Once upon a time inside the church in Rome in the 1st century, there were the Jewish Christians and there were the Gentile Christians. The Jewish Christians were those who were ethnically Jews, but they had come to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the Gentile Christians were non-Jewish, albeit also people of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who used to be people from all kinds of beliefs, and religious systems. We learn from Paul in Romans 14 that there seemed to be a conflict between the two groups.
I am pretty sure Paul wasn’t referring to everyone among the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians, but there were some people from both groups who disagreed over how they must live in worship of their God. Some of the Jewish Christians believed they must keep on keeping certain rituals of the Mosaic Law. For example, even though Jesus declared that all foods were clean to eat, they still believed there were some foods they were not allowed to eat. They still believed there were some days that were more important than the rest. They still believed God prohibited them to drink wine. On the other hand, the Gentile Christians didn’t believe in those things, because they believed that Christ brought new Christian freedoms. It is not hard to see how people from both groups soon began to judge the other. Paul exhorted them not to look on one another with contempt, and not to put a stumbling block in the way of one another. He said a little more than what I said here as he took a whole chapter to say what he wanted to say.
Here we are, you and I living in the 21st century. We don’t have Jewish Christians clashing with Gentile Christians in our churches over what we can or cannot eat, or what we can or cannot drink. We don’t really have Jewish Christians or Gentile Christians in our churches. We are mostly, if not all, Gentile Christians. Most of us believe we have Christian freedoms, and this means we no longer need to keep certain rituals of the Mosaic Law. If this is true, what do we do with Romans 14? May we skip over Romans 14, and not read it? If God put Romans 14 in our Bibles, and he knew that a little more than two thousand years later, you and I would still be reading Romans 14, and reading it with authority, what are we supposed to get out of it? What is the timeless truth that we ought to pick up from Romans 14, and how shall we apply it? This Sunday, come and let’s think together and learn together, Romans 14. See you Sunday!
Your Friend
Alvin