The Strong Believer and the Weak Believer

Well, good morning. So we are moving on to 14. I had thoughts about actually looking at the last verse of chapter 13 again, but I started looking and I'm just not there yet. So pray for me in understanding verse 14. Anyway, for us. But that's 13, 14 I was speaking of. So today we're going to move into chapter 14.

So there wasn't a, you know, and sometimes there'll be a kind of a overflow from one to the next, but boy, I mean, make a sharp, a sharp change here when we go into 14. So I've labeled this a strong believer and the weak believer. So let's get into it here. So Constable kind of tried to do a transition. Basically here's what 13 was about and here's what's 14 about so you can kind of see the flow between the two. So here's, I'm using Constable's notes here. So basically 13 dealt with, we saw living in the world as a Christian. How is a believer to live in this fallen world? run by human government, how is he to live in that world?

Well, one of the amazing things is that God has appointed the people in human government. And you scratch your heads and you say, you did? When it's good, it's good, and when it's bad, it's bad. And from your perspective, then somebody else says, well, that's a good government, that's a bad government. But anyway, so we learned about that.

We're to be in submission to human government. Then I'm going to kind of summarize the rest of it, which is, you know, a one-line statement, which is pretty broad. But love was the focus of that remaining section. Love for all people while we actively wait for the Lord's return.

Then we go into 14, he kind of changes gears, he said we talked about living in this human world, now let's look about living within the body of Christ, in the church, the body of Christ. So how is that to look? What's going to happen there? Is it all smooth sailing? No disagreements? Everybody's on the same page? They're all strong believers?

No. So we're going to learn about how we conduct ourselves among other believers. The first point is, when our interpretation of God's will conflicts with another believer, what do we do? Do we take a vote? You know, we got 10 for law and 50 for grace. Or the other way around, do we vote? How would we approach that?

He's going to talk about that. So Paul's going to explain how there can be disagreements on non-essentials and still maintain unity in the church. Law and grace is an essential. But actually it will help us understand the essentials too. So that's kind of this transition chart. So let's look at an overview chart.

So I chose two people, Chester McCauley and another gentleman I'll mention here shortly. So McCauley's key points from that is, So we start off with the weak believer, reading the verse 1. The weak believer, now this is only the outline of 1 through 12.

The weak believer was the one who had associated what we would call a neutral thing, in this case it was meat, with an idol. And it wasn't, you know, if you read the history, it was a pretty significant thing in that culture. The strong believer was one who said, it's only a thing, it's only meat. The weak believer, and maybe you could empathize with him, he was one that said, you know I spent my entire life Going to that awful Temple where the idols and they they brought the media and I can't stand the sight of meat.

I'm never gonna eat meat again I'm gonna be a vegetarian. He wasn't doing for health reasons. He was doing it He just couldn't stand the sight of it. So there's this struggle between two genuine believers one says You know, I can't stand the sight of meat.

The other one says, you know, meat is no different than anything else that God created. And there's a verse that says we're to enjoy all things that God has given us. So that's kind of the context of the struggle. So how are these two believers to relate to one another? Do they punch each other? We'll see how that works out.

Then I found this guy, which I've seen before. I think it's actually Constable. Constable quotes this gentleman called Douglas J. Moo. Interesting name. He wrote a commentary on Romans. So this is his outline, the first 12 verses. So the first 12 verses, he sees three sections. 1-3, 4-9, and 10-12.

So what's interesting is there's questions, Paul likes to have questions when he teaches, he has questions, he uses a who or a why that mark off the rhetorical sections. We're going to see, you know, one of the questions early on in chapter 4, I mean verse 4 is, who are you to judge the servant of another? And then he has a similar question, why are you judging your brother?

And then we'll see that one in three, which we'll cover today, and 10 through 12 kind of have identical words in them. And Mike's gonna get to teach 10 through 12, so I won't worry about that right now. But he'll reconcile all that. Okay, so what we're gonna see, one of the key points here, if you don't learn anything else today, keep this in mind. And this is interesting.

