The Believer's Responsibility
Romans 14:13-21 · Roger Henderson · Aug 12, 2007
Romans (2005-07), No. 95
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492603550901

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, well this morning we're going to continue on in chapter 14. And I thought I'd ask a question before we start. In the last, you know, this whole section in chapter 14 talks about two different kinds of believers. And Paul kind of, he kind of labels them the, I'm not sure he uses the exact word. Let me just make sure before I say that. Maybe you can help me. Does he call them the weak believer and the strong believer? Is that what we've seen so far? And that's why I say without looking, I was kind of curious. Does he use that exact term?

Let's just see here. Yes. OK. So. And then actually, like in 15, it says 15 one or strong. So basically. Paul talks about, in 14, he talks about the weak believer and the strong believer. So I'm going to ask you a question to see if you guys can listen to Randy. I want you to answer it in your own words. What in your own words is the strong believer and what's the weak believer? How are they different? What are they about? Are they both the same? Are they different? Is one better than the other? You already know all this, but I'm trying to get you going here. I don't need to ask this. So anybody, you can just shout out.

Would weak believer be one that's new in the faith? I think he hasn't matured. I'd say he lacks maturity. That would be good. How about the strong believer? Does he know everything? But he obviously is different, right, from the weak believer, because Paul... He's more on the Lord. Okay, depends more upon the Lord, okay. His focus is more on trusting in the Lord daily, and the Lord is more attentive to him instead of... Right, more himself and on the circumstances.

Okay, all right, that's good. Good, good, excellent, excellent. We're going to see that today. He's walking by faith, we're going to see that. And actually, the strong believer, Paul's going to really focus on him and says he has certain obligations. That strong believer has obligations in terms of his relationship to the weak believer. And also the weak believer has obligations and terms that he may not realize he's weak. And I've kind of thought, I've mentioned this before, I think, and it seems like whenever I read that, I think I'm the strong believer. We all do. So, I mean, where's this weak believer? He's this fictitious person that's out there in his other church, the other pew, the other person, right? Because we're all the strong believers. Morning, Bob. So yeah, I thought that too. I said, you know, it's hard, you know, you say, but I think if we're truthful, we can see possibly areas where we may be, you know, that we haven't grown enough. And hopefully we'll see that as we go through this. Okay. So I was going to ask for a volunteer to read, um, 13 through 21. You can read it from the over from the overhead there. We can read it from your Bible. Romans 14, 13 through 21. We're reading. Yes. Thank you very much.

For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking the course of love, do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let what is for you a good thing to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then you pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of good. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything but which is for others' stomachs. Okay. So I thought this passage kind of broke up into into three areas, and there's like a therefore and two verses, another therefore and two verses, and a so then.

I'm sorry, Bob, we didn't tell you about the drip. The thing dripping. I already made that mistake already once this morning talking about the drip and from the, you know, it's from the projector. Well, actually, last week, Margaret got dripped on as well. So I don't know if that's not a family. Right. OK, so.

So as I was saying in this section, it seems like kind of breaks up into the first therefore and 13 is another therefore and 16 and then a so then which is another kind of So let's wrap it together and show you something. And it's interesting that it says here that it says right after the therefore, let us not, sort of a negative, and then in 16, do not let, and then in 19, we pursue and following. So I'm going to kind of cover it in those three sections like that. So actually my first question, what's the therefore therefore? What's it referring to? Actually, there's always a good rule of thumb with the therefore is to go back and look at the previous verses or whatever.

So this is talking about, therefore, let not us judge one another. So if you look at the previous verses, they talk about judging. So I think it's actually summing up the previous verses like in, let me just go back and read in Romans 14 there, some previous verses here. So it seems like that this is, that therefore is summing up, starting back in verse 10 of 14, it says, But you, why do you judge your brother?

Or again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. And it kind of goes on. So I think it's referring back to the fact that weak or strong brother, we're all going to stand before God. Nobody will be exempt from that. So I think he's summing it up. He says, therefore, it makes sense not to judge one another, because our standing is equal before God, whether we're weak or strong.

