Greetings Christ Church Missoula!
Grace to you and Peace!
“We who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.” Romans 15:1-2
This passage is a good general summary of the many passages in the New Testament that deal with conflict between Christians. In the immediate context, Paul mentions conflict between brethren weak in the faith and those strong in the faith. In other places it refers to Christians, regardless of the strength of their faith, who have come to different convictions and have come into conflict. I do not think Paul intends for us to go around trying to identify who is strong and who is weak and take sides here. He is communicating to us the necessity of loving each other, no matter where you are in your faith.
It is interesting that the largest sections dealing with this issue in I Corinthians, chapters 8 & 10, and here in Romans chapters 14 &15, deal with food. Don’t let food divide the fellowship. The kingdom of darkness will throw all kinds of things at you to separate you from each other. Don’t let them separate you. The unity and fellowship of the body of Christ is more important than whether or not you cannot eat this or that. But of course, it’s not just about food. There are all kinds of convictions we can come to that work to separate the body of Christ from each other. Don’t let them!
Our job as Christians, our calling, is to build the church. That is ultimately why we are all still here. In Ephesians 4 we are told that everyone has been given gifts by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of “edifying” the church. To edify means to build. It comes from the same word as edifice. We are builders and the kingdom of darkness wants to frustrate our progress. Of course, the darkness in our own fallen human nature is our worst enemy.
The Puritan Richard Sibbes in his book The Bruised Reed (the knowledge of whom I owe to my wife who is currently reading it😊) offers us a challenge. He says, “It would be a good contest among Christians, one to labor to give no offense, and the other to labor to take none. The best men are severe to themselves, tender over others.” What a great representation of Romans 15:1-2.
The way Sibbes puts it, the weak are not dominated by the scruples of the strong but neither are the strong controlled by the scruples of the weak, which is sometimes the way people read Romans 15. For example, Paul does not intend that the man who is weak in faith and only eats vegetables (Romans 14:2) should go around demanding that the strong in faith only eat vegetables as well because he is the weak one. That’s not how it works. Again, Sibbes says it way more eloquently, “Yet people should not tire and wear out the patience of others: nor should the weaker so far demand moderation from others so as to rely upon their indulgence and so to rest in their own infirmities…”No, both groups, all groups, should realize that all Christians have the common goal of building the church and forging a unity that is way more important than food or any other conviction not central to the faith!
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn
Photo by Richard Lee