1We who are strong have an obligation to bear
with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2Let
each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3For
Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, "The reproaches of
those who reproached you fell on me." 4For whatever was written
in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and
through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5May
the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with
one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6that together you may
with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7Therefore
welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. (Romans 15:1-7)
Distinctions
When we read Romans 15:1-7 we encounter several difficult
things. Perhaps one of the most
difficult here is the idea of distinction between the “strong” and the
“weak”. How carefully we must tread when
we speak of language such as this. It is
obvious that Paul draws a line of identification between those who are strong
versus those who are weak. Paul speaks
more about this in 1 Corinthians 14 by saying that each of us should be infants
in evil but mature in our thinking. The
book of Hebrews gives us yet more instruction about being “mature in our
faith”. The author of Hebrews uses
“milk” to describe the basic principles of God. The author then goes on to say that those who live on milk are
“unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child” (see Hebrews
5:13). In the next verse of Hebrews 5
the author goes on to describe the nature of the mature by saying, “But solid
food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained
by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” It is obvious that the Bible supports the
idea that there are believers who a mature (strong) and those who are like
children in their thinking (weak). It is
important to know that both “classes” of people are believers. However, the faith of one is more developed
while the other is less developed.
The inherent danger in calling one weak and another strong
is the temptation to become full of sinful pride and arrogance. It is for this very reason that we must be
very leery to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought (Romans
12:3). Instead we should “think with
sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
(also Romans 12:3) So how did Paul
exercise sober judgment in Romans 15 when he said that the strong have an
obligation to bear with the failings of the weak? He did this by not seeking to please himself
but rather seeking to please his neighbor for that the good of that person, for
the act of building them up rather than tearing them down. We can only do this if we are pursuing
righteousness with the wisdom of God churning within us, giving us the proper
discernment at the proper time.
Before you look at any other person, begin by looking at
yourself and asking the question, “Am I a weak or strong believer?” This can be very difficult because nobody
likes to think of themselves as weak. Many people are convinced that just because they’ve gone to church
pretty much all their lives that this means that they are strong and well
practiced in their faith. Sadly, this is
too often false. Sometimes the weakest
Christians you’ll meet are those who have been going to church all their lives. You might ask, “How could that be
possible?” Easy. The dominant church culture in America is
training people what to think rather than teaching them how to use their own
brains to explore the Bible to see what the Bible tells us we should
think. Too many people rely too heavily
on pastors and Sunday school teachers to tell them what God’s word is saying. Unfortunately, many believers feel that this
is all the Bible time that they need in order to be a person seeking
righteousness. The excuses are many in
the area of not investing time in God’s word. My kids lives take up most of my time. I’ve got dishes to do. I’ve got
laundry to do. I’ve really got to pick
up the house. I need to mow the
lawn. I just need a night to
myself. When I hear these things I
actually hear this, “Me, Me, Me, Me, and more Me!” People who know me might say, “That’s easy for
you to say Chad,
you don’t have kids. You don’t realize
how different things become when you have children.” It’s true that I don’t yet have children, but
I have several friends who have several kids and somehow they still manage to
invest time in God’s word and a significant portion of that time is spent doing
this with their children. Weirdly, these
people, who I consider to be strong and mature Christians, seem to never spout
the list of excuses that I often hear other Christian friends of mine saying. Why is that? I think the difference is that these families have learned to not just
include God in their lives but rather make their whole lives revolve around God. The simple fact of the matter is that a
copious amount of Christians lives their lives trying to fit God into their
schedules. Some of you may be reading
this and find yourself feeling an uncomfortable tug of realization that says
“yeah, I do that”. It’s marks like these
in our conscience that can help us answer the question, “Am I a weak or strong
believer?”
I have been a believer for about thirteen years. For about 11 of those years I was a
shamefully weak believer. During that
time I was content to live only on “milk” (the basic principles of the oracles
of God). I never attempted, or even felt
that it was necessary to try to move on to solid food. I had no concept of what it meant to be a
mature Christian. I didn’t even realize
that there was a huge difference. I
foolishly thought “believers are believers and some are just better studied
than others.” The concepts of strong,
weak, mature, and immature were things that were totally lost on my infantile
Christian mind. The day that I realized
this was a day of personal embarrassment for me. The stink of my personal arrogance began to
suffocate me and it was during this time that I decided that I no longer wanted
to be a weak, immature Christian. I
wanted solid food. I was tired of being
a sulking, sinful moron. Today, I feel
like I have covered a lot of ground in spiritually maturing but I also realize
that I have a ridiculously long path yet to walk. I know enough to know that my maturity is
really just beginning. There are areas
of my faith where I have to admit that I am yet weak and undisciplined. I see these and simply refuse to tolerate
them. When you identify your personal
failings as a Christian you should not sit around and do nothing. You should seek the wisdom of God’s word. You should seek the counsel of others. You must be intentional about your maturity otherwise
it won’t happen.
