Transcribed by Beluga AI.
And say, okay, let’s move on to an easier book. I think we need to wrestle with what’s in this book. And so I just want to read one verse, and then we will try our best to go through Romans 12, 13, and 14 with the Lord’s help.
It says in Romans 12:9:
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. (Romans 12:9-13, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray.
Lord, we’re gonna wrestle with some verses that we know it’s in Scripture, but we often don’t live out. So, Lord, we just pray that you would help us to see our blindness, our hypocrisy, so that we can live in a way that’s pleasing to you and honoring before men.
We want to live a life that is worthy of honor. No matter who is watching us, who we stand before, we want to be, we want to do right by you, by how we live out this life. Thank you, Lord.
We pray that you be with us as we study your word. We pray, Lord Jesus, that you come meet all of us. We open up our hearts wide. We pray that you meet us. Draw us closer and closer to you. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
That first verse, love. Let love be genuine. Another way to say it is, don’t be a hypocrite when you love.
On Sundays we gather, and everybody, at least outwardly, it looks like we love each other because we’re kind. We smile, we hug each other. But is it genuine? Is there any hypocrisy mixed in?
A hypocrite is an actor. That means to your face we will only say nice things, but behind your back, if it was only recorded and brought to that person, how shocked, how horrified we would be if they actually heard what we said about them behind closed doors. And that is a love that is not genuine. It is a love that is mixed with hypocrisy.
And if you continue this line of thought, you see it again. In Romans 13, it says in verse 8:
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:8-10, ESV)
And so if you’ve been a Christian for years or decades and you’re not becoming a loving person who is genuinely loving, that what you say about that person to their face and what you think about them in your heart is consistent, doesn’t mean they’re perfect, doesn’t mean they have everything figured out. But your heart is, I, I, I want to fulfill the law. And the law is summarized: love your neighbor as yourself without hypocrisy, without pretension, without acting as if you love that person when secretly you’re like, shaking your head. I don’t know about this guy. They’re not all together. Their character is not good. They don’t share this conviction that I have, and they are in a lesser category than me. We can’t say that we love a person that we are judging. Love is a fulfillment of the law.
And then in chapter 14, he really unpacks what it looks like to love. It says in verse one:
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. 20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 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. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Romans 14:1-23, ESV)
This is a difficult chapter to live out. A difficult, difficult chapter to live out. Because I think all of us, we have a very high view of ourselves, very high view of ourselves. We think all of our convictions are perfect, that our understanding of God is right, and we look down on anybody who does not share our convictions.
I could be preaching a message and you might say, “Oh, there Ray goes again. It’s his thing. It’s. He’s on his soapbox. This is his thing. And he’s speaking out of ” And I know sometimes when I preach, I might emphasize something, but if you don’t agree with me, you think, “Well, that I don’t have to listen to that.” Even if it’s in God’s word, you just think that’s just Ray speaking out of his bitterness. That’s Ray speaking out of trauma. That’s just Ray speaking, even though it’s in the Word of God. You have a conviction. If it doesn’t align with what I’m saying, I know that I could be judged even as I preach. And as I talk to people, I know I love each one of you. But there is this rising judgment that I constantly have to fight against, that it’s based on my convictions.
And my convictions are strong, and they are what the Lord has given to me. And I cannot go against my conviction. If I go against my conviction, even if it’s not in the Bible, I am actually sinning because I am convicted by what the Lord has revealed to me, what he has shown me. I cannot go against it. Otherwise, I’m sinning.
And somebody who is convicted, as many of you are, on a variety of topics, if somebody shares something that is different from you, do you sense a judgment that rises up and says, “I don’t agree with you. I’m not blessed by that. I don’t believe that. I don’t see that in Scripture. You’re not a loving person.”
And by doing that, you’ve also become an unloving person. And we’re judging each other because we have such a high view of ourselves. And we think, my convictions are from the Lord. These other people, weak brothers, weak sisters, lacking conviction. I’ll just pray for them.
All of us will stand alone before God, and we will be judged by how we lived and the convictions He gave us that we lived out. And with fear and trembling, we work out our own salvation. It is not our job to judge other people and say, “You’re not working out your salvation very well. I think you’re wrong here. I think you shouldn’t do that.”
No, that person is the Lord’s. That person is a child of the Father, a daughter and a son of God. They are a disciple of the Lord Jesus. He is the judge. They will stand before Him. And we won’t be there to say, “Well, I also vouch for him.” Well, it doesn’t matter. You’re not there on Judgment Day. That person stands alone. And God will make him stand throughout this Christian life so that on that day he will be approved and welcomed into paradise.
It is not our job. Our job is to love. It is a fulfillment of the law.
And Paul says at the end, the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17, ESV)
And yet at churches, it seems in some places that are very legalistic, even though you cannot find a verse, it seems like in this church, we do church this way. The traditions are so strong. It is about eating and drinking. It is about how we do church and when we do church. Saturday is worse than Sunday. It has to be Sunday. Other people say, no, it has to be Saturday. We follow all the Jewish feasts. We put on a head covering. We have to do it this way.
