In this enlightening episode, we delve into the teachings of Paul on the subject of judgment and the freedom of faith in Christian life. Our discussion centers on understanding why Paul urges believers not to ridicule or despise those who choose different paths in minor issues like dietary practices, emphasizing that the kingdom of God is about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit rather than mere rules about food or drink. Discover how the atonement of Christ brings unity and joy to the faith, overriding rituals and pointing to the essence of the gospel.
So here we have Paul doing a semi-conclusion of his arguments in regard to not judging our brother or despising our brother or entering into unnecessary controversy over minor points. We have him saying this, “…for the kingdom of God is not eating or drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Let’s get a little bit of context. He is talking about people who were sensitive and afraid that God would reject them if they accidentally ate meat from a market that had previously been offered to an idol. And he said that these sensitive people choose to be vegetarian rather than eat meat, not out of health issues, but out of ritual issues. And so Paul says, don’t be unkind to that person. Don’t ridicule him or despise him. He’s weak in the faith, not in the sense, as I said many times before, that he cannot… seems not to have enough faith to overcome his problems, but rather has not the faith to believe that God loves him, even though he’s imperfect and may make mistakes. And Paul says the same in regard to a person who keeps the Sabbath day. Let each man be persuaded in his own mind. Some believe one day is better than another, as a special day, and others believe all days are alike. But they all do it as unto the Lord, Paul is pointing out, and so don’t judge them, but give them the freedom to make that decision themselves. For we must all, he says, stand before the judgment seat of Christ, every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall acknowledge that Christ, in Christ alone, is their righteousness and strength. This is the whole context, you see. And he says then that he’s convinced, in his own mind, by the Lord, though, he says, I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean in itself. A remarkable comment in regard to the ancient Jewish rituals, because there were indeed unclean rituals, and clean things. But the atoning sacrifice of Christ is so prominent and pivotal in Paul’s mind that that atoning work of Christ supersedes everything else and declares everything else of none value and not important because Christ has taken the judgment of the world upon himself. And so that’s when he says what I quoted at the beginning. If your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let your good be spoken of as evil. In other words, there may be… certain dietary issues that you have out of health concerns, or you may have a liberty to consider all things clean and can be eaten, and yet that may give offense to another brother, and so you don’t sort of put it in his face. You allow yourself these liberties in the privacy of your own home, perhaps, or with friends who have a similar feeling, but not to offend a brother. And then comes the verse that I mentioned at the beginning, “‘For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.'” Now, when I was a young Christian, a young guy, a verse like this I would simply pass over. It just didn’t seem to, it seemed to be too trivial. To me, what was important in those days was getting the exactly right doctrine, to get the right chronology about the last day events, eschatological events as we call them. to get the right interpretation of prophecies in Daniel in regard to the 2,300 days and the 70 weeks and the prophecies in the book of Revelation. And granted, all of these are important. But to get the mentality that these doctrines will separate you from others and you have the right doctrine or your church has the right doctrine and the others don’t is to miss the point. to have to put an emphasis in those areas rather than the core of the gospel, which is the atoning work of Christ Jesus for our sins, the salvation that he has brought through his death, atoning for our sins so that he rose from the dead as a representative of all of us, to give us the certainty and hope of our resurrection and eternal life. To miss that is to miss the core of the gospel. And so it took me many, many years of struggle, of stress, of anxiety, of worry, of guilt and shame and fear over my failures and sins to come to the place where I cherished the desire for peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. But that’s what I see it now as, and I’d like you to see it this way too. What is the core issue of your faith? And I don’t mean joyful happiness in a sort of liberal way, in a humanistic way. Well, we all want to be happy, and God is quite at peace as long as we’ve had a good time in any day. That’s not the issue. The issue is that our joy comes from the fact that Christ has become our salvation, that he has become our righteousness. I was talking to a friend the other day whose mother was talking to him, and she said, the coming of Jesus is near, we need all to get ready, and she spoke it in such an anxious way that the coming of Jesus for her was something… not of joy and something to look forward to, but