Whatever is Not of Faith is Sin

Well, this morning we're going to continue on with this section in chapter 14 and then actually the chapter break between 14 and 15 really, you know, in hindsight, you always, hindsight's always great, right, after you, probably, you know, doesn't, isn't helpful, that chapter break, because it kind of just continues right on between chapter, the end of chapter 14 and the beginning of chapter 15. So, let's see. Harry, can I get you to read that? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I apologize.

So then we pursued the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats in his defense. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin.

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not just to please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproach you shall be made.

Thanks, Harry. So actually, I decided that when I started looking at the next section, Bob Echol kind of went through and he marked out, kind of did the divisions between what sections we'd covered, how much we covered in each section. I kind of decided to go back and kind of pick up 19 and 20 again and 21. It seemed to feed in better to the rest of these verses here. So we're going to backtrack a little bit, but I think you'll see it would be worthwhile. So, you know, it really kind of breaks down again, I think, after looking at it again, 1920 and 21 are kind of basically focusing on what our focus should be. We're to pursue, it talks about we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. And that really kind of sets the stage, I think, for actually the entire section almost. The two dual aspect, peace and the building up of one another. And then there's some don'ts in there. Don't tear down your brother. It's good not to eat meat or do anything that stumbles your brother.

And then actually 22 and 23 talk about faith. Faith and doubting. Kind of the tension between faith and doubting. If we have faith and we doubt, that's not really faith at all. I mean, faith is to be faith and trust and confidence from what God has done. And your understanding of that. And he kind of talks about, well, what if doubt comes along? What does that do to your faith? Well, it makes it not faith, basically.

And then we go down, starting in verse 1 through 3, talks about, some have called this the load-bearing principle. I keep thinking about trucks and driving and loads on bearings, but this is to bear your brother's load. As you see a brother that has a weakness, and like I said before, I think that we all look at this and we see ourselves as a stronger brother or sister. And so if you see a brother or sister that has a weakness, a need, that you'll bear that in love and be concerned about them more than yourself. So there's kind of a breakdown between these. So let's go on and look at, kind of go back here.

So then, pursue the things which make for peace. So let's just think about the first. So this is Paul, he's kind of concluding things here. So the first part of this is, we pursue, let us pursue the things which make for peace. So, the word pursue, we did this a little bit last week, but I'd like to look at maybe 2 Timothy this time. This idea of pursuing, actually is literally to run swiftly after, to seek after, to earnestly endeavor.

And I've heard some say to put into practice, so we're to put into practice the two things that follow, peace and the building up of one another. So let's look at 2 Timothy for a second here. 2 Timothy chapter 2. I'll just go ahead and read this verse. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 22.

Now flee from youthful lusts Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. So it's interesting. It talks about this, pursue, and it's the same word, but it says pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. All those things you think, well, wow. I, of myself, and of myself, I can't be righteous. Christ was righteous, right? I can't be loving. He was loving.

So I thought what was interesting is that, you know, I think some people struggled last week. I think Dave Drillen talked with me afterwards about, well, you know, it looks like you have all these do's and don'ts. We talked about not taking that as being a new law.

You're going to make the new Christian liberty law, my do's and don'ts list. Well, I thought this person, Timothy, kind of points out that God will tell us to pursue things, but we have to realize that we pursue that by faith and trust in Him, abiding in Him. Not that this is a new list of things. Oh, here's the Christian liberty list. I'm going to go out and I've got some new laws here to do.

We're not to do that. We're to do it in the same context we pursue love and righteousness and peace. All those things cannot be done of ourselves. They only can be done by the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives, allowing Him to do it. I just wanted to pull back and say, when it says pursue, we're not, OK, I'm ready to go now, I can crank, I can really get going here. No, it's that I'm going to end faith, and we're going to see how faith comes into this later on. Faith is critical in this. Our faith in who God is, and what He's done, and what He wants to do in our lives. Go ahead, did you have a question? I wasn't sure you had those. I looked around.

