Back When I Knew Everything

 

AI generated by Copilot.


Back in my twenties, thirties, and forties, I knew everything.

That’s not really true, of course. Let’s say instead that I knew all the conservative Christian rules regarding

  • What kind of music all Christians should listen to.
  • What is and is not modest for women.
  • Exactly what length a man’s hair should be.
  • Which businesses Christians should and should not patronize.
  • Which politicians to support.
  • Which causes to support—and which ones to oppose.
  • Which entertainment choices were acceptable and which were not.[1]

I also thought, when I was young, that as I grew older, these Unassailable Truths would become firmer, joined by even more Unassailable Truths (hereafter “UTs”). The wisdom I would possess when I would be, for example, sixty-two would be immense! I would know even more answers!

Then life happened.

Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not questioning my faith (although that exercise is good for you to do every once in a while), and I’m not talking about violating clear commands of Scripture. (That’s important! Read it again please!) But life rattles your cage every once in a while and leaves you sitting flat on the ground saying to yourself, “What just happened!? Another one of my UTs just blew up! It isn’t supposed to be this way!”

And then I read Romans 14.

Or, I should say, I reread Romans 14. How had I missed this before? Why had I never heard a sermon on this passage? What Romans 14 has to say can be life-changing—it certainly was for me. It relieves me of all that frustration that twisted my gut when other believers’ UTs were different from mine.

It turns out that the Bible calls my UTs “opinions,” not “Unassailable Truths.” And there is nothing wrong with having opinions about the things I listed above. Every believer—in fact, every human—has opinions on these and many more topics. But God’s love is wide enough to allow us leeway in these things. That’s what Romans 14 teaches.

In an effort to really get a grasp on this passage, I rewrote Romans 14 in my own words, and I am sharing it with you here.

DISCLAIMER: I have no degree in Bible; I absolutely do not consider myself a scholar when it comes to Scripture. A theologian may read some statements below and say, “No, that’s not quite right.”

That’s OK. Just assume I’m the weaker brother and keep it to yourself.

Romans 14 in My Own Words

Welcome the brother who is “weak in faith,” remembering that the amount of faith each believer has is granted by God.[2] Another believer may not feel the liberty to eat meat or to celebrate special days (Romans 14:3, 5).[3] Both his opinion and mine on all such matters can honor God if each of us is convinced in his mind that what he’s doing is acceptable and honoring to God (vv. 2–3, 5–6). These things fall into the category of opinions (v. 1).

It’s not my place to criticize or judge my brother (or sister) in matters such as these. My brother doesn’t answer to me—he answers to God, as do I (vv. 3–4, 10a). If he needs correction, God is fully able to correct him, just as He is fully able to correct me (v. 4). My brother and I must one day answer to God, not to each other (vv. 10b–13a).

Instead of being critical of my brother, I must watch my walk so I don’t cause him to be spiritually hindered or stumble in his walk with the Lord. I must walk in love for him (remember, he may be weak in faith, v. 1) rather than walking to please myself (vv. 13–15). If I live just to please myself, the good that I do in honor of the Lord will be evil spoken of[4]—perhaps by my weaker brother; or perhaps by those who are stronger than I am spiritually, who see me acting unwisely and selfishly in spite of the difficulties those actions cause for another believer (vv. 14–16).

And you know what? These opinions—matters of eating, matters of special days, matters of what we would call “personal conviction”—are not important in the kingdom of God! When we get to heaven, we won’t learn that one of us was right and the other was wrong. The most important thing all believers must do is to walk in love, goodness, righteousness, peace, and joy (vv. 13–21).

I am not to parade my opinions in front of others—those matters are between God and me (v. 22a). I judge myself, not others—am I approving things that violate my conscience? Am I taking part in certain things even though I am unsure whether God approves of them? If so, I am sinning. And that’s true for my brother as well—but that’s between him and God, not him and me.

So I must keep the focus on myself in these areas; I must stop looking at other believers judgmentally, critically, and proudly when their opinions differ from mine.

Oh, and I encourage you to keep reading. There’s more good stuff in chapter 15.

Copyright 2024, Steven Nyle Skaggs

All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.


