Romans 14-15

Read Romans 14-15.

            These chapters make the most sense if we assume that the key issue in Romans is the inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God. Chapter 14 shows a segment of the church that is struggling to understand how to live in relation to the law of Moses. Do we just give up Sabbath? Do we just give up kosher law? Newly acquired freedom can be intimidating. In college, my summer job had a bunch of men on work-release from the local prison. Many of them were recidivists (they had been imprisoned before). I talked to one—an older gentlemen—and he explained that “inside” you have three square meals a day and someone orders your day for you. After a while, you forget how to take care of yourself. Newly found freedom can be intimidating. So, Paul tells Gentile believers, who have no problem with this freedom, to exercise some patience with Jewish believers who have had dietary and Sabbath laws engrained in them from youth.

            But there’s a wider application at work here too. When my children were young, I had a conversation with them frequently, especially the older ones. When a younger sibling was being a challenge, I told them, “Big people take care of little people.” Or as Paul puts it to the Romans:

15 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. ² Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. ³ For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

We have a responsibility to our neighbors, to act for their good. And sometimes, oftentimes, that means curtailing our own freedom. When I was in grad school, I was around a lot of men from Baptist backgrounds. We’d go to supper, and I’d be very careful about whether or not I ordered a beer. A Lutheran understands he’s free to drink in moderation; a Baptist sees it differently. A little sensitivity on my part meant that I didn’t scandalize them by my behavior.

            In our present moment, it often feels like American Christians are more in tune to the world than to Romans 14-15. I hear plenty of Christians asserting their rights and their freedoms—which they certainly have both constitutionally and Biblically! What I don’t hear enough of is Christians talking about the necessity to love our neighbors and to do what is best for them. But Paul says that that kind of self-limiting behavior is exactly what grows of the Gospel—the Gospel that is about Christ “who did not please Himself.” May we be so Christ-like!

            You can read chapter 16 on your own tomorrow. It’s mostly a list of greetings, and while there’s some interesting things to comment on, I’ll be taking the day with my family. I hope these devotions have in some small way helped you through our days of isolation. I look forward to seeing you at church!