I didn’t forget this series, just needed to give it some more prayerful consideration and careful thought before plowing ahead. If you missed the first one (last week) you can read it by clicking HERE.
Now, for context, we should turn to chapter 14 of Romans:
1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Romans 14:1–8
The question that has caused some confusion is,
“Who is this weaker brother?”
Back when this was written it was as clear as glass. Today it is as clear as mud. Back then, there was a constant pull against the new found freedom in Christ from people who just couldn’t let go of the law. At best, some wanted to sprinkle just a few (which is a few too many) rituals and traditions on top of God’s grace—you know, just for a sort of security blanket affect. At worst, there were those who decided to walk away from the grace that Jesus offered because they just couldn’t embrace an approach to God that was dependent solely on God and had nothing whatsoever to do with man’s own efforts. In short, they wanted what all other religions and approaches to God (other than Christianity) boil down to—salvation by works.
Now, back to our previously recorded program.
One of the problems (and there are many) with a works oriented approach to God is that it would have to be PERFECT to be good enough for God’s standards of holiness—and that’s impossible—for everyone. But the flaws in the man made system don’t end there. If, an individual manages to receive God’s grace through faith—apart from human effort—then there ever remains the temptation to return to the man made system most human beings better understand. But once you do, you become…
“The Weaker Brother.”
Consider the following passage in “The Message.”
Galatians 2:16–21
We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.
17-18Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.
19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
Back to the question…”who is the weaker brother?”
Answer: The one who seeks to place rules and regulations on another’s freedom and liberty in Christ—NOT the one who lives in the joy and freedom He has in Jesus. Again, listen to what the apostle Paul says:
Romans 14:1–2
1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
Paul identifies the weaker brother right there. He is the one who wants to place his dietary restrictions on others—laws and regulations that, for whatever reason, have become black and white to him must now be the same for everyone else.
Problem? THERE’S NOTHING SINFUL ABOUT VEGETABLES!!!
For whatever reason, a fear of vegetables (not a fear of vegetales—that’s something different. I think I suufer from that!) was just ingrained in the minds of some of the early Jewish converts. In other words, when it came to eating all types of vegetables they were paranoid that some might be connected to pagan rituals or unclean Gentiles (Hey, I resent that!) and therefore felt frightened and weak about going ahead and eating them. In their heart of hearts they probably knew their feelings were inconsistent with God’s grace but, in the end, the old rituals won out over the new relationship and the result was…
weaker more anemic believers.
These hesitant early Christians were usually the first to fold when persecution came along, since their love for Jesus and strength in the Lord was underdeveloped in the first place. And when they dropped like flies they seldom went down alone. No, instead they sought to shackle their stronger brothers and sisters with the same chains that brought them down.
That’s what Romans 14 is all about.
So, based on all of that…
Are you the weaker or the stronger?