Romans 14

Brethren, we'd like to turn over to Romans 14. We want to continue our trek through the Book of Romans. We have not been there for a while because we were preparing for the pants over in Days of Unleavened Bread. But we want to get back to Romans. We only have two more chapters to cover, Romans 14 and 15. We, many months ago, covered chapter 16 in another sermon, so I won't be going through that again. In terms of research, the tools I used to prepare this sermon today were the Bible Knowledge Commentary, the Life Application Commentary, and also, Berkeley's Daily Study Bible. I used all three of those very fine reference works in researching for the material today. Romans 14 is important to us for a number of very important reasons. Romans 14 is important as a battleground chapter. There are people in the religious community, there are theologians, some of my very good friends who I used to fellowship with, who were church pastors, who had pointed to Romans 14 back before 1995 and said, this is one of the reasons why they were no longer going to keep the Sabbath. Romans 14 was one of the reasons they felt they could eat whatever they wanted to eat. These are church pastors, ambassador college trained men who looked at this chapter and said, this gives me the license to no longer keep the Sabbath the holy days and eat whatever I want to. Let's take a look at the two areas that they point to. We were going to go through the whole chapter, but I want to show you the two kind of landmines that are contained here. They're not landmines of the people who know the truth of God, but they are the people in the world. Romans 14, verse 5, says, one person esteemes one day above another, another esteemes every day alike, let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day observes it to the Lord. He who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. He who eats eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks, and he who does not eat to the Lord, he does not eat and gives God thanks. So there's one section of scripture that talks about, well, we can know, don't worry about the Sabbath anymore, don't have to worry about the Holy Days anymore, eat whatever we want to. Of course, over here in chapter 14, verse 14, here's the other area. It says, I know I'm convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it's unclean. And dropping down to verse 20, do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure.

Now if you've got a new international version sitting on your lap, it will say, all food is clean. All food is clean. And I can think of a number of my very good friends back in the day, back in the year, when they looked at that and said, Randy, there's no way you're going to get around that. We can eat whatever we want to. There's a tremendous number of holes in our theology, and you can't do anything about it. Well, is that the case? What is Paul saying here in Romans chapter 14? I think it's important for us to understand what Paul is saying here in Romans chapter 14. Now, as a little bit more background, like you as you're looking at Romans, look at Romans chapter 12. There's a thread that we're going to see going from chapter 12 to 13 to 14 that we need to appreciate. Romans chapter 12, where it says in verse 18, If it is possible, as much as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all men. Kind of harkening back to what we heard a little bit in the sermonette. So there's an idea here in chapter 12 that we as Christians need to...we've got responsibilities in our interpersonal relationships with one another, whether we're talking about people in the church or people outside of the church. In chapter 13 of Romans, verse 8, it says, O, no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet. If there's any other commandment, all are summed up in the saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Paul does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is a fulfillment of the law. So here we see in chapter 13 that we are to live peaceably in chapter 12. In chapter 13, we are to love our neighbor. And that brings us now to chapter 14, because here in chapter 14, Paul does discuss a number of principles that are very important to us as Christians, how we are to get along with one another. So I want to give you that as a little bit of a backdrop. Let's get into chapter 14 here, verse 1. It says, Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. Now, those who want to talk about the Sabbath or clean and unclean meats, those are doctrinal issues. Those are not doubtful things.

Those are things that are rock solid. The doctrine of God is rock solid. So we're not going to be talking here, from a very understanding we can get from verse 1. We're not going to be talking about doctrine of God. We're talking about Christian living principles. We're talking about where one person may have one idea on something, or one opinion, somebody has another idea, another opinion. But one of the big things we see here, very first word of the verse, receive one. To receive one means to welcome one another. And we're talking about in Rome, the church was composed of people of a variety of backgrounds. You had Jew, you had Gentile, you had some people who were slaves, you had some people who were masters, you had some people who were wealthy, you had some people who were poor. All of them were at different stages of their spiritual development. All of them had different stages of spiritual maturity. All of them had spiritual strengths, just like all of you in this room, all of you have spiritual strengths. And just like all of us in this room, they all had spiritual weaknesses. Everyone in this room has got a weakness, or weaknesses. Same thing with these folks. Paul is saying, look, let's welcome our brothers and sisters into faith. Let's understand that. Let's not get into doubtful things, differences of lifestyle.

