Christian, disagree agreeably (2)

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling 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. 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…

²² So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

Romans 14:1-5, 22-23

Romans 14 is all about what Paul calls “disputable matters”, or “personal opinions” – what are sometimes known in Christian circles as “grey areas”, topics on which we may legitimately differ from one another. The essence of Paul’s advice to the church in Rome is that each individual should be “fully convinced in their own mind” (verse 5) and not just drift into an opinion because that’s the way the majority seem to be going. “Everything that doesn’t come from faith (faith in the sense of conviction) is sin” (verse 23).

So – no “judging” of one another, or “treating them with contempt” (verse 10)! Sadly, Christians can be very intolerant, even downright arrogant, in the way they treat their fellow-believers. And that is wrong. As Paul puts it with refreshing bluntness: “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?” (verse 4). Who indeed? There are times to mind your own business.

That’s the basic principle. But it leaves various other questions crying out for an answer, and last time I ran out of space before I could get on to them. The most vital, I think, is, “Yes, but how do we distinguish between these grey areas and the things that really matter?” Some of us may tend towards being too strict, others towards being too slack – well, how do we know who is right?

The question can be put under two main headings: matters of (a) doctrine, and of (b) what we might call morality.

(aMatters of doctrine. 

T To me this seems by far the easiest to tackle. The Gospel is, in essence, beautifully simple. “What must I do to be saved?” asked the jailer in Philippi (Acts 16:30); and back came the answer, quick as a flash, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”.

True, the jailer may have meant by “saved” something rather different from what Paul and Silas meant, and so a bit of teaching was called for (verse 32) - and he ended up with something far more wonderful than he hoped for! But when we as Christians think about essential, non-negotiable issues, it really is as simple as that: Jesus the Son of God, crucified for our sins, risen from the dead, and one day coming back in glory.

Other issues quickly come queuing up behind – the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the trinity, the details and timing of Jesus’ return, the precise nature of the authority of scripture, the different roles of the sexes in the life of the church, the correct form of water-baptism – all these are obvious examples. But if I meet someone who claims to believe in Jesus in the way I have outlined, then I think it would be arrogant and unwarranted of me to regard them as not a true Christian.

Yes, they may be wrong, even seriously wrong, in various other things, but – well, I have a little catchphrase which you might just possibly find helpful: a teaspoonful of vital truth outweighs a lorry-load of error. Doctrine is important, no doubt about that; but there are, and always have been, differences of interpretation, and our business, in humility, is to recognise that we could be the ones who are in the wrong, and to treat those who see things differently with respect.

(bMatters of morality.

This is where things can get tricky.

Take war as an example… some Christians are pacifist, others say that war may sometimes be a sad necessity. Regarding alcohol, some are strictly teetotal, others see wine as a God-given pleasure, so enjoy it! Are there ever grounds for abortion? Or same-sex relations? What about assisted suicide? Or divorce? The list is endless.

Some areas of disagreement seem to be dealt with very clearly in the Bible, but that then might raise the question of how the Bible is to be interpreted in our massively changed world. War, again, for example… one person will point out that the Old Testament is full of them – indeed, including wars commanded by God himself; and Jesus, of course, regarded war as a fact of life, bound always to blight human history. So they must be justified. But wait a minute; weapons have changed, from days when they killed relatively few, and were wielded only by professional soldiers, whereas now we live in a world of truly horrible “weapons of mass destruction” which don’t distinguish between a soldier and a new-born baby.

“Just give me a plain, simple answer to my question”, people sometimes say. But that is unrealistic: not all questions are simple, so not all questions have simple answers. Even more naïve is the person who says, “Well sorry, but I just don’t have any time for all this stuff about ‘interpretation’. I just take the Bible in its simple, straightforward sense”. But what about those many passages which just don’t have a simple, straightforward sense? Even the most obvious-seeming Bible passages are capable of various interpretations.

It seems that we have no choice but to live with the fact that, until the day we die, there will be scope for disagreement. But we need to notice that what Paul wants in this chapter is that we put the sensitivities of the other person before our own.

You have a strong, robust conscience that isn’t easily wobbled by your brother or sister’s qualms of conscience? Fine; that’s good. But don’t therefore look down on that brother or sister for being a spiritual weakling!

Or you are, perhaps, fairly new to faith in Christ and still feeling your way around this minefield? That’s perfectly all right as well. But don’t therefore be intimidated by that “stronger” Christian or made to feel inferior. Just be sure that your own conscience is at peace with God.

And to both the strong and the weak, the same principle applies: If we must disagree, do so agreeably!

Dear Father, my desire is to be in harmony with all my brothers and sisters in Christ, but I know that that will not always be possible. So I ask that when times come that I find myself in disagreement, I will disagree with humility, open to the possibility that I could be the one who is mistaken, and so that I will do all I can to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Amen.