Bible Study Notes - We are the Lord's - Romans 14:1-13

Bible Study Notes 

We Are The Lord’s – Romans 14:1-13

Introduction

As society generally and the church specifically undergoes a major generational shift, today’s lesson is very instructive.  Older believers face the challenge of accepting the new believers who have no knowledge of Christ and the institutional church.  These “unchurched” persons come sincerity and zeal.  Yet, they also have a lot of the social mores of the world.  In some instances, they have not cleaned-up their language.  Some of them have a very liberal outlook on sexuality.  Others do not want to dress-up to attend church.  Still, others do not have anything wrong with living together before marriage.  Some new believers do not see any conflicts between the Christian faith and abortion, capital punishment, physician-assisted suicide and other major moral and political issues of today.  In contrast, mature believers have settled positions on all these issues.  They have long since established a set of Christian beliefs and behaviors.  Older believers fail to understand why “generation x” and those who follow them do not radically change upon their baptisms.  This serious and provocative generational conflict also plagued the church at Rome.

In the church at Rome, there were those who were considered as “strong” believers because their understanding of Christian liberty allowed them to eat meet, drink wine and forego certain Sabbaths and holiday festivals.  They did not consider these activities as central to determining their faith.  Also, there were those who were labeled as “weak” believers because they insisted upon vegetarianism, observing all Sabbaths and other aspects of the law.  Maintaining those behaviors was significant to demonstrating the Christian faith, in their estimation.  Yet, these two groups had to worship and serve the Lord together as one body.  The Apostle Paul wrote his letter, our book of Romans, to them to aid them in resolving these conflicts.  Today’s passage is a document designed for the purposes of reconciling these warring camps of believers.

Contemporary Christians face similar conflicts.  The pressures of the surrounding secular and humanistic society have infiltrated the church.  Newcomers bring many of those values with them.  Moreover, their ignorance of the culture and mores of the institutional church exacerbates this problem.   The process of transformation into a Christian belief system tends to be slow.  In fact, it seems glacial in some instances.  Consequently, mature believers become rather impatient with “generation x” Christians and the “unchurched.”  Unfortunately, their impatience turns into judgmentalism as they insist that new believers must begin to mimic them.  Then, the question arises as to how these two groups of believers will accept each other, as children equally loved of God. 

The answers are found in Paul’s wise and enduring recommendations to the church at Rome.  He straightforwardly defines the controversy.  Paul practically describes the issues.  More significantly, he addresses the attitudinal adjustments necessary to bring harmony among the believers.  Essentially, each side must meet halfway.  Acceptance will be mutually beneficial.  Personal behavior is not foundational to the Christian faith.  The example of Christ’s life is.  Therefore, believers should not unduly involve themselves in “disputable matters”, which remain open to interpretation and cannot be finally resolved.  Thus, all believers should avoid putting unnecessary stumbling blocks in the paths of their brothers and sisters. 

Christians in the U.S. currently confront the same predicament.  The emphasis on holiness alienates a lot of believers.  It repels possible converts to the faith.  Some believers evangelize as if new believers must be perfect and holy upon baptism.  These roadblocks prevent many from entering the highway of abundant and eternal life.  In removing them, we should join hands and travel together toward the New Jerusalem.

Lesson Setting

The phrase, “when in Rome, do as the Romans,” speaks to the sin and licentiousness that were so prevalent in the society.  Despite order and structure that law gave Roman society, civil liberties were extended to the maximum to indulge the physical passions.  In fact, people’s behavior was so base that the word debauchery was used to describe it.  There was a cult of prostitution in which religion was utilized to sanction this practice.  Secular historians and Christian theologians agree that the depravity of the society contributed to its demise and the ultimate fall of the great empire.

Against this background, the Apostle Paul taught the church about the new freedom that Christ offers.  He tells the Corinthian church that everything is permissible but not necessarily beneficial.  To the Galatian church, he says walk in the freedom in which Christ has made you free.  This teaching evidently alarmed the older believers in the Roman church.  They probably still adhered to the customs of the Jewish law, which they knew from childhood.  They perceive Paul’s stress on liberty as presenting a real danger to the new Christian movement.  The older believers wondered whether the teaching on freedom would lead a pervasive permissiveness in the church.

They responded by establishing requirements for new believers early on.  They thought that people should most clearly come to Christ through the law.  As they followed the law, then they would not lapse into the licentiousness of the Roman society.  These restrictions resulted in the formation of two camps within the church at Rome.  The “strong” believers’ faith allowed them to enjoy the freedom of Christ without violating any of the essentials ethics.  The “weak” members needed the quantitative adherence to the law to validate their Christian faith.  Tensions between the camps rose to a boiling point as they began to judge and admonish each other.

