Thoughts From Romans 14 - Part 6

  So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.  Rom. 14:22,23

        The one thing I haven't talked about is this whole thing about eating which Paul keeps talking about in Romans 14. It appears that the idol worshippers offered animal sacrifices to statues of pagan gods and rather than let these stink, spoil, attract maggots, overnight these meats would be bought by local vendors and sold a day later at the meat market, probably at a discount. Some Christians would say, "I could never eat that because it was offered to a demon" while others would say, "an idol is just a marble slab, it's nothing so I am going to buy cheap meat and be a good steward of God's money."

      Now both could be in the same fellowship and never have an issue with this except in 3 instances as I see. #1) They are shopping in the same market, and one sees the other buying that meat. Solution - If you eat that meat, go shopping at a low traffic time and look around before you buy it. My wife makes a mean rum cake, but we would never buy the rum in our locale. We wait for a cruise or something like that.

 #2) You invite that person over for supper and serve the meat and they ask, "Is this meat that was offered to idols?" You can't lie so you say yes. Paul would instruct the weaker brother not to ask, just assume it's not and your conscience won't be bothered. I suppose a modern-day scenario might be you get a gift for Christmas, but you are boycotting Target, and you don't know if it came from there. Just accept it and don't ask. Or your ministry gets an anonymous gift, but you say, "What if this is from the Masons?" Don't ask, just accept it as God blessing you. Or is this candy you got from trick or treating? Don't ask. Just eat it.

#3) You are at a Bible study (or whatever form of the scriptures they would have had) and someone brings up the subject for discussion. This actually is great because this is how the weaker brother can grow and this is how the stronger brother can grow in grace, love, longsuffering, and understanding. It may also convict the stronger brother if he is actually being free in an area he shouldn't be and has taken his freedom too far. Paul says that it is possible to approve of too much so be careful.

      Are there areas that you are holding to a stronger standard than scripture gives? Are there areas that you have freedom in that scripture holds you to a higher standard. These are questions we need to continually ask and pray for divine wisdom as we continue in our daily process of sanctification (spiritual growing up).