Strive to Transcend the Quarrel

I have been thinking about this for several years and wanted to share this with you now. My friend, Allan Stanglin, has blogged about this in the past few days and I want to post them here. I do this simply to elicit a response from you, dear readers. Let me know here or by email or even by facebook as many of you have in the past.

(A Spirit Of Unity)
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” ~Romans 15:7

Romans 14 gives us the background for the above exhortation from the apostle Paul. There are two groups of Christians in this church in Rome. Weak and strong. Paul’s words. The weak believers are vegetarians. The strong believers enjoy a good steak. The weak brothers keep all the Jewish holy days. The strong brothers don’t. The weak Christians are developing all kinds of elaborate worship and lifestyle theologies and drawing lines in the sand over what’s right and what’s wrong. The strong Christians don’t have very many lines and they’re not as concerned about which worship and lifestyle practices are right or wrong. The weak are criticizing the strong for being spiritually insensitive. The strong are looking down on the weak for being spiritually immature and inferior. The strong proclaim freedom in Christ. The weak say that doesn’t mean anything goes. The weak tell the strong, “You’re wrong.” The strong tell the weak, “Grow up.”

Over what?

Over food. Over days. Over worship styles and traditions. The use of technology. Women’s roles. Alcohol. Praise teams. Divorce and remarriage. Clapping. Creeds. Dancing. Songleaders. Preachers(!) Small groups. Bible translations. Politics.

Are you a weak Christian or a strong Christian? Again, these are Paul’s words. Is your faith weak or is it strong? According to what Paul’s talking about in Romans 14, which are you? Are you the one who worries and frets and draws lines in the sand and develops intricate tests of fellowship for other Christians? Or are you the one who has a total grasp on our salvation in Christ and understands that the things we argue about and worry about don’t really matter at all? Are you the weak brother or sister? Or the strong?

What is it that makes you strong? What is it that makes you weak? If I were to ask somebody else about you—whether your faith is strong or weak in this context—what would they say about you? Why would they say it? What do they see or experience in you that makes them think that way?

Romans 14:1-4 > Nobody looks down on anybody. Nobody condemns anybody. For God has accepted him. Accepted whom? Who has God accepted? The brother or sister or groups of brothers and sisters who disagree with me on this church tradition or who don’t see eye to eye with me on this disputable matter, this matter of opinion that should not in any way divide the Lord’s Body. You’re not his master. Christ Jesus as Lord is his master. Not you. Whether he stands or falls is up to our Lord. Whether he’s right or wrong is up to our Lord. And Paul goes ahead and makes the call. He’ll stand! Whether he agrees with you or not. Whether y’all are on the same page or not. He’ll stand because he’s in Christ. So, you accept him because Jesus accepts him. Christ died for him, Paul says. What are you doing?

Romans 14:5-8 > Each of us should be fully convinced in our minds that what we’re doing is the right thing to do in the eyes of our God, but don’t bind that on another brother who doesn’t feel that way. If he practices something different, we assume we’re both doing it to the Lord, before the Lord, in the presence of the Lord with a clear conscience. We assume that my sister with a different belief or a different practice is not believing flippantly or practicing casually. She’s doing it with careful study and reflection and prayer and conviction. She’s fully convinced in her mind that she’s doing the right thing. So everything’s OK.

Paul is calling for unity in Spirit here. Not unity in opinion, not unity in practice, not even unity in belief. And he’s dealing with what at this time in the Church were huge issues. Unity comes with where your heart is. What’s your motivation? What drives you? Who are you thinking about?

Paul clearly identifies himself as one of the strong. But it’s interesting to me that he doesn’t say the weak need to change their minds or their opinions or their practices. In fact, he goes so far as to command them not to change their practices unless their minds are fully convinced. Paul’s prayer is not that all the Christians in Rome come to the same opinions on these things. No. He’s praying that they may possess a spirit of unity that transcends the differences.


(A Spirit Of Unity, part II)
“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ~Romans 15:5-6

“Has it ever occurred to you that one thousand pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one thousand worshippers meeting together, each one looking to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become unity conscious and turn their eyes away from Jesus to strive for closer fellowship.” ~A. W. Tozer

What if we’re talking about a “salvation issue?”

What’s a “salvation issue?” Will somebody please tell me what a “salvation issue” is? We get into discussions about “salvation issues” and we start ranking things in order of importance to God, in terms of what’s going to save us or condemn us. And we’ll talk about baptism and church and the authority of Scripture and worship practices. But we never talk about helping the poor or being kind to our enemies. Scripture says those are actually the weightier matters.

They’re all salvation issues! Everything we do is a salvation issue! That’s why the heart is the most important thing. The attitude is the most important thing.

“The Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.” ~Romans 14:17

As children of God and followers of the King, we take our example, we take our inspiration and motivation, from Jesus. The Son of God is the one who motivates us to live with each other the way we do. We realize that Christ Jesus never once did anything to please himself. Instead, he gave up everything, he sacrificed everything, to benefit and build up others. And by choosing to serve others instead of please himself, Jesus sets the pattern that we must accept as our own. Putting others first. Putting the needs of others first. It’s never about me. It’s always about you.

It’s not about hands. It’s about hearts. It’s never about hands, whether they’re raised or clapping. It’s always about hearts, whether they’re pure and holy.

And Paul puts it on the strong. It’s up to the strong, not the weak, to make sure this happens in God’s Church. It’s on the strong to bear with the failings of the weak brother. That’s hard. It’s up to the strong to make the sacrifices and concessions to our weaker brothers and sisters. That’s not easy. It’s easier to be the weaker Christian, drawing lines and insisting everybody cater to me. It’s the strong, Paul says, who are able to grasp the truth that our love and mercy and grace to others is Christ-like.

Here’s what separates the strong Christians from the weak. Bottom line. Here it is. Strong Christians with strong faith realize that the more you sacrifice and the more you give up for others, the more Christ-like you are. The more you insist on your own way and the more you assert yourself for your own interests, the less like Christ you are. Pretty simple.

So if all of us, all thousand of us here at Legacy, all-how-ever-many-there-are at your church, if all of us to a person decided right now today that we put ourselves at the end of the line, that we would all bend over backwards to make everybody else happy and sacrifice our own feelings and desires in order to build up others—if we all did that—wow! If we all accepted each other just like Christ; if we all bore the failings of the weak just like Christ; if we all pleased our neighbor for his good just like Christ; it still wouldn’t result in a perfect church. It won’t eliminate our differences of opinion. It won’t do away with all arguments and debate. But it would mean figuring out how to live together. And we’ll know for sure that the Christ who unites us is greater by far than the differences that may divide us. And our grace-filled conversations and our mercy-laden interactions with each other will reflect that conviction."