The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. Romans 14:22

Have you ever seen someone back themselves into a corner with their words? I have a friend who was vehemently a dog person. He loved his dog. Anyone who didn’t love dogs was an idiot. This friend filled Facebook with #mansbestfriend posts, and couldn’t understand why anyone in their right mind would not love a dog. About two months later, the post came up, “Free to a good home.” To be honest, I was a little embarrassed for this friend. He had spent months deriding anyone who could possibly think differently about living the dog life, only to later realize he hadn’t thought it all the way through. By his words, he essentially condemned himself by what he approved. Christians can do this too.

Two Observations

I need to give two quick observations before I explain. First, in Romans 14, Paul gives instructions on how Jewish and Gentile Christians were to relate to one another given certain differences regarding dietary restrictions, Sabbath keeping, and other Jewish ceremonial laws. He tells them to “welcome” the one who was weak in faith, “but not to quarrel over opinions” (Rom 14:1). These Jews had real firm convictions regarding the ceremonial dietary laws. Note, these folks were not being sinful, but their consciences were weak. The temptations would be for the strong in conscience to pummel the weak with their freedom, and the weak in conscience to guilt the strong with their restrictions. So Paul reminds them that the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking, and that each person should have their faith before God, thoroughly convinced in their own minds.

The second point is that not every difference of opinion is equal. Opinions that are heresy and opinions that are sin are not included in this “welcoming” attitude towards others. Someone is not free to deny the Trinity. Someone cannot deny that Jesus came in the flesh and that he died for sinners and rose from the dead. Paul is addressing certain carryovers from Jewish Law, not issues of sin. These new Roman Jewish Christians had some hangovers that needed to be brought into the freedom of the new covenant.

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