At the church where I serve, we have been spending
our time together in a sermon series entitled “Won’t you be my neighbor”.
During this series our hope and our prayer is to answer the questions “Why
should I be a neighbor?” “Who is my neighbor?” and “How should I be a
neighbor?” Our hope and our prayer is to answer these questions in a way that
enables and empowers us to live our day to day lives as a follower of Jesus in
a way that is a neighbor to those that God has already placed in our spheres of
influence who are far from God in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus to
them.
This
week, I would like for us to continue to answer the third question that we are looking
at in this series, which is “How should I be a neighbor?” To continue to answer
this question, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at
another section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the
Bible called the book of Romans. After the section of the book of Romans that
we looked at last week, the Apostle Paul challenged this group of early
followers of Jesus to practice
a lifestyle that exercises the liberty that they had as followers of Jesus
carefully.
You see, as followers of Jesus, there are some issues
about following Jesus that are closed handed issues that are not open for
debate. For example, the fact that Jesus Christ is God-in-a-bod; the truth of
the Trinity; the truth that salvation from selfishness and sin comes only by
placing one’s confident truth in the claims of Christ and the message of the
gospel by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader; these
are closed handed issues, they are not open for debate.
However, there are other issues
about following Jesus that would be referred to as open-handed issues that
followers of Jesus disagree on. For example, is it o.k. for Christians to drink
alcohol socially? Is it o.k. for Christians to dance? Should Christians
participate in any activity that is associated with Halloween? Should Christian
children to go to public school or should they be in a Christian school or
homeschooled? Should Christians work at casinos?
Now, these issues are
debatable, because while the issue is not clearly stated in the Bible as being
right or wrong, some people view the issue as morally wrong, while others view
the issue as being morally acceptable. And so often, what can tend to happen is
that followers of Jesus will engage in heated debate and confrontation over an
issue that God has not given us a clear directive on in His word.
And because God has not given
us a clear directive, what we tend to do as followers of Jesus is to try to
help God out by making a list of rules in addition to the Bible when it comes
to these debatable issues. And as a result, we move from living a lifestyle
that is based on a confident trust in God to a lifestyle that is attempting to
keep a list of rules when it comes to practicing our faith.
So in Romans 14, Paul called
the members of the church at Rome, and followers of Jesus throughout history,
to carefully exercise the liberty that we have as followers of Jesus by not
judging others when it comes to debatable issues. In addition, Paul called
followers of Jesus throughout history to carefully exercise the liberty that we
have as followers of Jesus by lovingly limiting that liberty for the sake of
others.
And it is in the context of how
we as followers of Jesus are to relate to others who may disagree with us when
it comes to the open handed issues of following Jesus that we are going to jump
back into this letter. So let’s jump into this section of this letter,
beginning in Romans 15:1-6:
Now we who
are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. 2
Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. 3
For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "THE
REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED YOU FELL ON ME." 4 For
whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that
through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have
hope. 5 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement
grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6
so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now to fully understand what Paul is communicating here,
we first need to understand what was occurring among followers of Jesus at the
church at Rome, and still occurs in churches today. At the church at Rome,
there were some followers of Jesus who were what Paul called weak in faith.
This phrase refers to a follower of Jesus who has an inability or a limitation
when it comes to experiencing the freedom and liberty that they have when it
comes to living out their day to day lives as a follower of Jesus.
By contrast, a person who is strong in faith experiences
a sense of strength and freedom that allows them great liberty in how they live
out their day to day lives as a follower of Jesus. You see, what was happening
in the church at Rome was that people who had the strength and freedom that
flowed from their confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of
the gospel to exercise their liberty when it came to the debatable issues of
following Jesus were criticizing and condemning those who were not exercising
their freedom as a result of their relationship with Jesus as being spiritually
immature and as second class citizens in the church.
In our culture today, this would be like taking a person
who was an alcoholic and had come to have a relationship with Jesus to a bar
and saying “well if you were spiritually mature, you could have a drink with
me, because the Bible does not condemn social drinking, it only condemns
drunkenness, So why don’t you do the spiritually mature thing and have a drink
with me”. Meanwhile, the new follower of Jesus is saying “no way, because I
know what could happen if I start drinking, so I am not going to drink, because
I am convinced that drinking is wrong”.
