertainments are appropriate for Christians to engage in? Should Christians send our children to public schools? What styles of clothing are acceptable to wear?

Is it okay for Christians to drink alcohol? Is it okay for Christians to gamble? What kind of music should we listen to? What kind of music should we have in our church? Should Christians celebrate certain holidays like Halloween, for example? Now these are some of the gray areas that I've run across, and there's no thou shalt or thou shalt not in the Bible that settles them.

They're foggy. But let's take one of them again as an example and think it through our paradigm. How about the question of alcohol? Remember, the weaker person Paul refers to is one whose conscience is more sensitive and restricted, while the stronger are those whose consciences are freer. It's not a question of good or bad, except when pushed to the extremes. So, how would a dogmatic weaker brother react to the question, Is it okay today for Christians to drink alcohol?

He would say, Boozers, winos. Anyone in the church leaders find out is touching that stuff should be banned from our fellowship. How about a sensitive weaker brother? He might say, Alcohol reminds me too much of my past before I knew Christ. Its associations for me are all bad. I've seen it cause a lot of heartache in other people's lives that I love, so, you know, there's plenty of other drinks.

I just stay away from the stuff. How about the sensitive stronger brother? Drinking alcohol, if it's in moderation, it's not a problem to me personally. But because it is a problem in society, it's a trap to many people. It's a temptation to people struggling with addiction. I'm very careful when and if I would drink.

I mostly stay away from it, but that's my conviction. I'm not judging you if yours is different. Finally, how about the dogmatic stronger brother? I have the freedom to drink whatever I want, whenever I want. I'll bring a six-pack to the church picnic if I want. As long as I don't get falling-down drunk or drive under the influence, it's really nobody else's business what I drink.

Wow. Remember, this is a spectrum, and your feelings or opinion might not fit neatly into one box. But let me try and clarify the important biblical principles that should bear on all these gray area questions for Christians. First, if your reaction tends to be over on the weaker conscience end of the spectrum, if you feel it's always wrong to drink alcohol, for example, then don't do it. If it violates your convictions, don't do it. Then for you, it is sin, Paul would say, because your conscience is telling you it is wrong for you, so don't do it.

But at the same time, don't take it upon yourself to judge someone else who doesn't share your personal conviction. Don't judge their relationship to Christ based on your opinions. Paul reminds us in verses 10 and 12, Why do you pass judgment on a brother? Why do you despise your brother? We all will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and then each of us will give an account of himself to God. That's the bema seat judgment he's referring to there, where Christ will evaluate believers.

Paul is saying, Let Christ be someone's judge in these gray areas. It's not you that's the judge. On the other hand, if you tend in your thinking to be over at the other end of the spectrum, God's word to you here is to be careful how you press or use your freedom. Remember, love is more important than knowledge, Paul says. Knowledge puffs up, love builds up. Don't look down on someone whose conscience is more bound or more sensitive than yours, and don't ever try to change their views.

That's the Holy Spirit's job if they're too bound up. Above all, be certain that your freedom does not become, he calls, a stumbling block to someone else, something that causes them to violate their conscience and possibly fall back into sin. Do not, for the sake of food, Paul wrote, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another person stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else that causes your brother to stumble. Think hard about how what you do may be affecting a younger person or a younger believer who might have trouble in that particular area of their life.

If you're really mature, you will be willing to limit your personal freedom in order to protect them. Remember, the Apostle Paul said, referring to the meat offered to idols thing, If what I eat causes a brother to fall, I would never eat meat again. That's the attitude of maturity and love. Let me give you a real-life illustration, okay? In one of the churches I pastored, we had a golf outing one summer at a private course. Everyone who was a golfer played a round in the afternoon, and by suppertime, everyone who wasn't could come and join us for dinner at the club's dining room if they wanted.

So, as different foursomes finished up on the course, they waited for the rest of us in the dining area, which had a bar. One guy who was a leader in the church was sitting at the bar, downing some cold ones after his round, when a family showed up early for dinner who had two teenage boys. And as they walked through the bar area to get to the dining room, they couldn't help but notice this church leader was sitting at the bar drinking. They had alcohol problems in their family. They had been stressing to their sons that drinking can be dangerous and addicting, and urging them to stay away from alcohol. Wow.

So, how do you think this story ends? I'll be honest, I don't even know how it ends because the father was so unhappy that one of the church leaders didn't take into consideration how drinking at a church event might affect others. Shortly after that, he and his family left our church. I hope the leader's example didn't negatively affect their sons. But you know how kids can justify things. So-and-so does it.

This is what Paul is asking those of us with stronger consciences to do, to slow down on the foggy road and think about these gray areas, not just what's okay in your mind, but how you could be impacting a younger or weaker Christian. Could it cause someone to stumble in their Christian walk? Is your freedom more important than their spiritual welfare? These are very important considerations for a mature believer. When these kind of questions arise, you definitely don't want to be out on the extremes with the dogmatic weaker or the callous stronger types. Their attitudes are not good.

My favorite verse from Romans chapter 14 is verse 7. It's a great reminder because it says, None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. From the way we live as followers of Christ to the way we die as followers of Christ, all our lives long, we are impacting others for good or bad, for truth or error, encouraging or discouraging them. That's a powerful reminder to me. None of us lives to himself. None of us dies to himself.

Before I leave this chapter, I want to be sure we're absolutely clear about this. These principles I've been talking about are for gray areas. They don't apply to issues where God's Word speaks clearly. Where God has spoken clearly, it's not up to us to form our own opinions, but to adapt to what God tells us pleases Him, to what's right, to what's good, to what's wise. But as we learn God's Word and the Holy Spirit teaches us and molds us, we should be moving toward the position of the sensitive stronger brother, the Christian who is driving with their fog lights on, who understands the difference between what's settled biblical issues and what is matters of conscience, and who looks out for others. We don't need to be concerned about offending the Pharisees on the one end over there, who think everybody should live by their convictions.

But we should be concerned about how our example may be affecting younger and weaker believers. That's the way of love. As Paul sums it up here, let's pursue what makes for peace and for building others up. This is Paul for Share the Word. Thanks, Paul. Great information.

I had to listen to it twice to figure out where I fell on the four-spectrum position chart. That information is at around nine minutes into the recording if you want to go back. But I can see, as Christians, how we can go down a path looking through those lenses that instigates differing responses and can create diversity rather than unity. It had to have been difficult coming from following the law to all of a sudden not. Unity is such a critical component that Christ looked to instill in the disciples and all who followed. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.