Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: Romans 14 and Psalm 110

Are our disagreements loving, or do we just love disagreements?

Romans 14 addresses the unloving way in which some early Christians in Rome were allowing “disputable matters” to cause division among themselves.

God’s Word remains clear on many, many matters, but it seems that each generation finds points of application on which to differ fervently – especially in regard to the things that are less important to the Lord.

For the Christians in Rome these matters arose from the application of Old Testament dietary and ceremonial laws. For some early Christians, it seemed utterly ungodly to live among pagan people and eat meat bought from the public market, because the possibility existed that such meat had been used in pagan sacrifices before ending up at the market. It also seemed vitally important to some that the Old Testament festival days and holy days be recognised as strict days of rest and remembrance by all Christians.

In most contexts the issues are very different, but almost every Christian community will have some or other matter on which we think differently than one another or than other Christian communities. In some contexts it is our choice of worship style, our style of music, our style of dress for worship, our opinion on whether to worship on Saturday or Sunday, whether tattoos can ever be acceptable, whether baptism can only ever be by immersion or whether sprinkling is also an effective form.

Romans 14 does not forbid us to have an opinion or a preference on these matters. But any attitude or behaviour that is contrary to love is not appropriate. It teaches us to make up our minds firmly on every matter, but not to quarrel with, despise, hurtfully condemn and reject one another because we come to differing conclusions. Instead we should continue to accept and respect one another and give one another the freedom to live in step with what our consciences demand of us. All the while, we should diligently pursue righteousness, peace and joy in our communities, through the power of the Holy Spirit, living in such a way as not to intentionally offend the sensibilities of others.

That’s quite a mouthful, but its an important application of the principle of love!

Life application: Check your heart today for any self-righteous superiority to other disciples of Jesus. Repent of it and humbly extent love and honour even to those with whom you disagree strongly.