On first read, Roman 14: 1-4 may be somewhat confusing. Bottom line, it is talking about who we should include in worship – especially when things get contentious. This devotion looks at how we shouldn’t be judgmental, but inclusive.
Nuggets
- We shouldn’t judge those we perceive as weaker than us.
- If we think abuse of something is a sin, we do a 180-degree and go for abstinence, but that shows a weak faith.
- Don’t look down on someone who is serving you.
How Are We to Be Inclusive in Our Worship?
I don’t plan it, but sometimes these devotions fall in line with my Sunday Morning Bible Study lessons. When that happens, I am awed by how God connects things.
No, my Ladies and I still aren’t meeting yet (oh, how I miss them!), but we were supposed to be studying Romans. How can I pass up looking at Romans?
Then to have this week’s lesson passage show up on a topic search for the Worship category. Best of both worlds!
What I saw when I read this passage was who we should include in worship – and who we shouldn’t exclude. Paul supported his position. Let’s take a look.
Let's Put It into Context
Worship, according to the Holman Bible Dictionary, is “Human response to the perceived presence of the divine, a presence which transcends normal human activity and is holy.”
Resource
According to the Holman Bible Dictionary, the Sabbath is “the day of rest, considered holy to God by His rest on the seventh day after creation and viewed as a sign of the covenant relation between God and His people and of the eternal rest He has promised them.”
Resource
Inclusive, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means “including everyone, especially: allowing and accommodating people who have historically been excluded (as because of their race, gender, sexuality, or ability).”
Include Those Who Are Weak
“Welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but don’t argue about disputed matters” (Rom. 14: 1 CSB)
Once we admit our sins, believe Jesus as Savior and Redeemer, and confess God as Sovereign God, we start on the sanctification road. Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul beginning with regeneration and ending with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Perfection means we have become holy, sanctified, and righteous. Christian perfection is achieving the two greatest commandments: loving God and loving others.
The road to sanctification is hilly and curvy. It won’t be smooth sailing.
Because it isn’t smooth sailing, sometimes our faith may be strong. Faith is the belief that the doctrines stated in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them. But sometimes, our faith may be weak because we are having a really hard time dealing with the trial.
That doesn’t even get into going from milk babies to steak adults. When the Scriptures use the term milk, they are equating our spiritual life with that of a baby. Disciples are unskilled babes when we have given up reading God’s Word. The Bible tells us what our character should be like to grow us into steak adults.
But isn’t that what the road to sanctification is? We’ve given it several “names”:
- Grow from milk babies to steak adults
- Work out our salvation
- Become sanctified so we grow to become holy and righteous
Really, aren’t they all the same thing? We want to grow to be like God.
Some of us are going to do a better job at it — or we will think someone else is doing a better job than we are. We’ve got to keep some things in mind.
- We shouldn’t judge those we perceive as weaker than us.
- We shouldn’t compare ourselves with someone else.
- We shouldn’t argue about what we believe. Lyth wrote than when we are rigid about trivial matters, we “do not understand the spirituality and liberty of the gospel.”
- No one — me included — is going to get everything right all the time because we will never understand all of God’s ways (Isa. 55: 8-9).
If someone is committing a sin, yes. We need to counsel them. “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Gal. 6: 1 ESV). We will need to follow God’s directions as to how and when to do that.
Lyth had some good advice. He reminded us “to give each other credit for sincerity.” We talked about the Beatitude saying we should crave righteousness, not that we had to be 100% fruit of the Spirit perfect.
Resource
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Remember, the sanctification road is hilly and curvy. Encouragement will work better than contention.
Bottom line, we are commanded to love others. We do that by, as Henry said, denying ourselves. We are patient with them.
Glossary
Resource
To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.
Include Those Who Don’t Do as We Do
“One person believes he may eat anything, while one who is weak eats only vegetables. One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not judge one who does, because God has accepted him” (Rom. 14: 2-3 CSB)
Hmmm. So, this is confusing. “… one who is weak eats only vegetables” (Rom. 14: 2 CSB).
Okay, I didn’t really become a vegetable eater until I was in my 30s. So, I am kind of scratching my head at this one. There has to be some backstory that I don’t know about.
Tyson cleared up some confusion. He wrote, “The question was, did Christianity or did it not require abstinence from certain meats, and observance of certain fasts and festivals?”