Notice the words, lifestyle, differences of opinion. Okay, now we get to verse 2. For one believes that he may eat all things, but he was weak, eats only vegetables. So now here you have something where, again, some of my buddies from years ago, former church pastors in the church, trained at Ambassador Cowell, hey, Randy, we can eat all things past the shrimp cocktail. You know, let me have that pepperoni on that pizza. You know?

Is that what it's talking about there? Let's use a little bit of... heaven forbid we use a little bit of logic. Let's use a little bit of logic here. Can you eat every green thing that grows on this planet? Or if you eat some green things, are you going to drop over dead? You cannot eat every green thing, just like you cannot eat everything that walks on hoofs or slithers or whatever.

Some things you can eat, some things you can't eat. You can't eat everything that goes on. But what does it mean where it says, one believes he may eat all things? Well, again, what's the background here? Verse 1 is talking about receiving people in the faith. We're talking about people who have some issues with their faith. Now, I'm going to cut to the chase here a little bit. Let's move ahead to verse 14. I know what I'm convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean. There's nothing koinos, the Greek word koinos. There's nothing unclean of itself. But to him who considers anything to be koinos, to him it is koinos.

Now, that word koinos is a word that designates ceremonial defilement. It denotes food that was offered to idols. So that's the context of the whole chapter. You're not going to find the words in this chapter of food offered to idols, but you take a look at verse 14, you look at the original Greek there, and that's what it's referring to.

So you take that idea, you move it back to verse 1 and 2. Verse 1 and 2 says, talking about the faith, it talks about some believe they can eat all things. Now, what are they all things they can eat? Well, if there was food, if there was meat, if there was an animal sacrificed to an idol, all the animal was not burnt and used in a sacrifice, the remainder of the meat would have been sold into the marketplace.

And some people believed that they could eat whatever meat they bought in the marketplace, as long as it's okay with Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. That's all it's referring to. Now, some people, because they didn't know where the meat came from, they had a conscience issue.

And because they didn't know where the meat was coming from, they said, okay, I don't know where that's coming from, therefore I'm going to eat vegetables. I'm going to avoid it altogether. So that's what we have happening here, and that's basically what we have happening for the whole of the chapter, where it's talking about people eating and not eating.

So let's be clear about that. Dropping down to verse 3, Romans 14.3, Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who does, for God has received him. The idea here, again, is, as we saw in verse 1, receiving people, welcoming people. The idea is not because we've got differences of opinion, you know, you can eat this meat because it doesn't affect your conscience, you can eat it, but I can't. Well, let's not allow that to be something that puts a wedge between us as brothers and sisters.

That's basically what Paul is saying here in verse 3. Verse 4, Who are you to judge another servant? To his own master he stands, or falls, indeed he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. So when you look at verse 4, let's drop down to verse 10, same idea here, Romans 14.10, But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And so the idea Paul was getting across, he got it across in chapter 12, chapter 13, now chapter 14, that yes, we will have doubtful things that come up among us.

Differences of opinion. We're not talking about doctrine, we're talking differences of opinion. When those things come up, differences of lifestyle, differences of taste. When those things come up, fine. You know, in some ways that makes us to be a stronger group. We're not all the same. We have all sorts of things that we can feed off of one another, we learn, we grow, because we're exposed to a lot of other things that can be very healthy for us.

And that's basically the idea Paul is getting across. Put a marker here in Romans, let's go over to Matthew, chapter 7. Jesus Christ was preaching the same thing. Matthew, chapter 7. Matthew 7, verse 1, judge not or condemn not that you be not condemned, for with what judgment you judge, who will be judged? And with what same manner you use, it will be measured back to you. Verse 3, and why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, this little tiny thing in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank, you've got a piece of sawdust in your brother's eye, but you've got a plank, he's got this 2x4, 6x8, whatever, in your own eye.

Verse 4, how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck out of your eye? Look, a plank is in your own eye, hypocrite. First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you'll see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye. So Jesus Christ is saying basically the same thing, that we need to be very careful when it comes to these doubtful, these life issues, believe the best about people, and move on.

