07 Nov This is us: Receptive freedom

Romans 14:13-15:7

¹³ Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. ¹⁴ I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. ¹⁵ For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. ¹⁹ So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

²⁰ Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. ²¹ It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. ²² The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

15 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. ² Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. ³ For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” ⁴ For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. ⁵ May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, ⁶ that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁷ Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Raising a baby is extremely tiring work. And every parent with a toddler says amen. Babies do not know how to feed themselves. They are still learning how to crawl and walk and continue to stumble. They continually make a mess. They need lots and lots of attention. They take out most of your energy and time. And here is what’s worse. They have nothing to contribute. They demand so much of you and they give nothing in return except an occasional smile and a lot of poops. Am I right? But here is what I know about those babies. Even though they contribute nothing, they are still part of your family. You don’t give up on them. You continue to clean their mess. You continue to teach them how to walk. You continue to feed them. You don’t say to your baby, “Darling I love you but if you don’t start wiping your own butt by the time you are 9 months old, I am kicking you out of the family.” You can’t expect a 9-month-old to act like a 9-years-old. They are babies. And as you continue to feed them and train them, they will eventually grow and become mature.

Here is where I am going with this. A healthy church is a church that continues to win people to Christ. In other words, a healthy church is always filled with both mature Christians and baby Christians. Or to use Paul’s terminology in this passage, strong Christians and weak Christians. Therefore, the house is always messy. And we must be comfortable with that. It means that the church is alive. A messy church is a healthy church. But here is what I want us to get. The weak Christians are not less Christians than those who are strong. Both the strong and the weak Christians have a role to play in the purpose of God. God has joined us together to grow together as one. Remember that every Christian is a righteous sinner. We will never graduate from this title as long as we are still breathing on this earth. It does not matter how mature and strong we are as Christians, we are still righteous sinners. It means that none of us has it all together. All of us still struggle with sin and have room to grow in Christlikeness. But as we grow in the gospel more and more, we find that the gospel starts to shape and transform the way we think and live. We begin to think deeply about the different implications of the gospel in our life. And we start to develop convictions in different areas of life. But here is the problem. There are other people in the church who do not share the same conviction as us. It is very possible for those who love Jesus and grow in the gospel to have a very different strong conviction on different issues.

So, here is the question. How do we love those in the church who have a different conviction than ours? How do we grow together with someone very different from us? I’m going to give you a principle that has been used throughout church history to deal with this question. We are not sure who wrote it, but it was accredited to St. Augustine. “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.” This is a good principle. In matters of essential, every Christian in the church must agree. There are non-negotiable truths in Christianity. For example, Paul writes in Galatians 1 that if anyone preaches a different gospel, even if it’s an angel from heaven, let him be accursed. So, anything that is essential to the gospel, anything that is essential for salvation is non-negotiable. It includes the doctrine of Trinity, the divinity and humanity of Christ, salvation by grace etc. Whatever is black and white in the Bible must be taken as black and white. But then, in matters of non-essentials, we have liberty. It means that in the area where the Bible is not black and white, or what we often refer to as the grey area of life, we have the freedom to disagree. And in all things, charity. In both what we agree and disagree, we must do so in love. Today, we are not talking about the essential matter. Our stand as a church is clear on this one. We will not tolerate a different gospel in this church. Today we deal with the matter of non-essentials. How do we lovingly disagree in the grey areas of life?

Our passage for today deals with this issue. Apostle Paul writes this letter to the Christians in Rome. And one of the main issues that Paul deals with in this letter is how Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians can grow together in one church. Because they are radically different from one another. They believe in the same gospel but the way they apply the gospel in the grey areas of life are very different. They have different convictions from each other. So how can these people who have different convictions grow together as one church? Let’s look at this passage together.

I separate this sermon into four parts. The problem; The solution; The responsibility; The reason.

The problem

Romans 14:13-18 – ¹³ Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. ¹⁴ I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. ¹⁵ For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.

Let me give you the context of the passage. The city of Rome was filled with many temples for different gods. And most of the meat sold in the market had been offered to those gods for blessing. Of course, those gods did not eat the meat. So they would sell the meat for a cheaper price at the market. And a lot of the meat was pork. And this created division in the church. Some Christians in the Roman church, possibly most of the Jewish Christians, said that they should not buy and eat the meat in the market. They said that the meat that had been offered to other gods were defiled and to purchase them was to participate in idol worship. So, the best solution was to say no to meat and say yes to veggies. They were team veggie. But other Christians in the Roman church said, “We know there is only one God. All other gods are not gods. They count for nothing. Plus, doesn’t Peter have a vision about saying yes to pork? If God says yes, why would we say no? Let’s eat Lestari roast pork fried rice after church guys.” They were team meat. Out of curiosity, how many of you would have been on team veggie? How many would be on team meat?

