Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THOSE STRONG IN THE FAITH”
Romans 15.1-13
Go to any news web site, and you will see the same thing. Around the world, we have seen over the last few years the fragmentation of one country after another into the various ethnic groups that comprised those countries. Now, of course, we are seeing it happen in our country.
The once greatly feared Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has completely unraveled, leaving the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, leaving the southern republics like Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia, and leaving Belarus and Russia. That large country that was put together by police force and military might have come completely apart.
Another example is Czechoslovakia. That was a country created in the aftermath of World War I by the Versailles Treaty, comprised basically of three groups of people, the Sudeten Germans, the Czechs, and the Slovaks. And now, where there was one country, there are two, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In the Balkans, just to the North of Greece, there was a country formed in the aftermath of World War II under the tyranny of Marshal Tito. The country was Yugoslavia. But there is nothing left of that country now. It has been fragmented into a multitude of smaller units; you barely call them countries, once fought over by the Serbs and the Croats, with the Macedonians looking on and the United States wringing our hands.
In the tragedy that was once Lebanon, we now see absolute chaos as a result of ethnic fighting. The Phalangist Christians lost their fight against the Muslims, who in turn fought against the Druse, who in turn fought against the Phalangists. And who won? Not any of those groups living in Lebanon. The Syrians came out on top of that one.
Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran are all a mess, with a group known as the Kurds living in that region where those four countries come together, who fought bravely against ISIS, and who want their own country, with Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran determined not to let them have the oil-rich region they occupy.
For several years the United Kingdom has been at risk, with rumblings in Scotland about their sovereignty and their opposition to the UK’s Brexit separation from the European Union, which Scotland wants to remain a part of. There are also those in Wales who want their independence. And, of course, the Basques, who have never been independent, want autonomy from France to the North and Spain to the South.
Even in our country, we see powerful forces at work dividing up the populace. No more is the United States of America seen as a great melting pot of immigrants. There are moves afoot in every corner of the country to rip from American citizens everything we once had in common with each other. This is no accident, since we have always been a nation struggling to embrace a common principle rather than being of common heritage.
Everyone is being urged to focus on their ethnicity to the exclusion of their citizenship. Native American. Irish American. Italian American. African American. Latin American. Asian American. Jewish. And on it goes. If things continue at the rate they are going, the very fabric of this country’s society will be torn asunder by each sub-group’s refusal to consider themselves a part of a larger whole. What will happen to the last best hope of mankind, as Lincoln phrased it?
In our country, it has been the result of a group of men known collectively as the Frankfurt School, who arrived here from Frankfurt, Germany in 1935 to escape Hitler’s agenda of national socialism. However, I don’t think they did not arrive and become a part of Columbia University without a nefarious agenda. They came to the United States to destroy our country and were determined to infiltrate and undermine our nation’s institutions and degrade our culture’s social cohesion by turning each subgroup of Americans against the others. They have succeeded all too well.[1]
They have turned higher education, media, and Hollywood against the existing culture, persuaded university students to abandon traditional morality in what developed into the free love hippie movement of the 1960s, and advanced what they call Critical Theory, which is the criticism of every aspect of the culture all the time that we see everywhere.
Aren’t you glad you are not only a Latin American, or only an Anglo-American, or only an African American, or only an Asian American? Aren’t you glad you are also a Christian? I am. And because I am a child of God, my observations of what’s going on in this wicked sin-stained world has a certain distance to them. Why? Because what we see here is nothing new.
Ethnic factionalism has always been a fact of life among human beings. For example, India was never the nation it is now until the British arrived and unified the subcontinent by force. Italy was never a modern unified state until Garibaldi’s military efforts of the 19th century. The same goes for Germany, which did not become a nation until 1871.
What about the native Americans? I grew up on Indian reservations where, until it became politically incorrect to remind people of the past, everyone knew that Indians existed only in tribes that were in an almost constant state of war with each other. Unity and peace and harmony is something mankind has not experienced often since the Garden of Eden. But amongst Christians, unity and harmony is not only desired by the Lord; it is expected and commanded.
