0512 LOVING A VEGAN

LOVING A VEGAN

In this chapter, Paul addresses what I think is easily the number one reason for failures and splits in the church today.

Some of us have more sensitive consciences than others. Or, you might say, some of us are more spiritually mature than others. Maybe it’s more accurate to say that some of us are more committed to a higher standard than others. But maybe the most accurate way to say it is that some have a weaker faith than others.

Weaker faith? Sensitive conscience? Higher standards? Spiritual maturity? Which is it? And what is it about those vegans that makes them so, what, judgmental? They think they are better than the rest of us.

Right. The rest of us. The ones who have never really seen the reason to avoid any kind of food. The ones who don’t think twice about having a beer. And in public and everything. Why would anyone do something that could cause a weaker believer to lower their standard and go against their conscience?

Stronger faith? Hardened conscience? Lowering the bar? Spiritually immature? How would you describe these people? Perhaps this group best represents the majority of American Christians. You know. Shallow. Compromised. 

Do you see what happened in these descriptions and commentary? They shifted from simple descriptions and acceptance to judgmental and unsupportive. Using phrases and words that I have heard among church people.

But here is what Paul is saying throughout this chapter:

“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters.” 

The unexpected plot twist in Paul’s descriptions and directions is that he doesn’t introduce the theological reasons as to why people hold each of the positions. He uses non-judgmental language and words about feeling, not about truth or doctrine. How each of us gets to their sincerely held belief is a matter of conscience, and is as much a matter of culture as it is of doctrine. 

The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 

Paul talks about two hot topics in this epistle: whether to eat meat or eat only vegetables, and whether to keep Sabbath or other special days. But we would have many others today, which seem to divide us and cause us to judge and mistrust one another: Use of strong language (curse words), size of family, home education, child rearing, alcohol, smoking, marijuana, politics, musical styles, and on and on. In each case, as Paul says, we must not treat the other group with contempt or judge them. Why not? “For God has accepted them.” He goes on.

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 

Whatever my position and standards, I must stand before God and answer for my choices on earth. I must not live by someone else’s standards, which leads to cult-like pressure and control. And I must not isolate myself from the others and form my own little fellowship of those who live by my standards. After all, we are dead. Remember?

For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.”

The only thing to watch is your own conscience.

To eat, or not to eat. That is NOT the question. The question is, “To love, or not to love.” And the answer must be obvious by now.