In our country, we watched as criminal acts against our nation, our government and our police went unpunished.  We saw a foreign flag raised and our own flag burned, our police dragged through the streets with no consequences.  In the upcoming election, the variations in the candidates are no longer found in moral issues but rather in the differing views of America.  As believers, how are we to think about this?  What should we expect?  How should we respond?

We clearly know and see the world heading in a specific direction made clear as our Lord was openly mocked at a sporting event the world says is centered on unity and peace.   We ask, how is it that religion is brought into this?  From Romans 1 and 2, it is impossible to keep religion out of it because it is who we are as humanity: what we think about God is always reflected in what we do.  “...Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires” (2 Peter 3:3).   Scripture is clear as to what we see unfolding therefore, we need not be ignorant or scared but rather we need to have sober minds and understand how we should be responding as believers, as a church.  We need to embrace and understand the reality that we are on the threshold of a new era moving from post-Christian to anti-Christian.  In these unprecedented times, the church must stand firm and exemplify unity through the love of Christ.  This is the call of the church.

In looking at today’s text, by God’s providence, the focus is church unity, for which God, our Commander-in-Chief, through five directives, places the burden on the backs of the strong believers.  As we look at the responsibility of the strong to bring unity to the bride of Christ, understand it is a mission-critical command!  We need to be attentive, alert, thinking biblically and leaning on the Spirit.  As our world is changing, God has a call upon us that we need to answer and the only way we are going to be able to effectively answer that call is if we understand what the Word is calling us to so that we can correctly apply it to our lives, honoring God and giving majesty to His name and representing the church with the platform He has given us for the gospel.  This comes from the unity of the church, unity being our beacon of hope to a lost and dying world.  To this we are called and God declares it will prove to the world who He is.

While there is understanding and application for the weak, the thrust of the directives is for the strong.  As we navigate through them, remember that a unified church is a powerful testimony to the world, especially during times of societal degradation and unprecedented challenges.  Our world needs to see the  strength and unity of the church as a beacon  of hope and truth.  These directives are the roadmap to ensure our church thrives in love, maturity, unity, standing firm in the face of adversity, ultimately proclaiming with one loud voice, Christ reigns!  This is what unity of the church accomplishes and this is the challenge we have before us today.

Directive 1 → Support the Weak (v1)

“We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak,....”  The strong are called to support the weak in every church, in every setting, to support and bear the burdens of those weaker in their faith.  The strong are being called out by God to do something specific for Him.  The word used for “strong” denotes powerful and capable.  In context, these are believers who are strong in the faith, strong in the truth of Scripture, strong in doctrine, those who have a clear picture of their freedoms found in Christ, strong in conscience informed by Scripture.

Note that Paul boldly aligns himself with the strong, positioning himself as a paradigm for other strong believers to emulate.  Effectively, “look at me as I follow Christ!”.  Regularly, Paul sets aside his rights for the sake of those around him.  “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.  I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.  I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings” (I Corinthians 9:22-23).

Why would Paul set aside his own preferences?  Why would he constantly sacrifice himself for the sake of those around him?  Because he understands what the Spirit impresses him to say next in that, "the strong have an obligation”, they “ought” to do this.  This is not a suggestion or recommendation, not something to take under advisement, as we think in the English language but a divine directive.  The word used carries with it the idea of being indebted to, or to owe another.  That debt is being called up and God’s command requires the strong to pay it.

What is the debt required to pay?  It is to, “bear with the failings of the weak”.  The thought means that there is a requirement to carry something that is heavy, to help carry the weight being carried.  It is the same word used by the Lord when He said, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27).  You cannot be a disciple of Christ, if you do not come under the cross, bearing its full weight and its implications.  If you cannot pick up the heavy load of the cross, if you cannot sacrifice, which is what the cross requires, if you cannot die to yourself, you cannot be His disciple.

This is the threshing floor of discipleship: if you are not willing to sacrifice every moment of every day for your entire life, you cannot be God’s disciple.  Our every thought, our every desire, our every whim must be given up in order to serve God.  “And (Jesus) said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’ ” (Luke 9:23).  The Christian life is all about carrying burdens, which include all of the burdens that come with the cross: all that Christ bore, all the burdens we individually bear, the burdens of others, the burdens of the church.  This is the Christian walk in that we bear burdens with one another!

