The Romance of Romans-Part 93

Romans Chapter 14

Don't refuse to recognize or fellowship with believers who disagree with you over non-essential matters- even if they're unenlightened about the truth. One believer has a clear conscience about eating anything. Another, who may be hypersensitive, is a vegetarian. The one who eats freely shouldn't get down on the one who doesn't, and the one who doesn't shouldn't get down on the one who does. God has accepted them both. Who are we to condemn another's servant? Before his own master he will stand or fall. And stand he will, for God himself is holding up his own!

Let's take another issue. One believer regards one day as more sacred than another. Another believer views each day as equally sacred. Things like this should be seen as a matter of personal conscience that allows for individual liberty. The one who celebrates a certain day as special, does so as an expression of love for the Lord. The one who equally celebrates every day also does so as an expression of love for the Lord. Just like the one who eats freely worships the Lord in his eating, and the one who abstains from meat worships the Lord by not eating. Can't you see that the truly important issues are not the externals, but the motives of the heart- love and worship.

Comments:

It has become common for Jesus-followers to claim that they are "spiritual" but not "religious". I personally like the distinction and I think that the folks around us can relate to the statement too. Well...Romans 14 is the chapter that can provide the theological basis for this important contrast. It has always been one of my favorites to ponder and teach. A well-known maxim captures the heart of Paul in Romans 14--"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis (or, dubiis) libertas, in utrisque (or, omnibus) caritas." In English we say: "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity." (There is no actual proof that Augustine said this.)

Of course, drawing the line between the theological essentials and non-essentials is a delicate and sweet science. Jesus chided the religious leaders of his day for "straining out gnats, while swallowing camels"...surely one of his better jokes. You'd think that we'd normally be able to distinguish camels issues from gnat issues, but we do get easily confused perspectives when our personal preferences and cultural/religious "golden calves" are potentially on the chopping block...our styles of dressing, eating, recreating, socializing; how we specifically "do church" and our strong convictions regarding secondary doctrines and temporal politics...just to name a few. It seems that Jesus is inferring that in order for us to avoid (while mysteriously maintaining our dignity in the eyes of many people) the discomforting act of consuming our mode of transportation, we are going to have to get used to the bitter taste and brief choking sensation of ingesting some little bugs along our way in life with Jesus as our leader.

I think that Jesus also had in mind that gnats and camels tend to hang out around each other! And so what's the spiritual moral of the story? If we're going to actually travel anywhere in our spiritual journey, we've got an unavoidable "dietary choice" to make. Is it going to be "camels" or "gnats"? Bad religion ironically snarfs camels while upholding its image of precision and yet getting us nowhere. Genuine spirituality chooses to choke down some bothersome "gnats" for the sake of riding, instead of eating, the "camels" that Christ provides us for his ongoing mission.

Lord Jesus, give me the grace to know the difference between these two animals and make the needed sacrifices of my preferences to actually make some progress in "loving well" our Father in heaven and...other people.