Sermon Tone Analysis

Proposition: Last week we learned that “Unity is secured by the establishment of the saints in the truth and knowledge of Jesus Christ.”

This week we further that idea by learning that “Saints who have been established in the truth and knowledge of Jesus Christ are committed to unity in the midst of secondary issues.”

Furthermore, divisiveness over secondary issues: over issues of Christian freedom, human personality, and personal preferences are the result of an immaturity in the faith.

As we look back into Ephesians 4:13-14 we see present a contrast between maturity and immaturity.

The fruit and evidence of that maturity is found in the unity that the church experiences.

Likewise, the fruit and evidence of immaturity is found in the disunity of the church and the confusion that ensues when we lose our focus on the Gospel and the implications of the Gospel in life.

One of the areas where we have the greatest proclivity to demonstrate our maturity or immaturity are in areas that are secondary.

We see this connection between secondary issues and maturity in passages such as 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 where it says,

1 Corinthians 3:1–4 (ESV)

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.

And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh.

For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

Or as is described in 2 Corinthians 10:12,

Even in areas of Christian freedom, Romans 14:22-23 stresses the necessity that believers with stronger or weaker consciences bear with one another.

Beyond that, the strong is encouraged to not move his weaker brother to violate his conscience on the basis of the stronger brother’s freedom.

In order to maintain unity then we have to understand how the Gospel unites us together with brothers and sisters who will exercise their Christian freedom differently than our own, that it unites us together with human personalities that are different than our own, and that it unites us together with individuals with preferences different than our own.

Understanding Christian Freedom

Saints, who have been established in the truth and knowledge of Jesus Christ, are committed to unity in the midst of secondary issues by understanding Christian freedom.

We see this idea unpacked for us in Romans 14:1-15:7 where Paul unpacks how Christian freedom is to be worked out in the midst of diverse assemblies of believers.

Paul in this section recognizes the tremendous diversity that exists within the Christian body and how that diversity can lead to disunity if care is not embraced in our relationships with one another.

The body of Christ is diverse in that

We do not all share the same maturity.

We exist in a body wherein we have believers who have been saved for decades.

Some of us have known and walked with Christ for the entirety of our adult lives.

Others of us were redeemed into adulthood.

For some of us our spiritual growth has been relatively stable, for others of us our spiritual growth has endured chaotic issues that perhaps for a time slowed our spiritual growth.

We did not all share the same path to spiritual life.

We exist in a body wherein we have some believers who were saved as a part of a Christian family.

We repented and turned to Christ at relatively young ages.

Our spiritual journey has involved little by way of spiritual baggage or bondage.

While our sin nature was the same, we nevertheless, have had a fairly smooth transition into the family of Christ.

Whereas, other Christians have come to faith having to break deep spiritual bondage to all sorts of vices.

They have a history of memories and experiences which cause shame, embarrassment, or even ongoing struggles against sin.

We were not all freedom from sin in the same way.

We exist in a body wherein we have some believers who were immediately freed from particular areas of sin upon their conversion.

They experienced salvation and God immediately cleaned up their life, broke their addictions, and severed deep seated and entrenched sin.

Others of us, though just as miraculously saved by God’s grace, have had to endure a long and arduous battle against besetting sins.

We did not all share the same spiritual heritage.

We exist in a body wherein we have some believers who were raised in a Christian home with Christian principles.

Our lives, even when we still lived in unbelief, were blessed to have been raised within a Christian worldview.

Our transition into the faith was one which did not take as much radical reordering of the structures and thought processes of our life.

While others of us were redeemed from a spiritual heritage that was totally and completely set against God.

Virtually everything we learned, from how we handle problems to who created the universe, had to be reshaped by the Gospel.

We do not all reach the same conclusions.

We exist in a body wherein we will reach different conclusions about all sorts of different choices.

How should we raise our children?

What is the tenor and nature of our discipline with them?

What do we allow them to do? Do we celebrate Halloween with our children or don’t we? Do we make a big deal out of gift giving at Christmas?

Do we send our children to public school, to a private Christian school, or do we homeschool our children?

At what age do we allow our children to do different things like play video games, own a cell phone, etc.

How should we feel about food?

Do we drink alcohol in moderation or don’t we? Would we attend an event where alcohol is served?

Do we eat pork?

Do we believe that pasta must be served at every meal?

Do we consider Olive Garden authentic Italian food?

What our convictions about entertainment?

What is appropriate entertainment?

Should we own a television?

Should we attend movies?

If we do, what movies and television programs are appropriate?

Paul moves in Romans 14-15 to give us principles by which we process our Christian freedom and our relationship with one another.

He does this through utilizing descriptive terms to denote the individuals understanding of the Christian faith in relationship to their moral scruples.

One author helps us to understand the situation this way:

Romans (3.

Among the Weak and the Strong (14:1–15:13))

At Rome there were Jewish Christians who were reluctant to give up certain ceremonial aspects of their religious heritage.

They were uncertain about how faith in Christ affected the status of Old Testament regulations.

Others embraced the new freedom in Christ unencumbered by an overly sensitive regard for the past.

Paul referred to the first group as “weak” (Rom 14:1) and the latter as “strong” (Rom 15:1).

The terms are descriptive rather than judgmental, although as Stuhlmacher says, “the designation ‘weak in faith’ is based on the presupposition that strength of faith is the attitude which is really to be desired.”

Rather than work through the entirety of Romans 14-15.

I would like to bring our attention to four principles that teach us how to think about our brother and sister in Christ who differs on secondary issues.

And then look at the foundation by which we ought to evaluate every choice in the Christian faith.

Four Principles for Living at Peace Amongst Secondary Issues

Welcomed by God - We are to treat every Christian as one who has been welcomed by God.

We ought to understand that we have no basis to judge a believer who has been and is accepted by God because of secondary issues.

If faith alone in the work of Jesus Christ is the only means by which a man may be saved, how dare we pollute the Gospel by drawing arbitrary judgments about our fellow believer.

We see this in Romans 14:3-4.

Some day in eternity future your perspective on an issue may be proved correct, but you will nevertheless not stand before Christ because you were right on your stance about “whether your children should be enrolled in the public school.”

Rather you will stand before Christ because of Christ’s work on the cross.

Owned by God - We are to treat every Christian as one who has been called by God and lives all of life as one who has been bought by God.

We ought to understand that our brother and sister is living out his life in honor of God.

He might be choosing to honor God in a way that is different from your own, but the final arbiter of what is acceptable to God is not you or me, but God himself.

We see this in Romans 14:7-8.

Judged by God - We are to treat every Christian as one who will ultimately be judged by God.

Likewise, we ought to understand that we ourselves will one day stand before the judgment seat of God.

We see this in Romans 14:10-12.

We are, thus, called to recognize that we ought to be more concerned about what God will say about our actions, our choices, our motivations, our treatment of our brother and sister than we should be about whether our brother or sister reaches a different conclusion about a secondary issue.

Ruled by God - We are to treat every Christian as one who is living for the kingdom of God.

We recognize that the kingdom of God does not consist of manmade rules and taboos.

The kingdom of God, as Paul says, does not consist of food or drink.

The Kingdom of God is bigger than whether you choose to celebrate halloween.

The Kingdom of God is more significant than our scruples.

We see this in Romans 14:17-19.

We therefore ought to be pursuing with out brother and sister not uniformity on secondary issues, but we ought to be embracing them in the same spirit with which we will embrace them in the last days.

Foundational Understanding of Secondary Issues

Faith - Paul finalizes his discussion on secondary issues in this section by providing us with one final way that all Christian’s ought to evaluate every decision of life.

That is found in Romans 14:23.