Life Together | The Weak and The Strong

Welcome to the First Preds Sermon Podcast, where each week we dive into scripture, wrestle with truth, and discover how faith intersects our lives.

God's word meets us where we are, challenging, shaping, and calling us into something greater.

No matter where you are on your journey, you belong here.

And we're praying that this sermon might help you take a next step in faith towards Jesus.

Hey, let's dive into today's message together.

Today's scripture comes from Romans chapter 14, verses 1 through 15.

Romans 14:1–15

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling 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 as 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 give thanks 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.

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.

Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another.

Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.

I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself.

But if anything anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.

If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love.

Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.

This is the word of the Lord.

And so bring you joy and strengthen our witness to the world.

We ask this all Father in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Wars, murders, nationalities, bad mouthing other nationalities, divisions within culture, racial hostilities, parents fist fighting with one another at kids' soccer games, sports fans, cursing opposing teams fans.

And if you go on social media, where people can hide in anonymity and spew what's in their hearts, you discover very quickly just how much darkness there is within the human heart, turning people one against another.

Ironically, humans, the very beings God created to love and to be loved, have instead filled God's world with strife and hostility.

A few weeks ago I was parking my car at Penrose main hospital parking lot to visit a friend there, and as I got out of my car, I noticed the license plate of the car parked across from me, behind me.

Hate people, it says.

The first thought I had was, I hope that's not the car of a doctor or a nurse.

Most people don't advertise these kinds of sentiments, but if we're honest, we know they lurk in our hearts more than we wish to admit.

In Fyodor Dostoevsky's massive novel, The Brothers Karamatsov, there is a scene where an Orthodox priest, Father Zosima, is consoling a woman who is anxious over a lack of love and faith in her heart.

She sees an inability to love others actively.

And he recalls the words of an old and cynical doctor who had visited him in the past, and he tells this woman, he was a man getting on in years and undoubtedly clever.

He spoke as frankly as you, though in jest, in bitter jest.

I love humanity, he said, but I wonder at myself.

The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular.

In my dreams, he said, I have often come to making enthusiastic schemes for the service of humanity, and perhaps I might actually have faced crucifixion if it had been suddenly necessary, and yet I am incapable of living in the same room with anyone for two days together, as I know by experience.

As soon as anyone is near me, his personality disturbs my self-complacency and restricts my freedom.

In twenty four hours I begin to hate the best of men.

One because he's too long over his dinner, another because he has a cold and keeps on blowing his nose.

I become hostile to people the moment they come close to me.

Or, in the words of the well-known American philosopher Linus van Pelt, I love mankind.

It's people I can't stand.

In our scripture text for today, Paul acknowledges that bitterness and rancor exist not only in the world, but in the church among God's people.

After he has urged the Roman church in chapter 13 to owe no one anything except to love one another and declaring that love does no wrong to a neighbor, Paul now wades into two controversies.

He calls them disputable matters or opinions that are threatening to divide the church into rancorous camps who are shaking fists at each other.

He speaks of these camps as the strong in the weak.

The strong are those who know their theology on these two issues and are convinced in their own minds that they have perfect freedom to act in any way they wish with regard to these matters, because they say God doesn't care.

The weak, on the other hand, have scruples which prevent them like acting from acting like the strong, believing that to follow the lead of the strong is then to sin against God.

So here are the two controversies.

Paul first addresses the issue of eating meat or abstaining.

Now the question is not vegetarianism, but the fact that most meats that were available in the safe way marketplaces of the Roman Empire were supplied by pagan temples, which first had used that meat in sacrifices, daily sacrifices, to the pagan gods.

Those strong in faith reasoned, like Paul, that animals are a gift from God, and that any meat, if eaten with gratitude before God, is in and of itself clean.

Their theological knowledge leads them to freedom in their actions.

The weak in faith, however, worry that such meat has been tainted by pagan rituals, and that eating such meat pollutes one's spirit because it's been sacrificed to a false god.

So the strong sit down with their knives and forks, as the weak hover around them and say, That meadloaf belongs to Mercury.

Or that's a Poseidon porterhouse you're about to take a bite of.

Or that T-bone belongs to Thanatos, God of death.

Eat that, and the real God will strike you dead.

The strong say back to them, you weak-minded, meager faith people, loosen up.

Drop your legalism and grab a hamburger.

But the weak say back, take a bite and you're going to hell.

The upshot of this is that these two camps grow more and more angry with each other.

The strong begin to despise the weak, to hold them in contempt.

In fact, the Greek verb that Paul uses in verse 3 and verse 10, to treat with contempt as the NIV translates it, contains with within it, that Greek verb, another Greek word, which is no one or nothing.