This problem created a sharp division in the church of Rome. Paul referred to the two groups as strong Christians and weak Christians. The strong Christians are team meat, and the weak Christians are team veggie. Sorry team veggie. And this is very interesting. It means that Paul sees one group as better than the other. He does not say, “At the end of the day, all of you is right. Team veggie has their point and team meat has their point. No one is better than the other. Why don’t we just live peacefully and leave everyone to their own choice? Team veggie can eat on their own and team meat can eat on their own.” In fact, the easiest solution is to separate them into two different churches. So, there is a veggie church and there is a meat church. Can we agree that this would have been the easier solution? But Paul does not do that. But rather, Paul wants the strong and the weak Christians to build their unity around Christ. Romans 14:14 – ¹⁴ I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. So, Paul is on team meat. He identifies himself with the strong Christians. He is convinced that no food is unclean. Eating or not eating meat does not make us closer to God. It can make us fat, but it does nothing to our relationship with God. Christians are free to eat whatever they want. In other words, Paul thinks that the weak Christians are wrong. But he does not stop there. He also says that for anyone who thinks the meat is unclean, it is unclean for them. And the strong should not pass judgement on the weak but must decide never to put a stumbling block in the way of the weak. This is where it gets very interesting. On one hand, Paul says to the strong, “You guys nail it. I am with you. Say yes to pork and meat.” On the other hand, Paul says to the weak, “If you think it is wrong to eat meat, then don’t eat it. It is wrong for you to eat meat when you are convinced that you should not.” So, Paul is convinced that the strong is right and the weak is wrong. And vice versa. The weak is convinced that the strong is wrong. So how can they grow together if they think the other group is absolutely wrong?

Now, some of you might think, “Yos, this is not relevant to us. We are too smart to fall into the same trap. We know that we can eat whatever we want, and we won’t be divided over food.” Are we? I am convinced that we are not. We might not get heated up debating on whether or not we should eat pork, but we are still divided over many non-essential things. Let me give you some examples.

Church dress code. Believe it or not, this is happening in our church. If you come to the Indonesian service, you hear that God deserves our best in worship, including what we wear. To come to church is to come into the presence of the king of the universe. You don’t come into a presence of a king wearing ripped jeans or shorts. You wear your best clothes. But if you come to RSI, you hear that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. You can come however you want as long as you are not in a bikini. And when we have a combined service, these two groups are staring at what each other wear to church. Look at the next one.
Smoking. One group is convinced that smoking is wrong. They say that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we should not defile it with poison. So, if you smoke, they will lay hand on you and cast out the smoking demon out of you. The other group is convinced that God created everything for our enjoyment, including tobacco.
Alcohol. One group says that just because we can drink alcohol, it does not mean that we should. We know that 1 in 7 people who drink alcohol develop a problem with it. So why take the risk? Even if we are not affected by it, someone else might follow our example and be addicted to alcohol because of it. So, the most loving thing to do is to not drink alcohol at all. The other group says that the Bible points out that God created wine for our enjoyment. Why would we say no to the gift that God has given us? Even Jesus drank wine while he was on earth. The most God-glorifying to do with wine is to enjoy it, be merry and give thanks to God.
Let me list out a few more examples. Online dating. Is it wise for us to engage in an online dating app? Or should we stick to the traditional way of meeting a person? Tattoo. Is it a sin to have a tattoo? Or is a tattoo simply an art? Church service. Should we have just an onsite service? Or should we have an online service as well? Vaccination. Should we get vaccinated? Or should we not get vaccinated? Mask. Should we wear a mask inside the church? Or should we not? And there are so many others.

Can you see how easily these topics create division in the church today? And we can’t simply ignore these differences. We can’t just say, “Oh you believe this, and I believe that. That’s cool. Let’s just agree to disagree and never talk about it. Ciao.” This is not a solution. This attitude only creates more problems. Because if we are convinced that we are right and the other group is wrong, to leave them where they are is not loving; it is indifference. And we can’t grow together if we are indifferent toward one another. It does not work. We must be able to work out our differences together. And it is extremely hard. Let me show you the problem with both the weak and the strong. Let’s start with the weak.

