Not Pleasing Ourselves
"Take care of number one!" "You deserve a break today" "Wouldn’t you really rather have a Buick?" "Where do you want to go today?" "If it feels good, do it!" There is a tremendous amount of emphasis on self today and it has been that way for at least forty years. Everything is hawked to us because we want it, we need it, and we deserve it!! I am not sure any of that is true.
Until the ads started bombarding me, I did not know it existed, let alone wanted it. I lived 48 years without it; so I might even make it another 48 without it so do I really need it? I do not have a cell phone and I do not feel particularly needy without it. I am without a palm pilot and not deprived. Both gadgets seem to be a "need" in our day, but I seem to muddle through without them despite the ads and glowing testimonies of others that need them. Deserve it? If I must plunge into debt to obtain all the goodies they say I deserve then the only things I deserve are the eternal bondage of credit card or other debt and the ulcers worrying about it.
Yes, we have every opportunity to indulge and please ourselves in this wonderful age of technology, but should we do so? Do we not have the right to do so? If it is not sin, then why not enjoy? The premise is wrong. It is not what is in it for me, but what is in it for others? Remember all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient or edifying. (I Cor 6:12; 10:23)
Paul spent all of Romans 14 discussing things that were causing problems between the Gentile and Jewish believers. The underlying cause of the dispute was understandable. The Jews had spent a few thousand years under the law and certain things like holy days and dietary restrictions were very important to them and tied to their very being.
The Gentiles had no such cultural rituals and had no problems with having a ham sandwich. The holy days had no meaning to them. The Gentiles readily accepted the freedom of grace while the Jews struggled with some of the concepts. Peter speaking to the dispersed Jews recognized those problems and exhorted them to hear Paul. (2 Peter 3:15,16)
Contrary to popular interpretation, Paul was not speaking about gray areas. Doubtful things in that people were having doubts about them, but Paul resolved the issues themselves. The issues were black and white. He told the meat eaters that they had the right idea. The issue over ham sandwiches was settled. They were OK, in that they were lawful. Now, as we know pork has its problems so it is not completely profitable to eat a ham sandwich or eat fat, but it is now legal.
He said that the various holy days of the Old Testament were no longer required to be observed, but if you wanted to do so you could and not observing them is fine. The Jew would understand them more now that he was saved and saw the foreshadowing of Christ in them. If, as part of his heritage, and as a part of his worship to God, he still wanted to observe those days it was fine as long as he knew that his salvation or spiritual growth was not tied to them. The Gentile would never be able to completely comprehend the richness of those days and if he chose to only observe the Lord’s Day and maybe a day he decided to dedicate to the Lord then that was OK. All such ordinances were nailed to the Cross and now unnecessary but they were not evil. (Rom 7:8) All days should be holy unto the Lord. What each man desired to do beyond that was between him and the Lord.
He clearly taught that Jews were the weaker brothers, but did that give the Gentiles free license to do what had just been shown to be doctrinally correct? No, Paul took them to the higher level of love and responsibility to others. The Gentiles were not to show up at the church’s love feast with pig’s feet, chittlins, and ham hocks knowing their Jewish brothers would be offended and hence hinder their worship or their faith. (Rom 14:15) Were the ham hocks wrong? No. Now, chittlins are wrong for me, but more power to the brother that can chow down and say grace over them. No, eating the meat was not wrong. It was good, but Paul said let not your good be evil spoken of. (16)
He said eat pork at the house. (22) We get upset if someone suggests that we ought not do certain things and start yelling legalism, but Paul told us to be worried about being condemned for the things we allowed not the things we disallowed! (22) If my brother or sister comes into the church house and sees me doing something that he thinks should not be done in church, he will concentrate on that throughout the whole service and not be able to worship or receive teaching. I may be perfectly right in what I am doing, but if I know it offends my brother then I need to consider if what I am doing is really necessary. If I can refrain from doing it then I should refrain for the conscience of my brother so that he can freely worship and receive teachings that he may grow. He may eventually be able to accept that activity as OK and then I can resume it.
