Believers in the church in Rome came from a wide variety of backgrounds. In addition, they were all at different stages of spiritual maturity. So the first instruction Paul gives the church is to accept, welcome, and love one another without judging or condemning—no matter how weak, immature, or unlearned someone’s faith may seem.Who is weak in faith, and who is strong? Every believer is weak in some areas and strong in others. A person’s faith is strong in an area if he or she can survive contact with sinners without falling into their patterns. The person’s faith is weak in an area if that individual must avoid certain activities, people, or places in order to protect his or her spiritual life. Paul advises that those strong in an area should not argue with those who are weak about what they think is right or wrong.
How could Christians end up eating meat that had been offered to idols? An ancient sacrificial system was at the center of religious, social, and domestic life in the Roman world. After a sacrifice was presented to a god in a pagan temple, only part of it was burned. Often the remainder was sent to the market to be sold. Thus a Christian might easily, even unknowingly, buy such meat in the marketplace or eat it at the home of a friend.
Some thought there was nothing wrong with eating meat that had been offered to idols because idols were worthless and phony. Others carefully checked the source of their meat or gave up meat altogether to avoid a guilty conscience. This problem was especially acute for Christians who had once been idol worshipers. For them, such a strong reminder of their former paganism might weaken their newfound faith.
Paul is speaking about immature faith that has not yet developed the strength it needs to stand against external pressures. For example, if a person who once worshiped idols were to become a Christian, he might understand perfectly well that Christ saved him through faith and that idols have no real power. Still, because of his past associations, he might be badly shaken if he knowingly ate meat that had been used as part of a pagan ritual. The same would be true for a Jew whose strict observance to the law would cause him to be concerned about the preparation of the meat.
Every believer will be judged by God alone; therefore, believers have no right to condemn one another. Each person is accountable to Christ. While the church must be uncompromising in its stand against activities that are expressly forbidden by Scripture (such as adultery, homosexuality, murder, theft), it should not create additional rules and regulations and give them equal standing with God’s law.
Often Christians base their moral judgments on opinion, personal dislikes, or cultural bias, rather than on the Word of God. When they do this, they show that their own faith is weak, and they demonstrate that they do not think God is powerful enough to guide each of his children. When we stand before God’s judgment seat, we won’t be worried about what our Christian neighbor has done.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
Lord, draw people to COV this morning, and may they find a church that accepts them and loves them right where they are. And Lord, help us be a church that takes people where they are and builds them, trains them, equips them and eventually sends them to share Your message of hope, love and forgiveness. Lord, help us to build solid, mature, growing believers here at COV.
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV)
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