Grace is so great it bring us to live in love. Grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and embrace living in righteousness; however, grace also teaches us how to live in our convictions and live in grace with those whose convictions may differ from ours.
Romans 14:1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
Receiving grace changes the way you live; it changes the way you have relationship with God, spouse, children, church family, extended family, coworkers, neighbors, friends, and enemies alike! If we have truly received grace we will receive even one who is weak in the faith. God will often convicts us to do or not to do specific things. How we handle these convictions is a sure measuring stick of our own maturity. This is a grace command, “Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.”
Romans 14:3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. 4 Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
In our text the week one is identified as the one who only ate vegetables. The only eating vegetables considered their self to strong one. Note it was not because they did or did not eat meat, it was because of the way they looked down on the one who did not follow their conviction. What a sharp question, “Who are you to judge another’s servant?” God will indeed make His children stand.
Romans 14:5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.
In the new testament church there was controversy over what should or could be eaten and what days should or should not be observed. Most of the controversy was centered around shall we continue in the law. We have spent all of Romans to declare that a man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone. With the question settled, will we offer grace to someone who see it differently than we do?
Romans 14:7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
From Romans chapter one to the 16th chapter Paul continues to bring Jesus Christ and Him crucified as the solution and there is no other solution. Do the convictions you live bring glory to Jesus Christ or are they self glorying? Grace points us to the heart of Jesus.
Romans 14:10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Paul is showing us that grace gets down to where we live. Judging a brother exposes a heart of contempt. The enemy of our soul would love us to judge one another; “I don’t like the way he is doing that.” However, The Holy Spirit wants us to deal with a fellow brother without contempt even if we don’t like the way they are doing something. To be clear, I am not talking about someone walking in blatant sin and is calling it okay: from such a one we need to turn away.
Romans 14:11 For it is written: "As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." 12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.
We have been called to view one another after the Spirit of God. The Father sees us through the blood of Jesus. The heart of the gospel is here! It is what one thinks of Jesus Christ and His Lordship that will determine his or her destiny.
Romans 14:13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.
What if our actions are motivated by a love and heart for those around us? What if we resolve not to put a stumbling block in our brother’s way? Sometime we can be right technicality but wrong on attitude and it equals being completely wrong.
Romans 14:14 I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15 Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; 17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The motive is more important than the action. If you have a liberty and parade that liberty to those you know who would be offended by it, you are not acting in love. The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; it is not in the traditions we have allowed or disallowed.
Romans 14:18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.
If our pursuit is to show everyone “how right we are” we have missed the mark of grace. If our pursuit is to make for peace and pursue things that edify we have surrendered to the strength of grace. Grace is not about us but about Christ in us the hope of glory.
Romans 14:20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. 21 It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.
Let your actions be that of working in agreement with the work of God. Guard the way you live so you will not be an offense or causation of your bother’s stumbling.
Romans 14:22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. 23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.
This is the great principle of grace in regards to convictions. Live by the conviction God has put in your heart. However purposed in your heart to never be a stumbling block to your brother. Live by faith it is the life we have been called to.
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