As unto the Lord—don’t judge the servant of another!
A sermon on conscience from Romans 14
By Bob Mendelsohn
Given at Sans Souci Anglican Church
14 April 2024
Shalom! You have been studying the book of Romans, one of my favourite books in the Bible, and I like to say the big theme of that letter is “Getting Right with God.” Sometimes we title that in terms of justice or righteousness. Paul, the author of this letter says that the entry, the admission ticket to obtain this being right with God is through faith, particularly faith in the death and resurrection of the Son of God, Yeshua the Jewish messiah. Judgment is given to him and he will judge all, and he will welcome all who come to him. That reality of this judgment is going to be the basis of Paul’s comments today as we look at judgmentalism and mutual affirmation from chapters 14 and 15.
Can I ask that those watching this sermon later than live on YouTube, please pause your playback and read this section of the Bible. It will only take a few minutes, then press play and re-join us as we explain the text. Thanks.
Let me give you the outline of today’s talk.
1. The strong and the weak contrasted --Don’t condemn! (.1-12)
2. Faith is the key (.13-23)
3. Acceptance, not tolerance, is how the Body works (15.1-7)
Now let’s unpack this section and see what it has to say to us who are reading this letter written nearly 2000 years ago. The title of the message is “As unto the Lord—don’t judge the servant of another!”
First then, The Strong and the weak contrasted (.1-6)
It’s likely that some Jewish people, who were kicked out of the city of Rome from AD 49 to AD 53 or so, were now back in town. In the gathered community, the church there in Rome, there would have been some Jewish believers who saw some practices which were alarming. Some believers were eating foods that were out-of-bounds, like seeing pork ribs at the Saturday potluck lunch. And other practices were a bit different, as some in the church were not observing new moons or even the Sabbath with propriety. These Jewish believers would have been scandalized by the changes they saw in the faith since Jesus had been around and might have wanted things to be ‘like the old days.’ They might have had some racial pride and some racial prejudices in action.
But as some of you will attest, even here in Sydney, and certainly in other global cities, you will meet Gentiles who strongly believe in Yeshua and who want to maintain some Jewish laws. They want to honour God by keeping kosher (Leviticus 11) and by observing the festivals of the Lord (Leviticus 23). Over many chapters, Paul has showcased the inadequacies of these to make ourselves right with God. (Romans 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
With those two categories of peoples in mind, I find it fascinating that Paul doesn’t label the weak here in our text as either Jewish or Gentiles. In other words, he doesn’t want to aggravate any natural branch vs. wild olive branch hostility. He’s already highlighted that Gentile believers ought not to boast over the Jewish believers (Romans 11.17-24). By using ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ in this section, he’s not making this point into a racial consideration, but rather a matter of faith in action. He uses the phrases ‘Unto the Lord” or “For the Lord” over and over.
Let me give you an Older Testament single word that may help us in this matter of understanding what informs the apostle.
In Torah, over 250 times, the word “La’adonai” is used. Sometimes it’s about direction. He spoke “to the Lord.” Other times, it has to do with offerings being given “to the Lord.” Leviticus 25.2 says, ‘When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a Sabbath to the LORD.”
Sabbath then is either unto the Lord or not! Widening this truth, in fact, everything that I do can be unto him or not.
So many people get this wrong. They think that some believers are weak or strong in faith, by what they wear, how loudly they sing, how they seem to have a perpetual smile on their face. Paul says their weakness is defined here in terms of legal observance of not eating all foods and by celebrating certain days. Wow, that would smack against the beliefs of many Jewish believers and legal observers in our days. But Paul’s statement is that no matter what they believe or what they practice, let them do or not do, AS UNTO THE LORD.
When people tell me they keep kosher ‘unto the Lord’ I’m good with that. When they say “God wants me to keep kosher so I can please him more” I wonder if they are short-sighted and missing the point. But even to them, the weak in the faith, as Paul says, I must have kindness and openness and NO contempt.
Verse 3: Not showing contempt for the other. I hear this language, this sentiment regularly in politics and in Facebook, in conversations like we have with those not yet no board with the Gospel. I remember a couple of years ago being on the corso in Bondi Junction. I offered a hand sanitiser bottle to a middle-aged man who looked intensely at the product on my tray and said, “No, that’s a contradiction. I won’t take that.” But it wasn’t so much his words as it was his attitude which spewed out hostility. Contempt. Not a simple dismissal or like some say, ‘No thank you.” No it was derision and disdain for me, for my product, for my kind offer… contempt.
Paul says not to show that contempt for ‘the other.’ Why not? Because GOD has judged him already and has accepted him. Because of that person’s relationship with God, the ‘la’adonai’ that’s going on in the heart of the believer who is weak or who is strong… who eats or who doesn’t eat.. because of the acceptance by the Almighty, we ought to accept him as well. Paul says that here in verse 1: “accept the one” and in verse 18 “acceptable to God and approved by men” and in chapter 15 verse 7, “Therefore accept one another just as Messiah also accepted us to the glory of God.”