And Paul says, actually, when it comes to eating and drinking, I am convicted. And I actually agree with Paul. It’s not about the food. It’s not about the drink. It’s not about the day. It’s not about the tradition, the practice. Paul is stronger in his faith. He has deeper convictions. He has more revelation. And so he’s speaking from a more mature stance. And yet how does he live it out? He embraces the weakness of other people.
We’re all in different places in our journey, and for us to look down on someone and say, “How come you don’t know? How come you don’t know this? God was gracious to show it to me, and in time I pray he will show it to you.”
But we think, “Well, how come you’re so slow? Why are you so weak? This is a conviction that I have, I need to share with you.” God says, “Keep it to yourself. Keep it to yourself. It’s between me and you. I gave it to you. Keep it to yourself.”
Paul has this conviction about food and drink. He doesn’t beat people over the head about this because it’s in the Old Testament. He could say, “Therefore ” Some people will say you must not eat certain foods. You are allowed to eat certain foods. Paul says it doesn’t matter anymore as long as you give thanks. That is the better and truer revelation. And yet he withholds it in his practice because he understands everyone is in a different place. He doesn’t write people off and say, “What’s wrong with you? Why are you so weak?”
That comes from a loving, loveless, judgmental heart. Instead, we should just embrace people. We are all in different places, and we’re just happy that you’re here. We’re happy that you’re on this journey to know Jesus and to reach final salvation, where we go at different paces for a variety of reasons. Sometimes we make mistakes, sometimes we’re in sin. And we reap the consequences of bad choices and sinful addictions that lead us down roads we never wanted to go.
You might have had a great upbringing, so you just had a huge head start in life. Some people had a terrible upbringing, and so from day one, the cards were stacked against them. And yet we look at such people and say, “How come you’re not further along?” They have a different story. They grew up in a different environment. They have different struggles.
If you love people, you understand this, and you withhold judgment and say, “I’m here to love. I’m here to love.” That’s what Jesus would do if he were here. He loved the people that nobody else wanted to love, like lepers and tax collectors and prostitutes. Society writes them off. You guys are losers. You guys got to get your act together. You have nothing to offer. And yet Jesus is with them. He’s not with people who have it all put together, figured it all out, has a nice home, nice career.
When I look at Scripture, he is not with such people. He’s with people who know they’re lost, who know they’re a sinner, who know they’re sick, who know they need a physician. Jesus is after those people.
And first we embrace our weak brothers and sisters. Maybe they don’t have the same convictions. Maybe the revelation hasn’t come about certain things. It’s okay. We’re thankful you’re here. We’re here to love you so that God can speak to you, so that God can work on you, so God can move you along. That is, we’re here to love each other. Don’t be a hypocrite. Hug people on Sunday and then Monday through Saturday, complain about them. Don’t be a hypocrite, please. If you say you love them, show it on Sunday and pray for them throughout the week. Give thanksgiving for them throughout the week. Don’t complain about them. Love them.
Don’t be annoyed at them. Don’t be irritable, irritated about them. Don’t wish they would leave. No. Pray for them until your heart catches up to your actions.
So Paul says, “The weakness, I will love them.” And then he shows that actually it doesn’t, I don’t have to live by my convictions publicly. That’s what he’s saying in Romans 14. I actually don’t have to publicly share my convictions because it’s between me and the Lord. I’m standing because of the Lord. I’m living out this conviction. It’s a sin if I don’t do it. It’s between me and the Lord.
But in terms of practice, he might say it’s actually okay to eat this or to drink this. But when I’m in the presence of somebody who is weaker in faith, who thinks it’s a sin to eat or drink this, what does Paul do? Because he’s a loving person, he says, “I won’t exercise my freedom to live out my conviction in front of this person. I will actually withhold my freedom, exercise self-control, and say before this person, because I don’t want to stumble them, ‘I won’t eat or drink.'”
That is a loving person. You might say, alcohol, I can drink it because my conviction is it’s fine. And there’s no Bible that says you can’t drink it. Although it says don’t get drunk, it says you can drink it. But why don’t I drink even a drop? Because I understand that there are weaker brothers and sisters who are actually addicted to alcohol. And if they hear that a pastor drinks casually, or if they bump into me at a restaurant and I have a wine glass, they think, “Okay, well, there he’s doing it. What’s wrong? If I do it because I’m over this addiction, it’s been a few years. I’m sober.” And then because they watch me do it, they do it, and then they’re enslaved again. Whose fault is it? It’s my fault. I stumbled my brother.
And there are many things like that. Out of our love for people, the convictions that we have, we don’t fight over them. We don’t try to convince people. We don’t publicly live it out to try to show, look at this is freedom in Christ. No, out of a consciousness of that I’m a public figure in a community of people whom I love, I don’t want to stumble them. And so I will exercise self-control. If I know certain things stumble people, I’m not going to do it in front of them.
