Agreeing to Disagree. Romans 14:1-4
Sermon by Dennis R. Gleason -- September 18, 2005
1Accept Christians who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong. 2For instance, one person believes it is all right to eat anything. But another believer who has a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables. 3Those who think it is all right to eat anything must not look down on those who won’t. And those who won’t eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them. 4Who are you to condemn God’s servants? They are responsible to the Lord, so let him tell them whether they are right or wrong. The Lord’s power will help them do as they should.
As we come to the 14th chapter of Romans Paul begins to teach us something very important about being part of the Body of Christ. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are all members of the Church. This is Church with a capital “C”. It is the Church Universal that is in Paul’s view here.
Paul begins by speaking to us of acceptance. He tells us that we must accept one another as believers. The strong in the faith are to accept those who are the weak ones in the faith.
What is typical in the church…small “c”…is to reject those who see things differently than we do and to separate ourselves from them if they baptize differently than we do, worship differently than we do, see communion differently than we do and refuse to change and do it our way. Our way is the “right” way of course and we can’t imagine how they can be so wrong.
Let me illustrate this point like this: Recently, I was engaged in a conversation with a person of one of the major Lutheran Denominations in this area. The people of this particular church were looking for a place to meet for their worship services. Their pastor approached the Pastor of a large area church about renting an empty church of which they had control. “Would we be able to rent the facility for our services?” was the question.
The Pastor of the large area church responded generally in this manner: “No, the church is not for rent to you. You are sacramentalists and we would never rent to someone like you.”
What do you think of that? Was this a Christian response…that is one that would have pleased our Lord?
What is a sacramentalist? Obviously, it refers to Christians who believe that the bread and wine in the communion service becomes the actual body and blood of Jesus. We here at the Salt Creek Bible Church are not Sacramentalists. We believe that the bread and wine or grape juice are merely symbols representing the body and blood of Jesus to us. We don’t believe that they actually change to become the body and blood of Jesus.
For nearly 2,000 years Christians have disagreed over what Jesus meant when he said, “…this is my body which is for you…and this is my blood shed for you…” There are some very good theological arguments that support either of these beliefs. But they are just beliefs and while we all think that we are right, they are not reasons for us to refuse to fellowship with other people who believe in Jesus Christ too.
The refusal to rent the building as it was given was a horrendous failure of Christian love and acceptance.
There is absolutely no Biblical teaching that there should ever be separation between believers on points of doctrine. We are to separate ourselves from those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as the way, the truth and the life, as the sacrifice for our sin, as the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world to save us from our sin. But I challenge you to find a passage that teaches us that we should separate ourselves from other believers on points of doctrine over which we disagree.
How we treat other Christians is a different matter. Jesus prayed that we all might be one in John 17.
What is the basis of that oneness? What is the basis of Christian fellowship?
Is it life in the Lord Jesus Christ or the amount of light one has?
Obviously, it is the life we have in the Lord Jesus Christ that is the basis of our fellowship. We are always wrong when we consider the form as more important than the reality or the ceremony as more important than the thing for which it stands.
The first essential thing in relationships between true believers is tolerance of each other and what we believe.
The second essential in relationships is love for one another.
For you see, the church is not a debating society where affirmatives and negatives battle for a decision and the loser adopts the position of the winner.
That is one of the reasons we as a congregation do not vote on issues that come before us requiring some kind of decision. We seek a consensus. When we do it that way, we never have any winners or losers. If we cannot come to agreement as to what we should do, we wait until we have the consensus. Just last week we saw this work as an issue came before us at our last Monday night’s meeting. A consensus was reached regarding some yellow book advertising in just a very few minutes, because everyone had a voice and everyone was willing to do what was right for all of us. In this case, the decision was not to do it at this time with a particular company and that came about because one person had reservations about it. The consensus was reached to pass on the opportunity this year.
I have been in churches that vote on most of everything. In my home church, we voted on whether to pay the monthly phone bill or not. It always had enough votes to pass and for us to pay the bill, but one wonders what would have happened if it did not garner enough votes to be paid!