In the context of Romans 15, Paul specifically speaks to the burdens which are the failings of the weak, which are their weaknesses i.e,. their scruples, ethics, opinions, consciences.  Note that there may be many burdens for which the strong must bear for the weak.  In this directive, the strong are challenged with perspective.  The problem with the weak is not the absence of a conscience or that they have a weak conscience but that they have a problem with the focus of their conscience.  The weak brother has tailored his conscience to his own opinions whereas, the strong has tailored his conscience to the truth of Scripture.  Both have a strong conscience however, one is misinformed (or uninformed) and one is well-informed with the Spirit of God and the truth of Scripture.

There are many reasons for the brother to be weaker in his faith.  Regardless of the reason, the weak are carrying a heavy burden in their conscience and the strong are to have the perspective to see those burdens and come alongside and help bear the load.  This is accomplished through patient endurance, longsuffering, holy restraint, nurturing the weak in the truth of Scripture, encouraging them in their walk and through loving them.  We are to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).  Also, as we find in Romans 13:8-10, we fulfill the law (of Christ) by loving others.  The implications of these truths being we are not to: avoid the failings of the weak; separate ourselves from the weak; isolate ourselves only with other strong believers; look upon the lives of the weak with a sense of superiority or pity; or, look upon the weak with contempt.

The reason the strong are to pick up the load of the weak is because the strong understand self-denial and are “...not to please themselves.”  This is simply the very heart of the gospel, as we have previously seen in Luke 9:23, and it IS our confession upon conversion: we commit to the Lord to no longer live for ourselves but to live for Him.  With this confession, self-denial becomes central to the Christian life.  

Those who have diligently studied Scripture, those who have been through various trials and have applied the truth of Scripture to their lives, understand this.  Their lives are no longer about what they want; their living shifts to what God needs.  Life is lived with a constant outward focus on the needs of others.  This is our goal, this is our aim.  The strong are to take up their cross, deny themselves, deny their own fleshly desires and recognize the comparatively weaker brother, using their strength to get up under the load of the weak and help him carry it.  In social settings, the strong should always choose the activity that makes the weak more comfortable and should not pressure the weak to conform to their preference.  In conflict resolution, always approach the situation with humility, with a willingness to understand the weaker brother’s perspective.  Seek resolutions that strengthen the relationship and his faith.

Directive 2 → Build Up the Weak (v2)

“Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” Here, God brings harmony into our fellowship.  Without this verse, the weak could potentially dominate the church and hinder its spiritual growth.  Through intentional discipleship, the church is guarded against immaturity and legalism.  Discipleship is a philosophy in which we live with a view towards building up the weak.  Also, note that Paul switches from calling them the weak to calling them our neighbor because he is drawing us to love, drawing on our affection for the people around us, to kindle an atmosphere of love found in a heart of discipleship; therefore, deny yourself and please your neighbor with the effect being for their good, for their spiritual benefit, their conformity to the image of Christ (Romans 8:28-29).  The view of the strong is progressing the maturity of the weak.

As the strong truly love their neighbor, God calls them neither to be habitually passive towards nor to indefinitely yield to the scruples of the weak brother but to exercise discretion.  Embedded within these commands for the strong is a prohibition from using manipulation by the weak to place the fellowship under bondage.  The weak have the responsibility to accept the edification given them by the strong with an expectation to mature and grow in their faith.  As the strong exhibit patience, discretion and love in their use of liberty, being mindful, acting intentionally in the utilization of their time nurturing and maturing the weaker believers, the weak will be brought to the point of being able to embrace their own freedom in Christ and to be released from their burden of legalism.

Directive 3 → Model Christ (v3) 

“For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.’ “  Quoting Psalm 69:9, Paul is pointing out that Christ is the ultimate example of the strong building up the weak.  No one is more free than Christ!  No one understands more fully what is and is not sin.  Christ did not come to earth to please Himself.  He came to rescue, help and build up the weak.  With zeal, having a burning passion for the glory of God, He came for you and me!  With that same zeal for God’s glory, He became the object of hatred.  The reproaches of man fell upon him, meaning that Christ embraced the mockery, He seized the defaming and ran headlong into the persecution.  He did not simply face humility in a differing opinion or preference but He embraced a very real hate that manifested in real torture, pain, insult, social ostracism and death.

With such zeal for God’s honor and glory, Christ denied the gall offered Him during His crucifixion (Matthew 27:34), which would have offered Him some relief from the pain.  He did this because His desire was to experience to the fullest capacity everything that was being accomplished in His greatest work, atoning for the sin of mankind.  There is NO greater picture of self-denial, sacrifice for another!  Remember this when you are having to endure some minor discomfort when dealing with the failings of another.  Remember Christ’s zeal for you!  To the point of death He resisted pleasing Himself.  Can you not yield in matters of preference and personal freedom?  Can we not commit to the building up of our brothers, our sisters?

We must seize the sins of the weak and allow them to fall upon us regardless of the cost.  Discipleship carries great cost but it is the Christian walk!  The desire in every relationship should be to love, serve and give.  As you grow in your love for the Lord, discipleship happens with great joy and ceases to be a burden.  Why did Christ say, “Foxes have holes but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”?  When it comes to discipleship, there is no public and private life; it is all for everyone else.  This is the emphasis of daily picking up your cross for the remainder of your life, of completely living for the glory of God.   You can live this way, you can model Christ because God says the strong can do it!  To this we are called.

Directive 4 → Embrace the Scriptures (v4-6)

To daily, consistently model Christ, we must draw our strength from the deep well of the Scriptures.  “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction….”  The Scriptures inform our zeal for God’s glory, instructing us and making us complete, equipping us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:15-16).  They produce endurance (perseverance), strength to accomplish our calling to discipleship.  To all believers, but most ardently to the strong,  is the imperative to study, study, study.  Be sanctified in truth (John 17:17).  We cannot obey what we do not know!  Maturity only comes to the life of the believer through diligent study and the application through obedience to the Word of God, that obedience being the essence of the gospel.

Next, we see the Scriptures offer comfort or encouragement as we are bearing up under the weaker brother.  As our hearts and minds are tempted to be unsettled in our relationships with the weak, God’s Word bears up under and strengthens us.  We find in Isaiah 26:3-4, “You (God) keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.  Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”  Our minds must be stayed on God, day in and day out, as we live our lives.    

Then, we see the Scriptures offer hope, the ability to face every day, all our relationships with confident expectation, eager anticipation that the weak will have the same hope as the strong, that the weak are going to grow in their maturity and in their freedoms, that our work will not be in vain.  We will have the energy necessary to fulfill the call to live like Christ, wisdom at just the right moment.

Why should we have this hope?  Because the Scriptures inform us that it is available, it is true, and the Spirit of God affirms it in us, leading to unity within the church, “to live in harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,....”  Reading the same Scriptures authored by the same God, we are moving towards having the same mind, having the same zeal for God’s glory (which is being in accord with Christ Jesus!).  As we minister to the weak, we can expect (have faith in!) the truth that God will produce the harmony He says it will produce.  We put ourselves in the midst of this and we trust the process.  It is God’s plan to share Himself with the world, flying in the face of the world’s mockery, guiding the church to be united, which He uses to demonstrate Himself to the world.  He will produce this unity for His name’s sake.

In unity, with God on our minds, it is only natural God is going to be on our tongues in “that together with one voice (we are to) glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  As we think back to the dispersion of the language (Genesis 11:6), by denying ourselves and filling our minds with the truth of God, we redeem babble.  As the men attempted to raise up a tower for themselves for their own glory, we raise up a church building united with a shared passion proclaiming with one voice our love for God.  Nothing will be impossible with God through Christ!   With a shared, unified zeal for God, the church will have one voice, one global language to give testimony to God.  The church is not a collection of individuals with divergent views on the work of God.  The church is a community of believers united in agreement and speaking with one voice having been discipled in the doctrine of God.  This IS the mission of the church!  This IS our response to the world!

Directive 5 → Welcome the Weak (v7)   

“Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”  With Romans 14:1 in mind, we come full circle.  Be one voice for God and clarity will be brought to the chaos.  Deny yourself for each other, ground yourself in the Scriptures, share the same passion and zeal for God, stand for Him and watch Rome fall and God continue!  Receive the weak. Show them great hospitality.  Befriend them, as Christ did for us, receiving us to the glory of God (John 15:13-15).  It glorified God to receive us in Christ and it glorifies Christ for us to receive others in His name.  We are to do this!

This is our testimony that we are to proclaim from the mountaintop: Christ is Lord of all!  This is the testimony that will stand in the face of our Lord’s public mockery.  This is what the world desperately needs!

Selah

• What are the areas where you need to be more sensitive to the weaknesses and convictions of others in our fellowship?

• What personal freedoms or preferences might you need to set aside to better support and encourage fellow believers in your sphere of influence?

• What burdens are present in your relationships that you need to actively engage in rather than ignore?