Introduction:
I heard about a college recruiter who interviewed a high school basketball star. The recruiter said, "I hear you’re pretty good." The player said, "I’m the best there is. I averaged 45 points per game. I was the best rebounder in my high school. And I led our team to 3 undefeated seasons and 3 state championships."
The recruiter said, "That’s incredible. "Tell me," he said, "Do you have any weaknesses?"
He said, “Well, just one. I do have a tendency to exaggerate.” The truth is we all have weaknesses. That may be a difficult thing for some of us to admit. For example, I have heard that 90% of men rank themselves above average in athletic ability. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have our weaknesses.
Some of our weaknesses are physical, some are mental, some are moral. Some of those weaknesses have to do with our work, some with our family life, some with our relationship with Christ. Some of us, for example, have short tempers, others of us lack diplomacy. Some of us are too proud, others of us lack back-bone. We’ve all got our weaknesses.
And one of the truths that we have to come to grips with is that the church is full of weak Christians. Here’s a brother who misses worship services for reasons we know aren’t right. Here’s a brother who doesn’t give as he ought to because there are too many things he wants to buy to enjoy life. Here’s a sister who struggles with drinking or swearing. Here’s a brother who doesn’t understand this Bible doctrine the same way we do.
Yes, the church is filled with weak Christians. And just when you get to the point when you start admiring that strong Christian, you really look up to him, he lets you down, too. You find out that he has some weaknesses also. So what are we going to do about those in the church who are weak? What should be our relationship with the weak members of the body?
We need to begin with the recognition that all of us are weak. Now there are some members of the body who are rightly called "strong" and those who are called "weak". It’s legitimate language because it’s biblical language. But there’s no person in the body who isn’t weak! "Weak" and "strong" are relative terms. They’re never used in the New Testament to teach that there are some Christians who are weak all the way through and some who are strong all the way through.
Rather, we’re all weak and strong in certain areas of Christian living. The word "strong" simply means that we’ve brought our behavior into line with that of Jesus Christ. The word "weak" means that we haven’t yet attained that goal. It’s important to note that not all sin can be categorized as weakness. If I’ve stopped trying to grow, to mature, to live for Christ, that’s not weakness, that’s unfaithfulness and that’s another matter altogether.
But we all recognize that as we strive to live the Christian life, there are some areas where it’s more difficult to be what we should. I may be strong in moral purity but weak in controlling my tongue. I may be strong in faithful attendance but weak in giving as I ought to. Time and time again, we have experienced moments when the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak (Matt. 26:41). And hopefully, by the grace of God, as I grow and mature as a Christian, I become stronger in more and more areas.
But there are no strong Christians who don’t have some weaknesses. Even the very strong are still far below the standard Christ set for us. We see it over and over again in the biblical record. Think of the shortcomings of Noah, Abraham, David, Elijah, Peter, Paul, even Barnabas. We see it in the strong disciples around us. Strong men and women who have trouble with a critical spirit, or a seeking for prominence, or arrogance or some such thing.
Let’s begin with the confession that we are all mutually weak, that we all need to pray the prayer of David in Psalm 6:2, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak.” Yes, some of us are weaker than others but none of us is without weakness. So, with that thought in mind, what should be our relationship to those who are weak? And I think to best answer that question, we should begin by looking to see how God feels about the weak.
I. How Does God Feel About the Weak?
Romans 5:6 assures us that God loves the weak. Paul says, "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." When did Christ die for us? It was while we were without strength, when we were weak.
How does God view weakness? Moral and spiritual weakness, I mean. Words like “weak” and “weakness” occur about 87 times in the New Testament. In all those passages, there is not one word of condemnation in a single mention of weakness. Now it’s not something that’s extolled, but it’s not condemned. Perhaps the best word to use is that God tolerates weakness. He strives to free us from weakness and bring us to maturity. But he doesn’t view weakness as intolerable.
Now, a refusal to move toward maturity is rebellion and God is against rebellion without reservation. Weakness doesn’t mean impenitence or being callously wicked. It means being without strength. And if God is against the weak, then he is against us all.
In Isaiah 42:1-4, Isaiah prophesied about someone whom God upholds and in whom he is delighted to the very depths of his soul. That person is Jesus Christ. This passage is quoted in Matthew 12. The prophet Isaiah says regarding Jesus, "A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench." (Matthew 12:20).
What exactly does that mean? Let me explain. The reeds of that day grew up to ten or fifteen feet tall. They weren’t flimsy, but were fairly strong. They were often cut off at the base and used as a measuring stick or as a walking staff. But if a reed happened to have a bruise on it, it was weak and it wasn’t any good so you would just break it up and throw it away.
And how does Jesus view the "bruised reeds", the weak people? Isaiah says that he doesn’t break them. Knowing how fragile they are, he loves them. He spends time with them. He identifies with their weakness. He challenges them to higher things. But he doesn’t break them.
