The Weak and the Strong (Romans 14:1–23)
Billy Milton - July 24, 2005
INTRODUCTION
A number of years ago I was helping in a summer mission in a big housing estate near Glasgow. It was a rough, tough area and part of my job was to build relationships with some of the local hard men. I discovered that they all loved football so I organised a football match and a BBQ afterwards and, sure enough, that broke the ice and gave me access into their gang.
One evening I was sitting on a doorstep with some of the lads having a chat when another guy approached. One of the lads I was talking to said, “Uh, oh. Here comes trouble.” The chap who was approaching didn’t look particularly violent but it turned out that he and his brother, who was already at the doorstep, hated each other. Within a couple of minutes of the second brother arriving they had started arguing with each other and it soon broke out into a fistfight. I yelled out for the other guys to do something and we soon had pulled them apart where they stood spitting and snarling at each other. I suggested that one of them went home and the other follow later and that was what happened. Sadly though they met up halfway along the road and another full-blown fight broke out with much swearing and shouting. It was awful! Really scary. The other guys said they fought all the time. So much so that they were all totally fed up with them both and wanted them to get it sorted out. Disunity in the family was sullying the family name and making their individual lives a misery.
When I read Paul’s letter to the Romans, I am firmly convinced that it is much more than masterful presentation of the gospel of Christ. I believe Paul was making a determined effort to unify a church family on its way towards serious division. In order to see what I mean, let’s quickly remind ourselves of what Paul has said so far that has brought us to this point:-
- Romans starts with a reminder of the great hope for all mankind. In Rom 1:16 he says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”
- All of us share a Common Bond of Sin. In Rom 2 and 3 Paul shows that everyone is under the condemnation of sin and after some detailed analysis of both the Jew and Gentile’s predicament he sums the problem up by saying in Rom 3:23 – “… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
- In the rest of Romans, from chapters 5 through to 11, Paul then shows us the common denominator that brings everyone together and that is the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. Again whether you are a Jew or Gentile salvation comes through faith in Christ…and all are equally welcome.
As soon as he finishes all the doctrinal part he then goes on in chapters 12 and 13, bearing in mind the doctrinal teaching that has gone before, he goes on to ground all his teaching in proper relationships. He explains how this doctrine should practically affect your relationships with God, with yourself, with your neighbour, with your enemy and with the state. Can you see now why I say that I believe that Paul had a sub-plot going on here that was working towards healing division in the church?
MAIN BODY
As we now move on into ch14 we can see that he is addressing a particular type of division that seems to have cropped up in the church in Rome. The problem of weak and strong Christians and how they should behave towards each other. Now I’ve got good and bad news for all of us. You and I are definitely being spoken to here this morning. We are all either weak or strong on a variety of different issues.
The background to what Paul was saying here lay in the practise at that time of offering meat to the gods as a sacrifice. The Jews, who worshipped only Yahweh, were very strict in avoiding any food that might have been offered to an idol and then sold down the local market place. They believed that to eat this meat would make them unclean and so they religiously avoided it. The recently saved Gentiles couldn’t see the problem. They knew that there was only one God and so offering food to idols, who were quite obviously now just so much stone and wood, had no effect on the meat at all so why not eat it? Where was the problem?
The good Jewish Christian who would not eat that meat is called weak and the Gentile Christian who had no such scruples is called strong. The problem was that they had elevated these food type issues into major problems that threatened to break up the church and cause severe disunity. The weak Jew was condemning the ignorant Gentile who obviously just didn’t know how to behave, and the grace loving, freedom-enjoying Gentile was looking down on the poor superstitious Jew who didn’t appear to fully grasp his freedom in Christ. Who was right and who was wrong?
Well before we take sides here let me change the example. Supposing a young lady, Miss Jones, becomes a Christian in her late teens and starts attending our church. She has been used to a life of partying and casual sexual liaisons; she dresses quite provocatively; she thinks nothing of enjoying a few beers on a Friday and Saturday night and occasionally is a bit too hung over to come to church. And yet, there has obviously been a big change in her lifestyle. She no longer sleeps around. Her periods of drunkenness have dropped from every other night until she is now drunk only very occasionally. And she sees the nightclub as a place to tell people of her new found faith.
