Thursday
Evening Bible Study
April
2, 2009
Introduction
Paul has moved through his doctrinal section in Romans and now has moved on
to the practical side of things.
He’s talked to them about their obligations to each other like
loving without hypocrisy, meeting needs, blessing, and not taking
vengeance. He’s talked about our need to
submit to those in authority and the debt of love we owe others, as well as our
motivation to obey because of Jesus’ soon return.
Now Paul goes into an area where we have lots of problems in church – how
we tend to “judge” each other and put guilt trips on each other.
key word: “judge”, the Greek word (krino) is found seven times in our passage.
Paul will divide the people in church into two categories, the “weaker” and
the “stronger”.
Who is the weaker brother?
One who still feels like their
relationship with the Lord depends upon their keeping certain rules or laws. They have a struggle accepting by faith that
Jesus’ righteousness is enough.
Paul is going to give several examples
of these “gray”
areas where people can differ in their opinions. A “gray” area is one where the Scripture
doesn’t specifically forbid a certain thing.
Some people take it one way, others take it another way.
He will talk about what to eat, what to
drink, and what day is better than another.
CAUTION: Sometimes we think that the
person who has “given up” the most things in the church is the stronger
brother. It may not be so.
What are some potential “weak brother” issues for us?
Some of you may not like what I’m about
to say.
Movies and TV – is it okay to watch? What is okay?
Drinking alcohol. Smoking.
An old saying was, “I don’t smoke and I
don’t chew and I don’t go with girls that do!”
There are people who are very strong
against smoking, saying that it defiles the temple of God. But I think if you’re overweight it’s
probably just as bad. Christians who
live in the South, where tobacco is grown, often don’t have any problems at all
with Christians smoking. Christians in
England and Europe, strong Christians, will drink wine or brandy, and even
smoke cigars. Scripture says it’s wrong
to be drunk, but it doesn’t say it’s wrong to drink.
Some of these things are more of a
“forbidden” thing in a local culture than they are forbidden in Scripture.
These are things that seem to fall into
kinds of “gray” areas, areas where I don’t think I’d see any specific
prohibition in Scripture.
Lesson
Wrong is still wrong
I need to be clear here. There are some things in Scripture that are
non-negotiable. There are some things
that are just plain wrong.
(1 Cor 6:9-10 NKJV) Do you
not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,
nor sodomites, {10} nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
People whose lives are characterized by these things won’t
be in heaven.
There are certain things that are expressly forbidden in Scripture. We need to stay away from those things. But there are many things that aren’t
specifically spoken to. We need to learn
to listen to the Holy Spirit guiding us.
:1 Receive one who is weak in the
faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.
weak – astheneo –
to be weak, feeble, to be without strength, powerless
receive
– proslambano (“toward” + “to
receive”) – to take to; to take as one’s companion; to take or receive into
one’s home, with the additional idea of kindness; grant one access to one’s
heart; to take into friendship
Paul doesn’t just use the simple word for “receive” (lambano), but he uses a bit more intense word, one indicating
closeness.
Paul uses a “middle voice”, meaning you “receive to yourself”
Paul uses an “imperative”, this is a command.
Paul uses a “present tense”, meaning that this is something we do now,
perhaps even continually.
disputes – diakrisis
– a distinguishing, discerning, judging
doubtful things – dialogismos
– the thinking of a man deliberating with himself; a thought, inward
reasoning; purpose, design; a deliberating, questioning about what is true; hesitation,
doubting; disputing, arguing
(Rom 14:1 NASB) but not
for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.
Lesson
Don’t try to straighten everyone
out.
A.T.
Robertson: “The “strong” brother is
not called upon to settle all the scruples of the “weak” brother. But each takes it on himself to do it.”
Sometimes us more “mature” Christians
will try to take someone “under our wing” for the purpose of “setting him
straight”.
Just be careful what you’re trying to
straighten out.
Some things are wrong.
Some things are just “gray”.
There are some churches where if you
expect to “fit in”, then you are going to need to dress a certain way, act a
certain way, cut your hair a certain way, even talk a certain way. What was so refreshing about Calvary Chapel
in the late sixties was that Pastor Chuck learned to just love the hippie kids,
even though they didn’t quite fit the mold of the average church-goer of the
time. I remember being in a church when
a “long hair” showed up, and boy did they stick out like a sore thumb!