All right, so the first issue is the things which make for peace. So he wants us to pursue the things which make for peace. And actually, these verses really, the Hebrews passage and the Timothy passage, really speak about pursuing peace. Irenae, harmonious relationship between men. And then back, actually, in Romans chapter 12, we have, if possible, so far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men. I was also thinking, I'm going to jump ahead here a little bit as we go through here, this dual focus of pursuing peace and building up one another, I think is really going to answer, not answer, but maybe get our focus right.

Several questions were raised about, well, I have this person that maybe has this thing that I would consider something I wouldn't want to follow. I think you mentioned about a lady that you have that has a problem. Ladies should not wear slacks. That's her thing.

And so I think that this kind of sets the stage for what our focus is going to be. It's going to have a harmonious relationship with that person and to build them up, if possible. The exact details of that, I don't think the Lord And he tells us some things do and do not do, but he doesn't really answer all those questions. So I don't know. I mean, that's not a cop out.

But it just seems like the focus, the more I looked at the focuses of this. harmonious relationship between brother and sister, whether we're the stronger or weaker. Of course, if both sides think they're the stronger, you've got a problem there already. We both think we're strong. So it's just being at peace and saying, well, I want to build you up in the Lord. That's my focus. Whether we may see it differently on issues of a variety of things. There's a ton of things. We can see it in clothing, food, drink, any number of things. Believers can see it differently.

So the focus is building peace among brothers and sisters. And then he goes on here, and he says, and the building up of one another. So this is the second issue, building up of one another. And this is this word, oikos, comes from house, and to build, building up of the house. And literally it's edification, edifying spiritual growth of the believer, edifying the believer, If you think about it, that's what you really want to be about. If you're going to spend a lot of time talking about the do's and the don'ts, so to speak, of Christian liberty, that's probably the wrong focus. The focus is on knowing the Lord and building ourselves up in Him and knowing Him. That's the focus.

Actually, there's a good verse here. Actually, you know, it kind of points back, if you just turn back to Romans, if you have open to Romans in your Bibles, Romans chapter 15. Actually, we're going to get there shortly. Actually, it's on the other page here. I should have just, if I've been clever, I would have... Basically, we're going to see later on in chapter 15 here in verse 2, let us, talking about not pleasing ourselves, let us please his neighbor for his good and for his edification. So we're going to see it toward the end here. It's once again back to edification, back to building up your brother in the faith.

And this verse right here I thought was really excellent, one of the ones I put down from last week in 1 Corinthians 14.12.

So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, this kind of is a cool thing. Seek to abound for the edification of the church. So this is a section on spiritual gifts. It says, seek to abound for the edification of the church. So you're zealous for spiritual gifts? That's okay. But seek to abound for the edification of the church.

Building up the church, building up the body of Christ is really primary focus, and I think that's where Paul's focusing us on this. But he gives us some details about the interaction, and we're going to see more of that, and we've been seeing that all through chapter 14. So questions or thoughts at this point?

Go ahead, Randy. If you look at the epistle, it's written to the church there, and so sometimes we get distracted by personal things that are in our own lives, and we forget that this is to the church, the purpose of the letter is for the body of the soul. And so that brings things together. Good, excellent.

And that's kind of struck me as well, because we had lots of questions about interaction among brothers and sisters, and many times they're not necessarily in your local body that you're involved with. So your first responsibility is with the local body we're involved with. So I think that's where it's primarily focused upon.

Actually, I listened to McCauley, Chester McCauley has a website and he talked about these set of verses here and he says, peace can exist between the weak and the strong believers by pursuing peace and seeking to build up one another. I thought that was basically just stating what the verse says, virtually, but I think that's a way to have a harmonious God-honored relationship between brothers and sisters in Christ, because it's very easy. Christianity is full of people beating each other over the head.