Perhaps responding to information received from his friends Aquila and Priscilla, who he had met in Corinth but who had previously lived in Rome, Paul addressed the divisions among the Christians in Rome that had arisen, but not because of any great doctrinal differences. Those Christians were experiencing conflict because some were strong in the faith, and some were weak in the faith. And the strong Christians exercised liberties that the weak felt quite uncomfortable with. This resulted in both groups wrongly focusing on their respective differences, rather than their common salvation. As a result, they were acting too much as unsaved people act.
Not unexpectedly, Paul’s comments are directed primarily to the strong. And in our text, which is Romans 15.1-13, he sets forth three things the strong in the faith should do to strengthen Christian unity. And why should they do what Paul suggests? Because to whom much is given much is required. Because responsibilities accompany realizations, and the strong had realized some things about their salvation that the weak had not yet realized. Because the strong in the faith ought to help the weak in the faith.
First, THE STRONG IN THE FAITH SHOULD RELIEVE THOSE WHO ARE WEAK IN THE FAITH
Assume for our present discussion that each of you is strong in the faith. Here is how Paul describes your efforts to relieve your brothers in Christ who are weak:
First, your method, verse 1:
“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”
Are you strong in the faith? Has God given you liberties that other Christians, you now feel somewhat self-conscious about exercising? Then listen to Paul’s little surprise for you. You have a duty, an obligation. You ought to “bear the infirmities of the weak.” That is, you ought to carry their burden. And how different this is from the behavior of the unsaved of this world. Do not the powerful and mighty of this world oppress the weak and the small and make them carry burdens they are too weak to carry? Sure they do. It is the way of unsaved man. It is the oppression of the tyrant, whether the tyranny is located in Haiti or South Africa, in Burma or China. However, the child of God, though he may be stronger in one respect than his weaker brother in Christ, takes advantage of his strength, not to make the weaker carry the burden for the stronger, but to carry the burden for the weaker. Thus, the Christian who is strong in the faith is different in method than the unsaved person who has strength. The Christian uses his strength, but not to please himself.
Second, your motive, verse 2:
“Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.”
Why does the strong Christian want to bear the infirmities of the weak Christian? In one sense, so that you might please him. Two observations: As to the orientation of your motive. “Let every one of us please his neighbor.” Do you see how differently the orientation of the Christian life is than is the unsaved person’s life? The lost man wants only to please himself. The Christian, on the other hand, is directed to please others. As to the limitation of your motive. Lest you think Paul is here advising the Christian to go so far as to be a man-pleaser, something condemned in other passages of the Bible, notice the last phrase of the verse. “For his good to edification.” You are only to do for others if it is good for them, if it is beneficial for them if it builds them and others up in the faith. In short, help others to do right and to be right. Never help anyone to do wrong or to be wrong. Never subsidize sin by pretending to be spiritual. How this consideration might affect a Christian’s contributions to the homeless, the jobless, or the person requesting a helping hand. “For his good to edification.”
Third, your model, verses 3-4:
3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
The Savior is a wonderful model for us to emulate in this respect. He did not come to earth, live a sinless life, and die a sacrificial death on Calvary’s cross for our sins, to please Himself. He did that to please His father. The Scripture Paul cites to that, showing us something that we often overlook as Christians. We know that our Lord Jesus Christ bore the reproach God had against our sins on the cross, but Paul is pointing out here that the Lord Jesus also bore the reproach that sinful man had against God.
To put it very simply, God struck Jesus Christ as a blow against sin. But man struck Jesus Christ as a blow against God. How comforting it is to learn from God’s Word what the Lord Jesus did for us and what He did for His father. What an example is set for us. And what confidence we have, what hope we are given, as those who receive great blessings from what the Lord Jesus Christ did to please our Father, which is in heaven. Strong Christian? You help that weaker brother. Relieve her of some of the burdens she carries. Restrain yourself from the full exercise of your liberties if they will adversely affect her. We have a scriptural method, a scriptural motive, and a scriptural model to follow that is radically different than the one that is shown in the world by such as they. What we are about is unburdening weaker Christians, not weighing them down with guilt as we insist on doing what we feel the freedom to do, regardless of its effect on them.