And what about the smoking flax? In those days, homes were lit by lamps made from a bowl full of oil with a strip of flex placed in it for a wick. But when the oil burned low, the flax began to smoke. It was very irritating to have the smoke fill the house. The natural to do, and the simplest, was to just reach over and snuff out the flax. Poof! One more dead wick! No more smoky irritation. All perfectly understandable. Perfectly human.
But what about Christ? Isaiah says he doesn’t quench the smoking flax. He endures the irritation as he works to replenish the supply of oil. He leans over, carefully pouring fresh oil into the bowl. Not too quickly! The wick must not be smothered but kept alive. So he gently blows, trying to get the spark back to full flame. It’s a beautiful picture of how God deals with those who are weak.
God tolerates weakness. He doesn’t commend it. But neither does he condemn it. God tries to bring the weak to strength, that’s his goal for all of us, but he loves us even while we’re still weak. He won’t give up on us and break us or "poof" us out.
God sent Jesus Christ to this earth to show us how he wants us to live. He says to us, "Follow his example. Let your attitude be like his." So we try and we try and we keep on failing. And just when we would expect him to turn his back on us and walk away, he stretches out his hand and says, "Let me help you up again." That’s what grace is all about.
Jesus is committed to the weak. He went to the cross for them. He has worked with bruised reeds and smoking wicks from the beginning. Think about the apostles for a moment. They were anything but strong. First there was that cursing and bragging sailor -- Peter. You never quite knew what to expect when Peter opened his mouth. He talked first and thought later. It was he who swore three times that he didn’t even know Jesus.
Then there were the brothers James and John who were known as the "sons of thunder" because of their temper. They wanted to call down fire from heaven on a town for rejecting them. Day after day, they heard Jesus talk to them about humility. Then they had the audacity to ask Jesus for places of authority when he set up his kingdom in Jerusalem. And then all twelve of the apostles got in an argument over it.
They were all so immature. They just couldn’t understand. Jesus kept talking about a spiritual kingdom and they kept thinking about a physical kingdom. Jesus kept talking about serving and humility and they kept thinking about positions of authority.
All of them were bruised reeds and smoking wicks that Jesus loved in spite of their weaknesses. There’s one thing that really stands out to me as I study the ministry of Jesus. He never got angry with his apostles. Never once did he lose his temper because they were weak. We can hear the disappointment in his voice when he said, "O ye, of little faith." And we can almost feel the look he gave to Peter after his denial. A look of disappointment, a look of sadness. But Jesus was patient and understanding of the weaknesses of these humans.
God isn’t naive. He knew about Peter’s loud mouth and his coming denials even before Peter was selected as an apostle. He knew that the apostles would scatter in the night when Jesus was arrested. He accepted the pain that all of them would bring to him. And he put his faith in them before they let him down; he put his faith in them during the pain that their weakness brought him, and he maintained his trust until their wavering days were over. God loves the weak. And he tolerates their weakness as they grow toward maturity.
II. How Should We Feel About the Weak?
There’s a Peanuts cartoon where Lucy is writing and spelling out loud as she writes, “D-e-e-r.” Charlie Brown interrupts her. He says, “That should be “D-e-a-r. In the salutation of a letter, the proper word and spelling of that word is d-e-a-r.”
Lucy goes back to writing, speaking as she goes, “Deer are beautiful animals found in most parts of the world.”
Charlie Brown is embarrassed and says, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were writing about deer. I’m sorry, I apologize.”
Lucy says, “Well, I should hope so! It seems to me that a lot of problems in the world are caused by people who criticize other people before they know what they’re talking about.” She glares while Charlie walks off. Then she looks at what she has written, crumples the page, throws it away, and starts writing again, “Dear Julia….”
The truth is, those of us who are weak in certain areas are generally afraid to share our weaknesses with other Christians. You know it’s true. There are temptations that we struggle with and problems that we’re having that we’re afraid to talk about because we don’t think anyone would understand. Sharing our problem with someone else would be taking a risk. We don’t want to be criticized. We don’t want to be looked down upon. So we keep it inside. And we put on this mask that says, "I’ve got it all together. I’m not having any problems. Everything’s fine." And the result is that other Christians around us don’t feel comfortable sharing their weaknesses with us.
Let me give you an example. A man comes to Christ out of a really horrible moral background. His life is filled with a lot of trash that he renounces in the name of Jesus Christ. But as much as he hates it, some of it still clings to him. His strong fellow-disciples have their lives well in line with what Christ wants. And he wants to be like them, to be mature and blameless in conduct.
So he struggles along and with great perseverance shows some progress. His strong brothers and sisters commend him. But he also falls on his face fairly often and the strong Christians are embarrassed by him. The strong, who appear to have no failings, make it hard for him to make mistakes and when he makes them without their knowledge, he has no desire at all to share them. Confession becomes an excruciatingly painful thing.