And the idea behind this verb to treat with contempt is to see that other person as if they're a nobody.

They're not worth listening to.

You can just blow them off.

That verb, exuthineo.

But we're going to get to a better word than that one, so hang on.

The weak, on the other hand, face the danger of judgmentalism, of condemning the strong as destined for hell because of their determination to eat this idle tainted meat.

And so the battle lines harden, and with them the hearts of Christians, one against the other.

The second issue had to do with the right days for worshiping God.

Gentiles coming out of their paganism had observed prominent religious days in the Roman Empire, in the Roman calendar.

Should they still observe those days, recasting them now as Christian holidays, or should they jettison them altogether?

Christian Jews, on the other hand, had known Saturday, the day of the Sabbath, the last day of the week, the day of rest, as the holy day on which God was to be worshipped.

But as a result of the resurrection of Jesus on a Sunday morning, the first day of the week, some Christians began to think of it as the first day of the new creation, and so as the most appropriate day on which the risen Lord was to be worshipped.

The strong said about this, it doesn't matter which day of the week you choose, just choose one to keep it holy.

The weak said, if you don't worship on the correct day, you will be dishonoring God and sinning against him.

As a result, the strong despised the weak for their ignorance and legalism, and the weak condemned the strong for their innovation and disobedience.

Oddly, Christians, called to the rule of love, are now descending instead into division and animosity.

Of course, things like this don't happen in the church today, do they?

Well, of course, the issues may be different, but the strong and the weak in faith still exist.

Years ago I served as a solo pastor of a small church of about 160 members located in a suburb of Phoenix.

We had within our church a vibrant group of young married always looking to do things, and they planned a guided trail ride to be followed by a wine and cheese tasting party under the remada of a nearby park.

And they wanted to make that opportunity available to everyone in the church, so they created an announcement, gave it to my part-time secretary to add to the Sunday bulletin, which she did.

By Sunday afternoon, my phone began ringing.

How could I allow the promotion of an event, a church event, where alcohol would be served?

You mean the wine tasting?

I asked.

Of course, they answered.

The teetotalers came out of the woodwork, like descendants of the Apostle Peter in Acts 10, who declared to God, nothing unclean has ever passed my lips.

This group of beloved church members said, in essence, no drop of alcohol has ever slipped down this throat.

And the implication was it better not slide down anybody else's either.

So in an attempt to mollify them, I went back to the group of young married and asked them, Would you be willing to cancel the wine part of this event out of concern for their conscience?

Their response was, Are you kidding?

There's nothing wrong with our planned outing.

Why should our freedom to enjoy the day be curtailed by some legalists?

Both sides dug in their heels.

What would you have done in that situation?

I'll tell you what I did.

I resigned on the spot.

Not going to work with sinners, no.

Just kidding.

I went to the couples and presented them this teaching from Romans 14, as well as sister teaching found in 1 Corinthians 6, 8, and 10, where Paul deals with it more fully.

And I urged them to view their offended brothers and sisters in the congregation as those whom they were called to love by being willing to forgo their freedom in this matter out of concern for the well-being of their teetotaling friends.

To paraphrase Paul in verse 15, I said to them, If your brother is injured by what you drink, you are no longer walking in love.

After my persistent efforts, they finally agreed to host the trail ride and remove the part of the announcement about wine and cheese tasting.

The anti-alcohol group was satisfied and peace was restored.

The point is, what we do as Christians is not simply a matter of acting in the freedom that we have in Christ.

Because God has called us to love one another as family, we are to consider the well-being of other believers.

And if we know that our freedom might become a stumbling block or a snare to others who don't share our freedom, but might be led to imitate us against their conscience, or be tempted to take the role of judge, jury, and executioner against us, rather than leaving that to God, then in love we are called to forgo our freedom for the sake of their conscience.

As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8 13, therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that it will not cause them to fall.

The principle is this as a disciple of Jesus, my love for a neighbor transcends my personal liberty.

Of course, all of this discussion has to do with things that are matters of moral indifference.

That is, things that the moral law of God does not teach anything specifically about.

The Greek Stoics, party of philosophers, had a particular word for this, this idea of matters of moral indifference.

So today I'm going to give you an added gift.

You can drop this word into your conversations this week and astonish others with your exotic vocabulary.

The Greek word is adiaphora.

Adiaphora.

We'll go over that a couple times so you don't forget it.

It means literally without distinction or without difference.

So here are some ideas.

Kids, when your parents ask you this week, would you rather have pizza or burgers?

You can respond, hey, mom, total adiaphora to me.

I'm just hungry, but you pick.

Husbands, when your wives ask you, which outfit looks better on me, you say, Pure adiaphora, honey, you look beautiful in both.