So now we come to these two verses that are battleground verses. We need to understand. People come to us and they say, I'm no longer going to keep the Sabbath anymore. I remember what it was like back in 1994, when I was pastoring in West Virginia and Ohio. People I'd known for the previous four years I'd been pastoring. One Sabbath, they're right there with me, where we're preaching and teaching and and telescipping. In the next Sabbath, I literally had people come up to me and say, you know, you Pharisee you, you're keeping that Sabbath in those holy days.

I was like, wow! Where is all this coming from? Maybe you experienced that here locally. I experienced that in West Virginia and Ohio when I was there in Athens and Marietta. People all of a sudden, they look at verses like this and say, hey, I'm out of here. Give me the bus to the other guy's church. I'll go there. I'm going to keep Sunday. Now, verse 5, one person esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike. But each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day observes it to the Lord.

He who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. I'll pause there. The rest talks about eating and so forth. Let's just look at this idea about the Sabbath. We're going to take a good, long look at what we've read there in verse 5 and the beginning of verse 6. One person esteems this. Another person esteems that. Is that how doctrine comes into play? By what you or I think? Does it say in verse 5 and 6, here's what God says?

Does it say, here's what God esteems? No, it's not saying, here's what God says. It's not saying, here's what God has esteemed. It's saying, here's what one guy thinks this, another guy thinks that. Well, we're going to get to what this means in actuality, but I want you to understand something. Again, a little bit of deeper background in the book of Romans. A little bit of deeper background to the book of Romans. People say, this is doing away with the Sabbath.

Brethren, the word Sabbath, or any references to Sabbath keeping, are not found anywhere in the book of Romans. It's not there. Not the Sabbath, not any references to how we need to keep the Sabbath. It's just not there. That's not something we have in the book of Romans. Nowhere. So, it's not talking about that. Let's look at this from another angle.

What Paul's already said about the law in this book. Not specifically the Sabbath, but the law in general. Let's go over to Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7.

Romans chapter 7 verse 12, Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good.

It doesn't sound like he's trying to do away with the law of God there, does it? The law is holy, shouldn't we, as Christians want to be holy? God's holy people. And the commandments are holy, and just, and good. I don't see anything wrong with that. You drop down to verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual. I don't know of a single New Covenant Christian who doesn't want to be spiritual. We're New Covenant Christians. We're spiritual folks. We love the fact that God's law is holy, just, and good, and that it's spiritual. So this whole concept that Romans 14, 5, and 6 is doing away with the Sabbath simply is a non-starter. It's not the case.

I want to quote here from the Expositor's Bible Commentary. The Expositor's Bible Commentary explains that the close contextual association with eating suggests that Paul had in mind a special day set apart for observance as times for feasting and times for fasting.

This is very important now. Now we're going to look at what in the world was Paul talking about.

Paul was writing to a congregation composed of Jews and Gentiles. Eating and fasting practices that were not clearly addressed in scriptures became a point of contention.

As you are well aware, the Talmud recorded that many Jews fasted on Mondays and Thursdays.

We also know from the context of Romans that some of these Romans were quite arrogant, and they were quite self-righteous. Let's take a look at Romans chapter 2 for a moment. Romans chapter 2.

Romans chapter 2 and verse 17. Indeed, you are called a Jew and rest on the law and make your boast in God. So here we've got a group of people boasting in God and know His will and approve of the things that are excellent being instructed out of the law and are confident that you yourselves are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness. Notice the discussion about how some, not all the Jews, not all the Christians, but some in the church were a bit arrogant because they felt a leg up on the rest of the people. These Gentile Christians were jotting and complaining. They didn't really understand the background to the church. And so they boasted in God. They were confident of various things. They felt like they could be instructors. Verse 20, instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having a form of knowledge and truth in the law.

We see a point of view that some of these folks had. You therefore who teach another do not teach yourself. You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who pour idols, do you rob temples? You make your boast in the law. Do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you as it is written. So here we've got some people in the church. I'm sure in many ways they were fine people, but in some ways they had their issues. As I said earlier, we all have our strengths. We all have our weaknesses. These folks had some weaknesses. We go back to Romans 14. We begin to understand now what Paul's talking about when he's looking at these verses. Verse 5, one person esteems one day above another.

Some of them were esteeming Mondays and Thursdays as fast days.