You don’t need to play “Holy Spirit” to
your friends by trying to bring them under conviction. The Holy Spirit does a fine job without your
help.
:2 For one
believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
may eat – phago
– to eat; to eat (consume) a thing; to take food, eat a meal
eats – esthio
– to eat; to eat (consume) a thing; to take food, eat a meal
vegetables – lachanon
– any pot herb, vegetables; from lachaino,
to dig
There were and still are today some
groups who hold to a strict vegetarian diet.
Others will hold to the Jewish dietary laws, forbidding the eating of
pork, lobster, shrimp, etc.
But in reality, food doesn’t make you
better or worse in your relationship with God.
Jesus said that it wasn’t what you ate that defiled you, but what
comes out of your life that defiles you (Mark 7:15-23)
(Mark 7:15-23 NLT) You are not defiled by what you eat; you are
defiled by what you say and do!" {16}
{17} Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowds, and his
disciples asked him what he meant by the statement he had made. {18}
"Don't you understand either?" he asked. "Can't you see that
what you eat won't defile you? {19} Food doesn't come in contact with your
heart, but only passes through the stomach and then comes out again." (By
saying this, he showed that every kind of food is acceptable.) {20} And then he
added, "It is the thought-life that defiles you. {21} For from within, out
of a person's heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, {22}
adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, eagerness for lustful pleasure, envy,
slander, pride, and foolishness. {23} All these vile things come from within;
they are what defile you and make you unacceptable to God."
Paul said that God gave us food to eat,
and we ought to be thankful about it, all of it:
(1 Tim 4:4-5 NKJV) For
every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received
with thanksgiving; {5} for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
It’s the “weak” brother who is the one
who has trouble eating meat. Sometimes
we think that the person who has a problem in a certain area is really the
spiritual one. If someone talks about
how they don’t go to certain kinds of movies, or go and do certain kinds of
things, they may actually be a “weaker” brother.
Lesson
What’s your motive?
When it comes to things in the “gray”
area, I think it all depends on why you do or don’t do certain things.
Brownie points or lost the taste?
If your reason for not going to the
movies is because you think it will get you “brownie points” with God, then you
are a weaker brother. If your reason is
because you simply have lost the taste for those kinds of movies, and it really
doesn’t matter whether you go or don’t go, then perhaps it is just Jesus
conforming you into His image.
But you need to be careful that you
don’t go put your trip on somebody else.
:3 Let not him
who eats despise him who does not eat,
despise
– exoutheneo (“out of” + “nothing”) –
to make of no account, despise utterly, to
look on someone as totally worthless
This seems to carry the idea that you
look at a person and think they’re not saved anymore because of what they’re
doing.
Here the idea is that the “strong”
brother, who doesn’t have a problem eating different kinds of foods, shouldn’t look
down on a person who is struggling with food problems.
:3 and let not
him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.
judge – krino – to separate, to pick out, select,
choose; to approve, to prefer; to judge; to pronounce an opinion concerning
right and wrong; the 1st we’ll see this word.
Paul is saying that these “weaker”
brothers should not stand back and criticize those who are smoking, especially
when they don’t seem to have a problem with smoking.
received
– proslambano (“toward” + “to
receive”) – …to take into friendship
This is the same word used in verse 1.
In verse 1 we are told that we need to now continually “receive” this
person. Here in verse 3 we find out that
God has already “received” them.
If God has “received” them, who am I to not “receive” them?
Do you have contempt for or judge
others who do or don’t do certain things?
Sometimes we judge those who seem to
have more liberty than we do because we wish we were able to do the same
things. We’re jealous of them. We think, “How come they can do this things
and get away with it while I feel condemned when I do it?”
There may be times when you are not
listening to the Spirit and following His leading. Sometimes your convictions are more a product
of what your parents thought than what the Lord thinks.
Lesson
Life ain’t fair. Get over it.
There may be times when you feel a
conviction about something from the Holy Spirit, and you may indeed be
correct. But that doesn’t mean that the
Holy Spirit has put the same conviction about the same thing on others as well.
