Others First (Romans14:13-23)

Romans chapter 14, verses 13 through 23.

Romans 14:13–23

Therefore, let us no longer judge one another.

Instead, decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister.

I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.

Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.

For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love.

Do not destroy by what you eat someone for whom Christ died.

Therefore do not let your good be slandered.

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and receives a human approval.

So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.

Do not tear down God's work because of food.

Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make someone fall by what he eats.

It is a good thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.

Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God.

Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.

But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin.

Let's pray.

Lord, again, as we as we do every week, we thank you for your word.

Lord, we thank you that you left this for us to study and to understand and to know you better.

Lord, this is the breathing word of God that was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

And Lord, I pray that we would take every single word serious in that way, knowing that this is your voice.

These are your words to us.

So, Lord, would you teach us?

Would you help us to be soft in all the areas that we need to be softened in all the ways that you want to shape us and mold us and chisel us to become more and more like your son Jesus Christ.

We thank you so much for Jesus that we even have this opportunity to be shaped and molded because of the peace that He has brought in our relationship with you.

God, we give you everything this morning.

Help us to surrender everything, to hold everything up through the lens of your scriptures here this morning, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So before we jump into today's verses, there's a few things from last week that I wanted to make sure are very clear.

And it was kind of based on some of the questions that I got after service last week.

So I just want to make sure everything is abundantly clear.

You know, this is really being uh the verses that we have today are really a continuation, kind of a part two of last week.

It's the same theme as last week.

And I want to make sure that these things are clear from the get-go.

So almost everything that we talked about last week was in the context of disputed matters.

I said a couple times last week to just don't talk about it.

And I said that meaning if you know there is a disputed matter with a brother or sister, or you know that something's going to be a conflict, or something's going to raise tempers, it was in the context of that.

Now, what I want to make sure is clear is if you can keep a level-headed, productive conversation going with each other, then absolutely have those conversations.

Those can be very good to approach people and say, hey, what do you think about this?

Or what do you see in scripture about this disputed matter?

The what I was trying to get at last week is if the temper start to rise and the feathers start to get ruffles, that is what Paul was saying.

It's just probably better to not talk about those things with that person.

But it's great to have productive, calm conversations with each other about some of the gray areas of sin, where for one person it can be sin and for somebody else it's not sin.

So I just want to make sure that's clear.

And then one other thing that I wish I made a little bit clearer last week as well, but didn't, uh, is something that we're going to cover in chapter 15.

And that's about admonishing and exhorting and rebuking one another.

But all of that is in the context of sin issues, not in the context of disputed matters.

All of this that we're seeing right here in chapter 14 is regarding disputed matters.

And then 15 we'll talk about.

Well, what if a brother or sister is actually in clear biblical sin?

And we'll talk about that in uh in chapter 15.

But for our text here today, I want to revisit something that we talked about in Romans 2 because it's going to be very important that that's clear based on what we're going to be talking about here this morning.

And that's about our conscience and how the work of God's law is written on our hearts.

And that's something that we covered extensively in Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

So if you want a little bit more context of Romans chapter 2, you can go back on the website and listen to that because we go into a lot more detail about what that's all about.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

But back then we talked about how God we have this God-given conscience, and it's built into us since birth.

And we talked about how we innately know things like it's wrong to murder, it's wrong to kidnap, it's wrong to force somebody into slavery, and we just inherently know that those things are wrong.

But then we talked about how our conscience can be seared, our conscience can be lied to, it can be deceived, and it can become very calloused if we continue to ignore it over and over and over again.

And if any of those things happen, then our conscience can start to feed us bad information.

Or we just stop feeling things altogether because we've ignored it for so long.

And we talked about how it's so important that we force our conscience to align with God's word, to make sure we aren't acting according to a misinformed conscience.

But we're acting according to the truth of God's word.

And I mention all this again today because Paul will tell us to not do things against our conscience, because that's really just a really bad habit to get into.

But we're going to talk also about how we need to make sure that our conscience is properly informed, and that only comes through the lens of God's word.

So, with all that said, let's jump into verse 13 here, just the first half of it.

Therefore, let us no longer judge one another.

So this is just kind of a repetition of what we talked about last week.

Not concerning ourselves with the convictions and the freedoms of others in gray areas and then welcoming in those that are weaker in the faith.

That's all about what we talked about last week.

And like I said, this is really a part two of that.

So Paul says here in verse 13, look at the second half.

Instead, decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister.

So I hope we can see the contrast from this point forward from last week.

I hope we can see the difference.

Last week it was what we shouldn't focus on in each other.

And today is about what to focus on in each other.

And it really comes down to how to prefer one another.

And in some ways, how to lay down our own rights for the sake of the people that are sitting next to us here this morning.

So Paul says, focus on not putting a stumbling block or a pitfall in the way of each other.