Mrs Smith, who has been a Christian for many years, is quite perturbed at Miss Jones’ rather lax lifestyle. She has been tee-total all her life and can’t understand why a Christian can drink alcohol which so obviously destroys many families; she also thinks that her style of dress will surely corrupt the young men who seem to find her so attractive. Mrs Smith has not had a conversation with a non-Christian about the gospel for many years now.
Who is weak and who is strong in this example? GET SOME OPINIONS
According to the Bible, Miss Jones is strong and Mrs Smith is weak but I can assure you Mrs Smith thinks the opposite and so possibly does Miss Jones. If either of them forgets the debt of love they owe to Christ and to each other (Rom 13:8) then there is a high likelihood of Mrs Smith condemning Miss Jones for not behaving like a Christian ought to and Miss Jones responding with a “get a life dear” type comment with the resulting distance that will develop between them. From what we have read, how should they handle this situation? GET OPINIONS
Well here’s what the Bible says:
I. Accept him whose faith is weak. Romans 14:1–6
As I watched the two brothers I told you about battling each other in the street my heart was crying out for them to accept each other and stop their fighting. What other solution was there if they were going to remain a family? If they did not sort out their differences they were destined for a life of conflict and division and possibly much worse if their fighting grew even more serious. They needed to accept each other before it was too late. Just as the fictitious Mrs Smith and Miss Jones need to accept each other in love.
Paul uses the same idea here by encouraging us to accept the brother who is weak in faith. Why?
(1.) He is a brother. 14:1
(2.) God has accepted him. 14:3
The weak sister, Mrs Smith, should be received, scruples and all. But, and this is important, although the sister or brother is received, it should be done in a way so as to not make his or her differing opinion the rule of the congregation. I’ve been in a number of churches where someone with a strong opinion on some matter of dress or behaviour was so strident in his condemnation that it became the rule of the church with the result that those who disagreed felt that they had to leave. However, neither should he be received for the purpose of pressuring him to change his opinion. Receive her, plain and simple.
But what about Miss Jones? Does she have anything that she should consider changing in her lifestyle? Well I would say yes, she does. If we believe and really take on board what Mike was saying a few weeks ago in 12:9 about love being sincere; and if we are determined to follow through on 13:8 “Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another,” then Miss Jones does have a responsibility and its outlined in v13. “Let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.”
It’s the ‘stumbling block’ principle. If my freedom causes you to stumble and maybe even lose your faith then out of love I’ll stop doing that thing. One of the very first conversations I had with both Ben and Vickie when they started working as youth workers for KRC was on this very subject. I put it to them that they no longer could live their lives exactly as they wanted to because as youth workers they were responsible to present a good example 24 hours a day 365 days a year to the young people in their charge. They had in effect become public property. “Well if Ben can do this then so can I.” “If Vickie thinks its okay to go there then so do I.” It is actually quite an awesome responsibility. If Ben or Vickie had abused their freedom in Christ because they are strong, they might well have damaged a tender, young Christian who only knows the very basics of the Christian faith and is struggling to live a life that is different.
Many years ago I had a friend who was an alcoholic who became a Christian. He was very reluctant to attend the communion service and I discovered that he was afraid to drink the wine in case it set him off drinking again. What did the church do? Well we lectured him about trusting God and claiming the power of the Spirit to overcome his temptations and fears… no we didn’t! We simply changed the wine to fruit juice to avoid being a stumbling block to this man.
Is any element of your lifestyle a stumbling block to others? Well, there’s a terrible warning at the end of this chapter. It suggests that we can, by abusing the freedom that Christ has given us, “destroy your brother for whom Christ died.” (v15) I can’t answer for you but I’m prepared to moderate my behaviour in order not to cause my brother to be destroyed. What I can handle (or Miss Jones for that matter) might be too much for someone else and so I will moderate my behaviour in order to show proper concern for my weaker brother. Incidentally the weaker brother might be the longest serving member of the church who has never moved on in grace.
So, finally, how can I tell what is permissible and what is not? Well Paul gives a simple guideline at the end of the chapter. He says quite simply in v23, “But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” If you have doubts then don’t do it. Better safe than sorry. I’ll leave you to ponder over that verse and urge you once again to sink yourself deep in debt in the area of love and flee from divisions that can destroy a church.