Romans 14
“For I am persuaded that your love is established forever...”
Psalm 89:2a Book of Common Prayer
Some folks think persuasion happens with words. Sometimes.
When we are persuaded—it means we have been penetrated by the pen, the pulpit, or a person. In the end something powerful happens to change our point of view.
God has persuaded the Psalmist that his love is everlasting. It is, as I have said before, hesed.
To know this deeply in your mind, your heart, indeed in your bones, is what Paul has been driving at throughout Romans.
Seriously. As you come to the end of Romans, do you think its point was to powerfully persuade you of God’s love?
Do you remember some of those “gem verses?” Verses such as “nothing can separate us from the love of God.”(paraphrase of 8:39)
It is this foundational idea, the foundation of God’s love with Jesus as the cornerstone, which is the basis of all we have read in Romans. It is this confidence in God’s love that allows chapter 14 to shine.
I have used the image of mountain climbing. We are almost to the top, and I find this chapter as a bit of a resting plateau. For my mind when we consider just how much we have read and understood in Romans, it is as if we each can look down at all we have scaled. We can look up at the small bit that is left.
Standing in this position, what attitude do you assume? Do you assume one of superiority, or one of humble assurance?
I want to remind us that this is a letter to the Church. For those of us inside the Church, it seems like we can argue about almost everything. This is not new.
Chapter 14 may seem like people in the church are arguing about food. In one way it is.
Food is a big deal in Paul’s day because food was often offered to an idol before it was eaten. In other words, the eaters were giving thanks to an idol for the food.
Sometimes that would happen in the marketplace. Sometimes you would go to someone’s home and have leftovers from the offering.
As a follower of Jesus, if you went to someone’s home as a guest, how could you know? Further, could you eat this food, or if you did not, did that somehow make you a rude Christian?
As you might imagine, there were any number of opinions about how disciples of Christ were to behave?
Yet this is about more than food, and Paul knows it.
He goes upstream, to relationship. He speaks about the weaker brother or sister. He speaks that our actions are to be based on their growth in following Jesus.
He says with great confidence, that some of our behaviors are irrelevant when compared to our relationships with other followers of Jesus.
Paul is not being political. By now we all know Paul is not afraid to speak up. Paul knows the love of Christ, and he knows that behaving in a way that helps other followers witness that love to the world trumps some important issues.
Paul concludes, “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.” (Verse 14.) Another persuaded person and it is his persuasion, his confidence, that tells others not to worry about rituals if those rituals will cause another to stumble.
It is interesting that he does not suggest condoning offering food to idols. He is drawing a difference between condoning, and how to respond.
The challenge is to respond in God’s love while not condoning wrong behavior.
Don’t let the weaker brother or sister stumble.
Do I actually behave that way? It is easy to make all sorts of things too important. What is important? It is what Paul is driving at—full confidence in God.
How is your confidence in God and His love? How does that confidence flow to your behavior?