So, followers of Jesus were getting into conflicts and
quarrels with one another over differing opinions on open handed and debatable
issues when it came to following Jesus. And followers of Jesus were
criticizing, condemning, judging and treating one another with contempt and in
competition to who was right and thus more valuable and spiritually mature. Now
here is a question: has anything changed? Has anything changed in 2,000 years?
No it hasn’t, has it? There is a cottage industry within
Christianity where bloggers and book writers and commentators spend their lives
debating and arguing over open handed and debatable issues in a very ungracious
manner that looks nothing like Jesus.
Paul responded to what was
occurring at the church in Rome by commanding those who had the strength and
freedom that flowed from their confident trust in the claims of Christ and the
message of the gospel to exercise their liberty when it came to debatable
issues of the faith ought to bear the weakness of those without strength. Now
this word ought literally means to be under obligation to meet certain social
and moral conditions.
And the social and moral
obligation that they were to meet was to bear patiently and put up with those
whose weakness of faith limited the exercise of the liberty that they had as a
result of their relationship with Jesus in their day to day lives. Instead of
focusing on experiencing pleasure and self-satisfaction as a result of the
freedom and liberty that they had as a follower of Jesus, Paul called for a sacrifice
of their self-satisfaction and self-interest for the sake of others.
Now an almost immediate
objection that could be raised here regarding Paul’s comments here is this:
“Why should I have to sacrifice the freedom and liberty that I have as a result
of my relationship with Jesus for someone else? I am not sinning; so why do I
always have to give up and sacrifice my liberty for someone who is weaker in
their faith and won’t exercise the freedom that they have? If Jesus is the one
who provides the freedom for me to have a beer after work, then why do I have
to limit living in that freedom by not having a beer because of some
teetotaler?”
If that objection is running
through your mind, I just want to let you know that it is a fair objection to
have. And fortunately for us, Paul provides the answer to us in verse 2: “Each
of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.”? Paul’s
point here is that, as followers of Jesus, we are to practice a lifestyle that
strives to build others up. Paul commanded the members of the church at Rome,
and followers of Jesus throughout history, to practice a lifestyle in community
with one another that is focused on the spiritual growth and spiritual good of
those around us.
Now, as is often the case when
we are asked to limit our freedom, the first question that arises, regardless
of what age or stage of life that we are in is “why”? Why should I lovingly
limit my freedom for the spiritual good and growth of others who are not able
to exercise the same liberty and freedom that I have?”
Paul, anticipating this
question, provides the answer in advance in verse 3 by explaining that Jesus
did not live His life on earth with a focus on pleasing Himself. Paul then
reinforces this reality by quoting from a section of a letter in our Bibles
called the book of Psalms. In Psalm 69:9, the Psalmist predicted and proclaimed
that Jesus faced and endured disparagement and disgrace during His life on
earth. And as the accounts of Jesus life in the Bible remind us, when Jesus
faced disparagement and disgrace, He never played the God card.
Jesus did not enter into
humanity in order to exercise the rightful freedom and liberty that He had as
the Co-Creator of the universe who is large and in charge of everything.
Instead, Jesus entered into humanity and lovingly limited His freedom by
allowing Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful life,
so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.
You see, Jesus never asks us to
do something that He has not already done. Paul then reminded the members of
the church at Rome that the Bible was given to us by God to teach and encourage
us to bear up and hold out in the face of difficulty with the confident
expectation that, in the future, every follower of Jesus will be able to
exercise the freedom and liberty that they have as a result of their
relationship with Jesus. Until that time, however, as followers of Jesus we are
to practice a lifestyle that strives to build others up in a way that lovingly
limits the freedom that we have for the spiritual good and growth of others.
Paul then paused, right in the
middle of his letter, to pray that God would give the members of the church at
Rome, and followers of Jesus throughout history, the ability to live in unity
as a community of believers that influence the opinions of the world around
them by enhancing God’s reputation through their attitudes and actions with one
another. Because, as followers of Jesus we are called to practice a lifestyle that
strives to build others up.
Friday, we will see Paul reveal for us a
second way that followers of Jesus are to live in relationship with one another…
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