So the first phrase is, let us not judge one another anymore. And judge is this word krino, it's the idea to form an opinion. And it actually has the idea, it's in the present tense, of something that's already continuing going on. So it's really kind of saying, stop judging. And it's really kind of emphatic, stop judging this moment. So the Lord is telling us that, first of all, let us not judge, and it's a fairly strong present tense, stop judging this moment, and let's look at one of those verses there.

Let's look at the John 7 passage. Can I get someone to read John 7 and verse 24? And this is going to kind of amplify about the word judge. Yeah, mine says judge with righteous judgment. So basically, our judging is to be righteous. Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. And we only can do that as we walk in Christ, as we're abiding in Him, moment by moment.

So in fact, all these, we're going to see some pretty strong, there's a lot of strong commands here, imperatives. And you think, well, boy, I'm going to get my refrigerator list right out here and copy these guys down so I can, you know, get right on these. Well, the thing is, as soon as you do that, you're probably destined for failure. You're not going to make it. So we're going to, but we're going to see a lot of strong imperatives here. Don't do this, do this.

And I think Paul is trying to show us what does the life of Christ in the believer look like? What is it? What is it about? And so it's, you know, I think it's really has some neat things here. Go ahead. Right. To me, right. Excellent it puts us puts us first. Well. Hey, I'm doing pretty well you guys got to get with the program here, and you know I'm I'm the strong brother. I'm doing pretty well, but you weak brothers You're not you're not doing too. Well.

You got you know and the Lord says don't you know don't do that basically? I mean you know if that's actually what's interesting He's gonna give he's gonna give the this other part. It's gonna give the flip side of that He says but rather determine this and actually it's too bad in a way. I mean maybe the King James has this It's actually the same exact word It's interesting.

Don't judge, but judge. Don't judge another, judge yourself. Get the judgment in the right place. Judge yourself. Examine yourself. And that's a pretty constant theme we see in scripture. We're to look at ourselves, not looking outside to a brother and saying, well, you get busy doing that. We look to ourselves.

So it says, but rather determine this. And actually, Weist has it, but be judging this rather. And actually, this is interesting. This is a strong imperative. It has the idea of making this factual in our lives. It's Aristant's making this a fact. Making this a fact in our lives. But rather, judge this. And then the next part is, what are we to judge?

Not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. And there's actually two words there that are very close. The obstacle and the stumbling blocker have a very close meaning, maybe a slight difference. And actually what's even more difficult is, as we'll go through, sometimes they're translated, they'll flip the words around. Sometimes obstacle is translated stumbling, or even stumbling block, and they flip back and forth. But there's a slight difference.

Obstacle is this idea, something that you may bang or dash your foot against. You may hit your foot, trip over something. They both have to do with the feet. Whereas the stumbling block is actually this idea, it came from a word that meant like the, you know, you have your mousetrap out there and it's actually the, we put the cheese on the little trigger thing, you touch that thing and it goes whap on your finger and you go, oh, why did I do that? It's actually the trigger on the trap.

So they both talk about things that you can hurt, you can stumble over. And of course this is, alluding to it in the spiritual sense. And actually, what's interesting is these words, as with many words in scripture, can be used in a positive sense or a negative sense. I just wanted to show you, this is used in a negative sense. Don't put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. But in terms of Christ, in 1 Peter, it's used in a totally different way, both words. 1 Peter chapter 1. I'm sorry, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 8. Let me just go back.

It says, back to verse 7, this precious in value then is for you who believe. For those who disbelieve, the stone which the builder rejected, this became the very cornerstone. And the stone of stumbling, that's one of our words, and the rock of offense, for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, And to this doom, they were also appointed. Kind of rather strong words. But here's the case where the Lord used those stumbling blocks, something the Lord was pointing out to people about what they did.

OK, so let's go on here. So that's the first one. Let us not as judge one another anymore, but rather determine this, not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. So then he kind of switches it. I know a man convinced. He's going to make a statement about what he knows and understands about basically things that are clean and unclean.

He says, I know a man convinced in the Lord Jesus. And this know is this word oida, which means complete, full knowledge. So he says, I know a man convinced. And the convinced is the idea of having been persuaded. It's actually a word we use for believing. So he knows, he's very certain of this. I know a man convinced. And it's actually It's in the passive voice.

