[Transcript may not match broadcasted sermon word for word, and contains extra material that was cut from the broadcast due to time constraints]

       Today we come to Romans chapter 14, Romans chapter 14. This is the famous chapter among Christians that is often cited in defense of Christian freedom. This is the go-to part of the Bible, basically, when there is a question on a grey area, about whether a person is allowed to do something or not allowed to do something. Indeed, as we study this text today, Paul will examine some of these types of issues, and particularly, he will help us learn how we are to relate to fellow believers as pertains to our Christian liberty. Namely, that we are to keep others in mind at certain times.

       So, go ahead and turn in your Bibles, or tap on your Bible apps on your smartphone, and let’s go to Romans chapter 14. Beginning in verse 1. Paul states, “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.”

       Paul is now moving into a new discussion. In the last half of chapter 13, he had been discussing how we should live holy lives as we simply don’t know when the end is going to come for us. It was like what Jesus would say, when he told us to “Watch.” Anyhow, here to begin chapter 14, Paul is moving into church unity really, how brothers and sisters with varying backgrounds are supposed to live with each other. In Paul’s time, at the time each of these new churches were being established, they were each founded city by city, city by city. And that’s an important point. It means that the groups of believers at that time had a vast variety of different kinds of people within them. There were no denominations within a single city like we have today. It would be like today if we took all the believers in Columbus and just made one church, abolishing any differences in doctrine and what not. That’s the picture here of the church in Rome.

       This section of Scripture begins in talking to the stronger brothers and sisters within the church. The chapter is addressed to them, for Paul says, ““As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him.” That’s the goal of all us, as believers, to become stronger in faith and have less and less restrictions that are based on worry and fear. That’s our goal. God obviously still accepts the weaker brothers and sisters, but we can learn from Paul’s address here that it is the stronger brothers and sisters that we are to strive to be like. That doesn’t mean we immediately push for that, but that should be our ultimate goal. The individual who is strong is the person who doesn’t let things easily offend him or her. The individual is slow to anger like God is. They believe the best about others, and have hope that they are going to become stronger, to become more and more Jesus.

       We are to welcome weaker believers but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions, as Paul stated. That means we aren’t to accept weaker brothers and sisters into our friendship with the purpose of trying to deliberately convert them to how we see things—to our level of freedom in Christ. In reality, only God can make people freer. If we are trying to push our view on someone, then we are truly selfish indeed. We are only thinking about ourselves, and not what the other person needs at the time. This doesn’t mean that when opportunity arises, we don’t discuss matters of Christian liberty. We still discuss them, and we still have hope that weaker Christians will become stronger. And even if the weaker folks don’t accept our views—even if they don’t rise to a new level of Christian liberty—that doesn’t either mean we reject those people and say, “Ah, they’re just too weak and rule oriented. We don’t want to be around them.”

       The first example is provided to us here, when it says, “One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.” Now, Paul probably had in mind Jewish folks who had come Christ but were still trying to be Kosher. They were still carrying over Jewish ceremonial customs to their newfound faith in Christ. Obviously, the stronger believer knows that he or she is allowed to eat whatever because we no longer are required to keep the ceremonial parts of the Jewish Law. God doesn’t require that. But, to carry this over for more modern day application, we might know a believer or two who is a vegan as they believe it’s morally wrong for them personally to eat any kind of animals, or certain types of animals. I have actually known a couple of people who were like this. And while I found their restrictions humorous, I never tried to get them to go against those convictions because that’s not what we’re supposed to do. That’s not what we’re here for. Life is more than what we eat and what we don’t eat.

       Verse 3: “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.”

       Notice, then, that it’s not only the strong Christians who can pass judgment upon the weaker Christians, but actually the weaker Christians can try to judge the stronger Christians. As a matter of fact, I would say in modern-day America that we see the weaker judging the stronger much more frequently within the body of Christ. Probably all kinds of examples are flying into your head by now. I think a common one is a rule-oriented brother or sister who tries to call out a freer brother or sister for doing sin, when what the stronger person is doing actually isn’t sin. The weaker is judging the stronger, and may even try to aggressively come against the stronger person. I know this line of thinking first-hand, because, I must confess, back at the time I was in my beginning years of being a Christian, I got pretty systematic. And I would love to judge the stronger brothers and sisters as actually sinning, when in reality, I was just jealous of their freedom. Deep down, I wanted what they had, but I was too weak to allow myself to progress, to move up the freedom ladder.