Second, RECEIVE THOSE WHO ARE WEAK IN THE FAITH
In these three verses, we find Paul exhorting Christians to receive Christians. So, even though we are in the middle of a passage primarily addressed to those strong in the faith, Paul wants each believer to know that we are responsible for receiving our brothers in Christ. How is this to be practically accomplished?
It begins with the mind, verse 5:
“Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus.”
God is the God of patience and consolation. God gives patience to put up with the infirmities of others. He consoles when you are disturbed by the behavior of others. Thus, God will enable both the strong Christian and the weak Christian to be like-minded toward each other, according to Jesus Christ. That is, what the strong Christian and the weak Christian have in common is the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me tell you something, friend. If another person and I have the same Lord Jesus, then we ought to be able to be like-minded one toward another. If we are not like-minded, we are in sin. If we cannot be like-minded, then one of us has a Jesus who isn’t the Jesus of the Bible.
So, it begins with the mind, but it continues with the mouth, verse 6:
“That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Obviously, Paul does not want two Christians who disagree about certain things to lie and say we agree about those things. Not at all. What he wants us to do is put things in proper perspective so we can glorify God instead of focusing on our minor areas of disagreement. And how are you to glorify God in the presence of some Christian who thinks it is wrong to eat bacon with his eggs? Simple. Order your eggs without bacon and make much of Jesus. For when you make much of Jesus when you extol His virtues and point men to Him, then God the Father is glorified.
It starts with the mind. It continues with the mouth. And it culminates with the meld, verse 7:
“Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.”
Meld means to join together, to blend. When your thinking is straightened out, and when your speech follows suit, then you can receive Christians who may be weaker or stronger in the faith than you are. Hey, you can even sit next to them in Church. And why should strong Christians receive the weak, who they think are hung up on trivialities? Or why should the weak receive the strong, who they think to be guilty of committing sin in eating forbidden things? Simple. Christ received us. We ought to receive others. And when we do, God is glorified. So, receive that person into your circle of fellowship who is different than you. Not the guy who grieves God with his rebellion and wickedness. The one who is just a bit different than you. For, you see, the willingness to receive is the difference between a Christian clique and a Church.
Finally, RECOGNIZE THE RELATIONSHIP OF THOSE WEAK IN THE FAITH TO THE SAVIOR
It is in verses 8-13 that we see two things develop: First, we see greater evidence than we had seen before that the strong in the faith / weak in the faith issue was to some degree a Gentile Christian versus Jewish Christian issue. And second, we see Paul broadening his discussion and moving beyond the specific issue at hand to make a doctrinal point that both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians easily relate to.
Notice the review of Christ’s ministry, in verses 8-12:
First, Paul reminds his readers that Christ’s ministry is related to the Jews; verse 8:
“Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.”
In this verse, Paul states that the Lord Jesus Christ became the servant He was to verify God’s truth, to confirm the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Jewish Christians, then, had good reason to be thankful for the saving work of Jesus Christ because it demonstrated God’s faithfulness to keep His promises.
Now notice how Christ’s ministry is related to the Gentiles, verses 9-12:
9 And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.
10 And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.
11 And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.
12 And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.
We who are Gentile Christians also have cause to be thankful for Christ’s saving work on our behalf. But Christ’s saving work on our behalf was not so much a demonstration of God’s faithfulness to keep His promises as it was a demonstration of God’s mercy toward those of us Gentiles who were without hope.
Four times the apostle resorts to Jewish Old Testament passages that predict Gentiles having a relationship with God. And the message that is not to be denied is this: Gentiles are a part of God’s plan. Don’t you deny that, you weaker-in-the-faith Jewish Christian brother. But God’s salvation came from the Jews. Never forget that, you stronger-in-the-faith Gentile Christian brother.
Now notice the response of God’s people, verse 13:
This verse is most probably the end of the real substance of Paul’s letter to the Romans. After this, Paul begins to wrap things up in his letter, referring again to his anticipated trip to Rome and Spain and extending greetings to a whole group of people.