[1] For example, I was told in college that the lyrics to the hit song “I Write the Songs” were evil because the speaker was Satan (“I’ve been alive forever, / And I wrote the very first song. . . . My home lies deep within you / And I’ve got my own place in your soul. / Now when I look out through your eyes / I’m young again, even though I’m very old”), when, in fact, the composer said he envisioned God as the speaker. (Oops!) If you examine the lyrics, they can’t be referring to Satan, who hasn’t been alive forever and didn’t write the very first song.

[2] Romans 12:3: “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” Missionary James Fraser was thinking wisely when he wrote, “I have definitely asked the Lord for several hundred families of Lisu believers. There are upwards of two thousand Lisu families in the Tantsah district. It might be said, ‘Why do you not ask for a thousand?’ I answer quite frankly, ‘Because I have not faith for a thousand.’ I believe the Lord has given me faith for more than one hundred families, but not for a thousand. So I accept the limits the Lord has, I believe, given me.” I know a pastor whose daughter was disabled for life because of a horrifying house fire when she was just two years old. She had third-degree burns over almost all of her body. I heard him recount how another believer told him, “If you have enough faith, God will heal her—make her like she was before the fire.” The pastor responded, “I can’t pray that way—I don’t have that much faith. But if you have that amount of faith, then certainly you should pray that way.”

[3] I’ve known Christians who, for example, do not celebrate Christmas. And there are, undoubtedly, Christian vegetarians and vegans.

[4] “Don’t let your good be evil spoken of.” This aphorism is usually quoted in situations that have nothing to do with its use in this passage. (I’m guilty of it too!)

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dogs I Have Knowned

Image
The other day I was trying to remember all the dogs I’ve ever owned. The first was Ella , short for “Cinderella,” a medium-sized black mix who barked incessantly. This was back in the era when a dog stayed outside, chained to her doghouse, and that was where she lived. No one thought of it as a cruel arrangement. But, as I s ay, she was a nonstop barker. In fact, one of the first phrases my little brother Eric learned to say—shouting at her from the kitchen window—was, “Ella! Be kawock!”   Which was his version of what he heard other family members shouting from the same location: “Ella! Be quiet!” We never bonded in any way (Ella and me, not Eric and me), and one day she was gone. This was also back in the era when you could call the dog catcher to remove your canine. Is that what happened to her? I don’t know, but I hope her next owner didn’t keep her chained to a doghouse. Our next dog was Missy . She was about the size of a chihuahua—no doubt she had some chihuahua blood mixe...
Read more

San Francisco: Dreams Achieved! Or, "Scratch That Off the Bucket List!"

Image
Cindy and I spent the week of September 10 through 17 in San Francisco, visiting Caleb and JR. It was a GREAT vacation — so many beautiful places. I ’ ll probably be saying more about it in future posts. I always said if I ever got out there, I would visit as many of the sites where Hitchcock filmed his 1958 classic,  Vertigo ,   as possible — one of my all-time favorite movies (second only to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow — but I digress). I succeeded at that goal, thanks to my family’s patience in running from one obscure location to another. These places may not mean much to you, but they mean a lot to me and it was SO MUCH FUN for me to see them! Photos below compare the locations as shown in the movie (1958) with the way they look today. Brocklebank Apartments, 1000 Mason Street, Sept. 2022.  The Brocklebank was built in 1926 in the Nob Hill section of San Francisco, and it remains a high-end and sought-after location today. In fact, none of its 50 apartments...
Read more

The Lytles of Fredericksburg, Ohio

Image
“Carl G. Lytle cutting Holmes County Swiss Cheese in his general store in Fredericksburg, Ohio.” From the Cleveland Plain Dealer , August 5, 1963. You can disagree with me if you want to, but I believe if everyone everywhere could be raised in small towns, the world would be a better place. Having been raised in a small town myself, I am both an expert on this topic and completely unbiased. When I was a child, Mom told me our hometown, Fredericksburg, Ohio, had “about six hundred” residents. Well, she had it right: census data from 1970 shows there were 601 residents. That was the all-time high for the town (which dates back to 1850), though: the population has been steadily declining ever since. In 2020 the population was only 409. The Freedom to Roam When you lived in a small town in those days, you could walk or bike anywhere you needed to go without a parent. School, the general store, the post office, the bank, or down to the “crick,” it didn’t matter. Someone would be keepi...
Read more