Showing Grace On Disputable Matters
January 23, 2023

Welcome to Westside!

Family News:
1. We are sad to announce the passing of two dear sisters, Joyce Channell and Mary Brock earlier this week. Please keep the Channell and Brock families in your prayers, especially Howard and Harold.
2. We are very excited to announce the birth of Mackenzie Alyea yesterday morning. Please keep Caitlyn and Mackenzie (and the whole Alyea family) in your prayers.

Baby Shower Today— Everyone is invited to a come & go baby shower for Sean & Hannah Nickell on today from 1-2:30pm, in the WAC (#520). Sean and Hannah are having a girl and they are registered at babylist.com.

Blood Drive— Next Sunday before and after church.

Bridgebuilders

The main ideas so far:
1. The mission of the church requires the unity of God’s people.
2. Jesus paid a high price for the unity of the church.

Today’s Main Idea and Passage: Handling disagreements with a Christ-like heart, based on Romans 14.

Three Ways to Pursue Unity in the Church:

1. Bright Idea #1: Uniformity. Convince everyone to agree on their theology.
2. Bright Idea #2: Wishy Washy. Don’t let anyone take a clear stance on anything.
3. Bright Idea #3: Maturity. Grow in our capacity to live with disagreements and love people even if we disagree.

Today’s Passage: Romans 14:1-23

Paul was addressing a theological dispute that split the church into multiple factions who looked down on everyone else, and everyone was convinced they were right.

What we might learn from this passage: Practical wisdom on how to navigate tough Scriptural issues without compromising our integrity or creating divisions in the church.

1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Romans 14:1-3, NIV

The Heart Problem in Romans 14
1. One group is treating others with contempt, which refers to looking down on someone so much you consider them worthless and utterly beneath you.
2. The other group is judging others, with an emphasis on elevating oneself to a role that is reserved for God and then presuming to speak condemnation on his behalf.

Paul’s response: God has accepted both groups. Even though Paul has an opinion about who is right and who is wrong, he affirms that God has accepted them both. There is no room within the Christian faith to judge or mock people that God has accepted.

The Limits of Christian Unity: We cannot be united with “Christians” who practice and preach a different gospel. For example, consider Paul’s words in Galatians 1:8:

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!” Galatians 1:8 (NIV)

The key point: We can never compromise the truth of the Gospel message in our pursuit of unity. Love everyone, but don’t be united in heart and purpose with people who deny the Gospel.

Back to Romans 14: Not every disagreement is a Gospel issue. Paul is addressing issues where a Christian could land on either side of the issue and still be well within the truth of the Gospel. And this example shows us that Christians will sometimes have very strong feelings about things that are not salvation issues.

Don’t Judge Someone Else’s Servant

4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. Romans 14:4-6 (NIV)

Key Points:
1. (verse 4)—Only the master of the household is qualified to judge the servants under his care. We need to recognize that ultimately, we are all accountable to God, not each other.
2. (verse 5)—Everyone needs to be “fully convinced” about what they believe. We need to take a strong stand and develop deep convictions, and live with a clear conscience.
3. (verse 6) —Paul demonstrates the principle of charity by affirming that both sides have pure, Godly motives for doing what they do. Even if we disagree with another Christian’s actions, we can still affirm that they have good motives.

We have enough to worry about without taking on the added responsibility of being the judge of our brothers and sisters:

10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. Romans 14:10 (NIV)

Be Mindful of How Your Actions Affect Your Church Family.

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. Romans 14:13 (NIV)

The Big Idea: In a world that focuses on individual rights, be mindful of your responsibilities towards your church family. Don’t exercise your freedom in Christian in a way that causes another Christian to have a crisis of faith.

At the same time, don’t play the “stumbling block” card as a way to manipulate the actions of another Christian who is still well within the truth of the Gospel message.

Don’t Destroy God’s Work.

19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food… Romans 14:19-20 (NIV)

  1. We should make “every effort” to be peacemakers.
  2. We should be focusing on building others up (edification), not tearing people down.
  3. We need to recognize what’s at stake—church factions can destroy the work of God.

How would food destory God’s work? When we become so distracted by our theological disputes that we neglect the mission God gave us.

Application

  1. Pray for a greater capacity to accept people who disagree with you.
  2. Pray for the wisdom to know the difference between the essentials and matters of opinion.
  3. Make a commitment to not let disagreements derail the work of God.

Next Week: Practical wisdom on understanding from the book of Proverbs.

During the invitation song, you may come forward to…

  1. Commit Your life to Christ
  2. Pray About a Difficult Situation
  3. Talk About Baptism or Next Steps

Tap here to Respond to today’s message

Questions? Contact Bryan: (609) 356-3147 or bfojtasek@westsidelife.org.