Romans 14:1-12
Jesus frees us from the temptation of weighing the worthiness of those God has welcomed - and is welcoming - into his church.
Paul hits the debate that’s raging in the Roman church head-on. As he begins to wind down and wrap up this letter, he moves towards the day-to-day ways we’re prone to bring judgment into the church that we were welcomed into by grace. By putting the “disputed matters” of the church in their rightful place, he’s actually fighting to preserve its unity.
Questions
Have you ever been invited somewhere, only to feel unwelcome by the other people there? What happened? What did you do?
When it comes to the church, who does the welcoming? What part does God play? What part do we play?
Paul says people in the church are like household servants, and God is the master of the house. Why is this distinction a helpful analogy when it comes to who (and how!) we welcome others into the church?
When are you prone to uninvite those who God has already invited? Are there people you find difficult to welcome with the same grace God does?
Paul doesn’t tell the church to ignore the elephant in the room, treating “disputed matters” as taboo topics, subjects for secret gossip, or litmus tests for drawing lines between who’s “really” in and out. What does he tell them to do instead?
Consider all the “elephants in the room” that can live in the church today. How does Paul challenge you to deal with those things differently here? How does he challenge you to see people on “the other side” differently?
What would the local church look like if you let “the elephants” go unacknowledged? …or if all we did was acknowledge them?
Instead, how is Paul’s counsel to deal with disputed matters honestly and others graciously the only way forward for unity in the church - Rome’s church and our own?
Paul also doesn’t tell us to abandon any and all personal convictions or conscience. On the contrary, what’s he say?
What’s the connection between personal convictions and worshiping the Lord?
Think about the things you most frequently have the strongest convictions about. Are you aware of who - or who - you’re worshiping with those convictions? What’s God’s role in shaping them, using them, and glorifying himself in others’ lives with them?
Do you assume that others who have differing opinions are operating out of their own worshipful convictions? Or do you assume something different?
At the end of the day, we’ll give an account to God - not for what others believed, said, and did, but for what we believed, said, and did. How does Paul’s reorientation towards our own personal submission to the Lord serve to build the community of the church in togetherness?