We saw this in the marriage relationship. Did God tell, the woman to do the same thing. I mean, the man is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. But God didn't tell the woman to do that. I know Mike's covered all that and got it all wrapped up. I missed a class, I'm sorry. But anyway, he told the wife to what? Listen, be submissive? his husband, even though he may not be the smartest guy in the block, but be submissive to him. Anyway, that's another day.

So here, similar thing. The strong believer has one set of instructions, the weak believer has another set of instructions. They're to get along, but they are to not, the strong believer is not to hold contempt, hold the weak believer in contempt. The weak believer is not to judge the strong believer. And we're going to see that. And it occurs in verse 3 and then again in 10. So Michael get a chance for rebuttal if he doesn't like what I'm doing. Okay, the central section will be some, will be provide theological foundation for these commands.

And then the last statement here which I like, every Christian is a servant of the Lord. And it is to that master, Jesus Christ, and not to any fellow servant that the believer must answer. We answer to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to be considerate, we're to love our brothers, we're to welcome our brothers and sisters in the Lord, we're to serve them, serve one another in love, but the Lord Jesus Christ is our master, not our fellow believer. Okay, so let's get into it here. So today's verses are as follows. Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinion.

One thing to remember, try to keep your mind who are the antecedents, what's going on here, who's who in this, who's talking in one case. I'll try to help you out here. Then I actually have a quiz. I have a one question quiz toward the end here. So make notes about who he's talking about.

So verse two, one person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat. And, on the contrary, the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand."

Boy, verse 4 is just a tremendous verse. Okay, so let's get into it here. So, as usual, I like to, you know, the reason I do this is to try to bring out the subject and the verb in many cases. Interlinear does that, helps me better to do that. So, in the Interlinear, verse one reads, now, one being weak in faith, comma, you receive, not for passing judgment on, you could put, his reasoning. so let's look at the first part now so this is a connective is connecting he's like this now we're going to talk about something different a new topic now a new topic in the Christian life you receive praslambana to take to oneself it's actually a pretty amazing would you take to oneself he's talking about your fellow believer take to oneself present tense God's will, imperative.

Middle voice, you're doing this for your own benefit. You take your brother and sister to yourself. You would do that, that's fellowship, right? But this is with one that you have some issue with possibly, about meats or whatever. Signifying a special interest on the part of the receiver, the strong believer. Suggesting a welcoming. You're to welcome your brother or sister. the one being weak. So you have the strong welcoming the one being weak. And this is one that the weak believer is defined in this context as one who has a conscience issue.

You may agree totally, you may say, that person's absolutely right. They should never have that piece of meat in their house, any piece of meat. It's not worth it. Their mind goes back to that. So you may totally identify with them. But God wants to teach us his truth, his liberating truth, I believe. That's what he's gonna try to show here. Okay.

The one being weak in faith the week is the lack of strength of conscience So next next we see what modifies that this is really important. You could gloss over this and you could say well He just has to get a little faith get a little faith brother and sister Just once you get a little faith. We all gotta have a little bit of faith Well, it has this thing called a definite article in front of it in the faith It's the faith in Scripture For all you good students at Holly Hills, you all know this, it's been taught a few times, maybe a few hundred times. That the faith, when we see that phraseology, it means the body of truth given to the church, the body of Christ by the apostles.

Just really important. And one of the key verses there is this beautiful verse in Jude. I'm just going to take part of it, 3b, I Jude felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. And it has this cool word, Verne liked this word, I remember it a lot, Once delivered, perpetually valid. You know, we've been given this incredible thing by God through Paul and the disciples and the apostles. We've been given this wonderful truth. It was delivered, the faith was delivered by them and it's valid for all time.

So that's what, that's the issue at faith. They're weak in, you would say they haven't been taught well. They're not well taught. They're believers, but they don't understand. We talked this morning. They don't know maybe their position or their condition. They don't know a whole lot of things. They don't know that they're living under grace. They think they're living under law.