So in short, look for ways to help others not sin.

So if you have a friend that struggles with a rated R movie, don't invite them over to watch a rated R movie.

If they struggle with alcoholism or addiction, don't invite them over for dinner and then open a bottle of wine in front of them.

Or on the other side of this, if someone has freedoms that you don't have, don't place a stumbling block of legalism in front of them by forcing your convictions upon them.

That's really the heart of what Paul's talking about here.

Really, it comes down to put others first by being sensitive to each other's convictions.

Not judging, but knowing what they are and being sensitive to them.

And then do everything that you can to make sure that you don't cause that brother or sister to stumble within that conviction that they have.

Look at verse 14.

I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.

Still, to someone who considers the thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.

So remember, we're talking about things that are deemed that are deemed.

I'm sorry, we're not talking about things that are deemed sin in the Bible.

Those are clear.

We're talking about gray areas.

And in this case, we're talking about objects, or we're talking about things, particularly meat and wine and things that have been offered to idols.

And just because a steak was offered to an idol, we need to remember that the idol is just a hunk of wood, or it's a hunk of stone, or a hunk of metal that's been fashioned into some sort of an image by a human.

But even though it's considered an idol and it's being worshipped, it's still just wood, metal, or stone.

And just because someone offered a stake to it, that idol has no effect on that meat.

That idol doesn't make it more holy or less holy.

It's still just a hunk of meat and a hunk of stone.

So if a stranger offered one inanimate object to another inanimate object, yes, the stranger's confused, but how does that affect us?

That's why Paul says nothing is unclean in itself.

It's not like an evil spirit now possesses the meat and then now enters you somehow because you accidentally ate something that was offered to an idol.

Or that by eating meat, uh, that meat, it doesn't mean that all of a sudden you're a worshiper of that idol.

But what he is saying is for somebody weaker in the faith, look at the second half of verse 14.

Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one, it is unclean.

So if your conscience is worried about, well, maybe I'm promoting the worship of that God if I buy that meat.

Or maybe your conscience is saying, you know, maybe by buying this meat, my funds are sustaining the worship of a false God.

And my conscience is just not okay with that.

That's something I just can't do.

In that case, then don't eat the meat.

But also realize that the meat in and of itself, and the idol in and of itself, hold no power.

And it says right here, and nothing.

So read it, no thing is unclean in itself.

Verse 15.

For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love.

Do not destroy by what you eat someone for whom Christ died.

Another way, I think, to read this would be: do not destroy by your freedom someone for whom Christ has died.

Someone weaker in faith can be destroyed by our example or sometimes by our own counsel.

If we exercise a freedom in front of someone that is convicted about that very same thing that we have a freedom in.

Or maybe they see you practice a freedom in which they can't, and it leads to major repercussions in their own life and them then falling into sin because they witness you do something.

So we need to make sure that we don't destroy another person's faith by practicing our freedoms or counseling them in their own freedoms.

Because here's what I think it comes down to.

Every one of us, every believer in Jesus Christ, is in a different stage of trying to discern between the convictions of the Holy Spirit and the condemnation of the enemy.

To distinguish between the freedoms that we have in Christ and the desires of our flesh.

And we're all in different stages of trying to figure out those voices in our life.

So we have to really think these things through.

And we have to ask ourselves the question you know, is this my flesh desiring this?

Or is this the Holy Spirit telling me that I have a freedom in this area?

Or is this the conviction of the Holy Spirit, or is this the condemnation of Satan?

And trying to figure those things out for ourselves.

And we as believers, we need, we never want to interfere in that process of another believer.

We don't ever want to become that voice for another believer, telling another believer what's right and wrong for them.

And all of this, please remember, is in the context of disputed matters, gray areas, things that are not clear-cut sin that we find in the Bible.

Verse 16.

Therefore, do not let your good be slandered.

So don't let what is good to you, don't let what is a freedom to you to be slandered by a weaker Christian.

So I think the question then becomes how do we do that?

Don't exercise that freedom in front of them.

Or depending on the circumstance, stop exercising that freedom altogether, just in case you may stumble a weaker believer.

Sometimes God calls us to make those sacrifices as well.

So that we cannot be slandered, and that so nobody can speak evil of us because of the freedoms that we practice.

Verse 17.

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

So I think Paul's heart here is don't make the kingdom of God about food and drink.

That's not, that shouldn't be the main issues that we're talking about and disputing over.

Because if our focus and energy becomes devoted to that, then we're really missing the point of the kingdom of God.

Because living for the kingdom of God, as Paul says right here, is focusing on righteousness, focusing on peace, focusing on joy in the Holy Spirit.

And really, I think this verse here is a great measuring stick for any church to measure the health of the church.

Are we filled with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit?

Or are we filled with worry and fear and pet doctrines and bitterness and judging other believers that are sitting around us?

