Lessons From Romans – Lesson 17
After carefully and very thoroughly proving that all men are sinners and all men are without excuse and that salvation is by faith and has always been by faith. And showing that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us and that we are justified in Christ Jesus.
And giving us Romans 10 9-13 that shows how you call upon the Lord to get saved.
And also going thru how there are 2 main groups of people, Jews and Gentiles and how God has in part blinded the Jews and has turned to doing His main work of bringing conviction and opening eyes to the Gentiles.
However, God still wants the Jews to get saved and there will be a remnant of Jews saved. And Paul went into how this is God’s plan and how no one is God’s counselor. Everything that God does is out of foreknowledge and is right.
Telling how to be saved is the most important message that mankind can hear, and God has a plan for how that can get done.
That is of course not everything that Paul went over in the 1st 11 chapters of Romans.
But at the end of chapter 11 Paul has finished laying the foundation to say therefore.
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
In verse 2 Paul tells us how to do this and it is by the mercies of God. I find it interesting that it is not by the mercy of God but by the mercies of God. Plural. I believe that is because we will all have bad days and we will all mess up sometimes.
And when we do we are to confess it to God, ask for God’s forgiveness for it, and ask for His help, and get back on the horse as the old saying goes.
Living to present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God is not a one and done thing. It is not try and then mess up and that’s it. You blew it. Game over. Go sit on the sideline never to play again.
It is not like that at all. Our attitude needs to be more like never give up, never surrender, never quit. Get knocked down, get back up brush the dust off and ask God for mercy and help and get right back at it.
So the verse says by the mercies of God plural.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
We need to transform our thinking to be different from the world. And obviously we transform our thinking to conform to God’s Word.
And if we do we prove to ourselves and to others watching what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. We will see thru experience that this is the best way to live.
Immediately after verse 2 Paul starts laying out in real practical terms what does living for Jesus in this way look like.
And so far we have seen it covers things like not thinking too highly of yourself.
That love should be without dissimulation. That is genuine without hypocrisy or deception. That we are to abhor evil and cleave to that which is good.
We are to be kind and not lazy and rejoicing and patient, and instant in prayer and we are to be givers.
We are not to avenge ourselves and let God deal with it. We are to obey civil rulers as long as it does not go against what God says. And we are to love our neighbor as yourself.
And we finished last time at the end of chapter 13 with how we are to live like Jesus is coming back.
So Paul has already covered quite a bit but he is still not done. He continues laying out what living for Jesus looks like in chapter 14.
The next thing Paul goes over is one that I have personally seen Christians mess up a lot. Even good Christians who are trying hard and actually doing pretty well in many other areas but get messed up on this one.
I must be honest, I have also slipped up on this. Paul is now going to talk about Not Passing Judgment on One Another
Now before we read these verse we need to remind ourselves that there are different types of Judgment in the Bible.
We are told not to sit in the seat of the scornful. That means to obey that you have to judge who is scornful. Same kind of thing about not being inticed by the harlot. You have to look and observe and judge that.
We are not to be unequally yoked. That is pulling the same load together with someone, so we have to judge are they going the same way we are and do they want to pull the same load.
We are not to follow or listen to false teachers. That means you have to judge who is a false teacher.
We are to have and exercise the good kind of judgment that we call spiritual discernment. The good type of judgment that the Bible teaches we need is not the type of judgment that Paul is going over here.
Rom 14:1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
Some believers are stronger in the faith than others. We are not to judge them weak and then reject them because of it. We are to notice that they are weak and receive them anyway, but we are not to indulge their doubtful disputations.
Christians who are weak in the faith can get confused and fall for crazy things and get hung up on odd things. Paul then gives an example.
Rom 14:2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
So the weak one will not eat meat. He only eats herbs. This could be referring to eating meat offered to idols. That was a big thing in Paul’s day.
Rom 14:3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
This is teaching it is a small thing so just let it go. The weak brother is saved so just receive him and let it go. It is no big deal.