       Paul said, “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls.” One way to look at this verse is to say that God accepts people from all levels of Christians liberty, from the most free to the least free. He can work with them all. I said a couple weeks ago that I spent some time studying the Amish not too long ago. And one thing I can surely testify to is that God is definitely present among the Amish. It would be tempting to say, “Nah, they’re too legalistic. God can’t work with them. They’re hearts gotta be closed to him.” But, as I studied their society, it was clear that God works with them. That doesn’t mean their legalism is great and to be strived after. Much to the contrary. One just needs to read Galatians to realize that God really doesn’t prefer legalism, to put it mildly. In fact, if you go through your Bible, through the New Testament, and look at all of Paul’s letters to the churches, the Galatian church was the only church that Paul didn’t thank God for. Get the drift? God hates legalism.

       At the moment we pass judgment on people, we what? Well, we show that we care only about the negative. In other words, the reality is, is that we don’t have to become offended by what others are doing or not doing if we don’t want to. You ever discern that? It’s true. We can actually pass on becoming offended in regard to something. If we pass judgment on someone, we risk the chance of possibly damaging that relationship, or even losing it, over a petty thing. We don’t want to be a Petty Roosevelt. No, on the contrary, if we wish to be truly successful and acting in love toward others, we need to choose not to pass judgment, not to be offended in whatever it is. We need to care more about what God thinks, and let God take control of whether the person is right or wrong. God can take care of that; that’s not our job here. Rather, we become a peacemaker, as Jesus discussed, and thereby administer peace to the weak instead of judgment.

       Verse 5: “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, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.”

       The idea behind what Paul is saying here is simply, “What is our heart attitude toward whatever we are doing?” If we are doing something or not doing something because we believe we are pleasing God, then that’s fair enough. Our heart is in the right, even if our action is weak. If we observe one day as being holy, a day that we devote to the Lord, then that’s okay—we can do that as long as our heart is right before God. If we don’t eat certain foods since we don’t believe God wants us to, again, that’s okay—our heart is right. Now, that’s not to say we can sin deliberately. Practicing sin is not what we’re talking about here.

       We are aware that our Lutheran and Catholic brothers and sisters abstain from foods on certain days, and they are allowed to do that. It doesn’t say we have to do that in the Bible, and if a person was to try to tell others they had to abstain from the food on those days, that would be wrong. But, the point is that even if a church is rooted in deep traditions, that’s not wrong for them to do that. As none of you are aware, for this is the first time I have shared it, but one of the churches that a I grew up in was a Methodist Church in Victorian Village, downtown. Really, that was my home church. That was one of two places of worship until I was eleven. And in that church, things were pretty old-school in regard to the order of service. The minister wore a robe, there was organ music only, and we only sang hymns to name the main features. Anyhow, personally, I prefer hymns as a result of my upbringing, and I really don’t care for the modern-day Christian music. Besides that, I find them to be much weaker in the theology that is presented in them. Nevertheless, I still sing the modern-day music, and I don’t judge my fellow brothers and sisters who really like it. Again, life is more than our musical tastes.

       While we are on this subject, and I am disclosing secrets here, I would also say that I would prefer the ministers to wear robes in conducting church service. Bet no one saw that coming. Yes, it’s true. That’s how I was raised, and that’s how I would like to see services conducted. I would also like for everyone within the congregation to rise when the minister enters the room and goes up to the pulpit. You know, a secular judge wears a robe, and no one thinks ill of that. Everyone rises at the moment that same judge enters the courtroom, and no one questions that. I have always thought that if a judge is so formal as wear a robe, and everyone is so formal as to rise, then why doesn’t this carry over into the church? So, God is less formal than the secular world? But you see, these are my opinions. These are my personal convictions (well, maybe). Just because I would like to see things done this way, that doesn’t mean it should be. Nor does it mean that anyone who doesn’t carry things out this way is in the wrong, and I should not judge anyone (and I don’t) who doesn’t do things these ways. I can prove I don’t judge in this area as I have never told anyone any of this.

       Continuing on: “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.”

       It’s as I’ve been saying, we aren’t at church to actually push our own particular convictions onto others within the body. Instead, we are to live in unity as much as possible. This will require some of us to swallow our pride. There are going to be times, there are going to be moments, where you want to confront something, to want to call someone out, to call the person on the carpet for something, but you are going to have to bite your tongue and let whatever it is go. I’ve personally had to do this so many times. And it’s because if the matter is trivial, if it’s open to interpretation, then we really cannot force our viewpoint. At the end of the day, it’s all about Jesus. It’s about becoming more like Jesus.