How Should the
Strong Deal with the Weak (…and vice versa)
We have an obligation to one another as Christian brothers
and sisters to build one another up. When Paul says the “strong have an obligation to bear with the failings
of the weak” I don’t believe he meant that we should never challenge one
another to grow in our faith. Proverbs
27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” How can we truly sharpen one another if we’re
never challenging one another to grow in the maturity of our faith? I don’t know that we could. There are a number of pitfalls to sharpening
one another and I’d like to take some time to explore precisely what those
kinds of things are.
(1) Overconfidence in Self-Assurance: It’s easy to become overconfident in thinking
that we are much more spiritually mature than those around us. When we reach the peak of this kind of
mentality the potential for sin drastically increases if we’re not focused on
the sovereignty of God. We must always
remember to humble ourselves. Heed the
words of Biblical authors such as James who said, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little
time and then vanishes.” We do not want
to be found guilty of boasting in arrogance at any point in time. Let the flood of God’s word deeply saturate
you in the wisdom of the counsel of God. In this way you will know how to maintain a heart of humility. You will also learn how to teach others with
the wisdom that comes from God. James
describes this wisdom as pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy
and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
(2) Abusing Others With “Knowledge”: When a person feels confident in what they
believe, they have a tendency to be stubborn and unmovable in their
convictions. This is both a good and bad
thing. For example, I would consider it
a good thing if someone were unmovable in the conviction that Christ is
Lord. I would consider it a bad thing if
someone were unmovable in the conviction that summer is better than
winter. Who is willing to draw lines of
division over an argument as silly as that? Hopefully no one. When we have a
conviction and we meet somebody with an opposing view we must pray that
discernment would fill our hearts. Both
persons need to first commit to actually listening to one another. Too often people butt heads over opposing
viewpoints without really ever listening to what the other person is
saying. That is the very reason why
watching political talk shows makes me, quite literally, sick to my
stomach. We very rarely see a positive
example of two people discussing differences of opinion in a loving way. What is more common is the sight of one
person abusing another with their “knowledge”. Sometimes people get so convinced that they’re right that they forget to
use common sense. You can usually
identify a fallacy in someone’s thinking. For example, I feel that the Bible makes God’s purpose of unconditional
election quite plain. Yet I encounter
many people who feel that’s not what God does. People say God does not predestine (determine in advance) those who will
be conformed to the image of Christ. I
look at a verse like Romans 8:29 (For those whom he foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son) and say to
myself, “Isn’t it so apparent what Paul is saying? He says things like this in more than one of
his letters. Doesn’t that make the truth
of these words evident?” I have yet to
hear a scripturally based argument that would refute the idea of God’s purpose
of election. Unconditional election is a
conviction of mine. I believe that I see
the scriptures correctly regarding this issue. However, I also realize the very palpable possibility that I could
easily abuse people with my conviction. I could take my conviction to a place of sinfulness with alarming
ease. If I stop conveying my conviction
with the aim to build others up, then I will have officially arrived at the
threshold of boastful arrogance. James
reminds us, “All such boasting is evil.” (James 4:16)
(3) Failure to Receive: When I say “failure to receive” I’m referring
to the all too common act of failing to receive the criticisms and critiques of
others. The simple reality is that most
people don’t like being disagreed with. I’ve noticed that we Christians seem to get
particularly miffed when people disagree with us. In my pre-Christian days I noticed that
Christians got really bent out of shape when you suggested the possibility that
a particular belief that they held on to was wrong. It’s was as though they didn’t even want to
talk about it. Looking back on these
encounters I never recall any Christian ever taking me to the Bible to show me
where my deficiency of thinking existed. Now, as a Christian, I notice the same thing amongst fellow Christian
brothers and sisters. Typically
speaking, when people (Christian or non-Christian) aren’t really that well
informed about something they tend to create uninformed opinions. Whenever these opinions are challenged, these
individuals, who can’t really defend their stance all that well, usually resort
to retaliatory tactics that advance the argument nowhere but down. I see this happen amongst Christians who are
still in the “living on milk” stage of their spiritual maturity. As Christians we must learn how to receive
the criticisms of our beliefs as an opportunity to illustrate the glory of
God. We must acknowledge moments such as
these to spiritually mature. That means
we also have to be willing to accept the possibility that we could be
wrong. This means that we also have to
be willing to accept that the beliefs that we’ve held for a very long period of
time could either be true, half-true, or not true at all. In other words, we must surrender any kind of
sinful thinking or speech that could potentially hinder us from giving God
glory, even in the process of maturing our faith. This is only made difficult by the fact that
we hang on to selfish passions. “But the
one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being
no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his
doing.” (James 1:25) Instead of hanging on to that which is
earthly in us, we should look in the law of God’s word, see what it demands
from our lives, believe it and do it. This includes receiving the critiques of others.
Hopefully these words have helped. I want to conclude with one final thought
that you’ve already read. I simply want
to remind you of the goal in all this talk.
5May the God of endurance and encouragement grant
you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6that
together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 7Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you,
for the glory of God. (Romans 15:5-7)
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