Rom 15:1-2
1We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
2Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
A few years back, a neo-evangelical magazine used Romans 14 to chide the weaker brother into growing up. The picture for the article was a flexed muscle and the title sounded more like chastisement instead of an exhortation. They missed the point of Paul’s teaching by forgetting to read these two verses in Romans 15.
While Romans 14:10-13 does take care of the weaker judging the stronger and vice versa, the intent of the passage is bent towards demanding sacrifice and responsibility from the strong. He did not tell the weak to grow up and have a ham sandwich and go golfing on the holy days. He told the strong to have their faith before God and at home while eating chicken and drinking tea at church. Following that logic, you would not invite the weaker brother to a tailgate party at the stadium on a day he considered holy.
Then in 15, he makes it even clearer. We who are strong ought to near the infirmities of the weak. Another way to phrase it would be, we who are powerful ought to help carry the scruples of conscience of the weak. If I help a person carry a burden, I have some of the weight on me. In order for me to help my brother carry his scruple, I have to deny myself freedom and either abstain from or engage in some activity.
Recently, I preached in a church out of state. In fact, it was out of Dixie, which is very rare for me. When I spoke to the pastor on the phone, I asked him how he would feel about my goatee because I had run into this issue once before in a church up there. He said, "I wish the Lord would let me have one." I assured him that He would since He had a beard Himself and created man on the sixth day with hair follicles in his face. However, I told him that I would shave it to preach there. I would even have a picture taken without it for the newspaper article. He was gracious and said that while he had never had a preacher with a beard in his pulpit before he would let it up to me. I assured him that my desire was to help his work and not hinder it so I shaved. It is growing back as I type, but he and his congregation were able to worship and hear me without the beard being a distraction.
I gave him a "short" course or discourse on the subject, but deferred to his position. I could have argued a long time and then arrived with a beard, but what would it have profited? I would not have had the opportunity to minister or would have had my ministry hindered. It was better to surrender my liberty than my ministry.
I could have pleased myself, but it would not have been to my neighbor’s edification. We are to build each other up, not tear each other down. In the context of eternity, will exercising our "rights" or liberty to the hurt of our brethren really mean anything after our last breath? If we stunt the growth of our brethren for such temporal things, what will it cost the Kingdom for eternity? Is it worth that cost? Indeed, what will that lack of love cost us at the Bema?
The Jews and the Gentiles were in a transitional period with the NT not being finished yet and this merger of two such diverse groups still sticky like fresh paint. It is understandable that many things would be questioned. Before Paul wrote to the church at Rome, these issues were questionable. Afterwards, the issues were not questionable. Paul clearly laid out what was OK and what was not. Therefore, this passage is not really about how to determine questionable things. It is more how to handle people during the sorting out of questionable practices and those weak in the faith.
With the NT completed and the merger of Jews and Gentiles being established for over two thousand years, we should only see these types of issues when we do foreign missions and evangelism. Sorting out what part of a cannibalistic culture is not tied to eating humans or to their animism and is acceptable within the Kingdom may take awhile. So much of any culture is intricately tied to the religion of that culture. Sometimes it is hard to find all the knots or weaves. Bringing someone to Christ out of one of the sub-cultures or counter-cultures can also present some of these challenges as the new believers grow and ask questions. We should have the answers. We just need to have the grace to minister to these folks.
Many of the things that we split hairs over in the Kingdom are not really that hard to determine what is right or wrong. We are usually just too emotionally charged about them or to be honest, too lazy to do the research. Both sides of any issue usually cling to popular opinion or their preference rather than biblical exposition. Many people base their convictions upon which preacher can shout the loudest or what school he graduated from. Do the research if you want to be mature and stable.
We also lack the perspective of the early saints. They would not fast on the same day as the pagans. Fasting in and of itself is good and I need to do more of it. The early church did not want in any way to be associated with the pagans. They wanted a clear testimony.
