In the Roman church, there was catastrophic division, primarily between Jews and Gentiles, as they interacted with each other in the daily worship of the Lord.  In Divine providence, God gave them Paul who, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gave them the Scriptures in order to guide them through the division, to bring unity.  In His divine wisdom, God gave them biblical principles that would govern their interaction with each other and would help them view life through the lens of Scripture.  We, too, must allow these principles to govern our interactions with each other in our daily worship of the Lord.

A clear example of a key principle, loving our neighbor, is found in Matthew 22:39, “...You shall love your neighbor as yourself”.  This principle guides us to act with kindness, compassion and selflessness towards others.  Following the great dissertation given by Paul regarding justification by faith alone (Romans 1-11), Paul begins to expand on the practical implications of justification instructing the church “...to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (12:1b).  This is done through service to God with the gifts that have been given (12:3-8), in ways for living the normal Christian life (12:9-20) and submitting to all God-given authoritative structures placed in our lives (13:1-7); however, the true fulfillment of the law, as was found in Matthew 22:39, is repeated here by Paul, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (13:9-10), the principle of love. 

Love begins within the fellowship, which, similar to a marriage, presents the most difficulty because the fellowship is among the people who know each other the best, with those who know our faults and shortcomings.  Additionally, people enter into fellowship with expectations regarding how believers should live and worship.  As these expectations are unmet, we arrive at division like that in the church at Rome: division over matters of opinion, nonessential matters, divisions hindering spiritual growth, hindering the Gospel which is meant to be represented by a united church thus, proving the existence of God.  Today, the church divides over similar matters of opinion.

As various categories of opinions are identified and discussed, God, through Paul, begins to show us principles associated with our viewing of these matters and applications for us to follow, principles to help us navigate our Christian liberty.  In Romans 14:1, we began with the principle of acceptance.  In Romans 14:2-4, we moved to the principle of honor.  Last week, in Romans 14:5-9, we addressed the principle of persuasion, living fully convinced in the way we live the life that we do.

Today, in Romans 14:10-12, we begin to focus on the principle of accountability: every person is accountable to God.  Because this accountability is one of the facets of Divine judgment, our tendency is to overlook or seek to avoid it.  In Divine judgment we find an area of discomfort, an area that seems contradictory to the Christian life, to the reality of our salvation yet, it is an area we must learn to navigate: we are saved by grace but, we will be judged by works.  We will be accountable to God for what we have done in our Christian walk.  

Regarding this accountability before God, perhaps it is one of the most overlooked teachings in evangelicalism.  This common weakness in churches stems from a misunderstanding of grace, through which we are saved and united in Christ, which many take to believe we are exempt from a future judgment.  Scripture teaches this is simply not true.  The principle of accountability, specifically in areas of opinion, should equip, prepare and grant us great comfort to stand before Christ in judgment.  The desire in the teaching is to guide us to that place of comfort and peace.

1. Principle of Accountability  (v10-12)

a. Remember Relationship (v10a)

In any situation, disagreement or position, we must keep in mind the fundamental truth that believers are related as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Remembering this truth will begin to turn the rudder of our attitude.  In twice mentioning “brother” (v10), Paul is appealing to the emotions of the heart.  While a family may have disagreements and difficulties, the family is never truly divided.  Neither can the family of God be truly divided. 

Paul’s use of the term “brothers” carries with it many implications for the church then and now.  One such implication is that all believers were purchased by the blood of Christ and belong to Him.  All are in the family of God and all are the Lord’s!  As we look to Hebrews 2:10-13, we see how we became the Lord’s:

“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their (all believers!) salvation perfect through suffering (Christ’s obedience - imputed).  For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one (Father).  That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers: in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”  And again, “I will put my trust in him.”  And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”

Christ came to earth and humbled Himself, lived obediently, died on the cross, rose on the third day.  Christ purchased the lives of all believers through that process, through the completion of these actions.  By grace through faith the Father gives these lives to Christ.  To His Son, God has given a people.  Let us take notice that Christ only refers to believers as “brothers” after the resurrection because only then are they united in Christ, only then is Christ’s righteousness imputed to them, only then He calls them “brothers”.

In addition to belonging to the Lord, believers are also called out of the world by God.  Let us strive to understand this cosmic view of salvation.

“But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:26-29).

Then, later in John 17:6, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word”.