Remember, that means he knew it in the past, and he continues to know it up until the present. So Paul knows this and is convinced of this. And we're going to see what that is in just a second. But let's look at this verse here in Romans 8, 38 and 39. Romans 8, 38 and 39. Can I get someone to read that? Right. So.

So this kind of shows you how this is the same word here for I'm convinced. that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, you know, that's a wonderful statement. He's totally convinced of that and he's very convinced of this too. And what he's convinced about is that nothing is unclean in itself.

And this word unclean is this idea of being defiled or common. So what do you think he's referring to here? when he says unclean, what's kind of the thrust here? What's he trying to point out here when he says nothing is unclean in itself? Hopefully it's not a tricky question. So he's basically saying he's absolutely convinced that nothing is unclean in itself.

Well, first of all, let's just back up for a second. Is he supporting the strong believer here or the weak believer here, do you think? Wayne? You think the weak believer? Okay. Any other thoughts here? I think that's what he's doing, but when he's talking about, when he says it's common to complain, what does it say to me that he's thinking of your attitude? Well, it certainly has to do with, it's their conviction about things. Because everybody has their own conclusions.

Okay, well let me ask you this, does Paul, Paul in Scripture, does he have the unclean list and the clean list of things? No. No, no, no. We already talked about, when Peter was saying, you know, I'm not going to eat meat or I'm not going to eat whatever, you know, because I was eating it now, I'm not going to eat it because now the Jews are around and I don't want to eat it. And so Paul chastised him and disciplined him about that, you know, that's not correct.

That those things are not unclean. But if it's a stumbling block to a good believer, then it's our responsibility as more mature Christians to take that into consideration and realize they think it's unclean, and to be cognizant of that. Great, great, okay. So, you know, inherently there's nothing unclean. It's your attitude. It's neutral. The object is neutral. It's not unclean in itself. And that's basically what he's pointing out. And then he's going to say here that But to him who thinks anything be unclean, to him it is unclean.

What's really interesting, this word for thanks is just not a casual thought. This is one of the words we studied a lot. It occurred back in Romans chapter 6. This is just logizimai, to put it down as true. So the person who thinks, he's just not casually, he's counting upon that. He's convinced of that. So it shows you the tension here.

The tension is, we have a believer, and Paul's calling him the weak believer, who thinks this food, drink, whatever it is, alcohol, smoking, you name it. He thinks, boy, a believer who does that, they have serious problems. And it's my job to point that out to them. And they have a problem, too, in doing that. And they're counting upon that. So what he's saying is, he reckons that to be true.

I was kind of amazed at the strength of that word. The King James maybe, for an occasion, is better here, esteemed. Oh, OK. OK, good. Excellent. I mean, esteemed takes on, I think, a little bit more. Yeah, thanks instead of, well, he kind of has, maybe he thinks this, he thinks that. Well, legitimize is not that word. That's the one word. We're to reckon it to be true. Put it down as fact. It's an accounting term. So I was kind of impressed that that was a word that was used here.

So Paul is saying this believer, he thinks that he's counting upon it to be unclean. And as a result of that, it is unclean. So he wants us to be consistent. If we believe something is wrong, I think when I'm with this group, it's wrong, like Peter. This group is wrong, this group is right. This group is wrong, you're always going back and forth.

No. Be consistent. Do you think it's an issue? Then stick with that. You may have to mature in the faith, but be consistent. He's going to come back to this point a few times as we go through here. Well, I think the important distinction here, Roger, isn't it that, I mean, you can make a lot of this stuff yourself. Absolutely.

And that's not the message. No. I think the message is the Spirit leads the believer in the new man. to sense his or her environment around them. And that's a spirit-led new life. It's not a law. So if we put a legality to this, then it breaks down in terms of the intent, right? Exactly.

But I think he wants to point out that what he's calling the weak believer is kind of going down that path. He's kind of set up this, you can't do that, you can't have these smoking, drinking, whatever it is, and he has issues with your Christianity, if you're doing that.

And he's talking to the strong believer, saying, well, how do you relate with that person? How do you interact with that person? He hammers you over the head about your smoking and drinking. You come back and you, tit for tat, you pound him again. Do you do that? The answer is no, obviously. And he's going to show us what the proper attitude is.