Exposition

I.  Avoid Useless Arguments Over Opinions (Romans 14:1-4)

Believers should welcome newcomers to the faith.  In so doing, they should free accept their weaknesses without judging their behavior.  Since a person’s actions do not verify their Christian faith, “proper” behavior is definitely debatable.  These “disputable matters,” as Paul refers to them, must not supercede the importance of welcoming all believers to the church.

Furthermore, when believers disagree, they should resist condemning each other.  Paul uses eating meat as an example of a possible disagreement.  Whether you eat meat or are a vegetarian, you still should accept all members of the church.  All believers are God’s servants; fundamentally, we are answerable only to Him.  We are not required to justify ourselves to anyone, within or without of the church.  Regardless of your dietary preferences, you must recognize and respect all of your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Paul asks “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?”  As workers for God, he will judge us.  We need not judge each other, particularly over petty issues, which do not significantly determine our faith.  God will empower us to persevere in the faith.  Our fallacious attempts at self-righteousness and self-justification will earn us absolutely nothing.  Therefore, we are called to love each other in mutual respect as we fulfill the Lord’s commands.

II.  Personal Practices Should Glorify God (Romans 14:5-6)

Believers who choose to observe special days and abstain from meat must ensure that they do so with integrity and as a personal witness to the glory of God.  Otherwise, they will be guilty of hypocrisy and may fall into self-righteousness.  Even those who consider each day as a gift from God and who eat meat must strive for integrity.  Each person must be fully convinced in his mind.  That personal resolution allows our actions to glorify God rather than ourselves.  All that we do as believers, whether observing rituals or not, must be done to the honor and glory of the Lord.  As we eat meat or adhere to a vegetarian diet, we do giving thanks to Almighty God for the food we receive.  We should have equal gratitude for the daily spiritual practices and disciplines that we observe.  In His infinite mercy, God has called us into a new way of life.  His grace allows us to resist the ways of the world and live to His glory.  Whether that translates into dietary restrictions, special observances or a certain dress code, we thank Him for the spiritual guidance that enables us to live with integrity before Him.

III.  Accountable to God (Romans 14:7-12)

As believers, we belong to the Lord and thus are accountable to Him.  Christ’s death and resurrection made Him Lord of all, the living and the dead.  Therefore, whether dead or alive, we are the Lord’s and remain accountable to Him for our choices and actions.  Ultimately, we will explain ourselves to the Lord at His judgment seat.  Faithfulness to our witness of Him as evidenced in the integrity of our actions will be a major consideration. 

Because the Lord will eventually judge us on the basis of our beliefs and adherence to them, others need not and should not judge us.  Believers must avoid the temptation to judge others by the yardstick of their personal behavior.  The Lord will be the better judge given that He knows all of the facts and circumstances in a given situation.  Moreover, since the Lord made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us, only He is qualified to judge.

IV.  Don’t Hinder the Walk of Others (Romans 14:13)

Rather than hindering the spiritual development of others, we should resolve to respect and support each on this Christian journey.  First, we stop passing judgment on each other.  We tolerate differences in beliefs and actions.  Second, we accept those with whom we differ for their personal contributions.  Third, we resolve to refuse to place any stumbling blocks in their paths.  For those who are weak, we cease requiring others to follow our behavior.  Those who are strong cannot fling their freedom in the face of others.  A strong believer cannot have a glass of wine in front of a weak believer who has a drinking problem.  As believers grow in their understanding of the love of Christ and the patience, which it fosters, we find a mutually respectable common ground of tolerance toward each as we journey together.

Lesson Overview

Ironically, the gift of freedom can lead to the bondage of self.  Some people utilize their freedom for the purposes of self indulgence.  They take a “foot loose and fancy free” attitude toward life.  This approach is not acceptable for liberated believers in Christ.  Individual freedom is interwoven with collective free.  As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “No one is free until everyone is free.”  Such is the case in the body of Christ.  Therefore, no one can exercise his personal freedom to the extreme of inhibiting someone else’s liberty.  Christ calls us to a freedom of loving each other.  Sometimes that love requires that we purposefully limit the use of our freedom so that others may know blessings and joys of liberty in Christ.  If the collective body of believers is not free then the individual persons are not either.

The Main Thought Explained

Our freedom in Christ should not result in the meaningless comparison of who is more or less mature in the Lord.  We must resolve to “no longer pass judgment on one another.”  Degrees of liberty ultimately determine nothing.  What counts in the eyes of the Lord is how we utilize the gift of freedom to share His love with all of His children.  We have been liberated to love out of appreciation of the gift of God’s love in Christ.  Accordingly, we “resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.”  Loving as free persons means that we direct our freedom to the objective of ensuring that all believers share in this magnificent gift of love.