Go ahead, Randy. The other thing I thought was interesting in this is that it says, pursue the things. It doesn't say just pursue peace, but it's pursuing the things. I think that actually ties in with again, the relationship concept. I'm going to have to know where you're at so that I can pursue peace with you by dealing with those things, whatever they are.

Right, and the things are different for Believer X, Y, and Z. So now he goes in, and we've done these verses last week, A couple of negatives here. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. So, tear down is to loose or unloose something that was bound.

If you have a relationship, because you're the body of Christ, you already have a relationship that already exists. Basically, you come in and you find a person's a believer, You probably take the positive approach. At least I do. The believer, he knows the Lord. Well, that's wonderful. So you already have a good going in position. And then, you know, that can become degraded over time, right? You get to know people. Familiarity concept, you know.

It's the hardest with your own family members because they know you so well. They know exactly everything. My wife, before my mouth opens, she can say exactly what I'm going to say. the X time you've done that. I have to ask your forgiveness for the X hundredth time. People that know you well know exactly where you're at.

You can't hide anything from them, which is a good thing. It's a hard thing sometimes, but it's a good thing. Basically, if you think about it, God is at work in each believer, right? For his purpose and his plan. So who are we to come along and say, okay, well Randy, I'm going to really get you. I'm going to really tune you up here. I'm going to work on you. No, he says don't do that. God's at work.

Ephesians 2.10, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand. so that we should walk in them. That always just astounds me. He prepared them beforehand that we should walk in them. We don't have to make up those works. He has them. He has prepared them. And he wants us to walk in them.

So, who are we to come along from the outside and judge a brother or sister and say, well, you shouldn't do that, shouldn't do this. And this is in the context of food sacrifice to idols. All things are clean. All things indeed are clean. But all things are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. And we're going to see it's even stronger than that. Evil for the man who eats. Evil is actively causing evil. And giving offense is to put an obstacle. And that idea of obstacle is used quite a bit through this whole passage about putting a stumbling block in a brother's way or sister's way.

OK. All right. And then another, kind of on the negative aspect, it's not good to eat meat or drink wine. And they have this whole list. And I just kind of summarize. It is good not to eat meat, to drink wine, to do anything, by which your brother stumbles.

That word stumbles was translated several different ways in the previous passage. It was the word obstacle, or offense, or all the root word for stumble. We looked at that verse last week about Paul's view on Christian liberty. I want to go back and look at that dual purpose piece and the building up of the edification of the body.

So now we come to verse 22. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. So now he's going to start talking about our faith here. Part A, the faith which you have. So what kind of faith is he talking about here, do you think? The faith which you have. Is he talking about saving faith?

The whole context of this 14, from the context of 14, it wouldn't be saving faith, right? I think a real good place to look, we've covered the verse earlier, is just to go back, if you have your Bibles, go back to verse 14-2. Actually, I'll make it easy on you here. I'm losing it here.

What is faith referring to? It says, one person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. So I think it's talking about the faith. If you have faith that you can do something, you can eat meat, in this case it was meat sacrificed to idols.

Don't, you know, If you believe that's absolutely right, if you have faith, and you can eat that with a clear conscience, then don't waver. And we're going to see, he's going to say, don't do that. In fact, it's a lot stronger than don't do that. It's actually that if you doubt, then you've gone against your conscience. And the Lord says, no, don't do that. You're sinning, actually.

And that's kind of a startling thing. If you believe something is true from Scripture, Be consistent. Don't say, well, brother Solomon was around, I'll believe this. When sisters, I'll believe that. And you go back and forth. You're like a ping pong. I'll believe this when this group of believers are around. I'll believe that when somebody else is around. That's sin.

In fact, remember with Paul? In fact, Verne went over it in Galatians. He went in and he was eating with people. I guess he was eating non-kosher food or whatever it was. Other people came along, other people he knew, apostles came along, and he changed tables. I'm going to sit over here now. We're not to do that. Not to do that. I'm kind of getting a little bit ahead here.