Certain people are addicted to pornography. I’m not going to go to a movie with them, and knowing that there’s a scene in the movie, I’m just not going to do it. Because if they see that scene and they go home and they stumble again, whose fault is it? It’s my fault because I joined in that, and they went with me, and we thought it was gonna be fun. I didn’t, I didn’t research, I didn’t do my homework, and I didn’t know that scene was gonna be in there. I stumbled that person.
I take this verse, this chapter very seriously. I have my convictions about secular music. I don’t even listen to a minute because, for me, it takes me places. It takes me back to pre-Christ Ray. Why would I want to be reminded about pre-Christ Ray?
I know there’s no verse in the Bible, so I will never make it a law and say thou shall not listen to secular music. Only has to be worship, Christian music only. I will never make it a law, except in my home. It is a law in my home, if I can control it while they’re a minor. Once they leave, do whatever you want, but we won’t make rules like that. No drinking, no secular music in this church.
We will never make a rule because I cannot locate a verse that says you must do it like this. All I see is we have certain convictions. And the Father in his graciousness, when we ask for wisdom, He gives more wisdom, more revelation, more understanding. And once we receive the understanding, it is a sin to go against it, even if everyone else around you is going against it. It’s your conviction now, stand by it. If you don’t stand by it, you’ve sinned. And that’s why I’m so strong with certain convictions.
Because for me, it is an issue of sin, as it says in God’s word. It is as if there is a Bible verse. Because for me, the Lord says there is a verse. It’s for me. It’s not in the Bible, but it’s for me. It’s a conviction between me and the Lord. I will not do certain things, but I will never impose it on somebody else. Because you have to find your own convictions.
We need to be loving people. We cannot judge people because we have different convictions. Some people drink; I cannot judge them. Some people listen to secular music. I cannot judge them. I just know it is between me and the Lord. I will not watch certain things. It is between me and the Lord. There’s no verse that says no R-rated movies. But I know what’s good for me. I know what’s bad for me.
And the most loving thing you can do is embrace everybody in different places with different convictions. And when you’re with them, exercise self-control out of love for that person.
And the last thing we want to do is to be the stumbling block for another believer. If you’re a leader and you stumble someone, you should tie a millstone around your neck and drown. That’s how seriously Jesus takes a person who casually stumbles.
And don’t we stumble people by just carelessly speaking? And it could be our own convictions, but we speak it carelessly. It’s not for you to say it to that person. But we think that we’re so strong in our conviction, I should say it. No wonder not many should be teachers.
I have to be a lot more careful what I preach, even if it’s my conviction. Some of them, it should never be preached because someone, a weaker brother or someone with a different set of convictions, will hear that and shut off his ear, and I will lose that person when maybe God wanted me to reach that person, if only I had more control over what came out of my mouth.
The most loving thing is we want to reach as many people as we can to draw them to Jesus and everyone in their different spiritual journey. We want to be a loving person so that we feel, they feel safe around us, not judged. People can sniff out judgment. They know it. I can feel it. I know when I’m doing it.
We want to be the kind of person so careful what we say, because we don’t want to let the judgment leak out that our conviction is a little bit different. We should bless people even if the conviction is different. We should bless them in where they are in their journey and not look down on them, not despise them.
But we think, “If you don’t share my convictions, I can’t bless you. I can’t. I can’t. We’re not on the same team.”
Jesus says, “No, these are all my servants. They don’t belong to you. They stand because I make them stand. And one day they will stand before me. It is not your job. your job is to love.”
So may our church be a place where whoever walks through the door, doesn’t matter their background, they feel in this place, all people of all backgrounds, no matter where you are in your journey you could be a staunch atheist there, there is, you are welcome in this place. We’re here to love you.
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, we thank you for the truth of your Word. You challenge us to love without hypocrisy, sincerely. Love is a fulfillment of the law, loving our neighbor as ourselves. And then in Romans 14, you really unpack practically what this looks like. We work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, because one day we stand, we will stand before you alone. And so that is where we judge ourselves with sober judgment.
When it comes to other people, we are gracious, we are loving. We do not judge. That is for you to do. We are here to love, to embrace people in different places in their spiritual journey. Many people, maybe they don’t even know you. But we, we love them into the kingdom by introducing them to Jesus.
So, Lord, we thank you for teaching us practically what a loving community looks like. How we need to be so much more careful with how we speak to one another. Even if we’re so convicted about something, it is not for us to share.
We’re just here to love. And maybe when that person has ears to hear, maybe when it is the right time, we will have something to share. But, Lord, we’re very careful not to come across as being judgmental, not despising, not looking down.
Some people are strong in faith. Some people are weak in faith. All are welcome to the feet of Jesus. All are welcome. Jesus, you came to those who are lost in their sin, those who are rejected by society. So we know that your heart is for such people, who know they’re sick, who know they’re lost, who know they’re sinful. Pray that you help us. Thank you for your Body that was broken for us and your blood that was shed.
Pray that as after we examine ourselves, that you would allow us to display the unity of Christ by partaking in the Lord’s Supper. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
