Chapter 42

Open Your Arms

Romans 14:1-13a

 

Romans 14-15 address the matter of unity in the church.  Instantly, therefore, we recognize the importance of these two chapters. 

 

"Disunity has always been a major problem with God's people" writes Warren Wiersbe in his introduction to these two chapters.  "Even in the Old Testament records the civil wars and family fights among the people of Israel, and almost every local church mentioned in the New Testament had divisions to contend with.  The Corinthians were divided over human leaders, and some of the members were even suing each other.  The Galatian saints were "biting and devouring" on another, and the saints in Ephesus and Colosse had to be reminded of the importance of Christian unity.  In the church at Philippi, two women were at odds with each other and, as a result, were splitting the church."  And then Wiersbe adds, "No wonder the psalmist wrote, 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity' (Psalm 133:1)."

 

What kind of things threaten the unity of the church?  Obviously, sin is always a threat to the health and well being, to the unity of the church.  Perhaps that is why the Apostle Paul wrote about casting off the works of the flesh and putting on Jesus Christ in Romans 13:12-14.  My friend, if you are a member of this church and your life is filled with the works of the flesh - partying, drunkenness, lust and immorality, quarreling and fighting, you are not only hurting yourself, you are also hurting the church and threatening the health and well-being of Dearborn Baptist.  You need to get right with God.

 

But those kinds of outright sins are not the only things that threaten the church.  There are certain attitudes that can destroy fellowship and fruitfulness of the church and can cripple the work, the witness and the unity of the congregation.  It is those attitudes that Paul deals with in Romans 14-15. 

 

The fact that there are two full chapters on this subject, that Paul has given a lot of inspired ink to these attitudinal issues, says something about their importance.  I almost wish that we could just work our way through the entire two chapters in one sitting (Don't worry) so that you will get it all at once.  (I had a hard time trying to figure out just where to stop today).  I need to warn you, this gets close to where we live.

 

You see, what is being addressed in this section of Scripture is our attitudes toward Christians with whom we differ in areas where the Bible is not explicit.  There have always been those areas where Christians disagree about what constitutes obedience.  Those areas existed in the first century churches (as we shall see), they existed throughout history, they existed when I was a child growing up in church and they still exist today.  The individual issues are not always the same.  But there are always some issue of Christian living where the Bible is not explicit and where good, well meaning Christians, disagree. 

 

Let me give you a few examples from my own life.  I grew up in an independent Baptist church not all that different from DBC.  I started going there 9 months before I was born.  My mom and dad were members of that church until they retired and moved back to Kentucky.  I attended this church from 1956 until 1978.  Some of the issues where things like whether or not it was right to play games with dice or cards or owning a TV or buying on Sunday or using a stringed instrument in church.  I don't tell you those things to trivialize the issue in any way nor to mock the issue.  My pastor wanted us to be completely separated from gambling, honoring the Lord's Day; guitars were used for honky-tonk music, and TV was the portrayal of immoral themes.  He was absolutely sincere in his desire for us to be a holy church.  I tell you these things just to point out that for the most part those matters are no longer issues.  None of those things are dealt with explicitly in the Bible and so Christians have to think through those issues individually and make personal decisions about right and wrong.  Thus, there is an opportunity for an area of disagreement.

 

It wouldn't be difficult for us to quickly and readily identify areas where good and well meaning Christians disagree today.  Within our church, we have numerous viewpoints represented on several issues.  The various views are affected by differences between us - in gender, in generation (age), in growth (spiritual maturity), in background, culture, personality.  Let's face it.  We are always looking for somebody who is just like us, but in reality, there is no one exactly like us.  If you need any other proof, just checkout your fingerprint.

 

Now, the question is "How should a one Christian respond toward another Christian whose beliefs are different so that the health and unity of the church will not be threatened?"  Should I just say, "If they are going to belong to my church they need to believe just like me on everything"?  Or should I say, "I'm just going to go find a church where differences don't exist."  Or should I say, "They can do their thing; I'll do my thing.  We'll belong to the same church, we'll sit in the same service, sing the same songs, hear the same sermon, but we just won't be friends.  We'll just tolerate each other."  How do we handle these differences without forfeiting the unity of the church?

 

This text has the answer.  The answer has to do with attitude.

 

 

Two Issues

 

I mentioned the issues over which Christians differed in my church as a child - dice, cards, TV, guitars, eating out on Sunday.  What were the issues in Paul's day?  Romans 14 mentions two - diet and days.

 

Notice verse 2 - Some said "I can eat it all" and others said "I can't eat meat at all".  This was probably closely related to the issue of meat offered to pagan idols that was an issue in Corinth (I Corinthians 8-10).  If you didn't feel that you could, in clear conscience, eat meat that had been offered to a idol, then someone might say, "How do you know where the meat came from?" which creates a very short step to no meat (a vegetarian).  You might say, "Well, Adam and Eve were vegetarians before their fall into sin, so that is God's preference."  Some people still have that idea but now we have revelation on the issue (I Timothy 4:3-5; Acts 10:10-15).  But they didn't have the New Testament and so there were some who struggled with this issue.

 

Verse 5 - The other issue that Paul brings up is keeping of special days.  This is a reference to the keeping of the sabbath and to other Jewish feast days like Passover.