Have as your own conviction before God, and literally this means have according to yourself, be consistent to yourself. The word conviction is a little bit misleading. It's not actually in The idea is, have according to yourself. There's no Greek word for conviction in there. That's kind of derived from the context. I don't think it's a bad translation, but it can be confusing.

It's have according to yourself before God. Be consistent with yourself. And actually, Wyss renders it, be having to yourself in the sight of God. So, the faith which you have, He said, OK, Lord, the best I understand, and I believe that, and until you show me differently, Lord, I'm going to believe that. And once you show me differently, then you say, hey, I've learned, I've grown in the Lord, I see it differently now.

Thoughts or comments on this? Go ahead. It came out of the translation I had, which is the Castile Faith. Okay. So it has like a question. Interesting. That's interesting. So what what translation? Oh, it's Zodiac. It was King James. But so is that how the King James reads?

Really? Interesting. Okay. Yeah, I was. I didn't realize that. I didn't see a question for him. I looked at the Greek a little bit and I looked at the words and went through. That's interesting. He does. He does. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. At the moment, I'm kind of... It doesn't change the purpose, but it does present it in a bold way. Yeah. Okay. All right. Interesting. Okay.

So now the second half of the verse is Part B. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. So basically, it's going to say, And I found this a little bit, this word happy, it's used blessed in scripture a lot, blessed in the Gospels. It's a person who has God's favor, blessed, possessing the favor of God. And actually, let's look at the Revelation passage just for a second. Revelation chapter 1. It says, Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and he the things which are written in it, for the time is near. Before I open my mouth here, let me just... Okay, so... Okay. So he's going to say here that the person is going to be...

Let's just go on and look at the rest of the words, and I'll come back and make a statement here. Happy is blessed, possessing God's favor. Crino, we've seen this word judged. To judge or form an opinion. And we saw that back in 13. And in 13, it says, do not judge one another, but judge yourself. It made a contrast about judging. It says, don't judge your brother, but judge yourself. Well, now it's saying here that as happy as he who doesn't, basically, judge his opinions, change his mind about his opinion, judge his opinions so as to change that and condemn himself.

And the word approves is documento, test, approve. It's a notion of approving a thing, whether it's worthy or not. So he's saying that you'll be blessed if you are consistent in essence. the faith which you have, if you're convinced about that, happy is he who does not condemn himself, and what he approves. So if you wind up doing that, let's say if it was food sacrificed to idols, and you go ahead and eat that, and then you say, oh, and you condemn yourself. He says, happy is he who does not do that. I hope I have that right. I'm getting myself confused here. Let's go. OK, I was right.

Yeah, actually, I was thinking about the example I was thinking about was a meat sacrifice to idols. Are there other ones you can think about where you. I think of buyer's remorse. You buy that flashy new car, and you're all excited, and as soon as you drive it off the lot, you're like, wow, I just bought this expensive thing, and in many cases, there's debt involved, or whatever else, and oh, shoot it, man, I've already signed a contract, I'm committed to buying this vehicle. You compromised yourself. Especially if maybe your conviction was, I'm going to be financially, you know, you had some financial commitment.

You said, well Lord, I'm not going to go into debt over a car. And then you wind up, the guy talks you into it in the car lot. Oh well, I just got to have that car. But your going in position was I'm not going to be in debt. A house is okay, but I'm not going to be in debt for a car because I can find a car that will meet my needs without going into debt.

So you compromise what you believe, what you exercise faith in. Okay, 23. But he who doubts...

So here we're going to get the, you know, he talks about faith. Now he's going to talk about the person who doubts, who does doubt. He had faith in this, now he doubts. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats. And actually, this is very interesting. This condemned, but he who doubts is actually in the perfect tense, So it's pretty interesting that he has doubted in the past and he continues to doubt. So that's kind of interesting. And doubts here is in the middle voice. It's to have strife. This doubting, as you might think, is to have strife within yourself. You have faith in something, but now you doubt it. So now you're kind of torn. Well, which one is right?