Before the creation of the world, Christ, of the trinitarian Godhead, understood He was going to come to earth, that He was going to take on human flesh, sacrifice Himself, as He lived, in the way in which He was treated, in the way in which He was persecuted, the way in which the God of the universe humbled Himself to the point of being born through natural childbirth.  Then, the sacrifice that was made, separation from God for a time, resurrection from the dead.  As He comes to earth, He gives the message to His disciples that, “...(He) is the way, and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  Faith must be placed in Christ, in His work.  He is the only way! 

With this message, Christ gave His disciples instruction to take this message into the world, with the encouraging words that they would do greater works than He, the disciples ministering in a large sphere.  As the message (the Gospel)  goes out, people respond by faith.  As we read in the above passages of John, Christ sees who the Father already had and is bringing to the Son.  Knowing these are the ones the Father has given to Him, Christ receives them as a gift into the fold.  In this, we begin to see the love relationship that exists between the Father and the Son.

Christ is beginning to see in a different way the beauty of His own sacrifice and the appreciation God has for that sacrifice by causing there to be a harvest for it.  We see in Ephesians that those whom Christ has received are going to be given back to the Father in this cosmic ceremony with Christ and His bride before the Father.  

Through this whole process, we see in Ephesians 3 the manifold wisdom of God being revealed to the people in the heavenly places right now.  This is what happens as someone hears the Gospel, repents of his sins and is saved.  As we think about this, we wonder how are they led?  “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).  As we see them being led, as we see the mind of God as we see the sacrifice of Christ, as we see how Christ is receiving them, how He is giving them back to the Father, how the Spirit is working through all of it, we begin to understand the beauty of the love of the trinitarian Godhead.  As we come to salvation and begin to know God, we see that we are woven into the very fabric of this tapestry through our union with Christ and with each other.

What a beautiful, glorious, majestic, cosmic level understanding of salvation!  It is this level of understanding that Paul sees and the very reason he uses the word “brothers”.  He wants the same understanding for us because it must shape the way we see other believers, the people within our fellowship.  Christ personally purchased each believer.  One by one, God imputed Christ’s righteousness to them, imparted His Spirit, washed and regenerated them, adopted them, had His Spirit testify within them that they are His and He is theirs.  One by one, they are received by the Son, given to the Father in a holy cosmic ceremony.  One by one, they are testifying to the manifold wisdom of God.

In the midst of our frustrations over petty opinions, can we not remember that we share with one another a very unique relationship with God?  We must remember with God there are no black sheep in His family.  He loves no one child more than another.  It should never come to our minds to question how God can love a particular believer.  Every aspect of this cosmic salvation is true for them and for you!  The Good Shepherd has carefully looked over them and carefully and lovingly lets them into God’s fold.  He lays at the gate giving His life for them, as He has for you.  We must remember that we cannot become a believer without becoming a child of God and that if we are a child of God then, we are brothers and sisters in Christ.  Perhaps obvious, this is a fundamental truth with which we must begin to live the principle of accountability.

What should siblings within a family do with regards to a disputable matter?  What should we do as we remember our familial relationship?  First, we need to keep a brotherly spirit.  In saying, “Why do you judge…why do you despise” (v10), Paul wants us to keep mercy central in the relationship.  Mercy is what we express when we are led by God to be compassionate in our attitudes, words and actions.  It is more than feeling sympathy, the feeling of pity without action, toward someone; it is love enacted.  It is a desire to answer the immediate needs of others, a desire to alleviate suffering, loneliness and grief.  Wrapped up in mercy for another is both kindness, a readiness to do good all the time, and forgiveness, the action where we pardon another’s wrong, sourced in a reflection and understanding of the forgiveness God has granted us.  Mercy will be present as we are able to remember from what (and by Whom!) we have been saved, from what we have been forgiven.

In saying, “Why do you judge…why do you despise your brother” (v10), Paul, as he has been doing, addresses the siblings, first the weak (who will  always have a tendency to judge) and then, the strong (who will always have a tendency to despise).  In this context, judging is making a moral evaluation or passing a judicial verdict on another believer’s actions, particularly regarding disputable matters, and condemning them within your heart.  This form of judgment, which is judgment in a way in which you have no authority to judge, is wrong.

