818 Rom.14.1-12 Matters of Indifference

- To eat meat that has been offered to idols; to have a glass of alcoholic drink; to mark off a day as more sacred than another; to wear a suit to church instead of jeans; to pray all night long or even to get up before sunrise to pray

Matters of Indifference

Date: 23-12-18 818 Echuca

- These we would argue are matters of personal preference

- There are no moral or biblical imperatives to insist that these things need to be practised or even practised in the same way

- Yet, people can argue until they're black & blue in the face, as if these things are matters of life or death

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- We all have religious sensitivities that may differ from each other

- These are matters that stem from the conscience & the convictions of each individual Christian

- Depending on your background, there can be divergent opinions about certain religious scruples

Q. Should a Christian never be around any person that uses foul language?

Q. Will that pollute a person if they stay in contact with that?

- Some Christians feel strongly about absenting themselves from such language, whereas other Christians find it water off a duck's back

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- This goes to the heart of a person's conviction & to the heart of how Christians need to accept one another even though they disagree on matters of indifference

- The popular saying of many is this...

In essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in all things, love

- The main point is that when it comes to matters that have neither biblical commands nor moral commands backing them, we should accept & respect one another's opinions

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- There are 2 matters specifically addressed in this passage today

- The eating of meat & Sabbath days

- These were great sources of disagreement amongst Jewish & Gentile Christians

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- The heart of the matter is how Jews & Gentiles can live together as Christians in light of sensitive matters in which they disagree

- The “strong” Paul talks about here are predominantly Gentile Christians whereas the Jewish Christians are referred to as the “weak”

1. The Strong & the Weak

- The first thing you need to recognise is that designating Christians as either strong or weak is no reflection on their acceptance with God – this is clear in v.4

—4 Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

Romans 14:4 NASB95

4 Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

- Paul doesn't say “strong” in this passage today, but it is implied as strong is the opposite of “weak”

- However he does, specifically, say the “strong” at the beginning of the next chapter, chp. 15.

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- But then, we need to recognise who are the “strong” & the “weak”

- As I said in the introduction, this has to do with either eating or abstaining from meat & either treating each day as the same or instilling one day with more sacred significance than another

- The “weak” here are said to be “weak” in faith & are most likely identified with Jewish Christians who have not been able to remove the Law of Moses from them as the governing factor over their lives

- Jesus said that all food is clean; Paul, who is a Jewish Christian but one of the “strong”, also believes that all food is clean on the proviso that it is eaten to the glory of God

—14 I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

Romans 14:14 NASB95

14 I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

- Gentiles, on the other hand, never had this background to hamstring them from eating meat of all kinds

- It's like many things in life – we do them because that is how it has always been done

- We are shackled in more ways than we care to admit

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- This being the case, we are required to understand each other better &, out of love, recognise that others are on a journey different from ours & are still working things out for themselves

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- Being vegan for the “weak” was not for the purposes of looking slim & fit, nor is it because they believed that killing cattle was wrong

- The most likely background to this issue over meat is that, in such an idolatrous society as that of Rome, meat offered to idols in sacrifice was sold to the meat markets for sale then to the general public

- You had no way of knowing if the meat you bought at the local supermarket had been offered to an idol

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- Furthermore, the law of Moses spelt out certain kinds of meat which were unholy & it spelt out certain particular ways to slaughter the animal

- The blood of the animal had to be drained or else the meat would be unholy; it also had to be cooked in a certain way

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- Certain types of meat was forbidden & classed an unclean – for example, the pig, the camel, the horse

- Remember how the apostle Peter objected to the unclean meat that God showed him in the vision of the animals in the sheet lowered from heaven & telling him, “Get up Peter, kill & eat”

Q. Remember what He said to God?

—11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” 16 This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky. 17 Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate;

Acts 10:11–17 NASB95

11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” 16 This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky. 17 Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate;

- Then after pondering what this vision meant, he goes to the home of the Gentile, Cornelius, & makes this statement:

—28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.