So he says, if you have doubt, if he eats, Because the eating is not from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin. This is a very revealing passage, because it shows you that God's desire is that the Christian operate in faith, and no other mechanism. It's not like, well, operate in faith for some things, but other things I don't. No, it's faith from start to finish. It does.

I think we're very, you know... I hate to say this, but it's almost like a personality trait. Maybe it's the old man. Different people. Some people are very influenced, and they're very much in this doubting mode. They're very influenced. If they're in works to Brother so-and-so, and he's very eloquent and can speak well about the scriptures, and he says one thing, they believe him. Then Brother Y over here, who's also eloquent, they'll believe him.

So when you're talking to that person, you're saying, well, where are you coming from? Last time I talked with you, you were over here. Now I talk with you over there. And it just is very, very confusing. It's hard to deal with people like that. Roy? Isn't that the problem with the Corinthians? Isn't that what Paul addressed? You're a Paulist.

Yes, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So God wants us to be consistent. If you believe this, and this is what you see in scripture, and if over time, and I think the Lord wants us all to grow in grace and knowledge, that may change. But don't be jumping around back and forth. And it's a sinful behavior, it's a sinful lifestyle to do that. So let's look here a moment at these couple passages here in talking about having faith that doesn't waver or change. Let's look back in Romans earlier. Romans chapter 4. Can I get someone to read 19 and 20 in Romans chapter 4? Randy, would you?

Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, in the deadness of Sarah's womb. Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God. Right. So that waver and unbelief is really our word doubt. So here's a case of Abraham. The world around him said, hey, you cannot bear children at that age. You can't do it.

But he did not waver. He said, well, God has said it. If God has said it, I believe it. And he was consistent, satisfied. So we're to see what God has revealed to us in Scripture and simply believe that and trust that. Until if there's some other nuance that we haven't seen there, then that's fine. But if God has said it, and if other people come along and say, well, it doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense to believe that someone died and rose again. That makes no sense. That's what the world says. That's foolishness. The world says, who is this man, Christ? OK. And also in James. James chapter 1. Could someone read verses 5 and 6? Harry?

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith, without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. Great, thank you. So verse 6 I think really kind of speaks to the point where, you know, we're to trust what God has said and rely upon that.

And the thing is that these matters here, the matters that Paul is speaking about in this chapter, are matters that are not. They're matters of a Christian's liberty. So we can get all wrapped up in that and make that a focal point, which we're not to do. We're not to focus on the meat and drink. Actually, we had a verse earlier about it. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's righteousness and holiness. It's focused upon Christ. That's what the Christian life is about.

And this word condemn, it's pretty strong. To pronounce sense upon, condemn by implication, to condemn by contrast. So we're condemned by doubting. So what does it mean to be condemned? And actually look at the various translations. Some have damned.

So, let me ask you here, is your salvation in question here? Some people, honestly, and you talk with them, and they really, I assume, they truthfully believe that their salvation is not secure, and they'll use this verse. They'll say, well, see? My salvation is in question here. So, is that concern for us? Are you condemned here for eternal life by this? What's that?

Excellent. Excellent. It's right. It's not God. Right? Is God condemning you here? Well, right. Exactly. Exactly. Right. Right. And that's the thing. It's good. Yes, go ahead. I'm sorry. Self-condemnation is the result, well, if you contrast it from verse 22 with the word happy, spiritually happy, we destroy our own spiritual happiness. We violate our own standards. Our own conscience, right. That's good. So in that sense, we'll condemn ourselves, and we're not peaceful towards that. No, and we're not. We're in turmoil. We're just back and forth all over the place. Excellent, excellent, excellent. And the whole focus is not on our happiness here, right? It's on our brother's happiness. And that's the focus is not upon make yourself happy today, or spiritually blessed.