 

Both of these things - diets and days -  were issues because of the Jew / Gentile thing.  Jews who had become Christians had a tough time letting go of their strict background.  If you were a Jew who had been told your whole life that Saturday was a holy day and should not be spent in commerce but in quiet rest, it would be difficult to suddenly feel good about treating it like every other day.  One the other hand, if you were a Gentile and had been raised without  sense of keeping the sabbath, you would feel no guilt at all about working on Saturday.  And if you were a Jew and had never eaten pork chops, nor shopped at the bargain basement of the pagan temple for your meat, you would have struggled with a lot of guilt and consternation about doing it, while if you were a Gentile it would have been no big deal.  I hope that you can see how the Jewish Christians who wanted to be holy people would have looked the Gentiles with shock.  They would want to shun such people and such practices.  By the same token, the Gentile Christians did not associate their relationship to Christ with certain dietary restrictions or holy days and would have viewed the Jewish believers with contempt.  And if you belonged to the same church, there would easily be a threat to the unity. 

 

So what are we suppose to do about these differences?    The important thing is our attitude toward those with whom we differ.  I don't mean just our public position, but how we really feel about them down deep in our hearts, what we say about them we we're sitting around the kitchen table with our most trusted and intimate friends.  For there to be really unity in the church, the kind of unity that will promote the health and well being of the church, there must be a genuine Christian attitude.  The problem is not actually the difference in beliefs.  We tend to think that this is were the problem is but it's not.  The real problem is attitude of the heart.

 

And that is what Paul deals with in the opening verses of I Corinthians 14.  There are in this text, three specific commands given to us.  One of these commands is stated positively (Something we should do) and the other two are stated negatively (something we should not do).  And then, following those three commands, Paul explains the principles that should guide our attitudes.

 

 

Three Commands

 

Command #1 - Receive one another, v. 1.  At first glance, that may sound vague, but it is not at all.  Notice how this word is used in other places in the New Testament (see Acts 18:26; Acts 28:2; Philemon 1:12, 17; Romans 15:7; 14:3).  To receive someone is to welcome him, to embrace and accept the person, to befriend him or her.  It is not to hold them at arm's length, not to turn your back toward that person.  It is for you to do to that person what God has done to you, v. 3b.  

 

Do you realize that you can accept a person without necessarily approving of everything they believe or do?  We have a hard time separating the person from their belief or action but it is possible.  We often say about unbelievers that we should "hate their sin but love the sinner."  Likewise, we should accept the Christian even though we may not agree with him/her entirely.  (Carla's haircut).  We may not agree completely but we must be completely accepting of the person.  Open your arms to that Jew on a distant pew.  Embrace that Gentile across the aisle.  Receive one another.

 

You might be thinking.  "That's a good idea.  I can become friends with him and then I'll bring up this issue that we differ on and I will win the argument and move him to my position."  Wrong again!  Verse 1 qualifies our receiving of others.  It is "not to doubtful disputations."  That is, it is not so that you can dispute over doubtful things.  "We should not bring with our acceptance a hidden agenda to change their views so that they will coincide with ours" (Chuck Swindoll's commentary on this verse).  Even if they never change.  Even if you never agree we are commanded to receive one another.  Is that the attitude that you have?

 

Command #2 - Don't despise each other, v. 3, 10.  The same Greek word is used in both these verses.  It means to hold in contempt.  It carries the idea of feeling superior and looking down on another person.  "They are so narrow" we say about them.  "They are so legalistic."  And we can flaunt our liberty or mock them.  Don't do that, Paul says. 

 

Command #3 - These same two verses contain another command.   Don't be judgmental.  In Paul's day, the one's who thought it was OK to eat meat looked down on the one's who thought it was wrong.  And the one's who would not eat the meat displayed a faulty judgmental attitude, one that condemns and criticizes others.  Both attitudes are wrong.

 

The commands are to open our arms to receive each other without any hidden agenda and to stop feeling so superior and being so judgmental of those who differ from you on some minor issue.

 

 

Four Principles

 

Paul explains in verse 4 and then in verse 6-13a, the principles that should guide us into the unity that comes from acceptance.  I only have time to list those principles.

 

#1 - Christians have to have the freedom to form personal convictions, v. 5b.

 

#2 - Both sides are committed to Christ and trying to do what is right, v. 6. 

 

#3 - We may never be exactly alike but we can experience unity, vv. 7-9.  The Lordship of Christ unites us in this life and in that life which is to come.

 

#4  - The bottom line is that ultimately we don't answer to each other, but to the Lord, v. 4, 10-12.

 

My last day in Mexico, Greg Smith our missionary, taxied the girls and me to a shopping place (last day spending - gifts or bargains, etc.)  While Carla and the girls shopped, he and I had a coke at a little shop.  He asked me what I thought about a particular issue.  I told him what I believed and why and he expressed his understanding (it was different from mine).  End of conversation.  From my viewpoint, it was iron sharpening iron.  Later, while we waited at the airport he said to me, "I just want you to know how much it means to me to have the freedom to exchange my ideas with yours without fear of being rejected or judged or looked at with suspicion and distrust.  I've never had that relationship with a sponsoring pastor.  I've always had be on guard, careful never to bring up any issue over which we might disagree.  And it means so much to me that I feel accepted by you and Dearborn Baptist Church."  That's the way we have to be with each other.  For the health and unity of the church.

 

Romans 14:13a  Let us not therefore judge one another any more: