Good and Evil Reversed

It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. (Romans 14:21)

As I pondered this morning over this passage again I noticed a contrast that I had not caught before. In this verse Paul is targeting an attitude that is a source of division within the body of Christ that he wants us to correct for the sake of cooperating with the work that God is doing in building up community. In this verse he is addressing those who might be termed “stronger in faith” to go beyond their supposed superiority and advanced insights and learn to truly think of others first. He wants them to pay attention to the condition of the spirit of those around them.

In a previous post I talked about a scenario that would likely have happened based on the hot-button issues that Paul used in this chapter as illustrations to make his point. A believer who is more advanced in his faith and has more confidence in the power of God as well as a realization that false gods are nothing more than man-made carvings out of lifeless materials will have no problem worrying about whether or not the meat he might eat at a friend's house has been made “unclean” by being previously offered to some idol. He is not concerned that by eating it he could become infected in his spirit with demonic influence and control because he supposedly gave permission for them to have authority in his life by eating this meat. He believes that just because meat was offered to idols does not make it unclean; that clean and unclean is not a definition determined by demons or idols but by the true Creator of all things who is the only authority to be recognized in our life.

But a fellow believer who is “weaker in faith”, who has a long history of superstitions about idols, who has seen first-hand the terrible manipulation and degradation that demons can effect over helpless victims who have allowed them to have control in their lives – this new believer still has a great deal of unresolved fear in his heart and is not yet matured in his faith to the point of believing from his heart that food offered to idols has no power to affect the protection of his spirit from demonic influence. And that very weakness of faith itself could possibly be a loophole that demonic forces just might try to exploit to reinforce his fears, for demons operate totally in the realm of fear and deception. If anyone is basing their actions or beliefs on fear then they are still susceptible to the devices of Satan.

So in this scenario, if these two kinds of believers find themselves at the same meal, Paul is insisting here that for the stronger believer to ignore the fears and superstitions of the weaker one, no matter how unfounded those fears may be, by choosing to intentionally eat food that is offered to idols in order to force his point and accentuate their differences by contrast, he is actually tearing down the work of God going on in the heart of the weaker believer and by doing so he is actually committing an act of evil.

Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. (Romans 14:20)

The believer with “stronger faith”, at least as he fancies himself to have, is still missing the most important point taught and demonstrated by Jesus so explicitly all throughout His life while here on earth.

Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." (Mark 9:35)

And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who have authority over them are called 'Benefactors.' But it is not this way with you, but the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant." (Luke 22:25-26)

So God puts higher priority on the attitude of our spirit in how we treat fellow believers, even more so than how accurate our beliefs are upon a particular subject. And ironically we may find ourselves at times in situations where we are committing evil, in the opinion of God, by insisting on acting out of our superior knowledge of truth. This, according to Paul, may happen if we fail to take into account the effect that our actions have on others who are not in a place in their own experience that gives them the level of confidence and assurance that we may presently enjoy.

In explaining this whole situation, Paul is actually up-ending some of our suppositions about what is good and what is evil. We may often assume that exercising our freedoms in Christ is a good thing, and that is true as long as doing so is not tearing down the work of God in someone else's life in the process. But as soon as we indulge in exercising our “rights” when we know that it is offending a fellow believer and is causing them discouragement and amplifying their fears, then what was formerly a good thing for us has now become something evil for us. For in God's eyes, good and evil are not as much based on technicalities of factual truth but is deeply rooted in the condition of our spirit and how our spirit chooses to relate and affects those around us.

Once again I am challenged to examine my own heart and become much more sensitive to how my actions and words may amplify someone else's fears instead of attracting them to the perfect love of the God I am getting to know better. I do not think it is necessary to fall into the trap of constantly stressing about whether or not anything I might have said or done may have troubled someone else without my knowing about it; that is going beyond acting responsibly to encouraging paranoia. I have also lived a number of years under that enslavement and have no desire to be controlled by that demon again.

But it is clear here that I do have a responsibility to adjust or limit my actions and choices when it is clear to me that to exercise my freedoms would become an occasion of stumbling for a fellow struggling soul that is weaker in that area than I am. In fact, this is the exact point that Paul makes emphatically just a few verses later. Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. (Romans 15:1)

Father, thank-you for this most important teaching. But it is not enough to just learn about this with my head as important as that is. Please take me to a much deeper level with this most important truth and integrate it deeply into my heart. Thank-you for providing Your Spirit to convict me and catch my attention whenever I am in danger of pleasing myself at the expense of others. I do not have the wisdom myself to know when it is good and when it is evil for me to do the very same things, but You know. Thank-you for Your words, for Your training, and for Your Spirit to apply and mentor me these things as part of my transformation. Help me to mature much more so that I can be a source of strength for those who are weaker than I am, so that I can be a channel of courage and hope and life that You desire to provide for others. I praise You for Your faithful, patient love, for Your kindness and gentleness.

You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your right hand upholds me; and Your gentleness makes me great. (Psalms 18:35)

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Faith or Fear

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin. (Romans 14:22-23)

Here's one of the scenarios as Paul has set it up in this passage. A person comes to feel liberated from the superstitions of believing that somehow food that has been offered to pagan idols before being set before them on the table contains some sort of supernatural contamination. They understand that the idea that somehow this food is “unclean” simply because of its physical locations en route to the table is a silly idea, because idols don't really have any power at all. God states plainly in the Scriptures that idols are just rocks or pieces of wood created by foolish people with vivid imaginations. So this person has no problem or stress about eating food that may or may not have been offered to idols ahead of the meal.

This person has matured in their spiritual growth and their faith in God so that they have peace about this issue and it no longer bothers their conscience as it once did to sit down to a meal with friends without obsessing over finding out whether their friends (or otherwise) secretly arranged a rendezvous between the food and an idol previously. They are living in a different perspective of reality than many around them based on their knowledge of God's supremacy and are learning to rest in the truth of Scriptures.

However, they are also with fellow-believers, some who are not so sure and confident about this idea of “no fear” when it comes to the potential problems involved with things pertaining to idols. These other possibly newer believers still have not had this issue sufficiently settled in their hearts to feel free to participate in such activities because from their own background there was enormous significance attached to eating food offered to idols. They believed that in some way you were accepting some authority of that false god over your life or ingesting some spirit force by eating food that was spiritually linked to that specific idol.

For this person there was still a remnant of fear lingering in their heart that they would be compromising their allegiance to their new Master, Jesus Christ who had redeemed them from sin and the power of demons, if they indulged in activities that used to hold so much spiritual significance for them as an active pagan. For them, to eat food that was offered to idols, even if you did not do so intentionally, was to commit treason against God and to spiritually commit fornication with that idol.

So when these two kinds of believers found themselves at the same meal together you can see that there could be a great deal of potential tension. One believer feels free and confident that they don't have to worry about the spiritual dimension of food on the table and the other believer is wondering if there are still demons lurking within the food waiting to infect an unsuspecting guest and take over their soul. To the first believer this is all a bunch of silly nonsense that seems just superstitious and ludicrous. To the second person this is an issue of principle, of morality, of spiritual significance that cannot be ignored except at your eternal peril. As a result they even go to the extent of not eating any meat at all so as to avoid any possibility of involving themselves with demon worship, since it was always the meat that was offered to the idols. By becoming vegetarians they could preempt any attempts through food to draw them back into the world of demon worship and control.

What Paul is trying to point out in Romans 14 is that resolving whether or not it is right or wrong to eat that meat that might have been offered to an idol previously is not nearly so important as the attitude and spirit that each of these believers have toward each other. If the person who has more mature faith looks down on the other, more insecure individual with any amount of contempt for their superstitions and fears, then Paul says this is far more injurious than whether his opinion about the food is actually correct. And if the more confident Christian flaunts his beliefs by deliberately eating food that he knows to be offered to idols just to force his point on the other and thereby damages the faith of the newer believer, then Paul declares that the first believer is tearing down the very confidence and trust that God has been quietly working to build up in the heart of the one still weaker in faith.

Furthermore, this new believer may be trying to shed his superstitions but is still very bothered by them and his conscience smites him every time he eats this food offered to idols. If he were to just go ahead and join his friends in eating the food anyway or if they pressured him into doing so because they insisted that he must in order to prove that their opinions and Biblical proofs were valid, Paul says that he is going to suffer feelings of condemnation if he does so in spite of what the other believers insist. If he deliberately violates his conscience just to conform to peer pressure from other Christians he is not acting from trust in God but is only reacting in ways to avoid judgment from his friends.

This verse reveals to me a very important aspect of God's character and dealings with us that is nearly always eclipsed in the hearts and minds of many Christians. God does not use threats and intimidation to squeeze us into the mold that He wants us to look like. That is the method of the world and God never uses the world's methods to accomplish His desires for us. God is far more gentle and patient and wise than we ever give Him credit for and He knows just how to gently shape and attract the heart so that it learns to reflect that same gentleness and goodness.

God has much more interest in genuine heart transformation than in outward correctness or knowing all the right facts. So when it comes to understanding the true nature of real faith, it can be seen here that faith must be based on a level of intimacy and trust from the heart of each individual person. Faith must be based on a personal, growing, dynamic relationship that works itself out from the inside, not imposed from the outside. So if a person forces themselves to do certain things based on other people's convictions but are not convinced of themselves, then they are likely to have a heart filled with doubts. And according to the Word of God, doubt and condemnation seem to always hang out together and even feed off each other. Whatever is not from faith is sin.

Faith needs to be based on our own personal conviction before God individually. If our faith is based on other people's convictions instead of our own we are trying to base our relationship with God on someone else's foundation and that simply is a recipe for disaster. But unfortunately that is the basis for the faith of far too many people today. It seems so much easier to trust a pastor or teacher or popular evangelist or a denomination to do our thinking and decide how we should view and relate to God. But faith that is motivated by peer pressure or waits to see what is popular with our friends or church is not faith in God but faith in other humans.

What I see in this chapter is a warning to each one of us not to try to make ourselves the object and basis for someone else's faith. I am coming to be convinced that instead of putting so much emphasis on teaching people what to believe, we need to put far more effort into teaching people how to think, how to discover truth, how to listen to the Holy Spirit for themselves and then turn them loose to be impelled and drawn by the magnetic attractions of their Creator and Savior. If we are afraid that they won't conform to our doctrines or comply with our restrictions then we will interpose ourselves between their conscience and their God. And that is no place for any of us to try to be.

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Faith and Conscience

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. (Romans 14:22)

I want to take a little time to explore this verse to see what facets may show up as I look at it from different perspectives. I always find that to be a very rewarding exercise with nearly any passage that I come across.

As far as I can tell, the way this word faith is being used here is to describe a system of beliefs held by a person about how they should properly live before God. The Greek word used here is the very same word for faith used much of the time throughout the New Testament which often has much stronger implications in other directions, I believe, along the line of a personal, interactive trust that grows from the heart level, not just an intellectual, factual trust. But in this context it seems to lean more toward describing a person's opinions or perspectives about what they think is right and wrong from their own experience with God arising out of their unique background.

Because every person necessarily comes from a background in some respects that differs from every other person, it is impossible that individual believers growing into a trusting relationship with God will hold the same ideas or beliefs about God or about what is right or wrong. Over time, as they become more and more transformed by closer association with Jesus and become more saturated with the Word of God, their differences will become less and less. But in the meantime we all must learn how to properly relate to the discrepancies and variations of opinions about how we should live out of our conscience, for these conflicts will inevitably arise sometimes when coming into contact with other minds from other perspectives.

Paul seems to be saying in this chapter that from God's perspective the choices and attitudes of our spirit in relationship to others is of more importance to Him than being correct and “right” in every opinion that we hold about religion. I am not trying to say that it makes no difference whatsoever what you believe – that is reading into my words something I am not saying at all. However, I have seen all too often a spirit of self-righteous superiority that tends to easily view others with contempt and criticism who are not willing to quickly conform their opinions to our own.

But this attitude betrays a spirit of false judgment, for not even God, the true Judge of all, treats people with the contempt and superiority that most religious people tend to have toward others who differ from them. God does not flaunt His perfection and wisdom and correctness of knowledge in our face in order to shame us or intimidate us into changing our minds. He works through humble ways, quiet, loving avenues as much as possible in order to draw our hearts out to Him and to connect us to His heart with cords of compassion and affection. This is the way that we too, believers who claim to be following His lead, are to relate to each other. That seems to be part of the main thrust of this whole passage.

So what does this mean to have my own conviction before God? I looked at a number of different translations of this verse which often helps to flush out more nuances that often are lost by reading only one version. I came across some that helped to open up another dimension that I had not noticed before.

So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. (Romans 14:22 NIV)

I found two things here that jumped out at me. The first is that I can treat people with the highest level of respect for their opinions while internally holding quite different opinions myself in my own relationship with God. I do not have to feel compelled to adopt another person's or group's beliefs about certain things to relate to them and accept them as siblings with me in God's family.

Second, I noticed in the way this was worded that I not only need to avoid self-condemnation and the negative effects that that brings into my own experience, but the potential also exists that in treating others improperly with attitudes of contempt or superiority that I may induce condemnation from others as well. Condemnation from any source is not something that is part of God's ways and is not what He designed to be part of our motivation for living. If I are living my life based on motivations revolving around condemnation from any source I am not yet in sync with the will of God for living life as Jesus came to give me.

So there are at least two potential sources of condemnation that I need to avoid as I see in this verse. One is when I am not fully convinced in my own heart about something that others find no problem with and I violate my conscience by deciding to do it anyway simply because of peer pressure. Paul seems to be saying here that it is not only wrong to exert peer pressure on others to conform to our opinions but it is also harmful to violate our own conscience by conforming to peer pressure if we feel that God does not approve of our choices. The issue is not so much about whether my conscience is right or wrong but how I relate to it.

I am very familiar with this scenario in my own life. As I look back over the growth I have experienced throughout my life I easily see many times where my conscience was very condemning toward me in things that had nothing to do with real convictions from the Holy Spirit. It is very true that a misguided, misinformed conscience can be a real problem for us – I know that painfully well. It has been an unmerciful source of unnecessary torture for me at times. But it is not enough to just try to force my conscience by simply violating it because someone else believes that its O.K. to do something that I find deeply disturbing. God does not desire service from a confused, conflicted heart. That does not honor Him and does not produce attachments of love and affection with Him. It only tends to confuse my own emotions and produce painful false guilt within my soul.

We must have a great deal more respect for the role of conscience in our lives. While it is extremely important that our conscience needs to have its opinions and standards constantly under review and updated by fresh revelations of the truth about God to our hearts, we must be very careful about developing habits of ignoring our conscience in favor of following other motives for our actions and choices. We may find too late that our flesh is using this as an excuse to lead us into a counterfeit experience based on selfishness instead of leading us closer to God's heart.

There have been some times when I had to take the word of God to my heart and act on it in defiance of my conscience that was manipulating my emotions of fear. Those were usually turning points in my life where God was retraining my conscience by helping me to see that many of its assumptions about God were based on false premises. But conscience is a gift from God given to each one of us and though it is often confused and many times perverted in some ways, it is still a part of our soul that God wants us to respect, to train and to listen to, for it is the primary way that the Holy Spirit usually chooses to speak to our hearts.

And maybe that is the main point that Paul is trying to make here. We need to respect both our own conscience and the right for others to respect their conscience even though it may be telling them something very different than what ours believes. Respect and acceptance for others to follow their own conscience is at the very heart of true religious freedom, so when we try to impose our religious beliefs on others without respect for their conscience we violate their fundamental freedoms that even God will never violate. When we violate other's freedoms then we bring condemnation upon ourselves as a result.

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