Who are the weak? The weak are those who understand the gospel, but the gospel has yet to sink in. They know the gospel with their mind, but they have yet to work out the implications of the gospel in different areas of life. And this applies to all of us. None of us has gotten it all right. Because we are righteous sinners, we are still weak in many areas. It takes a lifetime for our life to be fully in sync with what we know is true about the gospel. Often time, we forget this. We forget that we are a product of our past and culture. And so many of our disagreements, whether it might be theological, doctrinal, or philosophical, to a great degree is because the way we think is influenced by our culture and upbringing. For example, a few years ago I went to Kuala Lumpur with a few RSIers for a gospel conference. And I loved it. I was having a great time and I enjoyed learning from Tim Keller and D.A. Carson. And because I grew up in a charismatic church, it is normal for me to express my delight during a sermon. So, whenever they said something great, I would go, “Amen… Hmmm… Yes…” And then this guy a few rows in front of me turned around, stared at me and shushed me. I was like, “What is your problem bro? I am amen-ing the sermon and you want me to be quiet?” But I respected him and quitted down. But one of the RSIers who shall remain unnamed began to intentionally make noise to annoy him. And that person thought that it was me. So he kept staring at me and shushing me. Do you see what happened? For me, it is normal and good to respond during sermons. That’s the way it has always been for me. And I wish I have more amens from you when I preach. But for this person who grew up in a quiet church, what I did was disrespectful. Can you see? We are influenced by our upbringing more than we think. This is why all of us need to be shaped by the gospel continuously. So, the weak are those who have yet to work out the implications of the gospel in different areas of life. By the way, in my case, I think I am right. I would consider myself to be the strong and him to be the weak.

So what is the problem with the strong? Romans 14:15-16 – ¹⁵ For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. The problem with the strong is that they put their personal freedom over their brothers and sisters in Christ. They are certainly right in believing that they are free to eat meat. But when that freedom becomes more important than loving other people in the church, it becomes wrong. For if they love their brothers and sisters in Christ, they will limit their freedom out of love. But if they insist on their freedom, they are no longer walking in love but rather they destroy the ones for whom Christ died. In other words, Paul says, “Strong Christians, don’t you know that Christ has died to save Bob and Sally as well? Don’t you know that Christ has given up his freedom to bring them to him? Don’t you know that Christ has put their needs above his personal right? If that’s true, can’t you just let go of your freedom to eat meat in front of them so that you don’t destroy them?” Look at the next verse. Romans 14:17 – ¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whenever we put a secondary matter over the primary matter, we have missed the point. The kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking. It is about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It’s not about this temporary world but eternal life. Get this right. Whenever we insisted on our freedom over the good of others, we have put greater importance on freedom over love. We have replaced the eternals with the externals. If we put our freedom over the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God is not at work in our life. This is the problem.

The solution

Romans 14:19-23 – ¹⁹ So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. ²⁰ Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. ²¹ It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. ²² The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

Verse 19 tells us that the solution to the problem is for us to pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding. I love the word upbuilding. This word is used in contrast to the word destroy. The church is often referred to as a building that God built. And we are given a choice. Do we want to build the church, or do we want to destroy it? So yes, we have freedom. The question is, how do we use our freedom? Do we use it to build up others? Or to destroy them? And once again, Paul repeats himself. Romans 14:20 – Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. Paul repeats himself to make a point. He is saying, “Are you really going to grieve your brothers and sisters in Christ, and destroy the community in the church, all because of food? Are you that foolish? Yes, everything is clean, and you have the right to eat meat. But it is wrong to make others stumble by what you can eat. It is good for you to limit your freedom to love them. Don’t do anything that causes them to stumble.” Let me put it in a different way. Do not destroy the work of God for wagyu beef, for dress code, for alcohol, for a political stance, for masks, for vaccines, etc. But pursue what build up other people in the church. If that requires us to give up our freedom, then let it be so.