But this is, you know, these things are real. I think we've all maybe experienced them in different ways. And they don't have to be things that we mentioned, any number of things. You can set up a thing that if a believer does that, then somehow he's not, his standing with God is in doubt, or his, you know, whatever. You can, you know, you can make all kinds of conclusions. But Paul's going to be very clear about that. So now he's going to go ahead and talk about your relationship to your brother again, some more.

So actually, what I wanted to do here is, let me just read the 15 here. It says, For if, because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love, do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. He's going to make a real strong point here. He's going to say, Christ died for all of us. And you're going to make a big deal out of food. You're going to really, your brother has a problem with food, and you as a strong believer are going to be real hard on him. You can't do that. Christ died for all.

I flipped this around, just hopefully to make it clearer. I put the if in between, if you will. For you are no longer walking according to love. And this walking is this peripateo. Actually, there's a neat verse here. We'll just come before we get down to the if part of it here. This peripateo. Let's look at Let's look at Ephesians chapter 5 here. And this walking in love is just a wonderful... And this describes the Christian life. This is what we're about. Walking in love. And it's phrased in various ways in scripture. Ephesians 5, 1 and 2 I want to read here.

It says, Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. So we're to walk in love, just as Christ also loved. And also in Colossians it says we're to walk in him. And in the Romans passage it says walk in newness of life. That's exactly what the Christian life is about. Walking in Him, abiding in Him, trusting in Him, moment by moment. That's what it's all about.

So this one, it says negatively, you are no longer walking according to love. And then it has this if, let me just get the rest of it here, if because of food your brother is hurt. So I asked a question about What class is this? And maybe it's a little bit too technical or whatever, but I know over the years Hal's, you know, you have first class, second class, third class. First class is, it's assumed to be true, so it would say, you are no longer walking according to love, and you could have since, because of food your brother has hurt. That would be the assumed to be true case. Then there would be the opposite case, where it was assumed to be false. You are no longer walking according to love, if because of food your brother is hurt.

In fact, you can't make it read the not case, I don't think. And the third case is, is it kind of maybe yes, maybe no. So I was going to ask, what do you guys think? Is this assumed to be true? Is it assumed not to be true? Is it maybe yes, maybe no?

And if you have that, you can tell from the Greek. You can cheat. If in the Greek you can tell, but Hal had a good way. He would say, look at the, look at the, after the if, is that true? Then the, the, you turn it around. Yeah. If it works the other way, then, then, you know, so, so you have any thoughts about what, can I put sense in there for that? If I don't think so. I think so. OK. All right. Anyone else.

Well, I believe it's the first case, and actually in the Greek it kind of shows it, but if you look at the way the translators put it, they put the if at the beginning, and it's assumed that you're doing, it's assumed that you're, for if because of food your brother, it's assumed that's going on, so it assumes that because of that, you're hurting your brother, and you shouldn't be hurting your brother, so that you're no longer walking according to love.

So I think that's the thrust of it. So you could put sense in there, I believe. And you're welcome to, you know, if you see me happy, you think it's different, that's... I'm happy to listen. Okay. And basically this hurt is to be grieved or saddened or sorrowful. So because of food, you know, you're making your brother sorrowful. The question is, why are we, you know, why are you going there? And then he comes on very strong. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. And destroy is not Extinction. It's basically loss of well-being. And you can see that. If you're quibbling over food or making it a big deal, then you're not walking in love towards your brother.

You're not walking as Christ walked. believe that these things are true, and they're believers. They're supposedly strong believers. And then they're trying to impose their will on you, and make you feel guilty because you're doing those things that they think. And that wouldn't be really considered a stumbling block, because that, I mean, I'm asking you. Because they're supposed to be strong, mature believers. Or appear to be. Okay.

Well, I think one thing we have to distinguish between what Paul's, he's talking about when he says clean and unclean, is he talking about morally clean and unclean or ceremonial clean and unclean? I think we have to decide what he's talking about because if it's a sin, then you have every right to say, brother, I think you've made a bad choice there and you're in love. But if it's, a food or a drink, then that's more in the ceremonial realm, which I think Paul's talking to here. So I think that decision is one part of how you base where you go.

