Accept One Another

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Accept One Another. Romans 14

I’m not really a big basketball fan, but I do know that many people are crazy for March Madness. I do know that as we approach any championship game there are all kinds of news stories and interviews sizing the teams up – analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. And teams will be drawing up game plans in the hopes of destroying their opponent.

While the Final Four may be the most popular thing on TV this month, the favorite indoor sport for many Christians is sizing up each other, identifying differences, and dividing up the body of Christ.

I’m probably going to oversimplify it, but let me try to explain the problem the church was having in Romans chapter 14. The believers in the church in Rome were divided over a couple specific issues that essentially all stemmed from the fact that they came from different cultural backgrounds before coming to Christ.

One of the problems centered around eating meat, and whether it was OK for a Christian to eat meat that might have been sacrificed to an idol before it was sold in the market. Was it wrong to eat meat? Well some people had no issue with it at all, but others felt that by eating meat they would become spiritually contaminated. So, one group held to a strict diet and felt that this made them more spiritual. The other group felt that they could eat anything they wanted, and were just as spiritual as the first group.

So, we have a weak group and a strong group. But as we look at this passage a little more carefully, we might be surprised which group is which. At first glance, we might think that the group who didn’t eat meat and practiced more self-control is the strong group. But as we get to the heart of the matter, we’ll see that a “weak” believer is one who doesn’t fully understand the extent of their freedom in Christ and whose conscience is bothered by the decisions, practices and lifestyle choices of others not specifically addressed in Scripture. A “strong” believer is the one who can exercise their freedom in Christ with a clear conscience.

Here are some lessons we can apply from Romans 14 to help us with acceptance.

1. Avoid passing judgment. Romans 14:1, “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters.

This grace doesn’t apply to any kind of action or attitude; the key here is the phrase, “disputable matters.”  It refers to something that is debatable or in question. It refers to those “gray” areas of the Christian life not specifically addressed in Scripture.

2. Commit yourself to God alone. Look at verses 7-8, “For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. ⁸ If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

3. Control yourself in love. Verse 13 says, “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.”

4. Edify everyone you can. Loving others leads to edification. Look at verse 19, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”

5. Personalize your convictions privately. Verse 22 says, “So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.” Your personal convictions are just that ­- personal. If they were meant to be for everyone, God would have included them in the Bible. But He didn’t. He gave them to you personally and they should stay between the two of you.

6. Treasure people like Jesus does. Verse 1, “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Are we making a huge sacrifice when we give up something for the sake of another believer? Compared with what Jesus did for us, nothing is too great for us to give up. No sacrifice we could ever make can match what Jesus did for us on the cross.

I’m convinced that some of us have a difficult time accepting others because we don’t really accept ourselves. We sometimes feel that we’re so unworthy of God’s grace because of the things we’ve done, or the things we have failed to do. Maybe we struggle to really believe that we’ve been forgiven by God.