January 31, 2014
DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF
Romans 14:1-12
Conner Price
Central Truth
Although our tendency may be to focus on the controversial, gray issues, we must remember, as believers, to keep the one universal purpose above all else; and that is to love God and love others, which requires grace.
Key Verse | Romans 14:10
Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. (Romans 14:10)
Romans 14:1-12
Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master 1 14:4 Or lord that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess
2
14:11
Or shall give praise
to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Dive Deeper | Romans 14:1-12
Through The Journey in 2013, we studied the first five books of the Old Testament and witnessed God reveal Himself to His people as they journeyed out of Egypt to the Promised Land. During that time, God provided instructions for His people to set them apart from the other nations around them. One of those instructions was not to eat the meat of "unclean" animals.
Jews lived this way for over a thousand years until God changed everything. In Acts 10:9-16, Peter is praying to God and falls into a trance. In this trance, God tells Peter that it is now permissible for the Jewish people to interact with unclean things such as certain types of food that were previously associated only with Gentiles. Right after God revealed that to Peter, a Gentile became one of the first Gentile believers.
Even though God told Peter that he was allowed to eat an "unclean" animal, it was a major point of contention in the early church. The people who still did not eat the unclean animals considered themselves better than the people who did partake. Through this passage, Paul reminds us we are one under Christ. We need to remain united as a universal church. All too often, people in the church will spend their time arguing over gray issues in the Scriptures (e.g., alcohol or tattoos) instead of pushing one another on toward love and good deeds. We need to call one another out of definitive sin struggles, while also understanding God has given us freedom in His Word.
One of my largest struggles is self-righteousness. Instead of being excited as someone takes a step closer to Christ, I will be tempted to look at the other negatives in their life. Thankfully, the Lord has taken ground in that area. I watched a friend in my community group move from having a head knowledge of Christ to living for Christ every day. Without Christ transforming my life, I would have looked for more areas for my friend to work on instead of being excited as he pursued Christ.
Discussion Questions
1. What are some areas of your life in which you have feelings of self-righteousness?
2. What steps can you take to not be self-righteousness?
3. Who can you extend grace to when you have demonstrated self-righteousness in the past?