Now I'm kind of moving away from the meat issue, but I was trying to connect it up with other issues that come up. Okay. So the one being weak, the weak believer is not strong in his belief. This is from Macaulay. Not rooted and grounded in Christian teaching, but he's not to be criticized for that. You're not criticizing him for that. What you're saying is, brother, let's look at the Word. Let's see what the Word says. That's what you want to do. You're pointing to the Word. The Word says this, and maybe he won't see it initially, but hopefully in time he will. I was thinking about, there was a gentleman that came here maybe two, three years ago. He was with us for about maybe six months.

But then one day he got up before he left and he gave his rebuke to Holly Hills. He said, my problem with you, Holly Hills, is that you aren't going down to Larimer Street and passing out Bibles. You ought to be doing that. So he believed, and that's a good thing. Mike did that. He was down there for a couple of years before he came here. Or maybe while you were here, I forgot. But anyway, so that gentleman, he was very sincere. He listened.

But I think he missed what we were about. He missed what we were trying to teach here. Yes, it's good to serve the Lord and hand out Bibles, but is that what the Lord would have us do Sunday after Sunday? No, he'd have us to grow in grace and the knowledge of him.

So that's kind of the idea of not being, to be a weak believer, not being well taught. You're not taught as well as you should be. And you're involved in that too, right? You're the one that needs to be interested in doing that. Okay, so let's carry on here. So again, interlinear has, you receive not for passing judgment on reasoning or his reasoning.

Now he's going to warn us about the interaction between the brothers. The strong believer is to do as follows. It's not for, or not with a view to, passing judgment on the weak believer. And it's either his, there's the same English, different English words for the same Greek word, reasoning or opinions. So we're not to be critical, and we spring to the cross as not to be a critical analyst of his inward reasonings. He may have reasons, and we talked about the meat situation, which is appropriate to this case. It says critical analysis of inward reasonings.

So the weak believer opinions or reasoning are most often wrong. And a couple of verses that come up in that are like the idea. You look in the first part of Romans, that's kind of a pretty important section, it talks about Yeah, it's their futile speculation, you know that they were futilely speculating so and the other verse I've forgotten exactly the context but that Word this opinions or reasoning is the idea.

It's a you come to a wrong conclusion. You have the wrong You've gone on the wrong path. You have the wrong idea. So the weak believer had the wrong opinion about what he was eating we are to accept the person not the opinion we may disagree with his view and but we are to accept him as a believer in the Lord Jesus.

Okay, let's go on to verse 2. So this is an interesting verse. In the Greek, there's a couple of little flags that kind of show up, and there's this pair of words in the Greek, men and de, and they show up in, it's like point and counterpoint. So they show up in the text, and they're not necessarily translated all the time, but they show up.

So one man indeed believes to eat all things, but de, the other being weak, eats vegetables. So you could do it this way. It's on the one hand it's a point, and the counterpoint is on the other hand. So the point is, is that one man believes to eat all things.

That's a strong believer. In the context, a strong believer. He's persuaded to trust, to believe. And he continually believes that. It's not just a one-time thing. He's convinced of that. He's convinced that he can eat all things. Because God's given him all things to eat. And Weiss kind of says, basically, he's essentially, he's trusting the Word of God for that. To eat all things, all is this word, pas, none excluded. He feels he can eat all things, none excluded. Okay, that's the point.

The counterpoint is, but the one being weak eats vegetables. So this person is a vegetarian. Again, he's not, it's not because he's gonna get healthy, he just can't stand the meat. The one, the weak believer, being weak, this is where, weakness here is that word, I'm not going to try to pronounce it, but to doubt, to hesitate, to vacillate, and he's continually doing that, that's the habit of his life, he's continually in that state, has spoken of those, mind says, spoken of those with a mind easily disturbed, eats, there's a different word for eat and drink, we have the word for eat here, not drink, And the word for vegetables is this word that means literally, it could be herbs, it could be a planet in the garden, that kind of idea. Indicates the one to whom Paul was referenced was a vegetarian.

The weak believer was a product of an inadequate understanding of God's word and oversensitized conscience. And we kind of get that from the previous verse. he didn't have a good, he was weak, his weakness was not necessarily in what he did, it's what he believed, right? He didn't have a good understanding of God's Word, is the issue here. Then verse 3, okay.