Illustration
As parents, we often try very hard to
make sure that one child isn’t exalted above the others. If you buy a shirt for one child, you buy one
for each of the others. But sometimes
you just can’t keep things balanced.
Sometimes one child will simply get blessed with something that just
can’t be matched for the others. And
when the other children will complain (which they will), the only thing you can
respond with is to say, “Sometimes life isn’t fair!” And that’s absolutely the truth.
Just because the Holy
Spirit convicts you about a certain area doesn’t mean that you have to make
sure that everyone has to learn the same lesson as you, just to be fair. Sometimes it isn’t going to be fair.
The important thing is
not whether life seems fair. The
important thing is that you are learning to listen to the prompting of the Holy
Spirit.
When Peter heard that John was going to
live longer than he was, he complained…
(John 21:22 NLT) Jesus
replied, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to
you? You follow
me."
:4 Who are you
to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he
will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
judge – krino – 2nd time for the word
servant
– oiketes – (“house”) one who lives
in the same house as another, spoken of all who are under the authority of one
and the same householder; a servant,
a domestic
The problem comes when we get to thinking that we’re “better” than another
person because of our superior beliefs.
We can even start thinking that we’re the “lord” of that other person.
In reality, we are all servants in the same household. We all report to the same master.
Lesson
God wants you to make it
It might seem that some people don’t
want you to succeed in following Jesus.
God on the other hand wants you to make
it.
Jude says:
(Jude 1:24 NKJV) Now to
Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
Give God time to finish the project
He’s working on.
(Phil 1:6 NLT) And I
am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work
until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.
God is the potter who
is shaping the clay. We are the clay and
are responsible to stay pliable in the potter’s hands. You may be a part of
God’s process of growing people up, but the responsibilities for their growth
lie with God and with them, not you.
Lesson
Use the exit.
It’s important to realize how God helps
us to stand.
(1 Cor 10:13
NKJV) No temptation has overtaken you
except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to
be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the
way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
There is an important part we play when
it comes to “making it”.
God promised to always provide an
“exit” to get out of every temptation.
The trick is to use the exit.
The “Exit” door is always going to be there. It may be a phone call that temporarily
breaks the thought processes of the temptation.
It may be that you hit all red lights on the way to your sin. It may simply be the still, small voice of a
Scripture calling out for you to flee. The real question is whether or not you
use the exit.
:5 One person
esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be
fully convinced in his own mind.
esteems – krino – 3rd
& 4th time for the word
Days – be fully convinced – plerophoreo
(“full” + “to wear like clothes”) – to bear or bring full; to fill one with
any thought, conviction, or inclination; to be persuaded, persuaded, fully
convinced or assured
Another “gray” area. The subject here is “days”. Do we consider one day better than another,
or all days the same?
In Paul’s day, the Jewish believers were giving honor to God on the
Sabbath, on Saturday.
There are people who think that if you
worship on Sunday that you are evil and in rebellion against God. They say that Saturday is the day.
In contrast, the Gentile believers of Paul’s day were already worshipping
on Sunday (Acts
20:7; 1Cor. 16:2), out of respect for the Resurrection, which took place on a
Sunday.
Some folks feel that all days are really the same and that we really ought
to be thinking about worshipping God every day! I kind of like that idea myself.
There is no
right or wrong way to these things. You
need to make up your own mind on these gray areas and then just be faithful to
your convictions without judging others.
Be faithful to what you are persuaded
about.
:6 He who
observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day,
to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives
God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God
thanks.
observes – phroneo (“mind”)
– to have understanding; to feel, to think; to direct one’s mind to a thing
:7 For none of
us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
Keep in mind that Paul is addressing believers. He’s making a generalization, that believers
live their lives for the Lord, to be pleasing to the Lord.
:8 For if we
live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore,
whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
:9 For to this
end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the
dead and the living.
rose – anistemi (“again”
+ “to stand”) – to cause to rise up, raise up
lived again – anazao
(“again” + “to live”) – live again, recover life
He might be
Lord – kurieuo – to be lord of,
to rule, have dominion over
Jesus’ death and resurrection make Him “Lord”.