Is that what verse 16 is getting at? I think, yeah, we're going to get there in a second. Let's just see what 16 says. Okay, excellent. Let's go on with that. Actually, there's going to be a verse here in just a little bit where Paul talks about his liberty And if it's a ceremonial issue, he's willing to give it up. He says, hey, I'll give it up right now. It's not that important. We haven't gotten to it yet, but I found it. I kind of came across it, and I saved it for last. I thought it was really cool. I'm almost going to read it here, but it's really good.

He is so concerned about his relationship with his brother. If it offends his brother, I'm just not going to do it. I'm just going to stop doing it. Doesn't mean he doesn't do it ever, but if it hurts his brother, he's just going to not do it. And you can think of that maybe if there's something, some relationship, having a glass of wine or something like that. If a person had a problem with that, maybe alcoholic, you just would not do that around them. You never would do that because it would be hurtful to them. But what if they found out that you... I know, I know. I understand. I don't know. And there's some, you know, I'm not sure I have every answer to all this. It does. It does.

And the weaker brother, he can be acting improperly too. This is not all a one-way street. What about these churches that say you can't wear pants? Okay, yeah, there we go. I work with a girl who's like that too. She's considering this. because you don't conform to her beliefs. No make-up looks good in her pants or in her dress. So what do you do in that? Is that an important enough issue that she can never wear pants around them? I was looking back at this morning. Right. Ceremonially, right. It's hard.

It would seem to me, if you're in the same fellowship with this person, within our body here, we have a unity. If you go out to the greater body of Christ, and if you assume they're believers, I don't know. So that means that every time you encounter this lady, you change your dress to not have pants, right? Then what happens if you find somebody else who has the opposite view? Am I dressed right for today?

Yeah, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm sorry. OK. talking about, like, for instance, if I'm a strong believer, and I have an issue with another person, that, yeah, it's okay to do this or that, and I convince them to do this with me, and then later, or maybe immediately, feel guilty, because they violated their own standards and their own conscience, and if they haven't come to peace with the Lord about that, that, yeah, it's okay, Sure.

Then haven't I in a way forced their girls and destroyed them in the sense of making them feel guilty? I think you can go that way. I mean, I think that, you know, that you would like to teach them. You'd like that they would be teachable, right? You'd like to say, well, let's look at Scripture and let's look at these passages here. What was Paul, you'd like to show them that. Now, many times you don't have an opportunity or they don't want to. So, I don't believe you're to force it. I don't think you, and that's what he's saying. Don't hurt your brother, you know. Christ died for him too. Why would you do that? Why would you make that? Is that so important?

And it's not. We're to judge ourselves, is what we saw earlier. The focus is on us, making that we're right with the Lord. Hopefully, I'm not sure we're going to answer all these questions, but this is good. Oh, come on, wow. Okay, okay, okay, Bob. Okay. And you were real disappointed, right? You stumbled, too. Okay, there you go. Okay. All right, all right. Okay, okay. Yeah, right. Okay, so we have another therefore. And I think it's referring back to the previous verse, I think that actually was kind of pointed out.

Therefore, do not let what is good for you, is a good thing for you, be spoken of as evil. And that's exactly the case we're talking about. If you have the freedom to do things, and your conscience is clear, that's not unclean, and you do them, then you could be spoken of as evil. Brother so-and-so is smoking and drinking, or he's doing whatever. And that's going to be spoken of as evil.

And then 17, he's going to say, well, let's step back for a second. Let's compare eating and drinking with what the whole Christian life is about, which is righteousness and peace and the Holy Spirit. So he's going to compare, is this so significant, this eating and drinking, versus the whole Christian life? And he's going to kind of compare that as we go through here. But basically, what's interesting here is that Stop allowing your good, or the good, to be spoken of in a reproachful and evil manner.

It's really just the word blaspheme. I guess they didn't want to use that, translate it that way, so they put all these other words in there. So you got all these words in there, and it's just really blaspheme. Maybe they didn't think we knew what blaspheme was. Or maybe they thought it was too strong. Stop allowing your good, or the good, to be blasphemed.

