Romans 14 - Monday 13th May

Today’s chapter is Romans 14

Tom writes:

Evidently there was a major flare up about the appropriateness of eating some foods, probably because all meat in Rome would have been devoted to idols in the process of production. Its a bit like it would be today if all meat was described as Halal. The fault lines in this flare up seem to have fallen between the culturally Jewish believers (who would have been worshipfully anal in avoiding all food that even smelled like it had been near an idol) and the culturally gentile believers (who would have wolfed down anything that tickled their taste buds). Paul is remarkably relaxed about it. For an ex-pharisee it is shocking how astronomically accepting he is of all kinds of people. But of course, that is because he had such a strong view of the atonement, of the reality of a new Jesus-race being formed by the resurrection and of the blessings of Abraham now being expanded to all the nations. If Jesus accepts you, who am I to be fussy?

In modern Western churches we love this. We have embodied a relaxed “come as you are” culture in most of our gatherings. But we also need to notice that Paul is far from relaxed about any behaviour that breaks the bond of the brotherhood. Our idol of individualism means we gladly give you loads of space to be yourself, but we aren’t so strong on serving you as a sister. What we are called to here is a “both-and” approach. We should both view other believers as people who belong to the Lord (so we shouldn’t demand things of them that aren’t the clear calls of Jesus) and we should also see them as people who will stand before the judgement seat of Christ (so we help them be ready to give a good account on that Day). As Paul says, this means our focus isn’t on what we or they eat or drink but on helping people push into righteousness. We adjust our behaviour and change our calenders to help people grow in the delight of holiness, to rest in the peace of God’s presence and to be ravished by the joy of being wedded to the Spirit. That’s the kind of Kingdom Culture God wants in his church. So let’s not sweat the small stuff. Let’s turn a blind eye to the things that we personally don’t like but which we think are probably OK with Jesus and let’s lean heavy on showing hospitality to others, even praying for them to be filled with even more of the Holy Spirit. Let’s seek to be people who don’t take ourselves very seriously but who take God very seriously indeed.

Question for reflection
Who in the church do you radically disagree with? How could you serve them?