Which way does the toilet paper hang in your home?

Romans 14:1

"As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions..."

In your home, have you ever argued over 

which way the toilet paper roll should fall?..

Does the way the towels are folded create 

a squabble between brothers and sisters?..

Do you argue about squeezing the toothpaste 

tube in the middle or from the bottom?..

Just as family life presents unique challenges 

and adjustments in order for their to be ‘domestic 

tranquility’, so does life in a local church. While 

there will always be major challenges to orthodoxy 

concerning scriptural truth, there are other matters 

not so clear that present equal challenges to unity 

in the local church...

Here is The Problem: People of very different backgrounds, matters of conscience and 'non moral preferences' limiting their companionship with others whom they have inward doubts about regarding their practices...

Here is The Point: Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3) 


Maintaining unity among diversity. Receiving one another when we by nature find each other’s ways offensive. This is the idea of acceptance. It says nothing of being received into fellowship or 'joining a church'...

So, before going into what this passage is saying about acceptance of one another, it is needful to write a little about the practice of reception into a local Christian assembly...

It is important to realize that the letter to the Romans is written to believers already in assembly fellowship so the context has nothing to do with receiving somebody into the local company of believers. 

The word for 'receive' is "proslambano". The Greek dictionary says that it literally means to “Receive fully to your companionship”...

Reception into a local assembly has only a few simple requirements for fellowship into a local company. The elders of a local assembly are responsible for interviewing a candidate for reception and making a recommendation before the whole assembly for reception based upon three main questions...

Are you saved? Is there a genuine conversion experience 

at a particular moment in your life's experience?..

Are you baptized since believing? Is there evidence of obedience and a changing life?..

Are you teachable?That is, do you accept the apostolic doctrine of scripture and are you willing to come into the privileges of assembly fellowship as well as it's accountability?..

Our local assembly is gathered to the Lord every Sunday, or Lord's Day to show His death and resurrection through a simple 'remembrance feast' or 'breaking of bread'. At this meeting, there is a distinction made between those who are in fellowship and those who are not. It is generally the only meeting that we set up chairs outside of the circle of believers in fellowship...

There is the purpose for separate seating. Calling it a 'back seat' is probably not the best choice of terms as this may seem to imply an inferior social position and this is not it's purpose in any way...

Instead, it is to allow believers unfamiliar with the local assembly, time to judge whether it is really of God and if they want to be a part of it. It is also for unbelievers to learn and observe what salvation is all about. (1 Corinthians 14:24)

In other words, the practice functions for the following reasons:

Saints need to be protected.    The seat of the unlearned.   
1 Cor 14:16

Sinners need to be informed.   The seat of unbelievers       
1 Cor 14:23

Sin needs to be judged             The separation from error.  
1 Cor 5:11-13

In addition to defining what receiving means, there needs to be some more terms in Romans 14 defined:..

Define 'weak': Those that have not fully grasped the liberty that exists and their conscience is offended by the practices that they were instructed in as children to avoid. This can take any manner of form...

Define 'strong: 'Those that understand the liberty that is found in Christ. They are strong in faith who are not hung up on days and observances, meats and drinks or clothing and conformity...

Define 'Sabbath':  The seventh day of the week. It is a Jewish observance...

While some Jewish Christians may continue to observe the Sabbath, The early church observed the Lord’s Day. The Lord’s Day is the first day of the week and the Sabbath is the seventh day.  The Sabbath that the church observes today is defined in Heb 4:10 as one who has “…ceased from  his works as God did from His.”

In Acts 20:7, we read of the disciples gathering on the first day of the week to break bread in remembrance of the Lord’s death and resurrection.

Our privilege is to honor the Lord in obedience by remembrance of His passion, but it is not in bondage that we observe it... 

We are neither saved by it's observance, nor do we lose our salvation by not observing it. .. 

Let’s consider a little about the scene existing 1^st century church in Rome:...

Both Jews and Gentiles are saved and gathered unto the Lord’s name. There are those who are strong in faith and those that are weak. Some Jews find their conscience defiled by a lack of ritual and what they may have considered a certain coarseness of language and familiarity with Deity...