So the question is, what is your good? I think we kind of already answered that. So your good is, Your good is what you're saying, I have the right, I'm a strong believer, I can do this and do that, and it's not inherently unclean, so I have a good conscience before God with that.

Isn't this all really more just the food that he's talking about? Well, actually, in this context, you're absolutely right. In this context, it's food and drink, ceremonial. The application seems to be beyond that, I mean, because we don't have You know, right now, I don't know if food is a sacrifice to idols. Maybe there is. Probably some place it is in this world, but it's not relevant. Today, the Christian community is not worried about, you know, have you gone to your market and asked, is it a sacrifice to idols?

Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. They are. Sure. Isn't it more about freedom from legalism rather than I have a right to do something? Because in the Christian life, we really don't have rights. Okay, that's a good point. We have a life that we walk in. That's good. I'm just saying, well, I'm free, I have rights.

Okay, I had not thought... But I think, in a sense, there is a sense which we don't have to... Our conscience is clear, in that sense, that liberty in that sense. I don't have to... My conscience is clear in the matter, I'm not worried about this food or drink or whatever. So there's that part, but that's good.

For the Kingdom of God, so now he's under the comparison, for the Kingdom of God, and I think the Kingdom of God in this case, And, you know, if you look in, like Wernstein in this thing in Matthew, if you look in there, you have the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, and they seem to refer to the Millennial Kingdom. I don't think this is referring to the Millennial Kingdom. It doesn't make sense in this passage.

It's talking about what is God doing ruling over His creation right now. So I think it's in that sense, for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. That's not God's focus, eating and drinking. God's not making rules about eating and drinking. but it's righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

And those are the characteristics of our life in Christ. Christ living through us, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And I think that's a conditional thing he's talking about here as our moment-by-moment walk. Our moment-by-moment walk is not with our clipboard out saying, let's see, you're smoking and you're drinking, but I'm not doing any of these. There's something Paul's also talking about, where's our focus? If our focus is off the Lord Jesus Christ, then all these things... come into play because we're not walking in him and his character is going to live out of him.

Isn't it interesting, if you look at where believers are, what's important to them in their Christian life? You can tell a lot about that. Does the church have guitars? Oh, if the church has guitars, then that's Absolutely. You can have lists of hundreds of things. Is it music? Is it contemporary, not traditional?

You can make a list, and I'm sure that we would all have different opinions about it. And we can all divide over it too. The Lord says, don't even go there. Don't go there. The focus is on Christ in you, righteousness and peace and joy, that's the focus. There may be things that we will never agree on corporately, but that can't be our focus. If it is, I think that's why so many churches split up, because their focus is on that, and you'll never agree on those things. We better move on here.

18. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. And this idea of serve here, this is to serve as a due loss, a bond slave, a bond servant. That's what we are in terms of Christ. We are His bonds. It's this wonderful bond servant relation. We are His bond servant. So that's the way. We're to serve our brother in a sense. And what's neat is that when we do that, when we walk in Christ, when we walk in who we are in Christ, it will be acceptable to God.

And it's actually translated acceptable or well-pleasing depending upon what passage you see. But then what's also cool, it's approved by men. And this is to try to... it's documas, and I've spent many years on a couple of different words for being approved. So what's neat is, when we walk with Christ, it will be acceptable to God, please God, and also be approved by men.

So I think our actions in relation to our brother, when we are sensitive to him, we say, hey, I'm not going to make a big deal about that, it's not important to me. Knowing Christ is important. That will be approved by me. And then we'll see that and say, that's not important to my brother.

I don't agree with where he's at. Maybe that's part of the answer. Many times you don't have a chance to state your case. But if you're walking in Christ and they see that, then they'll say, well, I see that you're different and you have a different opinion than I do. And they may not change their view, but that could be part of the answer to that maybe. OK,

19. So now we have another summary statement. So then, we pursue, so here's some conclusions. We pursue, let us pursue, and this word pursue is the idea of, it's kind of interesting, to run swiftly, to seek eagerly, to earnestly endeavor. So this is not a casual kind of thing. We pursue the things which make for peace. This is a long dispensation, but blessed are the peacemakers, that's going to be from the Millennial Kingdom. God is a God of peace, so being at peace with your brother is important. Let us pursue the things which make for peace. Building up one another, and building up is this word oikos, house. and to build, the combination of oikos and to build, building up the house, building up one another.