Now Paul gives a principle, so he's going to state a principle. You know, he's not going to say, I listen to Macaulay, he's not going to say, here's a list, the strong believer is right, the weak believer is wrong, Weak believer, live with it. He's not going to say that. He's going to say, no, here's the principle.

I want you to both have regard for one another. The principle applies to both the one who eats and the one who does not eat. So to the one who eats, a strong believer is not to regard with contempt. Contempt is the word to to make him no account, to have no regard for, to despise utterly. And it's not to be a continuous act, he's not to continuously despise his brother. And it's used in a passage about the Lord Jesus, when Herod with the soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. And it's the one who does not eat. So the strong believer is not to hold contempt for the weak believer. So here we see one instruction for the strong believer. Now we're going to see another instruction for the weak believer.

And the one who does not eat is not to judge in the sense of criticizing. Again, it's continuous action. He's not continuously to criticize. And we see this in, do not judge, this is a neat verse, do not judge according to appearances, but judge with a righteous judgment, or with righteous judgment. So the weak believer is not to judge the strong believer.

What I wonder to me is, because it's an issue of understanding and knowledge, know, I think the weak believer already has maybe a couple strikes against him. If he's not, if he's untaught and unlearned, is he probably going to pick up the Bible and really dig in deep? I don't know. The weak believer is kind of You know, he's boxed himself in. He's not allowing to be taught by God's word.

That's Roger's opinion. Okay. So Paul follows this statement with more teaching. What's interesting is you go through here and you got two statements. The strong believer is not to hold contempt for the weak believer. Then you have the weak believer is not to judge the strong believer. And then he attacks a little piece, a little gem on the end of that. And it applies, so this is a piece of knowledge a weak believer needs to understand.

For God has accepted him. That's the reason right there. For God has accepted or received him. So that's a little nugget that the weak believer needs to understand. Even though he may think this person is being not a good Christian, or being a cavalier, or whatever you want to say, about his actions, eating all things, just, you know, I'll eat all things, he says, no, for God has accepted him.

So from this verse we can see that he's speaking about the strong believer. Received, again, we've seen this word before, it's to take to oneself, that's a term for your own benefit, but it's aorist tense, So what the point here is that you look and you say, I often thought about this, when we see an unbeliever, I always like to think that, maybe I have an issue with him, whatever it is, but I think every person I see outside of Christ, Christ died for. Christ died for everyone. He died for every person, every man, woman, and child he died for. So I look at that person as one personally who Christ died for. This is kind of the same thing here.

He's saying, if this person has come to Christ, he's accepted Christ, he is his, and we're to look at him as that way. For God has accepted him. If God's accepted him, who am I to put him down? Who am I to judge him? This is what the weak believer is to understand about the strong believer, that God has accepted him because he's put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus.

All right. Okay, so then the last verse. Just a little aside here, another little story. Should I say his name, Mike? I don't know. You all know my mind just went blank here. Who is it? Yeah, Tim Monette. Raise your hand if you know Tim Monette. Yeah, most of you do. Anyway, he comes occasionally, dear brother.

He called me one day and said, Roger, I'm living in this room. He has his own place now, but he lived in this room with this couple that were Indian, from India. And they had bought some meat at the Indian market that was sacrificed to some Indian god. And they were cooking it up on the stove to have for the meal tonight. So he calls me, he says, Roger, should I eat that meat? And I said, I think Paul addressed that issue a few times in his writings. Why don't you read, I sent him off to some verse, you know, read this. I think you're okay, Tim. I think you're okay. Paul addressed that issue. So it can happen today. So what do I do if I go to somebody's house and they have meat sacrificed to idols? But of course, that doesn't have quite the drama it would have in that day and age.

Okay, all right, so who are you to judge the servant of another? So he starts off with that statement. Who are you? So the question is, okay, we've been through all these different, so is it the strong or the weak? Which one's he talking to here? Actually, what Mike does, you know. Okay, who say the strong? Raise your hand. Who say the weak? Raise your hand. Who don't know? Raise your hand.

