Recap and Background

Welcome to Episode 6 of Series 4. I hope that you have been following through Series 4 as we have gone through Paul’s teaching about healthy Christian community, which is his main interest in these last few chapters of the book of Romans. He told us about the gospel in Series 1; about resources to live the Christian life in Series 2; and the place of the Jews and the purposes of God in Series 3.

Now he is focusing on helping the church in Rome to have a healthy Christian community. This material is applicable to all of us. Most people listening to this episode will be Christians. Most of you will be connected to your church. Some of you might be disconnected from local church and these episodes will be a challenge to that; God wants to draw people into living communities of believers; maybe meeting in a house; maybe a small church meeting on Saturday or Sunday or Friday; maybe a large church community that you are able to be part of. Whatever the size of the community, the principles are the same. Paul has been emphasizing the importance of Christian love, patience, kindness, forgiveness, generosity, and prayer for one another. We have also looked at how Paul helped the Christian community to deal with hostile people outside the church, and how to help them to deal with the governments and the civic authorities. These are important questions too.

Strong and Weak Christians

Now we turn to a surprising and interesting topic. Paul often describes Christians as being strong or weak. As soon as we use those two words we have some thoughts about what we think that means: a strong Christian could mean someone who has been a Christian for a long time; they know their Bible well, they have strong convictions and they share their faith. A weak Christian could be someone who is hesitant and uncertain in their faith. But that is not how Paul uses the words ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ in this passage. He uses the words in a slightly different way.

“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day a special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for 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.”

Romans 14:1-9, NIV

To Eat Meat or Not

What does Paul mean by the term strong and weak in this context? He is talking about disagreements in the church over practical ways of Christian living. The first one is about food. What is the issue here? Some eat only vegetables and some eat meat and all foods. Why should there be a difference here, and what is the significance of this particular issue? He is talking about a form of vegetarianism that was taking place in the church in Rome, and probably in other places. Why is this such a big issue? Eating meat in Rome, and other ancient cities, was often associated with meat being dedicated in pagan temples and being used in sacrifices to the Roman gods. Paul had encountered this issue in Corinth. Let me explain to you what the situation was, as described in Corinth, before we can come back to Rome and see why some Christians may have chosen to be vegetarians. They didn’t choose this for health reasons, as some modern people do; they chose it for more spiritual and cultural reasons in the ancient world.

The situation that occurred in many of these ancient cities where Paul was planting his churches, is what Paul describes in Corinth where this was a big issue. Every single Roman and Greek city had temples, to worship the particular gods that were the focus of that particular community. Everyone was expected to go up to the temple to worship the local gods Part of the worship process was the sacrifice of an animal - maybe a cow, a sheep or some other animal. These animals were dedicated to that particular god, or idol, or as Paul would say, false god in the Christian way of thinking. In Corinth, Paul said not to go and worship in the pagan temples. Having used a little bit of the meat for the sacrifice, they would then use that meat for social meals in the temple, which he also told them not to get involved in. It would seem as though they were supporting the worship that was going on alongside those social occasions. If they went down to the market and bought meat which the seller said came from an animal that was dedicated in the temple to a pagan god, not to worry about that because the meat is not spiritually contaminated in a way that could harm them because they have the Holy Spirit living in them. Paul also said that if you go to a neighbour’s house and they serve you meat, you don’t need to ask where it is from or whether it has been to the temple or not, you can just eat the meat - unless they make a particular issue of the fact that the meat is dedicated to a pagan god. This was a complicated issue for the Christians. Meat was a product that had spiritual significance to the Christians in the ancient cities that Paul was writing to, including Rome. Paul made it clear, in his letter to the Corinthians, that it was quite safe to eat that meat. You didn’t need to worry about spiritual contamination but not to participate in the worship services, or go to the pagan temples and get involved in what they do there. You can eat the meat quite safely, though.

