Seeing Things Straight
Opening Prayer
Lord, enable me to major on the majors and minor on the minors. Help me to live with integrity in all things.
Read Romans 14:13–23
13 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. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 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. 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.
22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matt. 7:2).
Paul often responds in his letters to comments or questions that have been raised by the recipients of his letters. This means that he balances arguments and adjudicates between them, first stressing this and then that. Reading his writings can be like listening to one end of a telephone conversation but not the other! As he continues his argument from the previous section, it seems that he wants to agree with the party that sees itself as strong in faith but at the same time wants to show proper and loving concern for those the party deems weak.
Paul is robustly positive: “Nothing is unclean in itself” (14). “What is good should not be spoken of as though it were evil” (16). “All food is clean” (20)—the healthy doctrine of a creation God considered good. However, where people have scruples, perhaps because of past religious training, and are prone to consider something unclean, they should not go against conscience (14). We all have to live with integrity, having carefully thought out what to believe and how to behave (22). People should neither be made to reject conscience nor be forced out of the church because of an opinion: “Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food” (20). After all, the
kingdom of God is about “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (17), not about food and drink (and we could add some other things here). Keep things in perspective! Don’t let third-order issues create division! Have your own views and opinions, by all means, but don’t turn them into weapons that hurt and destroy (22)! Paul goes way beyond “tolerance” here. In church, nobody should be made to stumble (21). Putting stumbling blocks and obstacles in the way of others is simply unacceptable (13).
Apply
Ask the Lord to make you a channel of his peace today.
Closing prayer
O God, fill me with the wisdom and insight of Jesus who, as he ministered, understood people and adjusted his presentation according to how they could best receive it.
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