Verse 4, “Who are you to judge the servant of another?” Again the point Paul makes, based on his understanding of the Judgment of God in Yeshua, that all who are known by him, that all who are by faith welcomed into the community, then I’m not to judge that one in terms of eternity. There are plenty of Bible verses about judgment beginning with the house of God (1 Peter 4.17) and that we are to judge those living in error (1 Cor. 5.11-13) inside the church. But in this case, here in Romans, that judgment is on matters of style rather than matters of life and death. This can be confusing, and I appreciate the difficulties some have.
NT Wright makes the point in his book on this (Paul for Everyone) using two extreme examples. One a person who ‘believes’ that stealing is acceptable and you shouldn’t judge me for doing so. The other, a person who reads in Torah that you shouldn’t wear garments at the same time of two different materials. How we put this section of ‘not judging the servant of another’ into practice depends on the situation. I’m reminded of the old axiom, “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.” Paul is highlighting the non-essentials of food laws and holy day observance. How we treat each other in Messiah, at the fellowship table over morning tea, on the golf course, at the chemist… those are what evidence the godly life. Amen?
I know a lovely woman who is homosexual. She attends a church dedicated to gay people here in Sydney. She claims to be a Christian. To me, that’s similar to the first extreme example, of stealing. Sexual sins are clearly listed in the Bible, in both Older and Newer Testaments. Even in Romans chapter 1. What then is my response as a man of God? Dunn says, “The point is that the Christian is not a law unto himself or herself. But neither is any Christian a law unto someone else.” She cannot be living a gay life ‘unto the Lord’ since the Lord has made this very clear.
Same with Sabbath observance. Verses 5 and following. Some observe with technical precision the Jewish Sabbath. Some of us grew up with a deep commitment to going to Friday night meals with candles and challah and wine, with Saturday synagogue and prayers, to the hearing of the Torah and Haftorah being read and sometimes explained. Then the lunch and the study session, the 3rd meal and the final prayers before returning home for Havdalah. In fact this weekend I was in Hobart, with a long-time mate who is Jewish and his wife, and on Friday night we welcomed Shabbat with candles and wine and bread, and yesterday he and I both led portions of the prayers at the oldest continuing running synagogue in the Southern Hemisphere on Argyle Street. We are both religiously ritualistically Sabbath-keepers, but maybe not enough for some Orthodox Jews. Sabbath has a certain rhythm all its own. But some of you here at Sans Souci might regard ‘every day alike.’ Let each man… What, Paul are you saying? Allow each man to make up his own rules? You’ve got to be kidding! People in modern times would dismiss any regulations because hey, it’s inconvenient or I don’t have time or the kids have football games or.. But that’s exactly NOT what Paul is saying. Either do it or don’t do it ---UNTO THE LORD. Let God, not convenience, be your guide. Let God, not the kids, be your guide. Let God be the one to whom you submit and whom you seek to honor BECAUSE he has accepted you. Whatever is not of faith is sin, he says. (verse 23)
Dunn says this, “With repeated emphasis Paul presses home the point: “God has welcomed him . . . he is God’s servant . . . he will stand because it is precisely and solely God’s prerogative and power to make him stand” (vv 3–4). This is a crucial step in Paul’s pastoral tactic: to get the traditionalists actually to accept that someone who differs from them, and differs from them in something they regard as fundamental, is nevertheless acceptable to God and accepted by God.”
Paul quotes Isaiah (45.23) which indicates that God will judge all people, even the weak in this passage, not only for their biblical compliance but also with their haughty self-projection and attitude of superiority over their brothers and sisters who belong to God. Be careful!
Faith is the key (.13-23)
Whereas the first section of the chapter seems to be focusing on the weak, this section clearly has the strong in view. Even so, verse 13 opens with ‘don’t judge!’ and both groups could have heard that being said to them. The use of the phrase ‘stumbling block’ brings my mind to Leviticus 19. There in verse 14 we are told not to put a stumbling block in front of blind people, nor are we to curse deaf people. This is a serious charge to keep peace in the whole community. Blind people wouldn’t see the block, and deaf people wouldn’t hear the malediction, but God sees what you do secretly. That seems to be in Paul’s mind as he writes this, ‘do not judge’ Verse 15, “do not destroy with your food.’ Verse 16, “Do not let what is for you a good thing…” Verse 20, “Do not tear down the work of God” All of these negative words are designed to remind the readers in Rome of what he says in verse 15, “you are no longer walking according to love.” Where did Paul get that? Back to Leviticus 19. Verse 18, after the stumbling block and deaf curse line, he says,
‘You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbour fairly. You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbour; I am the LORD. You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbour but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself; I am the LORD.” (15-18)
Listen to those charges, ‘no injustice in judgment’, ‘judge fairly’, not a slanderer, not hate your countryman, no vengeance… all summed up in LOVE your neighbour as yourself.
Paul hears the words of Moses and takes them on board. By the way, ‘stumbling block’ in Greek is the word ‘scandalon’ from which we get the word for offense, or ‘scandal.’ Don’t let your freedom scandalize another, and don’t be scandalized by their behaviour if they are seeking to honour the Lord in their life, by faith.