I think that's a great measuring stick to see the health of a church by just observing those things.

Look at verse 18.

Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and receives human approval.

So I want to make it clear here that human approval is never our goal as a church or as an individual Christian.

But in this scenario, it's one of the end results.

Serving Christ in righteousness, peace, and joy of the Holy Spirit, one of the results will also be human approval.

So approval by God, that's what's important.

But the result is also being approved by man.

So have you ever seen an accusation brought against a church from somebody outside?

Like they're just so righteous.

And they're so peaceful.

And they're so joyful, darn it.

Those aren't accusations that get brought against the church, right?

Like, I hope we get accusations like that against our church.

If people just like, you know, but if that's truly who we are and that's what we're focusing on, we're not gonna have people upset about that, that we're doing those things, because those are good things for everybody around us.

Those are great ways to love our neighbor as well.

Verse 19.

So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.

So if we're going to put effort into anything, our time and our energy and our attention, if we're gonna put anything into that, let it be for what promotes peace.

Think about that.

Think about what actually promotes peace.

Well, the first thing that pops into my mind is the gospel.

And you know, it's called the gospel of peace for a reason.

It brings peace between God and man.

But you know what else promotes peace within the church?

Everything that Paul's been telling us since the beginning of chapter 12.

For example, Romans 12, 18, 21 says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.

For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

You know, since chapter twelve, it's been all about how to live peaceably.

How to live peaceably in all kinds of different situations, how to live peaceably as a body of Christ, how to live peaceably with civil authority.

And here this morning, how to live peaceably with both God and man.

And Paul doesn't stop at least live peaceably.

Look at verse 19 again.

He takes it a step further and says, to pursue what builds up one another.

This word pursue is usually used in the context of persecution.

Sometimes it's even translated as the word persecution.

It's that same type of going after somebody, to encourage them.

So I think in some ways we could say that we need to persecute each other with encouragement, to go after each other with that same passion.

And that's a joke, of course, but it gives you the idea of the intensity of which we're supposed to build one another up.

With the purpose and intentionality that we're supposed to edify one another.

And I don't know about you, but I get plenty beat up enough by the world that we live in.

I get easily discouraged by world events and the culture that we live in.

I think we could all use an extra dose of encouragement, an extra dose of building up when we see each other during the week, when we come through that door on Sunday mornings.

And as Paul's saying here, we need to pursue that with one another.

And that means actively looking for opportunities to build each other up.

Actively looking for opportunities to encourage one another.

And I want you to be honest, did anybody come in with that attitude this morning?

I'm gonna look for somebody that I can encourage today.

Could you imagine if we all came in with that attitude?

Paul says to do it.

So I say, let's do it.

Let's come in with that attitude of Lord, give me just one person in front of me today that I can encourage, that I could build up in the faith in some way.

Verse 20.

Do not tear down God's work because of food.

You know, I really hear Paul's tone in writing this, like, don't tear down God's work because of food.

Like, just kind of this general annoyance.

As, you know, it's like there's so many more important things that we need to be focusing on other than tearing each other down.

He goes on in the second half of verse 20, he says, Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make someone fall by what he eats.

It is a good thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.

These are great things to abstain from, if it will stumble another believer.

And it's not worth it for us to insist on our rights if it causes somebody else to stumble.

David Guzik has a quote in his commentary I want to share with you.

He says, even if we have the personal liberty, we do not have the liberty to stumble, offend, or weaken a brother.

However, we shouldn't think that Paul would permit this kind of heart to cater to someone's legalism.

For example, when some Christians from a Jewish background were offended that Gentile believers were not circumcised, Paul didn't cater.

To their legalistic demands.

And I like this because we shouldn't concern ourselves with stumbling somebody's legalism.

We should always concern ourselves with stumbling someone's conscience.

Because legalism is birthed from and it comes from a place of pride.

But the conscience comes from a place of sincere conviction.

Even if it is wrongly convicted and doesn't line up, it comes from that place.

So we need to make sure until that person can come to a mental place of understanding a situation that we have to understand it's coming from a place of sincere conviction, and we'll just allow God to work that thing out in their life.

Look at verse 22.

Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God.

So if it's disputed, just keep it between you and God.

Keep your freedoms, keep your convictions on things like this to yourself, and don't judge each other when you do find out what the other convictions and freedoms are of the other people sitting around you.

He goes on, Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.

That is, doesn't condemn himself in the eyes of others because of what he approves, because of freedoms.

This is another way of saying what Paul already said.

Do not let your good be slandered.

Meaning, abstain from or give up completely those disputable liberties if God asks you to.

Look at verse 23.

But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith.

And everything that is not from faith is sin.

So if you don't know if somebody, or if something I should say, is sin for you or not, in your mind it's still an area like, I'm not sure if this is sin or not.