And when your waitress asks regular decaf, you reply, hey, complete adiaphora.

Surprise me.

And then when your teacher says, Shall we study vocabulary or statistics?

In the next hour, you say, Absolute adiaphora, teach, whatever you want.

No, actually, you choose vocabulary because words are always more important than statistics.

So Paul would say on these matters of eating meat offered to idols and days of worship, they are adiaphora.

That is, they're matters of moral indifference.

God doesn't care.

The only caveat Paul entertains is that if you have a particular moral scruple on such matters, then you must follow your conscience.

But you should not impose your conscience on another believer when God has not spoken clearly on the matter.

And then one last and most important insight from Paul.

He says, he reminds us, there is only one final judge of all.

As Christians, we recognize Jesus as our master, my master, the master of the one sitting next to me, the master of the one to whom I'm married, the master of the one along whom I work, the master of those in my small group.

Since you and I are both equally servants of Jesus, I have no right to usurp the role of master and assume that I can judge you for your actions in areas of adiaphora.

Likewise, you are not my master and must not try to sit on that throne.

Like Paul says in verse 13, so then each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

In other words, tend your own garden.

Don't meddle in the garden next door and start pulling weeds there.

Sufficient to the garden are the weeds thereof, someone might say.

God has already accepted the believer that you are so eager to correct or to improve.

And again, like Paul says in verse 4, 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.

When we grasp how much Jesus loves us and our neighbors, we're moved to love rather than to judgment.

I've always loved this story I'm about to tell you.

A young boy, uh early one summer during vacation, was given a whittling knife by his parents, and he had dreamed of whittling a boat that he could take to the downtown lake and sail.

So he got a block of balsa wood and he started whittling away and sanding, making masts and sails, until finally, after a great deal of loving care, he felt it was ready.

He took it down to the lake and launched it from shore, proudly watching as a brisk wind picked up and carried that boat effortlessly gliding across the water.

Soon, however, it sailed too far and he lost sight of it.

So he began running down the shore towards where it had last been, and he searched worriedly all afternoon until finally, as the sun was beginning to set, he realized that he had to go home without his boat.

With a broken heart, he walked back through the town.

As he was walking, he passed by a local pawn shop, and he saw as he passed by the owner putting his boat in the display window.

Running in, he cried, Hey, mister, that's my boat.

Sorry, son, the man replied.

I just paid five dollars for it.

If you want it, you have to buy it from me.

The boy exclaimed, Don't you sell that to anybody else, I'll be back as fast as I can.

And he sprinted home, went up to his room, emptied his piggy bank, counted out five dollars and coins, ran back to the uh to the store, laid the money out before.

For the pawnbroker, who gladly handed him back his prized possession.

As the joyful boy left the store, cradling his boat, he looked at it and he said, Little boat, you belong to me now for two reasons.

I made you and I bought you.

Brothers and sisters, that's exactly what God says to us in the scriptures.

I love you, because I created you, and redeem you.

I paid the price to win your salvation.

This is how much I love you.

So rest securely.

That double truth, I made you and I bought you.

But remember that what God says about you, He says also about every other child of God, that you may be tempted to despise or to condemn.

Hate, whatever its form, has no place in the body of Christ.

So let's tend the gardens of our own hearts and root out the weeds of hatred within our souls.

And then together, let's tend the garden of our church, our first pressed fellowship, joining as one to eradicate the weeds of discord, friction, hostility, backbiting, gossip.

And then once we have our own house in order, perhaps then we can turn to the larger world in all its turmoil and say, Hey, come and see.

We've discovered how to love one another.

Perhaps we can offer you some help.

There's a better way than hatred.

Come, let us teach you the way of Jesus.

Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, as we are about to come to your table, the table of your love poured out for sinners.

We are so grateful that you created us and that you redeemed us.

Help us, Lord, in those times when we're tempted to disdain others, or to judge, to be pulled back from that by your spirit, and to find in our hearts instead the capacity that you've given us to love one another.

Then, Lord, may we be the people that the world look at and say, see how they love one another.

And so give glory to you.

We ask this, Lord Jesus, for your glory and for our joy.

Amen.

Hearing God's word is just the beginning.

What connected with you?

What challenged you today?

Maybe it's surrendering something, stepping into community, or simply trusting Him more deeply.

Whatever it is, don't leave it for later.

Act on it today.

We're praying that this message moves you closer to Jesus.

And we'd love to walk with you in that journey and answer any questions you've got.

Connect with us by visiting FirstPress.org.

Today's message encouraged you to take a moment and subscribe so you never miss an episode and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Check in next week and we'll continue to grow in our faith together.

See you next time.