       The purpose, the goal of our lives, is to live in Christ—to live in God’s approval. Paul has told us this elsewhere. What else did he say in that verse? To die is what? To die is gain since we get to go to Heaven to be with him, where, in Heaven, there will only be one way of doing things, and that’s the way that will make us most happy, the way the God of the Universe has setup in perfection. There won’t be any guessing there, thankfully. Boy, that will be stress-free as everything will be settled—settled by Jesus. Jesus is Lord, as Paul so poignantly points out here. And that’s the purpose, right? The goal is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we accepted Jesus as Lord through the Gospel. So, we live by what we believe the Spirit is directing us to do, and he guides us through God’s Word to do what is pleasing in our sight, and his sight. And we will do what pleases God whether we are in this life, or in the one to come. God has purchased us with a price.

       Verse 10: “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.”

       Again, the main focus of our lives isn’t what other people are doing. Our main focus obviously then should be on what we ourselves are doing. Are we living a happy life? Are we making God happy? Are we fulfilling the calls God has laid on our hearts—doing the things God has placed in our hearts to do. We realize we are currently saving up rewards for ourselves in Heaven by what we do. Those rewards aren’t just for Christian works I don’t think. No, those rewards are for doing our careers well, for how we relate to other people, for how we relate to our spouse, or our children in the Lord. Rewards will not only be for what is done at church, or in your church’s name.

       Paul says here that each of us, no matter who we are, will give an account of our lives to God. We have a presentation to do, or a speech, before him, sharing how we have lived our lives before him. Keep that in mind as you live out your life. Know that you will have to tell God about what you are doing. And how are we going to do that if we are not living in light of the truth of the Bible? Yes, it’s important how we live. It determines the quality of our live in Heaven. Our rewards come from God, not from our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Understanding that, it is before God that we stand or that we don’t stand. As the famous saying goes, “We have an audience of one.”

       I think often our focus is on this life. The phrase is so popular, and I definitely hear it relatively frequently, “You only live once.” But you got to remember, the next life is dependent upon this one. It is dependent in the quality of what it will be. At a certain point, and we don’t know what the point is, we will transition into the next life. Really, it’s the same life in that we are still alive. Again, it’s significant what we are doing in this world, so that we can be racking up rewards in the other world, and actually that racking up of rewards is in real time. Jesus is preparing our place for us right now, so, it could be that he is waiting on supplies to do what he wants to do, to build what he wants to build for us, and that is contingent upon what we are doing down here. If we aren’t doing right, the supplies don’t come for him, and he cannot build what he wishes to build. Do you see? Do you get it?

       Verse 13: “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 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.”

       Now, Paul moves back to discussing what he was originally discussing at the beginning of this chapter, and that pertains to Christian liberty. And he moves back to his example of the Jewish person trying to live Kosher. Paul says that he believes even though he’s a Jew, he’s allowed to eat anything he desires, and he is no longer bound by the Old Testament dietary restrictions in order to be clean before God. Nevertheless, he points out the fact that if a Jew still believes he shouldn’t eat this or that, if he is weak, and he hasn’t gained knowledge and freedom in this area, that that person should not go against his conscience and eat what he thinks is forbidden.

       Here at the beginning of this section, Paul points out that he is not to eat anything in front of the Jewish person if that Jewish person thinks the food is unclean (even though Paul himself believes it’s not). We are not to do anything in front of someone if we know that individual thinks that thing is a sin. Let’s consider some modern-day examples, or some more frequent examples. A person, for instance, may not want to watch rated ‘R’ movies to give their minds extra protection from certain things. So, we aren’t to invite Jane then to a rated ‘R’ movie at the theater if we are aware she doesn’t watch rated ‘R’ movies. To some people, it seems logical that they shouldn’t kill and ate animals. We aren’t to push our girlfriend to go hunting with us, if we know that she doesn’t believe in hunting animals. Some folks don’t wish to drink alcohol since they fear it could lead them into sin. We aren’t to order a beer at Martini’s restaurant if we know that Nick doesn’t believe drinking beers is right. We are to limit our own personal freedom in certain settings if that freedom could lead another individual to go against his or her conscience.

       Next, Paul says, “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.”

