Bearing the Burdens

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. (Romans 15:1)

I looked up some of the Greek words in this verse to see what I might find to help me understand this better and I found something rather interesting. The word used for bear means to lift up, remove, sustain, take up. What is interesting is that the word used for please has a somewhat similar meaning. It conveys the idea of lifting up our emotions, to be agreeable, to sail away emotionally.

I also noticed that the very same word is used to describe the person who is weak here as was used in verse one of the previous chapter. In reality there is no break in the continuation of thought like that artificially created by this chapter break which is often the case. Paul is still directly addressing the issue of our attitudes and relationship to those in the body of Christ who are at a different level emotionally in their relationship with God than we are.

In contrast to the judgment and contempt that we are warned against indulging in in the previous chapter, here we are told what the alternative should be. Along with accepting them (14:1) we are to give them preference with our emotional strength over pleasing ourselves. Instead of indulging in the legitimate freedoms that cause our own feelings to be excited and feel more free, when we are in the presence of those who are offended and hurt by our choices because of their own immaturity in faith, we should be considerate, gentle and kind in our thoughtfulness for their sensitivities and fears.

This reminds me of a medical analogy that might fit well here. Normally in our physical contact with those around us we might not think much of holding a person's hand or arm or laying our hand on their shoulder in a gesture of affection. But if that person has experienced serious burns and their skin is raw and extremely sensitive it would be the height of inconsideration to touch or grab them in ways that otherwise we might not think anything of. To do so would induce extreme pain and even sometimes cause worse damage than what they had already experienced. Instead we must learn how to treat them with the utmost gentleness, not because they are a bad person or have some character flaw but because they are in a very vulnerable state and need time for healing.

It only makes sense that when dealing with a person who has experienced serious burns on their body we should treat them with the utmost care and sensitivity. But part of the reason for doing so is not just to avoid creating unnecessary further trauma but to assist them toward recovery so that they can once again enjoy the comfort and excitement of being touched and held by those who love them after they are healed.

So too, we should see the person who is weak in faith not as someone who is inferior to us or who is wrong and needs stern correction but someone who has been burned by the effects of sin and is very sensitive in ways that we may not be. This does not make them any less a child of God or an inferior part of the body of Christ. It makes them a sibling in need of careful attention and extra consideration with an eye to helping them heal and be recovered to a condition of more health and joy.

If we would view people who are weak in faith, not as targets to re-shape or coerce into reflecting our own opinions or to convince of our personal ideas and convictions, but people who are potential close friends who right now are suffering from emotional burns and are in need of delicate care until the healing process is more complete; if we would choose to look at them through God's eyes in this way it might be far easier to be patient and kind with them and to look forward to what they will look like when they are healed more fully.

This verse is actually highlighting the core problem of sin in the hearts of each one of us. When I choose to prefer my own spiritual and emotional pleasure and excitement above the need for me to consider the effects of my actions on someone who is hypersensitive and “burned” about that issue, then I am really indulging my selfishness and pride at their expense instead of being led by God's Spirit of gentleness and kindness.

Remember, it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (2:4). And if I allow that kind, gentle, patient Spirit to be seen in my relationship to a person who is over-sensitive right now with a view to helping them move toward a more confident relationship with Jesus in their own heart, then I might be able to become a channel of the kindness of God toward them that will draw them to repentance, to more release of their unfounded fears and I can be a source of joy (being willing to be happy to be with them in their immature state) for them. As I help increase their joy capacity by my willingness to accept them in their fears and gently show them how to return to a state of joy themselves from whatever is frightening them in the present, then we will become bonded more closely in our hearts both to each other and to the heart of Jesus.

What I see in this verse is that as a follower of Jesus I need to learn to imitate His example of extreme sensitivity and gentleness with all of us. As I consider the implications of this verse I realize how much I need others to be obedient to these instructions in their dealings with me. I know that there are areas of my belief or emotions where I long to experience more freedom and joy but am still bound by chains of tradition and inhibition. Those who know me very well (I'm not sure who that might be) will recognize that there are things that might bother me but at the same time that I long to be more free to enjoy. Instead of being forced into those things I need to be gently eased into facing my fears and to have someone join me in that exercise with great sensitivity to my raw emotions and fears. Gentleness is far more powerful than we might imagine and gentleness is a sign of true greatness.

Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. (Isaiah 42:1-3)

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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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