And it goes on, do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. So it keeps coming back to that point. Back to the point that God is doing a work in every believer's life, and we're not to focus on those things that are not his focus, his focus is Christ. And the food can only be a stumbling block. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean.

He kind of comes back to the, but they are evil for the man who eats and drinks, eats and gives offense. So if you flaunt your liberty, if you flaunt that, that can be a problem. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. Tear down his idea to loose or unloose the work of God. God is at work. He's working in the weak believer's life. And maybe this process that he's going through, he'll be matured through that. And if you get all cranked up about his issues, then that's going to maybe hinder God's working.

All things indeed are clean, but they, all things, are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. So if we focus on these things, these things that can divide brothers on the eating and drinking, or whatever it may be, they can be evil for us, and can give offense. And this offense is just another same word we've seen several times about an obstacle or a stumbling block.

So then the last verse is, it is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything which stumbles your brother. So it is good He covers the whole gamut here. Eat meat, drink wine, or do anything. Now I want to show you this verse here. By which your brother is stumbled. And stumble is the idea, this kind of class of words to stumble over something that's kind of in your way. But there's a cool verse here. Let's look at this verse. I'll get someone to read for me.

This kind of shows Paul's heart in relationship to the weaker believer. Actually, in this case, Yeah, actually, okay, the Wicked Believer. 1 Corinthians 10, 27 to 31. 1 Corinthians 10. Yeah, starting in verse 27 and going to 31 in 1 Corinthians 10. for your peace.

And you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other.

Why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience? For if I, by grace, be a partaker, why am I evil-spoken, and for that for which I give thanks? Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. So let me just go back and point out a couple of things. I think this is really neat.

He says, you know, if one of the unbelievers invites you and you wish to go, he says, you're free, eat whatever you want. But if anyone should say to you, so someone's going to challenge you, you've been to the unbeliever's house, and I bet you had that meat sacrificed to idols. He says, well, if anyone says to you, this meat is sacrificed to idols, don't eat it. for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience sake.

And he says, whose conscience sake is that? Is that Paul's conscience sake? Or is it the conscience sake of the believer that kind of questioned him about it? And he says, it's for the other person's conscience. I mean, not your own conscience, but the other man's conscience. I thought that was just outstanding. He said, I have freedom, for why is my freedom judged by another's conscience? So he's saying this person is doing it improperly, but he's going to accept that.

So I found it very enlightening, this passage here. Actually, there's more in here. Actually, I wanted to end here just real quickly. I have a chart that Hal put together back in, it's amazing, 1978. It blows my mind when I see these. I just say, wow. And what he did, he went through, and don't put this in the refrigerator. And obviously Paul did not intend that we copy, you know. But anyway, it kind of summarizes what we talked about. And actually, it goes a little bit into the verses for next week.

Okay, on the do side, this is the dues of our Christian liberty. and the don'ts of our Christian liberty. The first one is do start judging yourself. And it's a strong believer. That you kind of goes across the page there. Do not judge one another. And that's both the weak and the strong. So we're to look to ourselves. We're to judge ourselves.

And then don't be a stumbling block, spiritual hindrance. On the right hand side here, a snare to your brother by exercising your liberty if it is wrong to him. somebody got okay next one okay over on the do side do walk conduct your life always in a debt of love universal principle as opposed to claiming your rights don't grieve or distress your brother by exercising of your liberty do not destroy keep on leading your weak brother in paths of ruin with respect to his spiritual life do serve Christ by walking in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit and forgoing your liberty is necessary. Do not be wrong by being right. Your liberty is not a license and it should not be blasphemed. Do not actively and eagerly, do actively and eagerly pursue the things and promote peace and building up of one another spiritually. Do not undo the work of God for a T-bone steak or a drink because it may cause your brother to stumble and be led away from Christ instead of closer to Christ.

And actually, the next one I'm going to save for next week, because they're the following verses. But I thought that was kind of a good summary of where we've been. Well, I don't think I answered all the questions, but food for thought. I found this very, very good, and I think it's something to really think about.