I'll answer the question. But anyway, think about it. So it is hard to trace through here. In fact, when I said, Roger, can you answer this question when you're up there talking? Maybe you'll forget. So I wrote down my notes. I believe he's talking about the weak believer here. See if you agree with me.

Who are you to judge a household servant of another? And one of the key reasons here is it uses the words judging The word judging is key here because we saw in the previous verse, he kind of divided them up, one holding in contempt, one holding in judging, so judging fits the weak believer. Who are you, the one judging, it's Carino again, you're judging in the sense of criticizing, continuous action. Now Paul will describe, and I put it here, the strong believer in two ways. he says this strong believer is a household servant basically he says he's a servant of another and he it's interesting he puts our position like in the Lord we're a servant right we're we're not to think more highly than we ought to think of ourselves we're a servant we're a servant of the Lord domestic servant and here's a verse in first first Peter 2 18 servants be submissive to your master with all respect this is a human situation and household servant belonging to another we belong to another we don't belong to ourselves we don't belong to another believer we belong to the Lord okay and he says to his own master he stands or falls so our relationship how we how we do the report card we get is not from men it's from the Lord right and the wonderful thing is from the Lord we know that once we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus We're accepted in the beloved.

We don't have to work for our salvation. We are accepted because we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So again, don't make, you know, accepting Christ is not something you have to work hard and agonize day and night. You have to just believe what he says, who he is, who is Jesus Christ. He died on the cross for our sins and rode on the third day and we're to believe what he said. So he says basically, to his own master, and he becomes our master at that point, to his own master he stands or falls. Master is this word for lord or power.

Notice it's his own master. That's a definite article there, ho, in the Greek. A definite article which makes it a specific master. It's not just any master, it's a specific master. He stands, to stand upright, it means literally to stand upright. Falls is the opposite of how he falls, and this is speaking of a moral failing, I believe. So he stands or falls to the Lord Jesus, not the man. The strong master is responsible for what is, this is what's interesting.

Once we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, and this is on Mike's thing, our responsibility, we have done what he's asked us to do. We believe what he's asked us to believe. He then is responsible for us, right? And Michael made the statement about, you know, God is responsible for getting us to heaven. Something along that line. And basically, He's responsible for us, and we will stand. He will stand. It's a sharp contrast. Stand up, again, to make the stand, with a future tense. He's going to make us stand before Him.

So Paul assures a weak believer that the strong believer will stand before and approved by God. You can see a weak believer possibly saying, well, I don't think that person's even saved. That strong believer, he's just too wild. He believes everything. He eats all the food he wants. He's saying, no, it's not. God will, if he truly knows the Lord Jesus, he will stand before him. And indeed, he shall be made to stand.

A beautiful verse in Jude about that. may services end with that now to him who's able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy he's gonna make you stand you will stand before him so now this is the one where actually Jim's translation was good I thought for the Lord is able to make him stand for the Lord he's the one performing the action And as this word is able, it's that word about power, to be mighty, to show himself powerful, he is able, he has the power to make him stand. To make him stand again is histamine, but this time it's an event, he will make his stand because of our faith. This is a declaration of God's power in making every believer stand, or the believer stand.

Okay, to sum up, I'm just gonna, I've actually said some of these things already, this is Wiest and Denny. It's his own, it's his own, the believer's Lord who is concerned here. He's the one that's gonna make it happen. That's the first point. It is his Lord's interest which he's involved with. The Lord is interested in us.

He will make every believer stand before him. And to him, the Lord, not to others, he, the believer, must answer whether he stands or falls. And then the final thing, as we said in the previous verse, but indeed, he shall be made to stand. We're gonna stand before him. That applies to the weak or the strong believer.

All right, let's close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much, Lord. We thank you that you will make us stand before you, Lord. I think about the Great White Throne, not Great White Throne, and the Judgment Seat or the Bema. Rewards, thank you so much that you once we accepted you we can trust that you will provide us Keep us safely until we go to be with you in Christ's name man