Although Paul taught this, not everyone believed that this was the case. They were cautious and decided to avoid meat altogether, and be vegetarians. This is probably what lies in the background of some of these Roman Christians who are described here as saying, ‘we only eat vegetables’. They were worried about the spiritual implications of meat because of its association with pagan religion. Paul points out here that people have different opinions and we shouldn’t judge each other. If some people decide they are not going to eat meat that is okay. If some people do eat meat, that is okay as well because there is no danger from that meat. There is no spiritual danger; you are not going to get contaminated by demons from eating that meat because the Holy Spirit lives in you, and he is more powerful.

Paul advises people to be gracious to each other, even though they have different practices. He describes the person who is a vegetarian as ‘weak in their faith’. That is a surprise because they are being quite strict, and quite focused; they are trying to be very godly. But he says their faith is weak because they don’t fully understand the freedom that Christ has brought to them. They don’t actually need to be vegetarians. They may choose to do so and we respect them if they do, but they don’t need to, says Paul. Later on, we discover that Paul himself eats meat quite comfortably. He describes someone who is over-careful about what they do and creates rules in their life that are not necessary, as ‘weak in faith’ - less well developed in understanding the freedom they have in Christ. This is quite a challenging argument because, generally speaking, we think that people who are strict and have strict religious rules are more godly and stronger than those who are more relaxed. But Paul is arguing in the opposite way very clearly in this passage.

To Keep the Sabbath or Not

The same thing applies to the second example Paul uses here: special holy days, and especially those who liked to obey and follow the Jewish holy day, the Sabbath. The Sabbath took place on the Saturday and was the holy day of the Jewish people in the Law of Moses and was the custom of all the Jewish people at this particular time in history. Some of the Christians in Rome were Jews. He is almost certainly referring to the Jewish Christians who still wanted to have special religious ceremonies on Saturday, or Sabbath. Again, he says that we need to respect that. People are free to do it. There is nothing against it fundamentally but it is not strictly necessary. If you believe that is a necessary part of your faith, you have a weaker faith than the person who knows that they can worship on any day of the week. God will accept their worship whether it is on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

These two things were taking place in Rome where there was a potential for division in the church, over particular practices that individuals had. It is very interesting that Paul analyses us as being ‘weak in faith’ if we have created regulations and rules for the way we conduct our life that are not demanded in the New Testament. It is a weaker position; it means our faith is not as mature and we don’t understand our freedom in Christ to the extent that we should.

I wonder what examples you would think of in your own culture, in your own situation. The issue of obeying the Sabbath is not a big issue for most Gentile Christians. The issue of not eating meat for spiritual reasons is not a big issue for most people, although it is beginning to become an issue again in the Western world at this particular time, for reasons relating to our modern way of thinking. But Paul wants us to think that there should be no particular reason to restrict our freedom by religious rules, unless there is something specified in the New Testament.

Modern Day Examples

Some examples that often affect churches today would include concerns about the consumption of alcohol. Should this be allowed? Should it be restricted? Should it be forbidden? This is an issue that churches in many different cultures face because alcohol is a real threat; alcohol abuse and alcoholism is a social threat, and many people suffer as a result of it. Should we create a rule in church that we don’t drink alcohol, and no Christian is allowed to drink alcohol? Some churches in some cultures have done that. But if we read Paul’s teaching here, we would understand that there is no need to create an absolute rule. That is not a strong position. Individuals may need to avoid alcohol completely, and that is a good thing. It may be good not to drink alcohol if our church is in, for example, an Islamic society. There may be good practical reasons but to create a total rule concerning that, would be a dangerous thing to do.

Paul is speaking here to the Roman church because he is concerned that, out of these different practices, will come separation and splits because of judgmental attitudes. He is saying, if there are people in your church, for example, who decide ‘I’m tea-total. I’m never going to drink alcohol again,’ we should respect them. There should not be a judgmental attitude. If they need to do that, and want to do that, they are free to do it but we should not adopt it as a general policy. He wanted an attitude of respect for different ways of conducting the Christian life. That is a really important issue in any culture.