Some of them weren't. Another esteems every day alike. The Gentiles thought every day was fine. They didn't have the background that every Monday and Thursday they were going to fast. That wasn't their cultural background. Another esteem is every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. So we're not talking here about being convinced about the Sabbath. We're talking about our own individual walk with God. How often are we going to fast as an individual? How much time are we going to spend in prayer? How much time are we going to spend studying God's Word? Those are all individual things. It's not talking about whether we should be keeping the Sabbath or not. Verse 6, he who observes the day, observes it to the Lord.

When you fast, you're taking a fast to draw closer to who? To the Lord, to God.

And he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he doesn't observe it. Well, there are days where you're going to work. You've got a 12-hour day coming up maybe on Tuesday or whatever. You're taking a holy day off Tuesday. You've got to work an extra amount. So you're not going to observe that to the Lord because it's a work day. It's not a holy day. That's all this is talking about here.

Again, remember, there's no discussion in the whole book of Romans about the Sabbath or Sabbath keeping, per se. There's a discussion about the law in general. So this whole idea that out of thin air, where all of a sudden going to do away with the Sabbath doesn't make any sense. But when you understand the background here, then things do make a great deal of sense.

You know, something else about the background here we want to remember.

Paul is writing this book from Corinth. Okay? Paul's writing to the Roman people from Corinth.

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians during the days of Unleavened Bread. We think it was probably 55 AD.

And in that book, 1 Corinthians chapter 8, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul talks about meats offered to idols. Here he wrote the book of Romans a year or two later.

It's still on Paul's mind. He hears the people are having issues with this day or that day.

And it revolves around, as we saw in verse 14, meat that was koinos. Also, the same thing we had in the...he's in Corinth. He's thinking, well, we had a problem here in Corinth. Now the problem is over here in Rome. And so he starts talking to people about the same issue, about the very same issue. That's where at the bottom of verse 6, verse 6, He who eats eats the Lord, for he gives God thanks, and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not even gives God thanks. Again, the whole idea is, I can eat that meat. It's a sacrifice to the idol. Idol is nothing to me. It doesn't bother my conscience. But other people, that did bother their conscience. And so they weren't about to eat those meats. So again, when we're taking a look at this very first minefield, it really is not a minefield. If you understand the background here, it all makes perfect sense. In no way was verse 5 and 6 here in Romans 14, related to Sabbath observance. The Sabbath is nowhere associated in the Scripture with abstaining from eating meat or any food. The Sabbath is nowhere mentioned in Paul's letter to the Romans. It simply was not an issue. One other thing for you to put in again, were some more of a deep background. If Paul was such an antinomian, if Paul hated the law of God so much, why in this book of Romans did Paul quote the Old Testament over 80 times?

Now, for your friends who want to come to you and say, you may point to Romans 14, 5, and 6, and whatever, I don't do it anymore. In that case, why did Paul quote the Old Testament over 80 times in this relatively short book? 80 times! Okay, let's move on. Romans 14, verse 7, For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. None of us live in a vacuum.

Paul's getting back to the larger issue about how we need to be brothers and sisters one to another. We need to be receiving one another. We need to be welcoming one another. We need to be living peacefully with one another, as we saw in chapter 12. We need to be loving one another, as we saw in chapter 13.

Chapter 14, yeah, there's going to be differences among us. In some ways, that's really good.

If we all thought the same thing, did the same thing, it'd be pretty boring.

It's nice to have people who shake things up a little bit.

It causes us to think. I am one of a group of maybe 18 or 20 people who answers letters that come in from the internet, and sometimes these letters are really wild. I've gotten everything recently from my girlfriend and I really enjoy sex. What do you think about wife swapping?

I've got everything from that to how can I better understand the Word of God and give me some principles for understanding? That sort of thing. So you get any, from society, in different parts of the world, you get the Buddhists and people are writing in and they want to know various things. So it helps keep me on my toes. I kind of enjoy it. I never know what I'm going to look at my inbox in the email. I never know what I'm going to have.

Romans 14, verse 8, For if we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lords. We are the Lords. Our lives are ultimately and for Christ alone. Yes, we interact with one another. We love one another. We receive one another. We live a peace with one another. We love one another and so forth. But our God is the one we answer to. Our life is bound up in Him. Verse 9, For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. Christ alone is our judge.

One of the reasons why you and I should not be sitting as judge and jury over other people is because all of us are in the same boat. All of us right now are in the process of being evaluated.

Use the word judge. We're all in the process of being evaluated. Verse 10, But why do you judge your brother? Why do you show contempt for your brother? Again, this is getting down to more what Paul is getting across in the whole of this chapter.

People were judging and showing contempt. They were looking down on one another. Paul said, this should not be. Why do you judge your brother? Why do you show contempt for your brother? You know, my brother shouldn't be eating that meat. Or, you know, what's wrong with my, you know, what's wrong with my brother? He is eating that meat. And people looking down their nose. Whenever there's a difference between anybody that gives people an opportunity to look down their nose. If we're not careful, that's our human nature. But why do you judge your brother? Why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.

Now, starting in verse 13, we had the introduction to this thing about clean and unclean meats.

We talked about how chapter 14 verses 5 and 6 does not do away with the Sabbath, not talking about the Sabbath, talking about other days that these folks were observing in terms of their own personal fast days, feast days, what have you. Starting here in verse 13, we begin this discussion about eating. Verse 13, Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.

So here we have a preface, much like you saw over in 1 Corinthians 8 and 1 Corinthians 10, where we don't want to have this eating thing, meats offered to idols. We don't want that to be a stumbling block to our brothers and sisters in the faith. Then he launches into verse 14, For I know, and am convinced by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing quaenos of itself, but to him who considers anything to be quaenos, to him it is quaenos.

Now, as I repeatedly said today in a sermon, believers are not to judge one another regarding their convictions on matters of opinion. Each believer is free to have his or own convictions regarding these doubtful matters.

In the church, we have Christians who are weak and strong, and I would again say to you that all of us are weak and all of us are strong. We've all got our strengths and weaknesses.

The challenge for the quote-unquote strong Christian is they may be insensitive to others.

They may flaunt his or her knowledge or perceived freedom, thus being a harmful example to others.

That would be the challenge to the strong. The challenge that the weak faith, quote-unquote weak faith, and again I think we're all weak in various ways, but the challenge the weak faith would be they would tend to say, okay now I've got these do's and don'ts, I just simply can't handle this. I can't go there. I can't do this, and because I can't do this, you shouldn't do it either. Matter of fact, none of us in this room should do it. I can't do it. You shouldn't do it either. And so what you have sometimes, sometimes, you don't want to paint everybody the same brush, but sometimes you've got the weak, quote-unquote Christian, trying to fence others in with their rules, their do's and their don'ts. And neither example is what we want with it, but neither one is a balanced example. Put a marker here. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 8.

1 Corinthians chapter 8. And in verse 9, where it says, But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. Or if I could take the liberty, make sure that this liberty of yours doesn't become a stumbling block to those who are strong. Either way, we have liberty and Christ, whether we're weak or strong. But our point of view should not hurt our next-door neighbor, spiritually speaking. As we go back to Romans 14, and we're trying to understand what's going on here in verse 14 a little more clearly, I think it's good for us to understand just a little bit of Greek terminology. Just a little bit.

Let me first of all give it to you in English. In the scriptures, we've got Greek words that convey two basic ideas when it comes to something that's unclean. We've got the idea that unclean can refer to animals like pigs and shellfish, things that we see there in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Those things are unclean. That's one concept. Another concept of unclean refers to something that's unclean from a religious point of view, from a ceremonial point of view, such as the meat offered to an idol. It could be a beef steak. Nothing wrong with that piece of slab of beef, but it was offered to an idol. Some people, to them, it's something that they consider ceremonial unclean. They don't want to touch it. We understand that. So here in Romans 14, verse 14, the word is koinos. The word is koinos. It's the word that represents something that is ceremonially unclean.

It's not clean in the sense that it's a pig. It's not unclean in the sense that it's shellfish or anything like that. It has to do with a religious context. It has to do with something that's sacrificed to an idol. Now, again, put a marker here. Let's see how this word is used over. Same word. I should say it's the verb form of the word over here in Mark 7.

This is a derivative of koinos. The word here is koin-o.

I think it's very clear when we see the word used here what it's talking about. Mark 7, verse 1, Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together, him having come from Jerusalem. Now, when they saw some of the disciples eat bread with defiled koinu, same type of word we saw there in Romans 14. They were eating bread with defiled, that is, unwashed hands. Now, these men were men. They weren't pigs. They weren't lobsters.

They weren't unclean in the sense that they were animals that were unclean. They were unclean ceremonially because they didn't wash the way that the scribes and Pharisees thought they should wash.

And you see more of that, Sam. I'm not going to read all of the verses here, but verses 15 through 23 show that what we have here is a discussion about ceremonial uncleanness, disciples eating without having washed their hands first.

You can go through a concurrence, if you've got a concurrence, and probably most of you do, and you can take a look at these words, koinos or koinu, and see how they're used.

They're not talking about the law of God as found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.

Now, there is an entirely different word that used the New Testament for animals that the scriptures call unclean. The word is acathartos. That word is not used in Romans 14. Not there.

Not talking about unclean animals there. If they were talking about unclean animals, then you would see the word acathartos there. Now, I know in some ways this is technical, but you will have people will come to you with these ideas and these concepts. And it happened to us back in 93, 94, early 95. That's why we had a split from our former association.

So it's good for us to have a background with this.

In the Septuagint, the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament used in Paul's day. In the Septuagint, acathartos is used to designate unclean animals as listed in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. So again, that's not there. Now, I do want you to turn over to Acts 10. Let's see both words side by side. Here in Acts 10, you see the vision that Peter has with all these various animals coming down.

Both the words koinos and acathartos are used here in Acts 10, describing Peter's vision of all these animals that are coming down. Some of the animals coming down on that sheet were clean, and some were not fit for human consumption. They were acathartos. So here in Acts 10, verse 14, Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything koinos or acathartos. And so here you see side by side those two words being used. I have never eaten anything that is ceremonially defiled or anything that is, in fact, something that we should not eat according to Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. We see that right there in Acts 10, verse 14. Peter uses both words. He wants to make it abundantly clear. He's never crossed the line ceremonially or any other way.

He has been a good Christian along those lines. And this is many years after the death of Jesus Christ. People want to say that at the death of Jesus Christ, all of a sudden Paul is the main guy. I never quite got that. I never quite got how in Christianity, after our Savior dies, all of a sudden we're elevating Paul. He's the chief guy. I never quite got that. But you know, Christ has been dead here for a while, and Paul's, or Peter, excuse me, Peter is saying, I don't eat anything that's common or unclean. Ceremonially or truly.

Okay, now we go back to Romans chapter 14.

I want to drop down to verse 20, because it really ties in. The rest of the chapter deals with some other issues, but verse 20 very much ties into what we've just been discussing, so I want to take that at this point. Romans 14, 20, Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.

All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense.

Or, as the New International says, all food is clean.

Now, I've said this in the past, I've even had some of you in the past stand up with your New International version. I said, would you read this particular verse in the New Testament?

Some of you stood up and said, can't do it! Why? Well, really not there. The New International is very unfriendly toward the law of God in the New Testament. New International is not a bad reference work to use for the Old Testament. I mean, like any other tool, every tool has got to strengthen the weaknesses. One of the weaknesses of the New International version is very soft when it comes to the law of God. So here it says in the New International, and the reason I quote this is because the New International is the most widely published and purchased Bible in the world.

And so you will have people come to you with the New International and say, look, Romans 1420, all food is clean. And I can think of a very good personal friend of mine, and one of the reasons why he left Sabbath keeping and went the way he went is because of this verse. He put so much stock. He says, you know, it just shows that we have all these holes in our theology. Well, I'll take you through a trip to each one of those supposed holes, and we'll take a look, and they're not there. But as we're showing you today, these two things here, these are not holes in anybody in our theology. But people say these verses say they don't say it. But anyhow, verse 20. Let me read, instead of me trying to do a lot of words, let me read a portion of our article. And you can go to our website. You know, we've got a booklet on clean and unclean. There's a whole chapter on Romans 14 that we'll go through. And if you're not getting all this, you want to, and I know it's kind of complicated, you want to kind of reread it, kind of re-study it for yourself, eyeball it. Just go to our booklet, and you can see that for yourself. Let me read this section. It says, Paul goes on to state in Romans 1420 that all food is clean, quoting the new international version. The word translated clean is catheros, free from impure, a mixture without blemish, spotless. They're quoting there from vines. Clean means, as such, aren't addressed in the New Testament, so there isn't a specific word to describe them. Catheros is used to describe all kinds of clemenace, impurity, including clean dishes, in Matthew 23, people, in John 13, clothing, in Revelation 15, pure religion, in James 1, golden glass, in Revelation 21.

Realize also, and please catch this, realize also that in both verses 14 and 20 of Romans 14, the word food or meat isn't in the original wording. No specific object is mentioned relative to cleanness or uncleanness. The sense of these verses is merely that nothing is unclean, koinos, common or ceremony defiled, of itself, and all is clean, free from impure, a mixture without blemish, spotless, of itself.

Now, I think that's, you know, that's, to my way of thinking, very, very clear. Paul's point is that the possible association of a particular food with idolatrous activity has no bearing on whether the food was suitable for eating. That's why we have verse 20.

That's why we have verse 20. Okay, let's begin to finish up here.

Let's go to verse 15. We'll go through the rest of these verses and finish early today.

Romans 14, 15, You know, you look at verse 15 and you see the same sort of advice that Paul gave in 1 Corinthians, chapter 8. Same idea. You know, if eating, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8, if eating this sort of thing is going to make my brother perish, I'll never eat that food. Now, we've had a conversation about, well, what does that mean exactly? Does that mean that you can never, if you know somebody who just can't eat or can't do certain things that you in your life are never going to do those things?

Now, we've had that discussion. You know, we certainly don't do it and rub it in people's faces.

But on the other hand, Jesus Christ did all sorts of things that offended people.

Jesus Christ healed people. He did it on the Sabbath. Was Jesus Christ going to stop healing people on the Sabbath because some people got offended? Well, we need to be learning, don't we?

We need to be learning. So that's another discussion for another day. But, you know, in general, we don't want to be in people's faces. You know, if we're going to do something, we do it by ourselves. Other people don't see it. We're not doing anything wrong. But if it offends some people, well, you know, we're just not going to do something in their sight that's going to be hurtful to their eyes. Verse 16, therefore, do not let your good be spoken of as evil.

Paul is basically saying there, you know, guard your example, guard your reputation.

You know, your life speaks volumes. You want your life to stand for something and mean something.

Don't allow your life's work to be brought down to nothing because of some foolish activity.

Therefore, do not let your good be spoken of as evil, for the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy and the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by man. You know, if we are the loving people we need to be, as it says here in verse 18, we follow these words. God's going to, you know, bless us, and those around us are going to recognize that, yes, we truly are Christians living the right way.

Verse 19, therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace, and the things by which one may edify another. Pursue peace. That's what we read there in chapter 12. We need to pursue peace. Put a marker here. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Here's what we need to be doing. Not fighting over disputed things, doubtful things, you know, your opinion, my opinion, that sort of thing, I like blue, you like red, that sort of thing. Let's not get into arguments about that, Paul says.

1 Thessalonians 5.11. Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing. Comfort each other. Build one another up.

Look for opportunities to build one another up.

Romans 14. Verse 21.

1 It is good neither to eat meat, nor drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or made weak. Paul said the same thing in 1 Corinthians 8.13. I'm not going to turn there. 1 Corinthians 8.13. Paul says, Therefore, if what I cause ye causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall. 2 Romans 14.22. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God? Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. All of us as believers should seek a clear conscience before God. The believer who does this will be blessed. You will be blessed. I will be blessed.

2 And lastly, verse 23. 1 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith. For whatever is not from faith is sin.

And, brother, that's a tremendous principle that overrides this particular chapter. It takes us throughout all of our life. If we've got some issue in our life that we feel bad about, or feel we really don't know, it's going to be a kind of doubtful issue. We don't see black and white in the scripture. We maybe even have a hard time finding a principle, but we just don't feel good about it. Well, don't do it! If you think something is bad, don't do it. Because what is the reverse thought there? Well, I'm going to go ahead and do something bad. I'm going to go ahead and do something wrong. I don't know if I can prove it one way or another, but I just have a bad feeling about it. Well, don't do it. Just don't do it. Ask God to give you guidance. Ask God to help you see black and white in the scriptures, or see principle in the scriptures, to help you to lead you along the way. Okay, brother, that's going to be it for today. Next time we get together, we'll go through chapter 15 of Romans, and we'll call that quits. The next book we'll be going through here one week at a time, and Sabbath will be the book of Deuteronomy. So if you want to start reading ahead, we'll start going through Deuteronomy in another couple of months.