As we examine Matthew 7, we glean some of the characteristics of a judgmental person.  First, we see him as self-righteous, seeing himself as morally superior to others.  His judgment is often very harsh.  As we examine v2, we see that he holds others to standards he himself struggles to meet.  One who is self-righteous, judging harshly will also display the second characteristic of having unfair (double) standards, implicitly found within the same verse, being harsh on others yet lenient upon himself.  Third, the judgmental person is  hypocritical, quick to point out the faults of others while minimizing his own sins (v3), and also in Romans 2:1.  He majors on the minors in the lives of others, while overlooking the major issues within his own.  Fourth, he lacks self-examination (v5).  He does not reflect upon his own behavior and is oblivious to the log in his own eye..  Fifth, he has an unmerciful attitude, lacking kindness, lacking forgiveness, lacking an awareness of the extraordinary mercy and grace that God has showered upon him.                          

In Romans 14:10, we see that all believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ therefore, mercy towards others must be on display in our lives.  When we stand in judgment, Matthew 7:2 reminds us we are going to be judged in the manner in which we have judged.  Believers who live with an unforgiving attitude often carry great guilt, a form of judgment allowed by God because they are not forgiving the people around them.  How we “love our neighbor” has direct implications as to how God interfaces with us in our daily lives.  There must be mercy!  There must be a desire to set aside our personal frustrations and to shower our brothers (and sisters) with mercy, not judgment.

Moving now to the strong, “...you, why do you despise your brother?”  Note that for the strong, there is greater accountability, greater judgment when he stands before the throne.  Effectively, Paul is saying “why do you, being more mature, act this way with your brother?  Why do you regard him with contempt?  Why do you despise him?  Why do you look down on him?”  To have contempt for or to despise someone conveys a much stronger emotional response than mere judgment, as it involves an intense sense of superiority, pride and the absolute opposite of humility.  It devalues the person, seeing them as less or unworthy.

There are three main characteristics of the person who treats others with disdain/contempt: they lack compassion, withhold forgiveness and are unkind.  The end result is the very place as that of the weaker brother: an unmerciful attitude.  If you find mercy lacking in your life, then you need to go before God and ask Him to identify where you may be lacking compassion, lacking forgiveness or unkindness.  Remembering our relationships with fellow believers will help ground us and assist in keeping mercy central.

Finally, we need to stay focused on the goal, which is unity.  The goal of every relationship is always unity.  It is what God offers us by reconciling us to Himself through Christ, ultimately bringing us back to unity.  Perfect unity is what is shared by the Trinity.  Unity was the prayer of Christ in John 17.  Being reconciled to God, we have unity with Christ that is never broken.  Unity cannot be upheld in a relationship that is focused on what is right and wrong.  Unity can only be found in a relationship focused on understanding each other because it is understanding one another that brings a matter to conclusion.  An understanding that leads to a conclusion brings unity back to the relationship.  Paul exhorts the Philippians to this unity in saying, “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:2-4). 

In applying this principle of accountability, we are remembering that we need to hold our relationships in high regard, without any judgment or disdain.  As we keep our relationships in high regard, we understand the mercy that has been granted to us and what God did to purchase every believer.  After we have our minds with a correct view of the relationship, what should siblings logically do when they have a dispute within the family?  They should take it to the Father and defer to His judgment, which we will examine next week.

As we close, let us keep in our minds the picture of our salvation in Christ and the understanding of what He has done for us, which should truly change the way in which we view everyone around us.  If you do not have this picture in your mind or if you do not have a correct view of others around you then, maybe you do not have a relationship with Christ, maybe you have never professed faith in Him, which means you have never experienced the love God has for the Son.  If this is true of you, choose now to go before God in repentance and faith.

For those of us who have truly professed faith in Christ, we are accountable to God in applying that mercy to the people around us and in putting away silly opinions and things that are not Gospel-related so that, we can be united in Christ, represent the Godhead well in our unity and be able to faithfully proclaim it.  Then, we will be able to experience the relationship God wants the church to experience, the reason He calls us a “fellowship of believers”.  May we uniformly unite in our hearts and in our minds!

Selah

• As you consider your brothers or sisters in Christ to be your “neighbor”, is the principle of love, “loving your neighbor as yourself” being fulfilled in your daily living and worship for the Lord?

• As you prayerfully seek unity within the body of believers at Southside, has the Lord revealed to you any relationship that requires mercy you have not given?  If so, will you now choose to obediently act with forgiveness, kindness and compassion?

• As you consider the principle of (your) accountability (to God), how comfortable are you in your preparations to stand before Christ in His judgment?