I see. This is like Eve and the apple.
In his conversation with Eve, Satan enlarged the restriction God had given from one tree to every tree in the garden. She countered by telling him they couldn’t touch the tree.
God didn’t say anything about touching. He just put the restriction on eating.
But don’t we do that? If we think abuse of something is a sin, we do a 180-degree and go for abstinence.
Tyson interpreted Paul as saying the person who pushes for abstinence is really just weak in faith. He argued that we don’t understand Jesus’ work in us. If we have a strong faith, we should be able to withstand the testing.
That takes us back to the milk babies and steak adults. We have to be actively seeking God so that we can have that strong faith.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Paul wrote elsewhere, “Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ” (Col. 2: 16-17 CSB).
I’m reading this and am thinking this is getting back to works. We aren’t saved by works. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2: 8 NIV).
What I see this saying is that differences of opinions should not undermine unity. Yes, that is a favorite topic of Paul’s. Hmmm. Can we say it is needed?
Look at verse 3. “… God has accepted him” (Rom. 14: 3 CSB). Yes, we may have differences of opinions, but God has adopted all of us into His family.
When we sincerely admit our sins, believe in Jesus, and confess God as Sovereign Lord, He accepts us. Other believers cannot reject us.
We’ve talked about censoriousness before. It is about being critical of others. We are not to pass judgment on people — especially when we use our standards.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
Include Those Lower than Us
“Who are you to judge another’s household servant? Before his own Lord he stands or falls. And he will stand, because the Lord is able to make him stand” (Rom. 14: 4 CSB)
Okay, this says “… another’s household servant …” (Rom. 14: 4 CSB). What this is saying is, don’t look down on someone who is serving you. We would apply that as meaning a restaurant server, retail clerk, or a bank teller.
But we could also see this as talking about someone who is in a lower socioeconomic class than we are. It is also talking about a debt collector and a teacher, isn’t it? To me, it is talking about anyone who is performing their job.
We can look down on people who we feel are beneath us for other reasons. We may think we are so much smarter than they are. Or we look down on them because we disagree with their political opinions. (If you don’t think that is a problem, you haven’t been on Twitter and Facebook lately.)
One thing we need to remember is we are all servants. We are servants of God.
Where I used to work, there were four employee classifications and then pay grades within each classifications. God only has one classification: servant.
Still, there may be different pay grades. God doesn’t reveal things to us the same. Nell described it as, “The clearer light of the strong is due to God’s special mercy and their superior advantages.”
It is kind of like when we were in school. Tom and I are in an economics class together. I had two semesters of economics. Trust me, I didn’t totally understand everything.
But Tom did. God knew he was going to be an economist and I wasn’t. So, God gave him the knowledge because that was going to expand His kingdom.
Maybe Tom’s dad was a economist, so he had heard terminology his whole life. Mine was a farmer. He knew economics as it applied to crops and animals.
Burn reminded us that is why we were created — to serve God. God has commanded us to love each other, to support each other, to teach each other.
We all have our job to accomplish in God’s kingdom. Paul gave the classifications. “And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers” (Eph. 4: 11 RSV).
Making the Connections
There is a very big connection that we have to make here. Paul is writing to believers. Swing reminded us that man “… is imperfect, and therefore should also be tolerant.”
Paul was not arguing that we have to be tolerant of sin. A sin was a sin back in Noah’s day. It still was in Jesus’ day. It still is now. It will be until Jesus comes back.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
Oh, yeah. We are talking relationships here – we’re talking conflict. Yep, that is a definite topic for self-discipline.
We’ve been asking these questions all along so we can prepare for when we are asked. Here is the worksheet again. What would you say about inclusiveness and unity in our worship?
- What does the Scriptures say?
- What do I believe?
- Why do I believe the same/differently than the Scriptures?
- What are the talking points when witnessing to a non-believer?
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
How Do We Apply This?
- We can’t let differences divide us. That means we can’t make someone else believe the way we do.
- That will take patience and humility.
- We have to follow God’s standards, not ours.
Father God. We want to love like You do. We want to extend that love to all of Your children. Help us to be unified as Your church. In this way we can show those made in Your image that You, indeed, are Love. Amen.
What do you think?
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