Basically, just don't do it.

If there's any question in your mind, whether it's sin or not, just don't.

If you have doubt in any way and you carry it out, what Paul's saying here is that is actually sin.

Even if technically what you're doing can be justified as not being sin.

If your conscience is saying you shouldn't, it's sin to go against your conscience.

A freedom is called a freedom because it means that you can do it without consequence.

And your conscience condemning you is a major consequence.

Therefore, you don't have that freedom, or you don't have that liberty.

But I do want us to understand that that can change.

Because as we talked about in the beginning, our conscience can easily be misinformed.

So if we logically and biblically come to terms with something that our conscience has been condemning, we can, in faith, do those things and allow our conscience to catch up.

And I know this can get a little technical and confusing.

So I want to give you an example.

And I use this example back when we're going through Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

You know, I've talked to multiple people that struggled with their conscience on their wedding night.

Because something that was sin for them for their whole life was now all of a sudden, after a couple sentences, said to each other, not sin anymore in their life.

And even though their brain was telling them this is not sin, and even though they knew it that it was not sin, their conscience had not caught up with the truth that their brain was telling them yet.

It had not caught up with the biblical truth that, okay, it's okay to consume the to consummate this marriage here tonight.

Their conscience had not caught up.

But they still moved forward in faith that the truth that their brain was telling them was right, that the truth of Scripture was right, but they experienced extreme guilt, sometimes for a while, until their conscience could catch up with what they already logically and biblically knew to be truth.

So the point of verse 23 is that if your conscience is convicting you, and your brain is still not sure whether it's sin or not, don't do it.

At least until your brain can find an answer one way or another, whether it's sin for you or not, through Scripture.

But if it's a gray area in your mind still, and your conscience is convicting you, what Paul's saying here is just abstain from it.

Be safe and just abstain from whatever that might be.

And this is really why we place such a high priority on the teaching of God's word, both here on Sundays, but also encouraging you to have your personal time of reading God's word individually.

We need to know God's heart in these matters.

We need to know God's truth in these matters.

We need to learn how to abide in Christ closer.

We need to learn how to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in our own lives on these matters.

We need to be able to discern it from the competing voices that we hear all around us all the time, and some of those voices are internal voices as well.

You know, Scripture is the voice of the Holy Spirit.

You want to know how to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Read Scripture.

Every word is inspired by God.

And as 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 says, it's profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

And I think we often read that verse and we think about correcting other people, you know, and all those things, and we applying it to others.

I really think we need to apply it to ourselves.

Scripture is profitable for teaching us, for rebuking us, for correcting us, for training us in righteousness, so that we, the people of God, may be complete, equipped for every good word.

So I want to continue to encourage you to stay in God's Word.

Here on Sunday mornings, by showing up and studying God's word, by opening it daily on your own, and just allowing the truth of God's word to become a part of your life, allowing your conscience to be informed through the lens of Scripture.

So here's the main takeaway that I think we have with these verses that we can take out these doors, we can apply to our life, we can pray through and think about during the week.

I think it comes down to a few things, but first, to put others first.

Be willing to surrender your rights and freedoms in these areas in order to build up and encourage your brother and sister and to not make them stumble by the areas that you have freedoms in.

You know, it all comes down to placing the needs of others above our own.

And I think that is really a huge part of being a living sacrifice, as we've been talking about for the last couple chapters.

Sacrifice means giving something up.

And that something that's being given up is us.

Being a living sacrifice means putting ourselves last in the kingdom of God and placing our focus completely on loving God and loving others.

So I want to encourage you again to pursue righteousness, to pursue peace, to pursue joy in the Holy Spirit, and pursue encouraging each other and building each other up.

Come in with that mindset.

When you see each other during the week, think of ways of how I can encourage this person right now.

Make encouragement a point in your interactions on a daily basis with the Church of God.

Will you please pray with me?

Lord, we thank you so much for these words that you've given us.

Lord, it's so easy to become self-focused, to be focused on whatever it is that might be our pet whatever, Lord.

But I pray that you would help us to put our full attention on you first and on others.

To love you and to love others, to lay down our own rights for the sake of others being built up and encouraged and not being stumbled.

Lord, so I pray that you would show us how to do that.

Lord, that you would give us hearts that look for ways to encourage one another, whether that's in prayer, whether it's in conversation, whether it's through a gift, Lord, whether it's through time, whatever it might be, show us how to encourage one another to build up our faith in you, to become more like Jesus through the encouragement that we're giving one another.

Again, Lord, we thank you for your word.

Help us to see everything through the lens of Scripture, to know your heart in all of these matters, and to desire to do your will in all of these matters.

Lord, help us to put ourselves last in your kingdom and to consider everybody else that's in this room right now as more important than ourselves.

Lord, we lift these things up to you in Jesus' name.

Amen.