Today (Sunday, June 19th) we finished out our “Bond of Peace” sermon series by looking in Romans 14 at how the Bible instructs us as believers to handle differences between us over “disputable matters.” Before I address the main subject of this post, I think it will be helpful to lay out the main points from today’s sermon:
- We must be united on the matters the Bible speaks plainly and specifically about (doctrinal certainties and moral absolutes). But we must not divide with other believers who hold different convictions about “disputable matters” (Romans 14:1).
- “Disputable matters” are NOT matters about which the Bible teaches doctrinal certainties, establishes moral absolutes, or otherwise speaks clearly and specifically about.
- “Disputable matters” ARE matters about which the Bible is silent, or doesn’t specifically address, or gives room for different views, or otherwise leaves up to our individual consciences.
- When we differ or disagree with other believers about a “disputable matter,” our attitude toward them is important:
- The wrong attitude is for us to “despise” (look down on) or “judge” (condemn) them for holding different convictions than us (see 14:3).
- The right attitude is to remember that “God has accepted him (the other believer)” (14:3), and that the basis of God’s acceptance of them is not by their works but because of what Jesus Christ did for them on the cross. So if “God has accepted him,” we are to “accept him…, without quarreling over disputable matters” (14:1).
- We are all tempted to “judge” someone who holds a different view than us on a “disputable matter.” We are tempted to judge those who hold to a more cautious view than us as ‘immature’ or ‘legalistic’. We are tempted to judge those who hold to a more lenient view than us as ‘worldly’ or even ‘unsaved’.
- But when we judge someone like this we are “judging someone else’s servant” because the Lord is their “master,” not us (14:4). We’re not to take God’s role upon ourselves. Instead, we are to remember that they and we are all held accountable for our convictions by God, and that we will all one day give and accounting to Him (14:10, 12).
- How should we develop our own personal convictions?
- First, we need to determine whether the matter we’re concerned with is really a “disputable matter”, or whether the Bible clearly and specifically speaks to it in such a way that it is not “disputable” (i.e., a doctrinal certainty or moral absolute).
- Secondly, in the case of a “disputable matter,” we need to become “fully convinced in [our] own mind” (14:5). This means that we need to search the Scriptures ourselves for what the Bible has to say about the matter and prayerfully come to our own convictions.
- We need to ensure that the Lord gives us a clear conscience about our conviction so that we can live out our convictions “from faith” and not with “doubts.” If our conscience is doubtful, hesitant, or even troubled, that should be a warning sign to us.
- An important consideration in living out our personal convictions is how it affects others around us. We are specifically to avoid exercising the freedom our convictions give us if doing so will “put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother” or sister in Christ (14:13).
- A “stumbling block” is something we unintentionally do that causes someone to stumble into sin.
- A “hindrance” is something we do knowing that we may cause someone to stumble, but doing it anyway.
- We are “not acting in love” if we cause someone to stumble by living out the freedom of our conscience (14:15). Love limits its freedom if that is called for to help someone else grow in their faith.
- In summary, Christ calls us to be united in things essential to faith (doctrinal certainties and moral absolutes); to be tolerant in things non-essential (“disputable matters”); and to be prayerful and wise in knowing the difference!
With those points as the main focus of the sermon, what I’m about to now say in the rest of this post may seem unimportant. But it is a part of Romans 14 that I did not address today (because of the limits of time) and that you will see and probably have questions about if you read through Romans 14 and 15 yourself (which I recommend!). What I am talking about is the references to those “whose faith is weak” (14:1-2; 15:1) in contrast to those who “are strong“ (15:1). These seem like perjorative terms, for who wants to be labeled as “weak”? So what is Paul talking about here and how does it apply to us? The following is what I found in my study (but didn’t have time to address in my sermon today).
John Stott was most helpful to me in understanding this. He notes that Paul is not referring to a ‘weakness’ of will or character. A believer “whose faith is weak” is not someone who is easily overcome by temptation, but a sensitive Christian who does not have a freedom of conscience about a particular “disputable matter.” Stott uses the term “scruples” to speak of this here. The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘scruples’ as “a feeling that prevents you from doing something that you think is morally wrong or makes you uncertain about doing it.” So Paul is not referring here to believers who are immature or legalistic in their faith, but to those who do not have a freedom of conscience about a “disputable matter” and therefore do not do not want to sin against their conscience. I don’t want to generalize here, so I’ll just speak about myself: I know that I have scruples about certain “disputable matters.” For example, I became uncomfortable a number of years ago about my personal use of social media. To be clear, I think it is completely a matter of conscience how a believer engages with and uses Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, and I do not “despise” or “judge” those who hold different convictions about this than I do. But I know I came to the place a number of years ago where I was convicted about my use of social media and its effect upon me, and so I believe the Lord led me to get off certain forms of social media completely and limit my use of other forms. I don’t share this with any motive to persuade you to adopt my convictions, but simply to indicate that this is an area where I acknowledge I would be characterized by Paul’s Romans 14 criteria as “weak.”
Pastor John Piper encourages me (and hopefully you, if you recognize some of your personal convictions could be characterized here as “weak”) by writing that the “weak” in Romans 14 are not legalists, but that their choices to abstain from certain things are good, well-motivated choices they believe will most honor the Lord. For example, if you know you are vulnerable to certain temptations, it is a good, well-motivated, God-honoring choice to abstain from something that you know is likely to stir up temptation in you – even if it would be something you could do without violating Scripture. When we make choices like that in order to avoid putting ourselves in situations that might tempt us to fall into sin, I believe that our “weakness” is actually God-honoring.
Who, then, are the “strong”? They are believers whose faith allows them to enjoy the Christian liberty at the heart of the “disputable matter” without causing “doubts” in their conscience (Romans 14:23). My unique vulnerabilities to temptation are different than your vulnerabilities. So I may have scruples that you don’t have, meaning that in some particular areas you are “strong” while I am “weak” (and vice versa). So we need to keep in mind that “weak” and “strong” are not judgments of character or maturity (which, unfortunately, often gets read into Romans 14), but directions that the Spirit may direct our individual conscience on particular issues.
All this brings me back to the call to “act in love” (Romans 14:15) toward other believers who hold different convictions than we do on “disputable matters.” If I understand that in some particular areas I may be “strong” and in other areas I am definitely “weak,” and if I understand this is true of every other believer I meet, then that call to love will motivate me to live out verse 13: “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this– not to put an stumbling block or a hindrance in a brother’s way.”
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