a fearful looking forward to in judgment. Well, that’s what the world should have. Yes, a fearful looking to that time as a time that they’re not ready for. But we Christians, we have this hope in us that Christ is coming to receive us into his kingdom. Even though we’re imperfect and we have sin in our lives, we are devoting ourselves to faith in Jesus, believing in his sacrifice for our sins, seeking to walk with him so that we may sin less and overcome this and that. But the essence of it is that the kingdom of God is not all this worry about food or drink. but rather it is righteousness, that is the righteousness of Jesus for us, which brings us peace, and so we have the righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. There are many Christians who get deeply stressed, and I was one of them for years, who got deeply stressed over exactly what to eat and what not to eat, and how to control my appetite. And if I ate too much junk food, I felt overwhelmed with guilt and shame and what have you. Now, again, I’m saying to you that it is good to, as a Christian, to treat our body as the temple of the Holy Spirit and to eat well and to be healthy, to live long if God gives us that grace and if we learn how to eat healthily to live long. But it is not good to be anxious over every mistake we make, over every overindulgence we indulge in, over every, you know, too much of this or too little of that. Let the joy flow. According to Nehemiah 8 verse 10, God says there, the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord, joy in God and joy from God is where we get our strength on a daily basis. And let no one take it away from you. Most of all, let not your own mind take it away from you. when your conscience nags you with guilt over some failure or wrongdoing, do not let your mind do that nagging. Speak back into your mind by faith, saying, yes, I have sinned, I have failed, or I have not done it exactly right, and I confess that to God, but I will not be condemned because Christ is my atoning sacrifice. Jesus has taken my guilt upon himself, and therefore, Lord, I will rejoice in you, I will give thanks to you that you have reconciled me to your heart, that I am your child, and that you love me, and you do not charge me with sin. This is how you must speak to yourself and to the Lord, so that guilt does not take away your joy. Satan wants to take your joy. Once he gets Christians joyless, he knows it’s a matter of time before they just fall apart. Because we cannot live the Christian life without joy. And I don’t mean emotional joy all the time. Sometimes we have natural emotional joy, and sometimes we feel dead as a doornail. But what we need is faith that speaks joy. Faith that says, Lord God, though I feel down today, I thank you that you are my peace and you are my joy. Faith is what speaks into God’s presence, what affirms before our hearts that God is our Savior, that God is our Father, that He rejoices in us, and that begins to lift our burden and gives us that peace that we all need. For He, Paul says in verse 18—by the way, the verse that I have been referring to today is verse 17— of Romans 14, verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace. That’s the righteousness of Christ for us, you see, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Then verse 18, for he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. And he’s not simply and only saying that about us, that whoever serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God, but rather he’s speaking about the one who is weak in faith, that we might be tempted to despise or ridicule or have a controversy and an argument with. No, don’t do that. Lift him up in praise to God and saying, Father, even though this brother of mine is struggling with faith and doubts you sometimes that you can receive him because he feels so imperfect, I thank you that you have him in your hands. He serves you and his faith will grow and I pray for the growing of that faith in his heart that he may be absolutely certain of your love towards him and the sacrifice of Christ for him and so on. So you see, we don’t criticize them, we don’t ridicule them, we don’t laugh at them, we don’t argue with them about these things. We can certainly put the meaning of the gospel before them, but not in an argumentative way. And in our prayer for them, we love them more and we allow them to grow in our fellowship and in the fellowship that we enjoy as well. Therefore, Paul says in verse 18 then, as I just quoted, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Let’s pursue the peace of Christ. What a beautiful thing that is. Thanks for joining me today. Colin Cook here and How It Happens. I appreciate your turning up and being with me for this 15-minute program each day. And I wonder if you would consider helping out with a donation. This is listener-supported radio. It costs $39 per 15 minutes. broadcast, and that’s about $200 for a week’s programs, and that’s about $850 to $900 for a month’s programs. Occasionally, somebody sends a donation of $850 or $900 and takes care of a whole month. Thank you so much. and others make smaller donations, and that’s perfectly good. Thank you also. So send your donation to Faith Quest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160, or make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. See you next time, and thanks. Cheerio, and God bless.