But notice what Paul does not say. Paul does not say the strong should give up their convictions. Romans 14:22 – The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. We must have convictions. If we believe that eating meat is right, we do not say that eating meat is wrong for the sake of the weak Christians. But we keep our convictions to ourselves. So, if we have a friend in the church who is a vegan and thinks that it is wrong to eat meat, we don’t invite her over to our place and cook a medium-rare wagyu steak and say, “I wish you have the freedom to eat this juicy tender meat.” We don’t do that. If we have a friend who thinks Christians should not drink alcohol, we don’t open up a can of beer in front of him and say, “My friend, this is freedom.” We don’t do that. But rather, we limit ourselves from eating meat and drinking alcohol when we are with them. So, Paul is not telling us to change our convictions, but he is telling us to change our attitudes toward the weak. It is good and loving for us to give up on our freedom for the sake of building up others.

Here is why it is important. Romans 14:23 – But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. This is crucial. Paul says that we should give up our freedom because if the weak see us exercise our freedom and decide to eat meat even though it is against their convictions and conscience to do so, they are condemned. It is a sin for them to do so. Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. For the weak to go against their convictions for the sake of pleasing the strong is not pleasing to God. Because it means that they are willing to neglect what they believe is right for the sake of pleasing people. It is an act of unbelief and that is why it is sin. Which lead me to my third point. And it is shocking.

The responsibility

Romans 15:1-2 – We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. ² Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Here is the question. Whose responsibility is it to make the relationship works? Paul says that it is the responsibility of the strong to bear with the failings of the weak. “Wait. What?” In fact, this passage is Paul’s criticism not to the weak but the strong. And this is counterintuitive. We would think that if we understand the implications of the gospel better than others, then it is their responsibility to get on the same page as us. After all, we are right. We are strong Christians. But not according to Paul. Those who are right, those who are strong, those who understand the gospel better, have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak. And if we insist on our freedom and expect the weak to be on the same page as us, then we are making the exact same mistake as the weak. Think about it. Let’s say we understand the gospel. We know that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. We understand that in all our weaknesses and sins, we are covered in Christ’s perfect righteousness. That right now we are fully accepted in front of God not because of our performance but because of Christ’s performance. We are gospel-centred. We live in gospel freedom. But then there are other Christians in the church who have yet to figure out the gospel as much as we do. They understand about the gospel, but they still feel the need to fast once a week to please God and that we must wear our best clothing to church to make God happy. They are legalists to some extent. And we despised them. We stayed away from them. What happened? Let me tell you what happened. We are weak Christians. Think about it. If we understand the gospel but we despise the legalist, what does that make us? Gospel-centred legalists. We are making the same mistake as them. Am I right? It means that we have yet to grasp the gospel.

But if we get the gospel, then it is our responsibility to bear with the failings of the weak. And the word bear does not simply mean to tolerate. It does not mean, “Okay you have your conviction, I have mine. I am not going to tell you how to live your life, so you don’t tell me how to live mine.” This is not love; this is selfishness. But to bear with the failing of the weak is to get underneath their burden and help them carry their burdens. It means that we must make an evaluation. Remember that Paul makes a distinction between the strong and the weak. He is not saying everyone is right. The strong get it right and the weak get it wrong. So, we must make a negative evaluation of the weak. They are wrong. But we do not stop there. Then what we do is rather than leave them on their own, we get into their life and talk about the area of their life that is not in line with the gospel. We help them carry their burden. And this is not easy. It requires us not to please ourselves. So, we intentionally inconvenience ourselves and create space in our lives for someone whom we think is absolutely wrong. And we tell them that they are wrong. But we do that in such a way that we are the one who gives up our freedom.

In other words, we say to them, “Look, I think you are wrong, but you are my brother and sister in Christ. So, I will change my life so that I can welcome you into my life. Whenever I am around you, I will give up my freedom that might destroy you. I am going to be patient with you. But we are going to talk about it. I am going to try my best to understand you. But I also want to show you that you are not in line with the gospel. I will criticize you, but I am willing to give up my freedom for you.” Can you see what happened? Everything in our culture tells us to do the opposite. Our culture tells us, “Don’t try to change anyone but don’t let them change you either.” The gospel tells us, “Tell them where they are wrong and let them change the way you live.”