One other example is that people have very strong views about how we conduct public worship. How long should a worship service be? How much time should be spent in focusing on worshiping God through music? How long should a sermon be in a church? If you go to different countries, you will get completely different views about this issue. I was talking to a couple of African friends yesterday, who had arrived in our church from Africa within the last year. We discussed the question of how long a church service should be. We have different opinions and we reflected together. They noticed that the church service in western countries is shorter than they would experience in Africa. In fact, we discussed the difference between a three-hour service, a two-hour service, or a one-and-a-half-hour service and how long the talk should be. You can see immediately that in different cultures we have different opinions about these issues, and different cultural practices. But should we judge each other? Should we not respect the fact that things can be done differently? The most important thing is that the Bible is preached, that God is honoured, and that the Holy Spirit moves and we follow Biblical teaching. That can be done in many different cultural ways. You can have sermons of fifteen minutes, half an hour or sixty minutes. It depends on people’s ability to get to meetings on time, whether they spend the whole day in the church community, or whether they come and go. So many things vary between different cultures. Paul is very clear, we should not be judging each other. We should be giving the freedom for different people to express things in different ways. When you come into a church community, from another place, inevitably there is a time of adjustment. Things will always be different.

Four Steps to Accepting Each Other

He was concerned that the church in Rome could have a split or a division about some of these issues. His advice has four steps in these nine verses.

First of all, these issues are secondary. He describes them as disputable matters. Something that is secondary should not be considered primary.

Secondly, both the strong and the weak must not criticise each other.

Thirdly, he says, remember that God accepts the true faith of the person who decides they are going to conduct their life in a particular way.

And fourthly, he says, concentrate on your own actions not on the actions of other people. It is how you behave that matters.

Often we experience tensions in culture as we go from country to country. An experience I had many years ago, involved visiting a very large church in South Korea, and being the guest of that church, appearing on stage and speaking to a congregation of many thousands. Before going to the country I had not known that it was a very formal culture in terms of dress. I had to prepare very carefully to make sure that the suit and clothing I was wearing when I appeared on the stage, was appropriate to that context. Clothing is a secondary matter but I needed to be flexible because I was going into somebody else’s culture which is more formal than my own. I needed to make sure that my clothing was appropriate. I needed to concentrate on my own actions, not on the actions of others.

Focus on Our Own Actions

“You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? 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 acknowledge God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.”

Romans 14:10-12, NIV

Paul here continues the theme that what matters when you are relating to other Christians who have different ways of living their Christian life, is that you think about your own actions; don’t focus on their actions. If they are seeking to live sincerely as Christians, be kind and gracious to them. Focus on your own actions because we will be judged by our own actions. Paul is very keen that we do not take offense concerning secondary issues, and different ways of expressing our faith.

Reflections

As we come to the end of this episode, let us think through the practical implications. Clearly the two issues that Paul has mentioned here concerning food, and Sabbath observance and holy days, may not be issues that you face in your situation. But in every culture Christians have different ways of behaving in community, and different priorities. When we see these differences, we need to bear in mind these verses and the advice that Paul gives. I would suggest that you think about what are the issues that you face in terms of people’s different behaviour patterns in the church? How important are those differences, and what is the right attitude for you to adopt? If people have different approaches to what they eat, how they dress, how they worship, how can I adopt a gracious attitude in things which are secondary to the primary issues, of Christian faith and teaching?

Paul says, let secondary things not become so important that they cause a split and a division. He could see the risk of that in Rome, especially because the Jewish believers were more inclined to have stricter rules about behaviour than the Gentile believers. They would be more inclined to have stricter rules about food because they had restrictions on what foods they could eat in the Old Testament. They would be more inclined to carry out some of the holy days of the Jewish calendar, like the Sabbath. Paul was saying, these brothers and sisters in Rome are weaker; they are less developed in their faith but others needed to be patient, not to push them but to give them the space to express these things, as they needed to. They are secondary matters. Let us not divide over them because a more important thing is to have a united church to witness to the community around. That applies to every church. There is a variety of practices of daily living in every Christian community. It can be a cause of tension and so, this teaching is very important for us as we address those issues. Thanks for listening and join us again as we continue this theme through the rest of Romans 14, in the next episode.