Acts 10:28 NASB95

28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.

- What God has deemed clean is clean, but from this you can see just how important it was for a Jew to avoid anything that was unclean & you could see that meat was certainly one of them

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- This was a big issue in the church of Rome where Gentile Christians with no background in Judaism could simply say, “it's just a slab of meat” but the Jew would have huge reservations at conceiving the meat this way

- What we are to understand here is that just as someone might regard a slab of meat as just a slab of meat, he should regard someone abstaining from it in the same way

- I don't care, I'll eat meat & I don't care, you can go vegan

- But what was happening was that the “strong” who understood that we are not under the law & that Jesus pronounced all food clean, were looking with contempt on their Jewish brethren

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- Contempt means to have no respect or regard & to look down on a person & to even despise them for their weakness

- The strong may think something like this: “That person is so pathetic; they need to get over their past legalism”

- But this will not help anyone

- These are matters of indifference, like the colour of carpet

- It meant a lot to the Jews, but bottom line, it's irrelevant now

- So if the Jews want to keep to it, then, show love & accept them

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- It's different, of course, if they are insisting that you must practise these things, as a group of them did in the churches of Galatia

- Paul then came into sharp dispute with them because that went to the heart of the Gospel & threatened the Gospel itself

- They were insisting that you adopt the law if you want to be saved

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- On the other hand, the “weak” must not judge the “strong”

- Imagine one of the “weak” watching a “strong” Christian woman buying meat from the marketplace

- Tisk, tisk, tisk, - what is she doing!

- In that person's mind then she is a compromiser; a person who puts their stomach before God - & so it goes

- But the apostle insists that this woman who buys the meat should be accepted

- The reason is that God has accepted her - & that is the key

- God is the One who decides on who is acceptable to Him

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- I think the bottom line here is that some people have not grown in their faith to the level of accepting the truth as it is in Jesus

- If we don't make allowances for such people in where they are at with God, then we are all the poorer, for we all have been at that stage at some point in our walk with God

- This is not saying that anything goes – it has to do with matters of indifference, not biblical commands nor moral absolutes

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- Look at how the apostle puts this in 1 Cor.

-- 4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. 7 However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. 8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.

1 Corinthians 8:4–8 NASB95

4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. 7 However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. 8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.

- The person's conscience is defiled because as far as that person is concerned, they did the wrong thing by eating the meat that, in their mind, was unclean, having been sacrificed to an idol

Q. Can you see the dilemma?

- It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong – it matters because in the mind of that person, it was wrong & so in their mind, if they do the wrong thing, it is against God – whether it's right or wrong

- So it goes to the heart of our motives – what we do, we do unto the Lord

2. Whatever Is Done Is Done for the Lord

- This leads me to that great film of the early 1980's - Chariots of Fire – Eric Liddell was the great Scottish sprinter who was scheduled to compete in the Paris Olympics of 1924, but his race was scheduled to run on a Sunday

- Eric & his family believed in a Christian Sabbath which mean that such a thing could not be done on a Sunday

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- Was that a problem biblically – no – but in Eric's mind, it was & so it was not right for him to run on a Sunday

- For him to run on a Sunday would be to sin against God because in his mind & heart, he would be saying to himself, “I would sin against God” if I ran

- By then running on a Sunday, in his heart, he has voluntarily consented to sin against God

- To do that which you think is wrong is to sin against God

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Q. What would you say about his belief?

