Sunday September 14, 2008

Rev. Robert L. Clark II

Romans 14:1-12

Romans 14:1-12

(14:1) Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of
quarreling over opinions. (14:2) Some believe in eating anything, while the
weak eat only vegetables. (14:3) Those who eat must not despise those who
abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat;
for God has welcomed them. (14:4) Who are you to pass judgment on
servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And
they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. (14:5) Some
judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be
alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. (14:6) Those who
observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in
honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain,
abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.(14:7) We do not live to
ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.(14:8) If we live, we live to the
Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether
we die, we are the Lord's.(14:9) For to this end Christ died and lived again, so
that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.(14:10) Why do you
pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your
brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
(14:11) For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God." (14:12) So then, each of us will
be accountable to God.

For several weeks now we have been carrying on a conversation with Paul concerning the living

of the Christ Life. The question Paul has been addressing is, ‘How are we, as Christian, to live

well together?’ What we have learned is that the Christian life is the life of love. It is guided by

one absolute command, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with

all your mind and love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ We call this the love commandment.

It is the command to love without an ‘if’. ‘Love your neighbor’ not ‘Love your neighbor if your

neighbor is a nice person’ or ‘if your neighbor looks and behaves in a way that you find

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acceptable.’ It is ‘Love the Lord your God’ not “Love the Lord your God if your life is going the

way you want it to.’

Under this command are many ‘if this then that’ rules. For example: “If your enemy is hungry

then offer him or her food.” The Bible contains many examples of this sort of rule. They are

there to help us understand what love looks like in a variety of situation and under a variety of

conditions and they are only binding under those conditions and in those situations and then only

in as much as they are in line with the love commandment.

To help us understand this let’s take a closer look at one of these rules. Let’s take for our

example the rule that says, “Thou shall not kill”. As a general principle few would question the

validity of this rule. Most Christians will quickly agree that life is sacred and therefore to be

preserved. But is this always the case? There are many cases in the Bible where taking a life is

held up as the right thing to do. For example, A soldier who takes the life of an enemy in battle,

or the taking of a life to preserve the moral order of the community as in Leviticus19:27 which

says, “A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned

to death, their blood is upon them.”

Now as to that last example, how many of you sitting here today really believe that it is God’s

will that mediums and wizards should be put to death? Should we also put to death our children

if they talk back to us? How about those who commit adultery? Clearly something has changed.

Does this mean that all of God’s laws have been abolished? Certainly not! God’s laws have not

been abolished but they have been fulfilled. This means the condition which necessitated the

Laws of Moses no longer exists. A new condition has come into being. Through his life, death

and resurrection Jesus Christ has liberated us from bondage to sin, death, and the Law. The

perfect liberty that we enjoy in Christ is the result of the Law which was once imposed from

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outside; now being written in the heart of each human being. From God we now have one

command, “Love God with your whole being and love your neighbor as yourself”. How we are

carry out this command is largely a matter of conviction.

This being true, Paul tells us that we are to “Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the

purpose of quarreling over opinions.” There are some people who believe it is better not to eat

meat; others allow only certain types of meat, while others will gladly eat anything that is placed

before them. Who is right? The answer depends wholly on whom you ask.

What is important is that each believes that his or her choice is pleasing to God and that each

honors the commandment to love in dealing with the other. That means the vegetarian has no

right to criticize or judge me on moral grounds for eating pork chops and I have no right to judge

my beef eating friend whose stomach turns at the very thought of eating the flesh of a dead pig.

God has welcomed vegetarian and meat eater alike into the Body of Christ. Shall we do

otherwise?

In a similar way different people have different ideas about what day is the best day to worship;

what kind of music should be used in a church service; or how and when one should fast. Paul

answers all of these questions with the same answer. It all depends on what you believe is most

pleasing to God. His advice “Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.”

The living of a Christian life requires careful consideration be given to the basis of all moral

convictions. We must examine our own conscience and be fully convinced that all of our

convictions are in line with the love commandment.

We must ask, “Is the action I am about to undertake one which demonstrates my love for God

and neighbor?” Having asked the question we must then use every means available to us to

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ascertain the answer. For a Christian the primary guide for making any moral decision is the

Bible. As I said earlier, the Bible is full of examples of ‘if this than that’ rules. Like, “If your

brother or sister is being injured by what you eat [then] you are no longer walking in love.”

(NRSV Romans 14:15) or “If another member of the church sins against you, [then] go and point

out the fault when the two of you are alone.” (NRSV Matthew 18:15). These and other such

‘rules’ provide a good starting point but taken individually and out of context they are not

sufficient for the task of living a moral life. Basing our choices about how to live on a single

verse of the bible is like using a map of Massachusetts to plan a trip from Boston to Los Angeles.

It is not that the map is bad it is just that it doesn’t contain enough information to get us to

California and it won’t help much if we throw in maps of Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Colorado.

Planning a journey from Boston to Los Angeles requires using the full map of the United States.

There is an old gospel song that goes something like, “ I’m Using my Bible for a road map, the

children of Israel used it too…” The Bible is a road map for life but remember this, a map is

only as useful if one has the ability to understand it. The same is true of the Bible. It is not

enough to read the Bible; we must also endeavor to understand what we are reading. In Acts 8,

Phillip is directed by the Holy Spirit to approach the chariot of an Ethiopian eunuch who as it

happens is reading from the Prophet Isaiah. Doing as the Spirit directs Philip asks the Ethiopian,

‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ to which he replies, ‘How can I, unless someone

guides me?’ (Acts 8:30-31 To understand the Scriptures and by extension to understand how to

make moral choices we need the help of other Christians. We need to know how others have

understood and lived out the love commandment. Beyond this, to be fully convicted of our

moral choices requires the use of two tests. First we must ask if it makes sense that this or that is

right. Is it the most loving thing to do; does honor God and demonstrates love for others.

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Secondly we must ask, if as it plays out in the real world this is a loving act? Some things sound

great in theory but turn out badly in practice or as my father was fond of saying, “The road to

Hell is paved with good intentions.”

Having tested them by means of scripture, tradition, reason, and experience one can become

fully convicted of the rightness of one’s actions and one can form for oneself rules for the living

of the life of love. What we cannot do is apply our rules to others. You choose to eat only

vegetables. I chose to add a few pork ribs to my diet. It is not my place to judge your choice nor

is it your place to judge mine. God has welcomed us both into the body of Christ. In Christ we

have perfect liberty.

Does this mean that for a Christian there are no absolute moral rules? Are we to adopt an “if it

feels good do it” rule of life in which anything goes? God forbid! That is not what Paul is

saying and it is not what I am saying. There is one essential and unchanging rule for the living of

the Christian life that being the commandment to love and the first obligation of love is to do no

harm. Committing adultery always harms someone. Coveting that which belongs to your

neighbor always harms someone. Lying, stealing, cheating, worshipping false idols, all these

lead inevitably to harm. Therefore, they break the commandment to love.

This may all sound a bit complicated but it really is pretty straight forward. Simply make loving

God your highest priority. Stop thinking about yourself. Don’t ask if this or that will benefit me.

Ask instead will it honor God. Is it the most loving choice? In other words stop living for

yourself and start living for God. Stop judging and start loving one another.

Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother

or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God…each of us will be accountable

to God.

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