Paul takes us into the goings on of a local NT church. Just like your body, the local church is made up of many moving parts. Some are strong parts like your thigh muscles, and others are weaker like the eye or the pinky toe, and yet, all are needed, and all serve a purpose. We need all of them to operate.
A local church will be made up of the seasoned older folks who have been through life with Jesus. They have weathered some storms with Him. You will hopefully have the new people; those who are recently saved and still finding their spiritual legs, so to speak, and then all of the in-betweens. A church needs aged, grey-haired people as much as they need the newborn toddlers that make lots of noise during church; all are important.
Verse 1-2: No need for arguments, but man – God’s people argue. We can get into a split over what brand of toilet paper to have in the washrooms. All too often, there are dogmatic people, often about preferences, who use them as doctrinal measures of salvation. I will give you one that is close to many Baptists: the KJV. I grew up using the KJV; I have nothing against the KJV, but there are those who make the KJV out to be the language that Jesus and the apostles spoke, and if you use anything other than the KJV, then you are a heretic. They will not invite you to preach in their pulpits and tend to look down on us as inferior Christians.
We can insert all kinds of things into the hole: Halloween, Christian rock music, movies of any kind, should women wear pants, and on and on we can go. No Bible verses, just preferences and judgment. Thereby are most of the disputes in our churches. Now recently, the SBC churches had a vote about female preachers, and that has caused a split; this is a doctrinal issue, not a preference.
Verse 3-4: You are not your brother and sister’s master; they will answer to God, and so will you. We all too often misuse the “judge not,” but the context is that we are to judge ourselves harshly first, and then we will be able to truly help our spiritual siblings. But that seems to rarely happen. We come to the conclusion that someone is not serving Jesus the way I do; they are not saved, or for sure that they are not serving Jesus the right way.
Verse 5-6: Matters of conscience are just that and nothing else. There are many saved people who smoke, many who enjoy a private glass of wine or a beer, and yet they are saved and can be used of God. The seminary I attended had a thing against beards; no one, not even the professors, could wear a beard. Yet, Bible characters we studied were bearded and served the Lord faithfully. Jesus was bearded, and He is the standard of being righteous. Let people live freely in Jesus. If there are no verses calling a thing sinful, let them answer to God; you may be surprised.
Verse 7-8: None of us are an island. We need each other, and we are connected in Christ to each other. We can either help and serve each other, or we hinder and harm each other, but there truly is no neutral ground.
Verses 12-14: Stop judging your brothers and sisters for things that are not sinful, and stop being a stumbling block in your local church. Learn to accommodate the weirdness of others, and they learn to accommodate yours. If you know someone hates loud Christian rock, don’t play it in your car when they are there. If a brother or sister has issues with alcohol or smoking and is trying to quit, don’t tempt them. As the stronger sibling, abstain for their benefit.
Yes, we are called to love sacrificially at all times and to take responsibility for another. Your siblings in the Lord are precious; Jesus died for them. Yes, even with the weird hair, the ladies in pants, and the guy that only has stained jeans as his best Sunday clothes; Jesus died for them too.
Verse 16-18: Love like Jesus (Micah 6:8); this is the whole duty of man. The last one is to walk humbly with God; if we did this, all the other parts would fall into place, and we would elevate our sibling in the Lord. The Devil already has us in his sights to hurt and bring down; we do not need to help him by piling on our siblings as well. We just make Satan’s job easier as he seeks to steal the weaker, newer converts. God help us to love each other more and to be humble towards each other.
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario