Or, On Living, Dying, and Always Making Judgments
Scripture: Romans 14:5-12
Date: October 15, 2023
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Human beings are choosing machines. Well, we’re not actually machines, but we are choosy choosers always choosing. We are value recognizing, value assigning, and value pursuing people because we are image-bearers. God calls things good (or not), we’re made to reflect Him, and in the new life He’s given us we’re learning how to do it better. We make judgments, with good or bad reasons, but not with instincts like animals. We make judgments, about more or less important things, because we are not nihilists where nothing means anything.
Because we are fallen/sinful, we get our judgments wrong sometimes, including our judgment of our own authority to judge. I’m not trying to be clever, but to acknowledge together some of the challenges we’re up against. While we live we can’t not make judgments, and when we get out of our lane crashes start to happen.
This is especially true when it comes to disputable things, or indifferent things. On one hand, because Jesus is Lord, everything matters. On the other hand, because Jesus is Lord, everything doesn’t matter equally, or as obviously. What Romans 14:5-12 emphasizes is that because Jesus is Lord, whatever we choose should be for Him, and one of the things we must choose is to let our brothers choose differently than us for Him.
Disputable things, in this context, are moral choices, or at least believed to be moral choices, or argued about as moral choices. This is not about the direction the toilet paper comes off the roll, though if you despise your brother over that, yikes. One dispute that goes around the internet every so often is yoga pants worn in public, and while the details of modesty are disputable, it’s not disputable that we’re to be modest. Likewise, there is probably some application here for sake of how we handle primary and secondary doctrines. Paul, no doubt, would rather have considered Romans 3 more critical than 14, yet here we are, following the Holy Spirit inspired instructions. We’re trying to figure out what needs breaking fellowship over, and fine. But don’t label everything a disputable thing in order to distance yourself from doing the work to develop and hold good convictions or good community. This passage requires the opposite.
It’s as simple as our confession: we are the Lord’s. It is not as simple as saying: don’t worry about it. The first key is not to worry about the wrong things. The most important key is to be thankful.
There are three parts to this paragraph, further explanation of verses 1-4.
Here we see another example of disputable things, and the two step plan for what to do about it.
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. 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. (Romans 14:5–6 ESV)
The word esteems works well, but what is it to esteem if not to judge? It is, in fact, the same original word as “pass judgement” in verse 3. We evaluate and then we choose.
The judgment in verse 5 concerns special days. There are the better days (or “holy/sacred” days) group, however many they have, and the “all” days are good group. Jews had a few feast days during the year, and Jews of course had the Sabbath day set apart every week; it was one day above other days. Gentiles also had public party days, though many of those celebrations were devoted to idols, so Paul probably wasn’t promoting that the same way as he allowed for buying meat previously offered to idols. It’s noteworthy that the Sabbath isn’t mentioned once in Romans, and the only other sure time Paul refers to it is in Colossians 2:16 in which “let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” Some think one is above, some think all are alike.
We kind of want to know which day was so important so we can decide who is wrong. But the instruction is different: Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. It’s not “Just let it go.” It’s not even “Why not both?” You need to do what you think is right, and you need to think that it’s right for your brother to do the same. Demonstrated here is a “diversity of approved conviction” (Murray). Community doesn’t depend on conformity in disputable things.
In honor of the Lord…in honor of the Lord…in honor of the Lord . Are you making judgments, proactively, to honor Him? Or are you afraid, and reacting, thinking the Lord will be irritated? And then he gives thanks to God…gives thanks to God . Liberty for, never liberty from, the Lord.
What’s not right is choosing out of fearfulness. Anxiety is not weak faith, it’s the opposite of faith. Weak is one thing, worried is another. We should give the Lord our anxieties, but we do not serve Him in anxieties. He’s not more pleased by our level of freaking out. We do not choose out of fearfulness but out of thankfulness. As such we are not fastidious, which originally meant not just attentive to detail, but with an attitude of loathing. We’re not fully convinced so that we can justify feeling superior to our brother. If it’s so jealousable, sweet, show us, and stop hassling one another.
