Title: Dealing with Differences
Date: January 21, 2007
Text: Romans 14
Introduction
- example about offended missionaries
- during last 7 months have heard a lot of complaints
- these complaints usually concern another person's actions
- Paul wrote about a situation among the Christians at Rome
- some were judging others about their behavior
- Romans 14:1-23
- the Bible says a lot about this subject
- this morning we will examine three aspects about dealing with differences
1. Don't allow minor issues to overshadow the majors - Rom 14:17
- there are major issues, where the Bible directly speaks on an issue
- for example, there are direct commands against killing, stealing, and fornicating
- a major issue for us in the New Testament church, is to behave with love to our neighbor
- there are also less-defined issues
- these could be things like eating ceremonially unclean meat, or how much time we spend in prayer, or whether or not we go to a church or Bible study while we are here in the program
- in Romans 14 Paul is tackling some minor issues
- so consider if the issue is a major or a minor before tackling our brother
2. People report to God and not us - Rom 14:10
- it is not our position to judge our brother
- Matthew 7:3-5
- when we have sorted our own life out, we will be better able to discern right from wrong
- but even then, we are told not to judge (Matthew 7:1)
- when we see someone behaving differently from how we would do things, remember that God is aware of both ourself and our brother
- God has a lot of patience with us, shouldn't we have at least that much patience with our brother?
- how long has it taken for us to come to the place where we are today
- it took Job an awfully long time to get to the point in Job 42 where he says "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes"
- we need to give each other the grace to allow God to bring change in our lives, in his timing
3. The strong should support the weak Rom 15:1
- whatever is not of faith is sin Rom 14:23
- if a person is convinced that their action is correct, it is not for us to try to convince them otherwise
- if we have differences of opinion about Bible subjects, this will probably be a minor issue
- in that case, don't argue the point, it is not necessary
- avoid causing a stumblingblock - Rom 14:13
- avoid pushing our view on someone when that is not welcome, we will only push them away
- like two magnets
- avoid breaking relationships for the sake of proving our point- that would be disobedience to the major issue of living in love and unity with our brothers
- if it is needed to tell someone about a problem that relates to the major issues, there are principles about how to go about doing that
- for example, doing so in humility, esteeming the other better than ourselves, winning them over rather than pushing them into it, praying for them
- but that is not the focus of today's message
4. Focus on dwelling together in harmony - Romans 14:17
- focus on the important things
- the important things are to live together in love and unity, and peace
- when we allow the Holy Spirit to do his work in us, we will react to others with love
- we will not be pushing others to do things the way we see them, but we will give them the grace to allow God to draw them to greater maturity, in his time
- just as he is doing with us - we were once disobedient, with our lives in a mess
- God was able to pick us up, dust us down, and set us on the right path
- he can do the same thing with our friend
- it does not mean we cannot say something to our friend, but only if the other is ready to hear it
- the key to living in harmony is humility
- knowing where God has taken us from, and not imposing something on our brother against their will
Conclusion
- we are all at different stages of our walk with God
- none of us is better than the other
- let's walk together in harmony, esteeming the other better than ourselves
- Philippians 2:2-3
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