With this in mind, think of verse 13 as not only the concluding remark of Paul’s discussion of the dispute between the strong-in-the-faith and the weak-in-the-faith in chapters 14 and 15 but also Paul’s concluding remark on all of chapters 1 through 13, as well.
What we see in this verse is the Christian’s proper response to instruction about, and for those who were already Christians confirmation about, the need to be justified in the sight of God, chapters 1-3, the nature of being justified in the sight of God, chapters 3-8, the place of the nation of Israel in all of this, chapters 9-11, and the neighbor of justification, that which accompanies justification, which is right living by God’s people, chapter 12 through this verse.
Let’s read verse 13 together, shall we?
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Three things I want to point out from this great verse:
First, the object of our hope. “Now the God of hope.” God is the Object of our hope. If hope is rightly understood to be confidence of future blessings based on the promise of God’s sure Word, then God is the Object of our hope. Remember what Paul wrote in Philippians 3.14?
“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
And, then, what John wrote in Revelation 21.2-4:
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Yes, God is my hope!
Second, the ingredients of our hope:
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope.”
If hope is the present confidence that a person has of future blessings, then it stands to reason that this present confidence of future blessing we call hope must be built on something. There must be some valid reason for having the confidence, right now, that something wonderful is going to happen to you and for you in the future. And that something is the joy and the peace that comes with believing. When you believe in Jesus Christ to the saving of your soul, God floods you with inner peace and bubbling joy. It is that peace of mind and that joy of heart that accompanies genuine faith in Christ which is the foundation on which your confidence, your hope, of future blessing is built. So, the Christian must have peace of mind and must have joy to have hope. If you do not have something in the here and now that is tangible, some recognizable consequence of your conversion that you can point to, you’ll have little or no confidence that what God said He would do for you in the future will come to pass. This is why Christians who are carnal, who have no peace of mind and who have no joy as a result of sinning against the Holy Spirit, never seem to have hope. So, the Object of our hope is God, but the ingredients of our hope are peace and joy.
Who, then, is the Instigator of our hope? It can only be the Holy Spirit of God. Coming to live inside the person who trusts Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, only the Holy Spirit gives Christians abundant peace and joy, the building materials of real hope. Only the Holy Spirit, working in our lives now, creates in us a confidence that things promised to us in God’s Word shall come to pass, standing before our God in heaven.
Think about Paul’s letter to the Romans to this point. The greatest single discussion of the working of the one true and living God is found in this letter to the Romans. And in this discussion, Paul explains God’s way of reconciling sinful men to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ, Who shed His blood on a cruel Roman cross to satisfy God’s righteous demands of payment for our sins.
However, despite the amazing fact that those who have benefited from God’s saving work in their lives through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ have been adopted into God’s Own family, we sometimes see family members involved in petty disputes. Not a dispute over significant things, really, such as sin and salvation, such as the identity of the Savior or His virgin birth or resurrection. No. These Christians disagreed over such things as diet and observing special days. Minor things.
So, what does Paul do? He reminds us of our Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ didn’t do what He could have done. He didn’t do what He necessarily wanted to do. Instead, He did what His Father wanted Him to do. He hoisted our burden of sin onto His Own back and carried it to the cross, and there He died and shed His blood to carry our sin burden away.
Is it, then, such a big thing to set aside for a while what you want to do? Can you do without the exercise of your precious freedom for the benefit of one of your brothers, one of your sisters, who might be offended by your actions? And can you carry a burden for a weaker brother for a while?
Perhaps the weaker brother is a little child who needs a Sunday School teacher’s helper who cares or a children’s worker who cares enough to give him the only hug by an adult he will ever receive. The only “I love you” she will ever receive from anyone besides her drunkard parents.
Is it really that burdensome to unburden the load of a weaker brother? Not when you compare what you are doing to what the Lord Jesus Christ did for you. Let’s relieve them. Then, let’s receive them. Finally, let’s remember their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s show the world that Christians are not like lost people. Let us, in real unity, serve and glorify our Savior.
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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School 12/17/19
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