Paul has brought up not judging in food and now he brings up not judging another man’s servant.
Rom 14:4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
In our day this would be like judging someones else’s employee. That is none of our business the responsibility for that employee and what he does is his bosses business and does not affect us.
Paul now brings up not judging if someone does or does not esteem certain days holy.
Rom 14:5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Rom 14:6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
Rom 14:7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
We are not our own. We have been bought with a price. We belong to God. So we do not live isolated. God indwells us, He never leaves us nor forsakes us.
And when we die same thing. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Rom 14:8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
Rom 14:9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
God is the Lord of us while we live and God is the Lord of us after we die.
We are not our own. And we are not someone or anyone else’s. We only belong to the Lord.
Only God has a right to judge His own. That is the point being made here.
Rom 14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Rom 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Rom 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
So the end verses set up the context and clear up what kind of Judgment Paul is talking about here. It is the type of judgment that belongs only to God that He will execute at the judgment seat.
The Lord will make every Christian give and account of himself and how he lived. And God then will judge what is wood hay and stubble and what is precious stones. And then God will take action and that person will either get rewards or suffer lack of rewards.
This is not talking about making spiritual discernment type of judgments so that you personally can obey God’s instructions.
This is talking about taking on the role of judgment where you pass judgment and take action upon it against that person. That is for God to do and God alone.
Let me give you a current example.
The top podcaster in America has been Candace Owens.
She is an opportunist out for fame and money. She got into the conservative movement and got to do some speaking at Charley Kirk’s Turning Point USA events.
Charley saw thru her and never let her speak at any of his events ever again.
When Charley got assassinated Candace passed judgment upon the Turning Point USA organization and upon his widow Erika Kirk.
Candace started saying that Erika along with Israel and with several of the leaders of Turning Point all worked together to assassinate Charley. She says that no one gets widowed into the CEO position.
In short Candace has judged Erika and Turning Point and has gone on a relentless never ending crusade to destroy both Erika and Turning Point.
What she is doing is not Biblical spiritual discernment so that you can personally obey God’s Word.
She is doing the judge, jury, executioner evil type of judgment that we are not to do.
Paul finishes up what presenting your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God looks like with Not Causing Another to Stumble
Rom 14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
Rom 14:14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Rom 14:15 But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
Rom 14:16 Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
Rom 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Rom 14:18 For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.
Rom 14:19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
Rom 14:20 For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
Rom 14:21 It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
Rom 14:22 Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
Rom 14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
So basically give people some grace. Give them room to grow. Allow for them to not understand everything. Remember they are also saved and are God’s and He loves them so genuinely care about them.
And therefore let some things go and more than that be willing to deny yourself something that you have a right to if it will help to not make your brother to stumble.
Paul has now finished laying out what presenting your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God looks like.
And to be clear it is not an exhaustive list. Paul went thru enough different things to show how we should live for the Lord. You cannot take chapter 12 thru 14 and say well this other thing is not in there so I can go do that.
We know that you need to take all of the word of God into account. But chapter 12 thru 14 is one of the longest continuous section on how to live for the Lord in the New Testament.
So these 3 chapters are really important. Some parts of the New Testament Christians should read for themselves and think about them on a regular basis and I believe that Romans chapters 12 thru 14 should be on that list.
Paul is now going into how our example is Christ.
Rom 15:1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Rom 15:2 Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
Rom 15:3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
Put our neighbor first. Act for his good for his edification. To edify is to build up. And Jesus is our example in this for even Christ pleased not himself. Christ acted for our sakes.
Jesus sacrificed Himself for others. And Jesus is our example.
Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Rom 15:5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
Rom 15:6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 15:7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
Be likeminded in all of this according to Christ Jesus.
Receive one another just as Christ also received us.
And be of one mind for the purpose of glorifying God, just like Christ received us to the glory of God.
The entire section from Romans 12:1 thru 15:7 all fits in with what Jesus said was the two greatest commandments
Mat 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.