- Good on him for staying with his convictions because what he did, he did for the Lord

- So Paul writes that if a person wants to see every day aike with no special notoriety, then fine

- If they want to have a more sacred day like the Sabbath, then fine

Q. Yes, we need to instruct these people in the truth, but if they are “weak” in conscience & faith, let's not reject them because they haven't, as yet, got their mind & heart into the liberty of the Gospel

—16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

Colossians 2:16–17 NASB95

16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

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- The important point here is how these things are lived out

- The repetition in vs. 5-6 is glaring - “for the Lord” is expressed 3 times & “gives thanks to God” 2 times

- At it's heart, idolatry's motive is to ignore the creator God & to neither give thanks to Him nor to glorify Him

—21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Romans 1:21 NASB95

21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

- Our motives on what we do are important

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- If someone decides to sleep in Sunday & miss church, I dare say they would get a sharp rebuke from the apostle, because liberty does not equal license

—31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 NASB95

31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

3. Jesus Is Lord of Life & Death

There are some important questions that people are asking about their life: Who am I? How did I come to be here? What is my purpose?

- Many people cannot answer those questions & their life becomes aimless, purposeless & irrelevant

- When a suicide prevention meeting was held here at ECC by a secular organisation, a question was asked of the 17 member group: “Have you ever seriously contemplated suicide &/or made an attempt”?

- There were only two people in the group who were Christians & only these two said, “never”

- That means all the other 15 people had either seriously contemplated suicide &/or made an attempt

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- The Christian knows who he is, how he came to be here & what is his purpose

- It makes all the difference in the world to who you are as a person

- The reason you can't judge one another or look down on one another is that we belong to the Lord – that's who we are – we are the Lord's

- Both the “strong” & the “weak” belong to the Lord Jesus

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- There is no time in which Jesus is not Lord

- When He was crucified, He is Lord, when He was raised from the dead, He is Lord

- This is also true of us – there is no time in which Jesus is not Lord of the Christian – when we live, He is Lord, when we die, He is our Lord

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- The issue is motive – both the strong & the weak, do what they do because they seek to please their master, Jesus

- This is why their individual scruples still make them acceptable

- What they do, they do, to please the Lord

- A person who cannot be bothered to get out of bed to come to church cannot claim to be doing this in order to please the Lord – seriously!

- No person who knows the Lord could possibly buy into that

Choice today can always be casual, whereas the covenantal vow of faith is costly because we commit ourselves to Jesus and mortgage our very selves as we do so. We have chosen, and we are committed. We have picked up our crosses, and there is no turning back. We are no longer our own.-- Os Guinness

4. God Is Judge & We Will All Give Account to Him

- The 4th reason that we are to accept one another's opinions on matters of indifference is that there is a day of judgement coming for each individual person

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:10 NASB95

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

- As Paul also says in today's passage

Romans 14:11 ESV

11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

Q. What does this mean when it comes to making judgements on those who don't hold to your opinions?

Q. Say you hold that you should celebrate Advent Season or Lent?

- These are church festivals with no biblical warrant, but seen as an idea to help Christians celebrate & worship the Lord

Q. Should Christians, who believe in lent, judge those who do not partake in it? Not at all

- The reason is that each Christian will have to give account of himself to the Lord

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- Likewise, the one who doesn't believe in Lent should not look down on the one who wants to celebrate it, since it is done as to the Lord

- It is true that some people are almost as zealous for certain “holy” days as were the Jews, but it does not follow that they are rejected by the Lord for keeping something He doesn't require

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- I think it is important that subsequent generations do learn to distinguish between biblical commands & the traditions & practises of the church

- The two are not identical

- One of the problems that does come from the traditions & practises of the church is that subsequent generations cannot distinguish between what they have grown up with & what is commanded

- Often, what a person grows up with becomes the command of God & if you do not do it, it is like a sin against God

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- So God accepts both the weak & strong in faith, but we need to be growing towards being strong in the faith

- The bottom line is that we are all servants of Christ & we should not take the position of judge because that is usurping the role of God

- We are acting as God when we do this

Summary

- The weak are those who have trouble accepting the freedom of the Gospel on matters of indifference

- The strong are those who have unshackled themselves from the strictures of Judaism

- But since we are all fallen & since we are all on a journey, provided we do all things to the glory of God, then we should accept & respect one another even though we may not see eye to eye on disputable issues