A few hundred years later, in order to reach the pagans, all of their holidays and traditions were brought into the church. All it did was paganize the church. It did not change the pagans. The more the church compromised with the world the more worldly the church became. Its testimony was ruined until the fire was rekindled with the Reformation though there were small groups of burning embers throughout the dark times.
We have not learned that lesson today. Instead of presenting a clear and distinct testimony, we still want to "redeem" the rituals of the pagans and wonder why we have no power and they ridicule us. Try to suggest that we clean out what traditions and holidays we received from the pagans by the compromisers and see what a joyful and scriptural response you get to that. Try to point out the old paganism under new names that we need to keep out of the church and you will be called, unlearned, unloving, unenlightened, etc.
We also lack the desire for holiness, which was the basis of the early church’s perspective. Holiness and separation are same thing. We say we want to be holy, but we do not want to get crazy about this separation thing. Do a concordance search on holy and it’s variations and also separation in the NT. You can also do one in the OT, but since some have basically burned the OT in their experience, the NT will do. If you have a Young’s you can easily find the verses that use the same Greek word and then do a word study in Vine’s Expository Dictionary. It will be a good study and you might be surprised at what you find as examples of holiness/separation.
I recall reading about George Mueller and a young couple he led to the Lord in England. They lived a good deal North of Mueller and all he could do is tell them to read their Bible and pray before they left for home. A few months later, they returned and told him of all the things that they had changed in their life and things they had given away. They wanted to know if there were more things that they should do or give up for the Lord. Note he was not with them to push his convictions or laundry list of dos and don’ts on to them. The Word convicted them. By the way, where do you get your convictions?
How opposite we are of the early church and this couple. We do not seek to be holy and separate or what else we can give up for the Lord. We do not ask, "How holy can I be?" but rather "How low can I go and still be saved?" Keith Green sang, "You speak of grace and my love so sweet. How you thrive on milk and reject my meat." We do not even want milk anymore. A pacifier will do nicely. We care not that we starve our spirits as long as we have that band around our wrist that says child of God. We’d rather die in the nursery than on the field of battle. It is a good thing that our forebears do not look over the ramparts of Heaven and view what we are doing. Tears and vomit would ruin their being in His presence.
Rom 15:3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. KJV
How blessed we are that Christ did not please Himself, but prayed, "not My will, but Thine be done." Where would we be if He had called twelve legions of angels to level Jerusalem and then ascended into Heaven without going to the Cross? We would be without the Comforter in this life and without hope in the next as we burned in Hell for eternity.
They called the early church Christians or little Christs because they did follow Christ and they feared and hated them. They call us Christians and sneer because we do not follow Him and they hate us, but they no longer fear the Gospel we preach because we do not have the power of the early Church.
You see we who are strong are not as strong as we think that we are. Therefore we should be a tad more understanding of those who are weaker than us. We also need to consistently check up on ourselves. We may find we are the weaker brothers when we thought we were the stronger and vice versa.
What will happen if you give up your liberty for the sake of a weaker brother? God will bless you, but some of your peers may think you have lost your mind or joined the legalists. They may chide you or snub you. That only proves they are not that strong.
What will happen if you search the Scriptures and seek holiness and challenge the paganism in your church? Well, you will grow in strength and power in Christ, but your popularity with the saved may wane. Lost people may hate you, but some will respect you and you may find a new ministry in reaching people you never thought that you could reach.
Whatever happens, you will be in good company. Whatever reproaches you receive from saved or lost know that they have already fallen on those who turned the world upside down. Better still, remember that they have fallen upon Christ who saved you and in whose resurrection power you are called to live.
Stronger brother, show me your strength by your love and sacrifice. Weaker brother, seek His face and stay in the Word. You will become stronger than you can imagine. May none of us please ourselves, but seek to please Him that bought us. In so doing, we will again see the holiness and power that turned the world upside down and witness a huge gathering of souls into the Kingdom!