Fellow servants don’t judge one another.
That’s the job of their “Lord”.
:10 But why do
you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we
shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
judge – krino – 5th
time for the word
show contempt – exoutheneo
(“out of” + “nothing”) – to make of no account, despise utterly; Same word as
“despise” in verse 3.
stand before – paristemi
(“alongside” + “to stand”) – to place beside or near; to present; to
present a person for another to see and question
judgment seat – bema – a step; a raised place mounted by steps; of the official
seat of a judge; Herod
built a structure resembling a throne at Caesarea, from which he viewed the
games and made speeches to the people ; (play Caesarea theater clip).
Lesson
The Judgment Seat of Christ
It is not to determine whether or not
we go to heaven, but to determine our rewards when we’re in heaven. It is where our deeds are judged after having
become a Christian.
(2 Cor 5:10
NKJV) For we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body,
according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Paul talks about our lives being like a
build on a foundation. When we accept
Jesus as our Savior, God lays a foundation in our life. What we do with our lives after that is the
building that we build. It’s the
building we build that will be judged.
(1 Cor 3:12-15 NKJV) Now
if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, straw, {13} each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare
it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's
work, of what sort it is. {14}
If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a
reward. {15} If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself
will be saved, yet so as through fire.
God’s method of
judging our works will be to put them through the fire. Whatever survives the fire of God’s judgment
is worth keeping. Whatever burns up is
worth losing.
What’s the difference between a “gold”
kind of work and a “stubble” kind of work?
It’s our motives.
The best motive to do anything, the
motive that will produce rewards in heaven, is love:
(1 Cor 13:1-3 NKJV) Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
{2} And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and
all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing. {3} And though I bestow all my goods to feed
the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits
me nothing.
Ultimately, if we
don’t do things out of love, then it’s worthless.
:11 For it is
written: "As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every
tongue shall confess to God."
Paul is quoting from Isaiah 45:23.
(Isa
45:23 NKJV) I have sworn by Myself; The
word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to
Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath.
Paul also quotes this in Phil. 2:8-11.
confess – exomologeo
– to confess; to profess; acknowledge openly and joyfully; give praise to
:12 So then
each of us shall give account of himself to God.
account
– logos – a word; matter under
discussion, account as in a bookkeeping ledger
:13 Therefore
let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a
stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.
judge – krino – 6th
time for the word
resolve – krino – 7th
time for the word
stumbling block – proskomma
– a stumbling block; an obstacle in the way which if one strikes his foot
against he stumbles or falls
cause to fall – skandalon
(“scandal”) – the movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick; any
person or thing by which one is (entrapped) drawn into error or sin
Lesson
Let Jesus do the judging
Part of the influence of Rome upon the
world in Paul’s day was that Rome had spread its love for the “games”. Many cities around the world had their
smaller versions of the Roman Coliseum, where cities would have various types
of competition, some purely athletic, others quite violent and deadly. The average person in the Roman Empire knew
of the picture of an athlete standing before the king or judge to receive their
prize.
Clip from
“Gladiator”, the “thumbs up”
But
here, the king that we are going to
stand before is no earthly king, it will be Jesus. We will all stand before Him.
Let Jesus take care of the judging of
other Christians in these “gray” areas.
Illustration
Warren Wiersbe writes,
Two of the most famous
Christians in the Victorian Era in England were Charles Spurgeon and Joseph Parker, both of them
mighty preachers of the Gospel. Early in their ministries they fellowshipped
and even exchanged pulpits. Then they had a disagreement, and the reports even
got into the newspapers. Spurgeon accused Parker of being unspiritual because
he attended the theater.
Interestingly enough, Spurgeon smoked cigars, a practice many believers would condemn.
Who was right? Who was wrong? Perhaps both
of them were wrong! When it comes to questionable matters in the Christian
life, cannot dedicated believers disagree without being disagreeable? “I have
learned that God blesses people I disagree with!” a friend of mine told me one
day, and I have learned the same thing. When Jesus Christ is Lord, we permit
Him to deal with His own servants as He wishes.
St. Augustine
put it this way: “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all
things, charity.”