Because the thing is, you realize you're already there. That's a wonderful thing. You're already blessed. So being that that's the case, then you're able in faith to see another brother in need and to say, well, maybe he doesn't have the understanding. But I want him to have the understanding that he can be at rest and peace about that. He can be happy or blessed where he is. He doesn't have to be torn apart by thinking that something he'll do will affect his, you know, sometimes salvation.

Some people believe that's a salvation issue. They say, well, how can you be so sure of your salvation? I'm not that sure. That's sad. The greatest bond we have for peace is the contentment we have in Christ. It is that relationship that binds us to each other. Exactly. That's good. That's good. Good. Good. I'll let you guys teach class. This is good.

The opposite side of this, of the response to this, is that we do find ourselves When our conscience feels violated, we're not living by faith, our response should not be self-flagellation and beating ourselves. It's immediately turning back to walking in faith. And knowing that that relationship is restored with the Lord, and therefore we can have a restored relationship with everybody else as well. So actually, it's probably pretty obvious from the context.

But actually, I just kind of checked it out. The if here is what's called a third class condition. There is some uncertainty there, but it's likely. And the way it's stated is, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats. And the context almost, just reading it, you said, well, he's eating. I mean, that's why the verse kind of just says that from just reading it. But the Greek, I just wanted to check to make sure. There is some uncertainty, but it's likely.

So the next part, because his eating is not from faith. So eating, and it's literally, is out of faith. In this case, the eating or whatever we're doing, and actually that's exactly what it's going to say, but the one who doubts, if he eats, stands condemned, because not by faith did he eat. We're to eat by faith, and then we're going to go on. Whatever is not of faith is sin. So whether it's in terms of eating, or whatever it is, we're to operate out of faith.

And faith in this context here is really... I went back and we looked at the fact that it was faith that he could eat anything. The faith here is really... I think you might be able to have a slightly different definition here for this faith as it's mentioned. It's really the confidence that you're doing what God has said. You're not doubting that. Basically. Actually, I also found a little quote from J. Vernon McGee.

It says, if you don't believe it, food, drink, whatever, you shouldn't do it. If you don't believe it, you shouldn't do it. That was kind of a quick summary. If you don't believe it, you shouldn't do it. If you have problems with a number of Christian liberties, you shouldn't do it. I mean, don't go back and forth. If you don't believe it, don't do it. And I had to re-steer again. Moreover, everything which is not of faith is sin. OK, so now we go into verse 1. So now it shifts gears a little bit.

And this is what I have called the load-bearing principle. So now we're going to talk about coming alongside a brother and bearing his load. Now, we who are strong ought to bear the weakness of those without strength, and not just to please ourselves. The strong ought to bear.

The idea here ought is, excuse me, I thought this was really interesting. This ought to be bound, obligated to perform a duty. And there's a really interesting verse here for all husbands here, Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. So we ought to bear the weakness of those without strength. The Lord has a few other things to tell us too about the oughts. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 28. It says, So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own body. He who loves his own wife loves himself. I often think about all those kind of injunctions to the husband. That's not my husband.

I think about that, and I think, well, you know, I find I fail those many times. I think, well, wait a minute. If I'm the one that's doing it, I'm guaranteed the failure. So I have to think, well, who's desiring to carry this out? And it's Christ. So it's Christ in you that wants to carry this out. So the same way with the bearing the weakness of your brother. It's the same idea. That's something that the Lord tells us to do pretty strongly. But the mechanism to carry that out is Christ working in your life through you.

And then the word bear is to support as a burden. And let's look at Galatians here. Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6 and verse 2. And it's a very similar passage. Bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ. So that's basically part of our Christian life, to be bearing one another's burdens. Basically, I think Roy said it well, the focus is not on ourselves. Think about that. The focus is primarily on Christ, and then maybe secondarily on others, but not on ourselves.

