The Bible passage that's never preached! Part One

In all my years in sitting through sermons... at church, at conventions, and yes even at Bible college, I cannot remember a message preached on this passage. Romans 14. This chapter, towards the end of one of our most famous biblical letters, has a very important cultural message that I had never heard before. Yes you've heard it's terminology. Your Bible probably labels the passage "The Weak and the Strong" But read the chapter, it's very interesting, and I would conclude that it doesn't define those terms in the way you've commonly heard them taught.

Romans 14:1 "Accept those whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters."

This isn't a very difficult verse to understand. There are Christians whose faith is weaker, and those whose is stronger. A weaker brother or sister is a Christian "who because of the weaknesses of his faith, knowledge, conscience, and will, can be influenced to sin against his conscience by the example of a differing stronger brother." (Friesen 398). So a weaker Christian is someone who can be influenced because of their weaknesses. Their conscience may be overly sensitive, their will may be easily turned because they aren't fully convinced of something and may act contrary to their conscience. They may not be as biblically knowledgeable as a stronger brother. Or ultimately their faith, or their firm conviction that the way they choose to live before God is truly the correct way.

A weaker brother is not someone who simply disagrees with you, or gets upset when you both don't feel the same way about a subject.

A stronger brother is someone who then is strong in the way the other is weak. They have the faith and firm conviction in the way they live before the Lord, they have wise Biblical knowledge, and a strong conscience. They live in the freedom of their conscience without being influenced by the different opinions of others.

The chapter goes on to exemplify the freedom that we all should have in making decisions about subjects or things that are biblically disputable. Paul specifically speaks to those who felt that it was sinful to eat certain foods (weaker brothers) and to those who faith allowed them to eat anything (v 2). As you continue to read through the passage you see that Paul says it's wrong to judge those who don't feel the freedom you do (specifically those who eat anything compared to those who don't, but eat just vegetables).

Verse 5b says "Everyone should be fully convinced in their own mind." This is the important principle here. Whatever you feel about a disputable matter (something the Bible doesn't directly command) is your own conviction. Verses 6-9 say that everyone does all that they do before the Lord, for Him. If you eat meat, then you thank God for it. If you don't then you thank God for that as well. Paul says don't judge those who think differently about things than you do. Eating meat wasn't wrong for anyone at that time, and neither was not eating it. But there were those who got caught up on the fact that someone would choose to do something that to them or to their conscience, they didn't feel the freedom to do. Do you think this happens alot today?

Verse 12 then goes on to say that we'll all stand before the Lord and give an account for what we believe. Paul warns not to go on judging others that may be weaker than us, and surely we wouldn't judge those stronger than us. Would we?

This is a very difficult teaching because there are a lot of things the Bible doesn't give a direct command on, things that are disputable. Paul here doesn't give a direct command in reference to eating certain foods. For some their conscience doesn't allow it, but for others it does.

What do you think are examples of areas of this freedom that the Bible doesn't give a direct command on? For a long time movies were sinful, some believe that social dancing is sinful, what about tattoos? Are they sinful? Or are these areas that the Bible doesn't give a specific command to do or not to do?

Some look at an translation of the than the KJV as unholy. Some maybe watching t.v., or kissing before you're married, or wearing a two-piece, or playing cards. These may be comical to some of you. right? What convictions do you have that may actually be disputed by other christians?

To push a little further, what about smoking? Does the Bible say not to? What about drinking wine in moderation? What about Sunday being the most Holy day?

There are endless examples in culture that the Bible simply cannot address. So what are we to do? Think about it. Read Romans 14. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.

I believe that Paul does give us some teaching that will guide us and I will dig deeper in Part two (Rom 14:13 - 15:2) and discuss how Paul tells us to view these things.


- Alot of my thought from this post are credited to the author Garry Friesen in his book "Decision making and the Will of God"