Also, some pagan converts were possibly offended that the Christians employed music and foods to be things associated with their former ritual debauchery. It should be noted that many of our 'sacred' hymns employ tunes formerly used in the taverns and drinking halls...

These tunes have simply been redeemed for purposes of conveying scriptural truths rather than raucous and debauched practices. So, it is likely that new converts who heard these tunes associated them with their former lifestyle and some may be offended...

On the other hand 'strong' believers, both Jew and Gentile are no longer concerned about these matters. They have moved on and discovered their liberty in Christ to greater and greater degrees...

The strong in faith despise the weak who do not understand their liberty in Christ and cause others to walk around on eggshells so as not to offend them...

The weak despise the strong for being so offensive in what they practice or fail to observe.

 

Neither the strong nor the weak are walking in love. They are each intent on their own agenda and insisting on their own comfort zone. So, what is the result?

Divisions, cliques, schisms, sectarianism...

The pertinent question: “Who are you to judge another man's house servant?” That is we are all servants in the same house under the same Master. In these matters, we are accountable to the Master only...

Essential principles in this passage for avoiding division:

(Adapted from Pastor John MacArthur)

1. Receive one another with understanding vv 1-12

2. Build up one another without offending 13-23

3. Please one another as Christ did. 15:1-7

4. Rejoice with one another in God's plan. 15:8-13

Receive one another with understanding vv 1-12

Ceremony, ritual and routine are not to be despised, nor are they to be insisted upon...

Being 'Kosher':  On one hand were the Jews who are steeped in the traditions of special diets and special days...

·    No compromise as did Daniel and companions.

·   Peter struggled with this as is described in Acts 15. Paul' rebukes Peter's hypocrisy in Acts 15:35. Peter feared the Jews response and denied the liberties that  Peter was expressly given from the Lord. Acts 10:15

·   In Gal 2, Paul explains his actions as trying to avert a division based on ethnicity and culture rather than on saved and unsaved.

·   We have today what is known as the black church, the white church, the Korean church and on and on it goes…

·   It is the habit of people to coalesce around a certain set of practices or cultural values and only associate themselves with like-minded believers...

On the other hand there were the Gentile believers whose lives revolved around pagan festivals: Saturnalia (Christmas time); Easter (Astarte fertility rites), etc. They were steeped in traditions of debauchery and licentiousness. Certain practices of believers who were strong in their liberty offended these coming out of paganism...

In 1 Cor 8, Paul deals with the problem of idols and things attached to their worship. He makes four arguments for properly responding to this...

1. Everybody has knowledge but Love rules. Don’t force your knowledge on someone, but instead force yourself to love them. (Love is a choice, not just an emotion)

2.  Idols are nothing but conscience is something.

·   The weak have not come to believe in their freedoms.

·   Conscience is offended and defiled by meats offered unto idols.

·   Conscience responds to what we know.

3.  Food is no issue with God anyway. 
     “Food does not commend us to God”.

·   Eating meat offered to idols does not make us any better or any worse as far as our relationship to God is concerned...

·   We are not made more spiritual by what we eat or do not eat.

4. Take heed that our knowledge and liberty does not become a stumbling block to someone else’s conscience.  When that happens, love is not exercised and divisions result. It is a sin against the brother and therefore a sin against Christ Himself...

Summary:

·  The weak believer is one who does not understand their liberty in Christ. He or she does not believe that they are as free as they are. They are in bondage to externals and traditions...

·  The strong believer is not bound by such but understands the liberty with which Christ has made them free. Christian freedom is not the freedom to do wrong or live for yourself. It is the freedom to let Christ live through you in whatever manner that He chooses. It is freedom from externals, rituals and even preferences...

·   Each of us will give an account of himself (not each other) before God. While we are obligated to judge sin, but we are not judges of other believer’s habits, practices or preferences...

·   Romans 14:4 contains a precious truth: Regardless of how we may be judged unfairly by our brethren, it is God who will make us to stand, not bow or kneel or run away in fear…but to stand before Him in confidence of what we are in Christ...

So rather than condemning each other for the way the toilet paper hangs, Let us commend each other for even bothering to change it...