Isn't it interesting how that's all flipped around? Our society is so much the other way. It's all me, my, my, I, I. Everything is me. So it just seems almost, you know, I'm reading this book here and it says exactly the opposite of what everything I get, my input I get from the world. which is not surprising.

And this is interesting, the weakness of those without strength. You have two words that have weakness in them. And I struggled for a while. Actually, some have translated that first weakness, infirmities. And the second weakness is this idea without power, impotent, weak. Let's look at the Acts passage here just for a second. Acts 14. Acts 14 verse 8 and this is a pretty obvious, this is just a kind of a literal human aspect.

And at Lister there was sitting a certain man without strength in his feet lame from his mother's womb who had never walked. So this word literally means, in this case, he had no strength within his feet. So it literally means the weakness of those without strength. They basically don't have the strength, conceivably, to understand what maybe you do. So you're to bear that person's weakness.

And actually, Weiss translates it, the infirmities of those who are not strong, and not just please ourselves. And then actually, verses two and three together, each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproach you fell on me.

And as Roy pointed out to me, there's a lot more to be mined out of this third verse. But unfortunately, I didn't. It's one of those things that you get down to the end of the lesson and I didn't go farther. So I'm sorry about that. Each of us is to please his neighbor. I was focusing more on is to please his neighbor. Actually, I think this is good too. Let's read this verse here in 1 Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 2.4 Let me just go back to verse 3.

It says, For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity by way of deceit. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, who examines our hearts." So I was kind of thinking here. Bearing another's burden and edifying him is God-pleasing, not men-pleasing. Because it's not pleasing ourselves.

So we come back to edification, the building up, the spiritual building up of the body. And good is profitable, benevolent. And edification, the same one we had back in, points back to verse 19 that we had at the beginning of the lesson. This oikos, house, building up of the house, act of building the house.

Christ did not please himself. So just in summary, the two things that we start off with, the focus is peace with our brother and sisters, and the edification of the body. So we kind of started with that, and we kind of come to the end of that. And there's more to be said, and I apologize for not doing more with, for Christ did not please himself. I'm sure there's a lot to be, some of the things I thought were just obvious.

Christ went to the, you know, it says, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. It was a joyful experience. And as Roy points out to me, Christ didn't need to be pleased. Christ doesn't need to please himself. So there's some interesting things there. I'm not prepared to talk about that. But obviously Christ doesn't need to please himself.

He's already totally, you know, he's God. So there could be some rabbit trails you could get wrapped around the axle on that one end. Leave that for another day. Remember, Christ, he said, I always do what I see the Father doing. His will be done, not mine.

Christ wasn't focused on himself, which is incredible. His lifely ministry here? No. He was focused on the Father's will. And in the same way, we're focused on Christ living his life through us. Any more questions or thoughts? I know you want to avoid a rabbit trail.

A simplified way of viewing that is that pleasing himself is just doing his own will. It was a submission to the will of God. And so the pleasure there is, you know, we're told all the time, do what you want, do what you want. The advertisers really want you to do what they want you to do, but they try to make it seem like, yeah, you thought of this, you know, and you do it. So they want you to please yourself, please yourself with Christ. He said, if there's any other way, Lord, let's do it that way.

Or, Father, let's do it that way. And the Father's will was, no, this is the way, this will be the perpetuation. Right. He was focused on the Father's will, not his will. So in that sense, he didn't please himself. But the idea that God needs to be pleased as a whole, I think that's probably, that's a rabbit trail, which is not going to lead you to, I'm not sure, a correct doctrine.

Well, next week Bob will be up again and we'll continue on with 15. So, okay, let's close in prayer then. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this day, Father. We thank you for your word. We thank you that we can trust you through all things, Lord. We thank you that our focus is to be on you and to be at peace with our brothers and sisters and to edify the body of Christ, Lord. And we're thankful that you've given us your word to show us what that life looks like, and we're thankful that it's Christ in us, the hope of glory. We thank you for that. In Christ's name, amen.