Series on Romans
XVII Spiritual Freedom
Text: 14:1-23
Introduction
Many controversial issues are raised in Romans 14, but the guiding principle is disclosed in verse 1.Paul clearly says he is writing about “disputable” matters. Paul’s motivation in writing this advice is clearly his zeal, as expressed in chapter 12, for the unity, growth and blessing of the Body of Christ. If every man insists that every other man must agree with him 100% as a basis for fellowship, we will end up with as many different congregations as there are Christians. We must agree in order to serve the Lord together, but there is a limit to the agreement we should require. Matthew Henry says, “Here the mischief was cause, not so much by the disagreement itself as by mismanaging it and making it a bone of contention.” The specific issues here revolve around diets and days. The Jewish nation had a long history of festivals and holidays, feasts and special sacred days. The contention Paul was dealing with was whether one should or should not observe these days. This would be tantamount in the Christian era to arguing over whether we should celebrate Christmas or not. Historically there has been a difference of opinion on that in the church. The Jewish nation also has a long history of dietary regulations. The Jewish dietary laws were called “kashrut“ and orthodox Jews even today eat only kosher food prepared in special ways and blessed. Now the Gentiles were accustomed to going to the pagan idolatrous market place and buying their meat. Some believers thought that was OK and others thought you should only go to the kosher butcher. Two groups are identified here, those with scruples about days and diet, called weaker brethren and those that had no scruples about these practices called stronger brethren. Paul reveals that he belonged with those who felt no need to keep special days or eat special food, but he urged the brethren not to take sides and more importantly he urged the strong with whom he agreed in principle, to forgo what they felt was right rather than cause a brother to stumble. This is the spirit of self-sacrifice for the good of the body that Paul consistently advocates. So, if you don’t want to be wrong when you are right you must act in love and that means remembering three important facts: God alone saves, God alone is Lord, and God alone is judge.
I God Alone Saves
There are several points in this passage where Paul reminds us that it is God alone who accepts men into fellowship beginning with verses 1-5, Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. This idea is plainly stated in verses 17 and 18, For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Our acceptance of men is often like those to whom Paul is writing and is based on external rules and regulations. These things are called by the name “adiaphora” which is derived from the Greek meaning “indifferent things” or “things that do not matter,” and this is exactly Paul’s point here. Thus Jesus warned the leaders of the Jews that it was not what went into a man’s mouth that defiled him, but what came out. What is eaten passes into the digestive tract and then out of the body, but what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart and shows the true disposition of the man. C.S.Lewis reminds us in “Mere Christianity,” “A man who makes his golf or his motorcycle the center of his life, or a woman who devotes all of her thoughts to clothes, or bridge or her dog; they are being just as intemperate as someone who gets drunk every evening. Of course it does not show on the outside so easily; bridge mania or golf mania do not make you fall down in the middle of the road. But God is not deceived by externals as men are. As both Jesus and Paul tell us, the standards of the kingdom of God are not found in external rules such as eating meats and observing days. The bottom line is that if a man is accepted by God, he ought to be accepted by us.
II God Alone Is Lord
In verses 6-11 Paul reminds us that the Lordship of the true and living God is the real focus of our behavior, He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “ ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ ” So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. When we judge other people’s motives we put ourselves in the place of God. That is Paul’s point here. If our brother decides to eat the meat so long as he does it unto the Lord and gives thanks, God is pleased. And a brother who decides not to eat the meat, if he does it unto the Lord is equally pleasing to God. Paul makes clear that the Lordship of Christ extends to every area of life, he is Lord in life and in death. It is a very serious transgression to usurp Christ’s prerogative in judging because, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. This is why the Apostle also solemnly reminds us that, one day, we are going to stand before the Judge of all the earth, It is written: “ ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ ” So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. In that hour each man stands alone before God to give an account. You are not called to answer for your brother, and he is not called to answer for you. Thus Paul ends with the warning that we should pay attention to our own motives and our own hearts, in verses 22 and 23, Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 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.
III God Alone Is Judge
We have just seen the danger of judging one another because God is the Lord of the conscience, but now we are brought face to face with God’s judgment in verses 12-21. Therefore 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. As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. God’s judgment is His not yours, and therefore, as the Apostle declares, keep your opinion to yourself. If you do not you will bring strife, not peace, hatred not love, and destruction not edification. When it comes to issues on which God has not delivered a judgment, who are you to judge? There is of course a wrong and a right opinion as indicated by the designations strong and weak. and by Paul’s consistent teaching about food as in I Timothy 4:3-5, God has created all to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. However, God does not say eat or don’t eat, but, instead, deals with heart issues. As John MacArthur explains it, “The strong Christian is therefore entirely right in his conviction that he is at liberty to enjoy anything the Lord does not declare to be sinful. The weak Christian, on the other hand, is wrong in his understanding about some of those things. But he is not wrong in the sense of being heretical or immoral. He is wrong in the sense of not having complete and mature understanding, which causes his conscience to be unnecessarily sensitive. For that reason, to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean in his mind.” Thus the weak are warned not to judge the strong and the strong are warned not to cause the weak to stumble by placing temptation in their way because God accepts both as they are. This teaching is vital because Christians have had a picnic judging one another on outward criteria without having the slightest idea of the person’s motivation or what God sees in looking at their heart. We must remember Jesus words in Mark 7:15, There is nothing outside the man which going into him can defile him.
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