Do you have some passages that stick out as highlights in your reading of the Scriptures? I have many favorites and 14.17 is one of those. I love the ‘order of things’ and here Paul says the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. He obviously was not an Australian where after every event, any sporting contest, any election, almost any agreement at work, “I’ll drink to that” comes into play. What time is it? It’s ‘beer o’clock’ they say. Paul says the kingdom is not found there, and therefore not to be lost because of food or drink. It’s three things: righteousness, peace and joy in the Ruach Hakodesh. If you have right relationship with God (what he calls ‘righteousness’) then that gives you peace with God (Romans 5.1) and thus joy in the Spirit realm.
Faith, our entry key, our admission ticket into that right standing with God is what makes the difference. Not only in Paul’s life, but in my life, and in your life. Faith in the death and resurrected Messiah of Israel…that will bring us into righteousness. And anything short of that, like judging others, like condemning others, like having contempt for others… that’s falling short of faith and thus is titled ‘sin.’
Acceptance, not tolerance, is how the Body works (Chap15.1-7)
Our third and final section today is the beginning of chapter 15. Paul says, “accept one another, just as Messiah also accepted us to the glory of God.” Clearly the struggles between the strong and the weak, between the libertarians and the legalists are resolved in faith in Messiah and in accepting of one another. But, do you see, 15.7 starts with a therefore? There are 24 ‘therefore’s’ in the letter to the Romans. So much sequential and logical thinking. What is this therefore there for? See 15.1-6.
Lest we miss it, Paul continues his teaching with the ordinance that the strong ‘ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak’ since we are in the same Body. He says in verse 2 we are to ‘please his neighbour for his good, to his edification.’ On what does Paul base this? Verse 3: “even Messiah did not please himself” and he had reproach fall on him.” (Psalm 69.9) What is reproach? It’s the shame and blame for all wrong things. Obviously Yeshua took our sins, our punishment, and even our reproach on himself. Paul here says if you want to follow Messiah, you should bear reproach as well as the annoyances of strong vs weak regarding health, Sabbath and other Jewish law matters.
Verse 4: Whatever was written in the past, meaning the Tenach, was written for our instruction. And for our having hope. It was not written to knock us back or knock us down. It’s not a stumbling block to offend or scandalize us. The record of Scripture is written for us so that “through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.” He uses the word ‘encouragement’ a translation of the Greek word ‘paraklesis’ or comforter, the one called alongside to help. And what will that lead to?
Verse 5-6: One mind, one accord, one voice. It’s not only for one individual. It’s about unity in the midst of diversity. Not a tolerance of misbehaviour, but rather an acceptance of one another. Tolerance usually in modern days is a word of allowance. Sort of, ‘agree to disagree.’ But acceptance goes well beyond that. Tolerating is what you do with a toddler who is screaming in the restaurant while you are eating. Tolerating is what you do with the neighbour who is playing loud music long after midnight and you hear its sounds as you try to sleep. Acceptance is much deeper.
Eric Mason writes in his book titled, Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice. “This is one of the strongest expositions on God’s justice.” Mason argues that “righteousness is an active, not static attribute of God. He forcefully argues that for us to understand the righteousness of God, we have to understand that God’s righteousness works itself out in the world. This is what justice is, and just as we do not sit back and say that God’s love will one day win out, but that has no bearing on our today, so too we must see an active call for today in God’s righteousness.” (comment by John Beeson, Goodreads, review of Mason’s book)
Our accepting one another is based on God accepting this person. The purpose: to get to the glory of God, where he is glorified and manifest. In my life. In your life. In our lives. Together. That’s how the Body works. Maybe that’s why we enjoy studying the Bible together. Or why we pray together. Or fellowship in the Spirit together. We represent Yeshua that much better as a result.
Dear friends, if you are not yet a believer in Yeshua, I urge you today, call on him while he is near. If you know your Torah, and you know yourself, you know you need help, you’ve been stumbling, you need salvation, you need a Saviour. Joel the prophet said, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be rescued, will be saved” That is, you will be made to be in right relationship with God. It’s worth all the rejection of others who don’t want to know about God’s love in Messiah Yeshua.
If you want, you can pray a prayer with me just now to solidify your choice. Something like this, “Father in Yeshua’s name, thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Yeshua to save me from myself, from my selfishness, from my despair and the harm I cause so many. Thank you for making me right with God by your sacrifice. I receive Yeshua (Jesus) as my saviour and the lover of my soul. He frees me to love others. I repent of my sins and ask for God’s forgiveness to be my portion. I receive the free gift of God, eternal life in Messiah Jesus our Lord. Amen.”
If you just prayed that, would you please contact Ps Stephen here at church or speak with me back at the book stall with morning tea. For those here in the sanctuary who want to donate to Jews for Jesus, please use this QR code on the screen or we will have an offertory at the stall also. I’m happy to share more on this as we are all able.
Ps Stephen, thanks so much for your love and support and for your care for me and my people. I’m so pleased God has given us this partnership. Let us live, as unto the Lord, in 2024 and throughout our days, amen?
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