Choose your weapon for the Lord, steak and/or Brussels sprouts. Wield it with thanks to God. Those fully convinced about disputable things are thankful to the Lord, not fearful or fastidious.
The principle of honoring the Lord extends to every square inch and every second on earth.
For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 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. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. (Romans 14:7–9 ESV)
Because it’s almost too obvious, let’s note that four times in these few verses we’re talking about what the Lord is interested in; His cares are comprehensive. Godliness, altar-living, piety, cannot be restricted to only some types of activities/choices/judgments/locations/seasons. Living and dying take us from life’s first cry to final breath, all in Christ alone. Living is made up of judgments/choices, our physical dying is usually less of a choice, but, how we get there and in some cases how we go, is an ultimate, and final, choice.
We don’t have privacy from the Lord. We don’t have “our” things and His things. So even the disputable things can be and should be done for the Lord, while we acknowledge that our brother is doing the same. It’s not a threat, it is a comfort.
Also, the position of Lord has been settled. Verse 9 belongs among the great statements of God’s purpose. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. We think correctly about Christ’s death and resurrection “for our sins” and for our salvation. The Messiah is Savior. He was “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). And He came to take up His authority as “Lord of all” (Romans 10:12), Jew and Greek, heaven and earth.
Jesus is Lord. He will be recognized by all, by His brothers and eventually by His haters. And the very practical application of this is to get off our brother’s back.
Those possessed by the Lord hold no disputable things privately from the Lord.
Good questions and a great quotation.
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; 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 will give an account of himself to God. (Romans 14:10–12 ESV)
Hey, “you,” and “you” again, why are you doing this? Why do you think it’s your deal? This is “unreasonable boldness” (per John Calvin).
The quote in verse 11 is from Isaiah 45:23. Paul used it again in Philippians 2:10-11. (Of note, Isaiah 45 is God’s anointed appointment of Cyrus, the king of Persia, who was not a God-fearer, but still a chosen instrument to bless Israel in the return of the Jews and rebuilding of the temple).
The recognition of Christ as Lord has only begun to be fulfilled among us, but it will be completed.
Facts: we will all stand before the judgment seat of God and each of us will give an account of himself to God. This is true for believers, even though we are justified by faith not works, we will get to tell God what works we did for Him. That includes our choices about meat and veggies, and it includes our choices about who to confront about what and how we did it. We’ll give an account of how often we played the Lord rather than honor the Lord as representatives.
From a receiving end, I have thought for a long time that giving account to my brothers is good preparation for giving account to God, certainly if they see my disobedience, and I’d include if they have questions about the disputable. The instructions in Romans 14 are less about stiff-arming the inquiries of others and more about making better judgments. If we can/should give the benefit of the doubt, then that includes the over-confronters; “bearing with one another.”
Those prepared to answer to the Lord refuse to break fellowship over disputable things.
Pastorally I’ve observed that those who are quickest to point at others typically do so as a distraction from their own insecurities, and some of those with the highest standards are among the worst hypocrites. Others are actually mad at a third/unnamed issue, but feel that they can get a dig in with the presenting problem.
As for counsel on how to interact with one another about disputable things, in addition to Paul’s requirements for our perspective, you can hardly ever go wrong by asking questions. Start with questions toward a conclusion, not the other way around. And as for the “Tone Police,” that can be rough. But at least be sure to welcome (as Paul said) like you know the Lord is watching.
To feast or fast, to live or die, in honor of the Lord and giving thanks to God is not a crushing burden, it is a comfort against unreasonable criticism by our brothers, a protection from being unreasonably critical toward our brothers, and a spur to genuine jealousability.
Ah, how tempted we are to live in fear. How tempted we are to throw off hope, optimism, good cheer. How much sin we see in the world, and how quickly we determine our brothers are doing stupid things. We are easily discouraged by the atrocities, apostasies, and maybe worst: the apathies. But Christian, live by faith. Christian, look to the Lord, and keep exhorting one another to look to the Lord as well. Beloved, God is faithful!
[Y]ou are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:7–9, ESV)