He is too ashamed now to openly confess his sin and too afraid of being discovered by the "strong" who might think him a hypocrite. So what happens is that he quits coming to worship services. When the "strong" come to restore him, he makes up a lot of excuses, but he’s still too ashamed to confess his problem because he knows how the "strong" will react.
What exactly are the strong Christians in the church doing besides looking down at those who haven’t yet come so far? Listen, I know we’d rather that our brothers and sisters have no weaknesses! But that isn’t how it is. What we wish for and what the actual state of affairs is are two different things. Let me ask you this: Would you rather that the weak kept their pain and anguish in, or that they go to someone stronger to find the help they need in overcoming their sin?
Those who are stronger have a responsibility to those who are weak. Strength isn’t given to the strong so they can strut. In I Corinthians 12, Paul is talking about different gifts that they had in the church. He said, "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all." (I Corinthians 12:7). God strengthens people so they can support those who are weak. In areas where you are strong and I am weak, I can turn to you and find the help I need. In areas where I am strong and you are weak, I can do the same for you.
Romans 15:1-2 -- "We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples [weaknesses] of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification."
I Thessalonians 5:14 -- "Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all."
In I Corinthians 8-10, Paul talks about how the congregation should treat those who were weak. It seems there were some Christians at Corinth who had been converted from heathenism who didn’t know the truth about eating meats which had been offered to idols. The heathen temples sold their meat in the markets and people bought them there. Some new Christians were afraid to eat meat which had been offered to idols. Paul made it clear it was perfectly all right to eat the meat unless it caused someone to stumble.
I Corinthians 8:8-9,12 -- "But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.......But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ."
Imagine two Christians invited to the home of an unbeliever to eat meat with him. The "strong" Christian eats the meat. But the second Christian is weak, so he wants to know where the meat came from. It was bought in the market from the temple. He says, "I can’t eat it." And what does the "strong" Christian do? He tells him how stupid he is and keeps on eating. So the weak brother sits in embarrassment and may end up eating and defiling his conscience.
That "strong" Christian may know the nature of an idol but he doesn’t know the nature of the Master. If Jesus had been there, he would have refused to eat without upbraiding him. He too would have risked being laughed at by others.
I Corinthians 9:22 -- "To the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."
In Galatians 6:1, Paul said, "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness." The word for "trespass" here means "an open offence". It’s not just a tiny little slip. Paul is talking about somebody who’s been caught red-handed in a deliberate violation of God’s law. The same word is used in Romans 5 and I Timothy 2 to refer to Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden.
But if that sin is accompanied by a sense of sorrow and penitence, Paul says we are to help the weak even if he has deliberately sinned against God. We are to restore the weak. The word "restore" was often used of mending nets and of setting bones. We need to sit down with the weak and help them unravel the knots and help them put the pieces back together again.
But what are we doing? When a Christian comes back after forsaking the assembly for years and wants to be restored, what are we doing to be of help to him? Are we making an effort to help him feel comfortable again? Do we invite him over for dinner to get to know him better? Or are we content to shake his hand, say "God bless you" and then leave him to struggle on his own? What are those of us who are strong doing?
Those who are strong have a responsibility to help the weak in their areas of weakness. Let me suggest briefly three things that I think we can do to try to accomplish that goal.
First, we can confess our own struggles with sin. We can help the weak to understand that we have weaknesses too. We’re not perfect and we all depend on the grace of God.
How young are we, do you suppose, when we begin to cover up our mistakes or to pretend that we don’t need help and that everything is under our control? I suppose most of us are strugglers pretending to have it all together -- closet failures hiding behind the masks of correct speech and external success, bitterly disappointed with ourselves but talking as though things couldn’t be better.
It’s difficult to confess failure when we think everyone else is successful. How can we admit to weakness in areas where everyone else is strong? We make it hard for everyone around us to lay down the burden of perfection when we act as though we don’t have any struggles..
Second, we can promote a closeness among the members. It’s much easier to open up to somebody who is close to you, someone who knows your background. You can’t just walk up to a stranger and say, "I’m struggling with the temptation to commit adultery." We need to develop a closeness in the body where we can comfortably share our struggles, our temptations, our weaknesses and thereby gain strength from each other.
Third, we need to be careful in our teaching as we condemn sin by letting the sinner know that he’s not the enemy. When the prodigal son came home in Luke 15, he was met by his father and his elder brother. They both knew he had sinned but they responded differently. The brother said, "Look at the wickedness and the sin he has committed." The father said, "Look how that sin has almost destroyed my beloved son." We say "hate the sin and love the sinner". Yes, we should denounce sin as sin. But the weak brother or sister is not the enemy.
If you’re struggling with weakness in your life this morning, I urge you to look to the one who can provide all strength.