       What we want, anytime we want it, even when we are allowed to have it, is not the point. I know, that can be hard for my fellow Millennials to understand. We, as Millennials, put such an emphasis on our own particular preference, on our own individuality. We were taught that we are to value what we like and desire to do. And while that’s true, we aren’t to do that without limitations, and without thinking about others. Anyone can have the attitude that they don’t want to be told what they are to do. When we abide by that attitude, we find that we are acting selfishly, that we really only care about what we desire. But, in keeping people in mind, whoever we are, that displays righteousness before God, that makes them feel good and not feel pressured. This promotes peace among ourselves and whoever we are around. It is peace for us because we know we’ve done right, and it’s peace for others because we aren’t pressuring them. And it’s joy for us as we are trusting in God; we are forgoing our own personal freedom for the moment.

       This truth applies to us as individuals relating to other individuals, but it also applies to how one church relates to another church. Bodies of believers can get trapped into a mental framework of which they think only the way they do things are right, and if you don't do things the way they do them, you are in the wrong. It becomes tunnel vision. One church isn’t to judge another church because they approve or disapprove of something that is in a gray area. I think this can frequently be a problem. It is one thing to disagree over doctrine, or to steer clear of a particular body of believers because they allow clearly forbidden sin, or approves of that sin, but it’s a whole ‘nother thing to judge another church because it allows something that is debatable. The weaker church I think is more likely to judge a church that allows more. But, a very free and mature church can also be found judging the weak church for being too restrictive and narrow. I believe the main thing is that each body should just focus on themselves. That makes it easy.

       Verse 20: “Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone 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 or be hindered or be weakened. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God.”

       What Paul is saying is that no matter what desire we may have, there are going to be times we have to take a pass for the sake of fellow believers. When we don’t pass on what we want, we hinder and prohibit God’s growth in others, and actually, in ourselves. People cannot come into more freedom by being forced to do so. And likewise, we cannot be growing in self-control, or self-restraint, if we are refusing to do so. It’s a two-way street here. It’s not about us all the time. I know, we don’t particularly care for this. It’s not a lot of fun. But God tells us here this is what we need to do.

       Notice, Paul said, “The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God.” Guess what? This means we are going to approve of things in our lives that we don’t tell people about—or at least—that we don’t tell weaker Christians about. Yes, you have that right. You may like to drink a glass of wine with dinner when you’re at home. That’s fine, but don’t go flaunting that before people who will get offended by it. That’s unwise. That may work just cause quarreling and negativity to develop. They’re may be movies you like to watch that others would fine too offensive. Well, that’s okay, but don’t run and tell everyone about your freedom. Husbands and wives may do things that others would find offensive. Get the drift? The reality is, is that we cannot meet everyone’s freedom criteria. The good news, though, is that anyone can grow in faith. We can say to God, as the disciples did, “Increase our faith.”

       Verse 23: “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.”

       Whatever it is that we have decided to do, we are to be fully convinced in our own minds that what we are doing is not sin. In doubting, we show we have a lack of faith, and it also shows that we better stay away from whatever it is that we are doubting about. People have different levels of faith. The point is that if we are doing something publicly and we know that others are likely going to see it as sin, we’d better keep that thing to ourselves. We should not press people into doing anything they really don’t want to do. That causes the person to sin, and surely, that’s not something that anybody wants.

       Now, all this being said, we realize that we cannot keep all the people happy all the time. Surely, for a few, they are going to get offended by most things, for they are very weak brothers and sisters. There are whole churches who will get offended by lots of things. For anyone who is insecure, they can tend to point fingers at people too much and desire everyone else to abide by all their rules. But we cannot give up too much liberty. We cannot give up all our freedom for the sake of someone who is really weak. If a person is offended by most things, they have a serious issue that they have to deal with. Some people feel bad about themselves and wish for everyone to cater to what they want. They are needy people, and they want everyone to show them attention. But, these people have to come to recognize that the world doesn’t revolve around them. They have to learn to care about what people feel and want, and learn to see themselves appropriately, in light of others.

       In closing, let’s consider a few verses from the Apostle John about this same subject of faith: “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us” (1 John 3:21-23, ESV).

       No matter who you are today, anyone can come into person relationship with Jesus Christ. Anyone can believe in him. God forgives sins through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. If you’re a person who is insecure, you may need to come before God and deal with this issue today. God gives us our security, our worth, our value. Jesus can make you righteous before God. Go to God today in prayer and tell him you desire to have a relationship with him, and that you want to start the transformation process by which you become more happy yourself, and make him happy in the process.

-Daniel Litton