Not Every Thing is Black and White!

Proverbs 22; Proverbs 23; Proverbs 24; Romans 14
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Scripture

Romans 14

1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2 One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
16 Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

Observation

How judgmental are you? Do you look down on some believers because they may have a practice that you think is wrong? In Paul’s day eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols was considered wrong by some Christians, but considered just fine by others. Paul didn’t have a problem with it, but if he was around some believers that did have a problem with eating this meat then Paul didn’t do it. There are some areas in the Bible that are not black and white, but are grey. For some today it may be going to a movie theater, or a dance, or playing pool, or cards, or drinking a beer or a glass of wine. Going to a movie theater is not such a big deal anymore, yet in today’s sex crazed culture it really should be and dances for the most part aren’t too big of a deal either. Drinking a beer or a glass of wine would be an issue like Paul is talking about in Romans 14. I don’t drink beer or wine and I don’t think it is a good idea for anyone to start, but if another believer drinks a beer or a glass of wine then I am not to judge him or look down on him. If he or she drinks the beer or wine in front of someone that believes this habit is wrong and offensive (maybe a recovering alcoholic) and they do it knowing that the person has an issue with the drinking of alcohol then their drinking becomes sin because they have become a stumbling block. When we served as missionaries to North Africa and had joint meetings with all the other Great Commission Christian Organizations that worked in our area we Southern Baptist were the only ones that did not drink wine with their meal. All the other Christian leaders got a good laugh at our abstinence and thought our belief about drinking wine was ridiculous, but then they didn’t live in a country or come from a country that was destroying itself on drugs and alcohol. And yes, drunkenness is a sin no matter where you live, but then so is gluttony! Somehow we in the North American church don’t see gluttony as an issue…do we!

Application

I will be concerned more about the log in my eye and less concerned about the speck in someone else’s.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we are a faultfinding people and it is so easy for us to criticize other believers. Lord, you know that I have enough defects of my own to work on that I don’t need to start pointing out everyone else’s problems. Help me to be tolerant of people in those grey areas of life. Help me not be so judgmental today. Help me to see and focus on the good things in people’s lives and not their weaknesses or their character defects.

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