Think of it this way. When you have a newborn in your home, everything about your home changes. Maybe you used to leave many sharp objects around the house in the past. Not anymore. You put away anything that might harm your baby. You cover up the power sockets. You create many barriers around the house as your baby learns to crawl and walk. You inconvenience yourself for the sake of love. And as your child grows, you ease those restrictions. But you continue to adjust yourself to help your child. Let’s say that your child is afraid of the dark. And dad, as you kiss him goodnight and turn off the light, your child says, “Dad, don’t turn the light off. I can’t go to bed. I am scared. There might be a monster hiding in the closet.” And of course, you know better. You know that there is no monster in that room. You are convinced. You have the knowledge. So, what do you do? A smart dad would not say, “Don’t be a scaredy-cat. There is no such thing as a monster. I am turning off the light. Go to sleep.” No. A smart dad would say, “Oh really? There is a monster in the closet? Let me check it out for you.” So, you open the closet, check out every corner of the room, look underneath the bed, and say, “I cannot find the monster. The monster must have escaped this room. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of the monster. I’ll make sure he does not get anywhere near this room so that you can sleep well. And if the monster is too strong for me, remember, we have Mommy. You know Mommy is stronger than any monster, right?” Or maybe Mommy is the monster.

This is what it means for the strong to bear with the failings of the weak. We do not change our convictions, but we give up our freedom so that we can help the weak grow in the gospel. And listen. This is not man-pleasing. God hates man-pleasing. But this is pleasing our brothers and sisters in Christ for the sake of building them up in the gospel. And let me be very clear. We do not do this at the cost of what is essential to the gospel. Many people have the opposite. They have no problem when people preach the wrong gospel. In fact, they call us prideful for pointing out the wrong gospel. But they are very strict about the non-essentials. This is wrong. In what is essential to the gospel, we are unmoving. But in the non-essentials, we show a lot of charity in our convictions. Can you see how hard it is? But praise God Paul does not leave us here. He then gives us the reason why we can do it.

The reason

Romans 15:3-7 – ³ For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” ⁴ For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. ⁵ May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, ⁶ that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁷ Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

The reason we can give up our freedom and bear with the weak is because that is precisely what Christ did for us. Think about it. Jesus is the strongest person there is. He is the person with the greatest freedom. But Jesus did not please himself. Instead, he became the weakest of us. He surrendered his freedom, came to us and served us. On the night before the crucifixion, he prayed to God the Father, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” Jesus knew that he had the freedom to escape the cross. He did not deserve the cross. He is the only person who could say that he lived a perfectly blameless life before God. He did not deserve God’s punishment for sin. But then he continued, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” He gave up his freedom to God the Father. Why? To bear with our failings. Jesus is the only one who is strong. We are the weak. But Jesus came to us and carry the burden of sin for us. And at the cross, Jesus gave us the worst negative evaluation. The cross tells us that we are so wrong that Jesus had to die for us. Our sin is so bad that it took the strongest man to give up his freedom for us. But the cross also tells us that we are so loved that Jesus was willing to do it. Do you see what happened? Jesus disagreed strongly with us, and he made room for us at the same time. And because of it, we became the recipient of the gospel. We are adopted into the family of God.

And this is why Christianity is radical. Every other religion tells us that we are either righteous or sinner. But Christianity tells us that we are both; we are righteous sinners. We are sinners made righteous by grace alone. And if we understand this, then there is no reason for us to fight for our freedom and feel superior. We understand that the only reason we are Christian is because Jesus opened himself to us when we were wrong. If that’s true, that changes the way we treat people who we believe are wrong. We can give up our freedom for the sake of helping them grow in the gospel. Because Christ has welcomed us, now we can welcome one another. And when we do this, we glorify God. We glorify God by showing that the beauty and the greatness of God in Christ are far better than our freedom. We show that Christ is the only one that matter.

Let me close with this. Do you know what will attract the world to Christianity? It is not our Christian freedom that attracts the world to Christ. Jesus said that the world would know that we are his disciples by our love for one another. The world has no concept of the strong bearing with the failings of the weak. We lived in a world where everyone fights for their freedom and right. But Christians are different. Christians can sharply disagree with one another and still deeply love each other. We do not need to fight for our freedom at the cost of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are not going to see eye to eye on all things, but it does not stop us from growing together and deeply involved in one another’s life. Because Christ is what unites us. And the more we agree with Christ and about Christ, the more we can live in harmony with one another. Let’s pray.

Discussion questions:

1. Give some examples of non-essential matters that divided the church. Why do you think these matters are important?
2. In the examples you give above, which group is the strong Christians and which group is the weak Christians? Why?
3. Romans 14:23 – But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. Explain the role of conscience in making decision.
4. Think of examples of how the strong can bear with the failings of the weak. Why is it very hard to do?
5. How does the gospel empower us to have receptive freedom?
6. Why we must be unmoving in what is essential to the gospel?