Romans 14-15 are largely concerning the idea of not being a stumbling block to others, particularly those who are weak in the faith. Often God's people are so determined to be right, there is no room for anyone else to be wrong. Many supposedly mature Christians feel that it is their duty to point out anything wrong with any body.
Many times the problem is that what is "wrong" is anything that is different from the way I do it. In other words, it is based on preferences and not on the true standard. We do remember the true standard, right? It is the Bible. The only right I have to say you are wrong is if I can open the Bible and show it to you in the scriptures.
The Jews and Gentiles were going back and forth over food, holy days, and other things in the Jewish Law. These things were not commanded under the New Covenant, although they were not forbidden under the new covenant. So it was preference. If you thought you should not eat something, then don't eat it. If you think it is OK then go for it. But the balance is that we would not want to purposely be a stumbling block to others.
We often try to make something RIGHT or WRONG when it is actually just DIFFERENT. I could right volumes about this, but here is the verse that jumped of the pages at me. Romans 14:20, Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. Here is the question, "What is so important to us that we are willing to destroy the work of God over it?"
Skin color
Music style
Your favorite NASCAR driver
Carpet Color
Bible Versions
Which Way the toilet paper should hang
Not letting someone new do the job at church you have done for 100 years
It is OK to have your preference and do things according to your preferences, but it is not OK to condemn or ridicule the person that is not doing it like that. It is not even OK to say they are wrong unless you have scripture to support your position.
I have a question. Why does Paul call one the "weaker" brother if they weren't wrong? I guess I've always had a hard time understanding this passage as just preference issues. It seems like one group of people had a deeper and more full understanding of the new covenant and the other group seemed to misunderstand the new way of life. Doesn't that make one group wrong and the other right?
ReplyDeleteI do agree that there is a right and wrong in many cases. In this case the big issue seemed to be food. Of course under the new covenant all things are good if they are received with thanksgiving. So it is not wrong for me to eat bacon and for another to eat all vegetables. What would be wrong would be for the Veggie eater to insist that the meat eater must only eat veggies or for that matter for the meat eater to insist that the veggie eater must eat meat because it is allowed. Both have liberty and can do as they wish.
DeleteBut in the case of a weaker (Immature) brother, we are not to become a stumbling block. That is that we may be right about something and even know from the Bible we are right, but his conviction is not one that violates scripture. So are we going to judge him or are we going to help him grow. The issue may not be the important issue right now and if we spend all our times telling him all the minor things he does not understand instead of helping him in major areas first we may discourage him.
However, matters of clear cut scripture should be handled by showing the weaker Brother what God says.
I do believe though that it can get into preference. Paul mentioned the observation of certain days. Probably certain Jewish Holy Days, but we are not sure. But if I wanted to observe Passover as a remembrance of God's deliverance of the Jewish people and ultimately my deliverance, would that be wrong? It is not required of course, but would it be wrong? What if we wanted to have a foot washing service as a display of servitude and humility, would that be wrong? To say that you must do this as an ordinance would be wrong. But what if we just wanted to do it to remember the lesson Jesus taught.
Then of course it can get into things that are much less biblical. So in this long answer, I think I agree with you. often it is not just preference. If you want to boil it all the way down there is a right answer, but that answer may not come into play unless we are trying to force our convictions (spiritual preferences) on each other.