“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,”
~ Romans 14:17
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you have engrained religious norms that you know that if you do not live by that God is going to be really angry with you? What have you internalized as an absolute that you must do – such as eating only fish on Fridays, or as an absolute that you never do – such as fishing on Sundays? If you were a Catholic faith adherent, you would eat only fish on Fridays. Your grandpaa’s dad and ma would never fish on a Sunday. To let manmade religious rules govern what a guy, gal or kid eats, a manmade religious day dictate what a guy, gal or kid is not do and manmade expectations drive a guy, gal or kid away from enjoying God’s incredible creation, does not please God. In the letter that Paul couriered to the Christ-follower community of guys and gals who were living in the city of Rome, Paul begins with a clear, compelling apologetic against a law’s demands and for a justified faith. Paul ends his letter to the Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals who were living in the city of Rome with specific, firm admonitions how a guy or gal is to live as a Christ-follower. Romans 14 has Paul debating the issue of what is okay for a guy or gal to eat and what was not okay for a guy or gal to eat. Paul begins his argument with a premise that there will invariably be some Christ-follower guys and gals who will have a weak faith. Paul sums up his thesis that there will invariably be some Christ-follower guys and gals who will be okay with eating meat – plus anything and everything else, and that there will be other Christ-follower guys and gals who will be convinced that they are to only eat vegetables. Paul tells the Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in the city of Rome that a guy or gal who eats everything is never to judge a guy or gal who only eats vegetables – as judging another guy or gal is not his or her responsibility to do. Paul identifies faith as being the driver for a guy or gal in the new belief paradigm – which has as its core underpinning the death of an incarnate guy on a cross that supplanted an ineffective worship paradigm that was law driven and sacrifice centered, to make the decision that a guy or gal will ultimately make regarding whether or not it is okay to eat anything and everything or only eating vegetables.
Paul’s concern was that no matter what position a Christ-follower guy or gal took that his or her position was totally centered on God and not on self. Some guys and gals cannot escape the insidious clutches of a job that gives him or her position, power and prestige resulting in the guy and gal investing one more hour at his or her job – and then another hour at his or her job – and then . . . because he or she has acquiesced to his or her job filling his or her carnal desires for recognition. Some guys and gals cannot escape the subtle niggling to explore what his or her micro world offers him or her – a world that tells a guy or gal that drugs, illicitness and taking is what will fill a nagging hunger that has the guy or gal searching for the answer that he or she thinks that he or she will find if . . . Paul’s encouragement to the Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals who were living in the city of Rome was that they give thanks to God for what He had done through Himself – as God the Son. Paul’s caution to the guys and gals in the Christ-follower fellowship in the city of Rome was that not one guy or gal had the right to be a stumbling block or an obstacle in the life of a fellow Christ-follower guy or gal. Paul then wrote in his letter that if he knew that if a guy or gal would be offended by his eating something that he or she thought was not okay to eat, that he would intentionally not eat that food. It was Paul’s desire that all Christ-follower guys and gals do things and live lives that will lead to a shared peace and a mutual edification.
What is your understanding of what the universal church or the kingdom of God or the body of Christ is? The universal church or the kingdom of God or the body of Christ is a growing, united community of Christ-follower guys, gals and kids who are living on planet Earth. Paul wrote in verse 17, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,” Laws, regulations and sacrifices are not the drivers of the universal church, the kingdom of God or the body of Christ. When your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn went to Bolivia to join the South America Mission field missionary team, your grandpaa could have told the guys and gals who played volleyball behind the Alto San Pedro Church every Sunday afternoon that they were violating a holy day mandate – which your grandpaa had his dad and ma enforce in his life, that it was wrong to play sports on Sunday. If your grandpaa had made the decision when he first arrived in Bolivia to follow through on what his dad and ma had communicated to him that it was wrong to do, your grandpaa would have sent a message to the Christ-follower guys and gals who lived in Bolivia that what they were doing by playing with a ball versus resting was desecrating a holy day and doing something wrong. Your grandpaa does not want to say that what his dad and ma taught him was not right; your grandpaa knows that he would have been wrong of him to tell Christ-follower guys and gals in Bolivia that what they were doing when they played volleyball was wrong. Your grandpaa’s dad and ma also did not believe that it was right for a Christ-follower guy or gal to go to a restaurant to eat on a Sunday. When your grandpaa was told that the South America Mission field team missionaries met at noon on Sundays at a favorite restaurant, he, your grandmaa, dad and Aunt Lynn joined the field team missionaries at the restaurant. Your grandpaa could have told the other South America Mission field team missionaries that he did not believe that it was okay to eat in a restaurant on a Sunday as . . . God’s grace will always point to the right decision.
Romans 14 (738)