What does the life of Christ lived out look like? It looks like that we have empathy for our brother, and we prefer him over ourselves. That's actually stated in various other passages in the scripture. There's a fair amount of detail given in here, and how you can do it.

I have the liberty, why can't I do it? Does that answer Donna's question? I don't know. Does it, Donna? I'm not sure it does exactly. Okay, well I'm not sure, and personally I know I have cases where there are situations I know some people maybe object to something I might say or do, but I think as much as you can be at peace with all men, you do what is possible within your power. I think it would be unreasonable to have you change your, you know, if you're going to that church where she attended and you subscribe to that church, then I would say I would do it. But if you're not going there, I don't know. I mean, every time you met a believer and had a different belief, you'd have to adjust your, that seems unreasonable.

Also, don't you think it has to do with more of an interaction in a personal relationship kind of thing as opposed to going to work? Right. I mean, where Donna's in a work clothes situation. Unless, hopefully, it comes to a, you know, where she will think of it. Well, I mean, if you were going to meet her somewhere for lunch, or you were going to have more of a personal, maybe you would choose to wear a dress because it would allow you. But in your work situation, every day, to do that.

Right. Because that's how she feels. And that's what she's, by the way, being taught in her church. Go ahead, Bob. I think alcohol is one of the biggest issues here. It is. And let me be brief, but the scripture, you know, guards against drunkenness. Right. There are limits on alcohol. Right.

And I used to believe J. Vernon McGee that actually the wine at the Marriage of Cana was really grape juice because it was I don't know. I kind of come away from that. I think it was wine. I think it was too. I also think at the Lord's table, that was probably wine.

So therefore, you know, the scripture is clear. Drunkenness is unacceptable. But Mike always points out, how do we know what level of alcohol consumption that is that might impair somebody's capability? The law says how much that is, right? Yes, it does. It gets the law of our community or police.

What if I'm a believer who's really kind of legally oriented and I find out that you've had a glass of wine? Right. I know you're going to say. I mean, you're not drinking in my presence. You've got a sensitivity. ultimately I find out that you're an elder in this church and you can't have a glass of wine. So that's, in my opinion, that's where this becomes very difficult. Because for you to say I can't have a glass of wine at my freedom occasionally puts you under law, doesn't it?

That's spirit led. I don't know, this gets really tricky. I think I don't think we should make a law out of this. We've got the Spirit led in the new man to do what we believe the Spirit is leading us to do. Well, it seems like one of his thrusts here is that we're pursuing peace with our brother. And as we can relate to him and try to say, well, have you looked at, you know, if you had the opportunity, have you looked at this? Have you looked at this passage? Have you looked at that? And try to teach them if that's possible.

Now, many times it's not. It never can happen. It's in and out. You don't have a situation where you can do that. But I think being sensitive and saying, yeah, I understand. I understand. And saying you realize that. But my conscience is clear before God. I'm clear that that's okay.

Wayne? Absolutely. right worshipping, he was denied the Greek wine in that worship. So, I think he was drunk with wine. Well, obviously scripture warns you not to be drunk. You're drunk with wine, which is excess. I mean, that's clear. There's no doubt about that. Well, it's wine. And wine can be abused, just like anything can be abused. So anything in excess can be abused.

See, isn't that wonderful why we want to focus on Christ? If we go down here to Turkey and drink and all, we'll never... Let's line up there for class. Actually, Wayne, did you have something you wanted to share? Sometimes when we start focusing on Jesus, we get vacillating down. Absolutely. Absolutely. Exactly. Absolutely. Absolutely. Right. Go ahead. But at the same time, we can't just throw up a hand and say, well, we're not going to figure it out, right? You got to figure it out.

Well, and I think I think I think that I think that he's tried to, you know, to show where the strong believers to be and where and where the weak believe. He's tried to show that pattern there. I think it's in it. But applying that to every single case is maybe the challenge. I mean, I think it's pretty straightforward. And so the question is, where does my situation fit into what he's told us? We'll have next week to talk some more about this, so let's close.

Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this day, Father, for the blessings we have. Lord, we thank you that we can trust you and rest in you, Lord. We thank you for your word, the completeness of it, Lord, and how it discusses all things that are relevant to our life in Christ. We ask it in his name. Amen.