How many church splits are you aware of that could have been avoided if people had simply been willing to tolerate differing opinions on secondary matters of faith and had truly loved one another?
Paul tells us that we are to “accept the one who is weak in faith…”
This is a life style type decision. In other words, every time you find your self in the situation in which the issue arises, be accepting of the one who is weak in faith.
That implies that there are those who are weak in their faith and those who are strong in their faith. The strong should be tolerant of and accepting of those whose faith is weaker.
Paul makes it clear that the stronger may not judge the opinions of the weaker, nor can the weaker pass judgment on the opinions of the stronger believer.
In fact Paul clearly says: Stop regarding with contempt those who do not eat all things.
Stop judging him who eats all things because God has accepted him.
It seems to be clear that Paul wants us to understand that those who are “strong” believers are not considered by God to be any better than those who are “weak” in the faith. He accepts all who believe in Jesus Christ and so should we.
Paul tells us here…eat everything. But don’t do it if it offends your brother. At the same time, if it offends you, be tolerant of your brother who is not offended by it. If both are accepting of each other and willing to truly love one another, it will never be an issue in their relationship as believers.
If you are not personally free to eat everything…because it is a matter of your personal faith in Christ…then don’t eat everything. In fact for you to do so might very well be sin for you. Just don’t judge others if they do eat everything. The same principle is valid for those who are free to eat anything. They shouldn’t judge those who do not have the same freedom.
God wants us to understand that which ever side of the issue we are on; either member of the body of Christ is right if he truly believes what he says about his own practices, but he is wrong to criticize the man who does not conform to his own practices.
We are answerable to God and God alone for what we believe and how we practice our faith. We are not answerable to each other.
What are we to do if someone is not where they should be in their spiritual life and we think they might actually be one of those weaker brothers in Christ?
- We should seek to feed them or encourage them to feed on the Word of God.
- We should love them and accept them.
-They will gradually grow in Christ and begin to walk with Christ in ways that please Him.
- They will always be answerable to Him and Him alone. Remember it is the judgment seat of Christ. He will be the judge and not us.
A number of years ago, while I was pastor of a church in Stoughton, Wisconsin, one of our most dynamic leaders in the church came to me to tell me of his daughter’s impending wedding. She was going to come to me and ask me to officiate at the wedding. The problem as the father saw it was that he was not sure that her finace was a believer. He wanted me to know that if I was not able to officiate at the wedding because of this the family would understand.
What was the issue here? The Bible clearly teaches us that we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers…especially in marriage. Put another way, believers are not to marry non-believers.
As I pondered how to approach the couple when they came to meet with me, I decided that I would just make part of my initial meeting with the couple an opportunity for Gary to declare his faith in Christ. He was from another church background and I thought I should give him an opportunity to share what he believed about Jesus Christ. His response was that he didn’t really know how to accept Christ as his personal savior and was hoping someone would help him. He prayed to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior there in my office as I shared with him the plan of salvation. The wedding went off without a hitch.
Several years later, we became aware that he was an elder in his church and was growing in Christ and sharing Christ with others.
Suppose for a moment, I judged him and told the couple that I could not officiate at their wedding because he was a non-believer.
We have the responsibility of accepting and loving one another in the Body of Christ. Not all Christians will believe exactly as we do. If they are truly believers, then we agree on the essentials of our faith that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died on the cross as the payment for our sin, that he was raised on the third day and that the Holy Spirit has come into the world to dwell in all who believe in Him. If one does not believe this, they are not truly a Christian, But if they do, then they belong to Christ and we must be willing to accept them and be tolerant of the things they believe that are different than ours.
We have to be prepared to agree to disagree on the secondary issues of the Christian faith, such as baptism – infant or believers who are old enough to know right from wrong; or communion, or teachings on the Holy Spirit, sanctification, and when or how we worship, traditional or contemporary, and so on.
Look around and you will see people believing all kinds of things and practicing their faith in ways that are different than ours.
We must insist on agreement on the essentials of our faith, but when it comes to those things which are secondary to the practice of our faith:
Paul is telling us here that we are to accept one another and love them and refuse to judge or regard them as “lite Christians”.
--Dennis Gleason
