Romans 14

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, patient with the old, sympathetic with the striving, tolerant with the weak and the strong, because someday in life you will have been all of these.” George Washington Carver American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor

Romans 14:1 “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.” ESV

There are many reasons why a Christian might be weak. They may be a babe in Christ (babies are weak) They may be sick or diseased (by legalism) They may be malnourished (by lack of good teaching) They may lack exercise (needing exhortation)

“Judging our brother is inappropriate because these are matters of conscience not command.” Guzik

Romans 14:1-12, NIV “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ‎

“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.”

1Corinthians 9:22 “to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”

“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.”

“One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord.”

“He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.”

Colossians 2:16-17 “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”

v7 “For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. ‎ If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”

‎ v9 “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You then, why do you judge your brother?”

2Corinthians 5:15 “and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. ”

V10 “For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “ ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ ” ‎

Isaiah 45:23-25 “By Myself I have sworn; from My mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’

Romans 14:12 “So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

Bema Seat Judgment 1Corinthians 3:10-15 “ According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it,

“because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

Romans 14:13-15 “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way. I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself”

“but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.”

Romans 14:16 “Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil” NKJV “Therefore, do not let your good be slandered.” HCSB

Romans 14:17-19 “… for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

19 “Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.”

“They (we) should be characterized by lives of practical righteousness, by dispositions of peace and harmony, and by mind-sets of joy in the Holy Spirit.” William MacDonald

Galatians 5:13 “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

Romans 14:20-21 “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. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.”

Romans 14:22-23 “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. 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.”

Romans 14:22-23 “You may believe there’s nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right. ‎

23 “But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.”