Romans 14:23

Romans 14:23

Romans 14:23 says, "And he that doubts is damned if he eat, because he does not do it with faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." "Damned" in this verse means condemned. In other words, you will end up condemning yourself if you do things that you are not sure that God wants you to do. Earlier in Romans Chapter 14, we were told the importance of having a clear conscience, and that no Christian should ever do anything that violates their conscience. If they do, they should quickly ask the Lord to forgive them. But not only should you not do something that directly violates your conscience, you also should not do things that you are not clear about. If you are not sure if you should do a certain thing, then do not do it.

Remember that we are supposed to be living a life of faith, and whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Faith refers to having confidence in God, and confidence that the direction that you are going and the things that you are doing please God. If you are not sure if you should do something or not, it is better to wait a week or a month or a year, until you are sure. Maybe you haven’t prayed about it enough or maybe you haven’t waited long enough for God to make it clear to you. Do not get ahead of God, and do not do things out of your own will, because whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Romans 15:1-2 says, "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let everyone please his neighbor for his good to edification."

Unity among believers in Jesus is obviously very important to God. When we stand before Jesus to be judged of the things done in our lives, one of the things that some Christians will be the most ashamed of is; the divisions between them that separated them when they did not have to be separated. In most of the cases if the Christians had understood Romans Chapter 14 and been able to put it into practice, they would not have separated from each other. After salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, the second most important thing may very well be the unity and cooperation of believers. It is a theme that you find repeated everywhere in the New Testament.

When you think about the other Christians that you are around or that you know of in the world, do not think of their errors and do not criticize them. Rather think about what they are trying to accomplish for the Lord, and then what you can do or say to help them better accomplish it. Do not try to tear them down, try to build them up. That is what Romans 15:2 means when it says, "Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification." "Edification" is building someone up.

The great example that we have for this kind of self-less motivation is the Lord Jesus Himself. Paul quotes from Psalm Chapter 69 and interprets for us and makes it clear that this Psalm is a prophesy about Jesus, and Paul says in Romans 15:3, "For even Christ pleased not himself: but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached you fell on me." We try to do things the way that Jesus did them because we love Him. He is not only our Savior; He is also our example. He suffered the agony of death for all of us. We should therefore be willing and able to suffer at least something for these other believers for whom Jesus died.

Romans 15:4 says, "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." Three wonderful things are mentioned here that are more valuable than money: patience, comfort, and hope. Any human who has these three things will be equipped for life. Patience, comfort, and hope. Any human who does not have these three things will suffer horribly in life, no matter what else they have.

In Romans 15:3 Paul had quoted from the Old Testament Psalms about Jesus Christ, and what Jesus did for us in taking our sins upon Him. That is what it is all about. If you believe in Jesus, you have everything that is important in regards to spiritual things. You have forgiveness of sins, you have a home in heaven, you have a relationship with the all-powerful and eternal God, and much more. You will learn about these things through the scriptures. There is no place else to learn them: only in the scriptures. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God." Second Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." No person’s education is complete if they do not understand and think about the Word of God. Your life will not be what it can be unless you read, hear, understand, and think about the Word of God.

We need patience, comfort, and hope; and according to Romans 15:4 we can obtain them through the scriptures. Why do we need patience? Human beings by nature are not very patient. Something that is worthwhile is worth waiting for, but there too often seems to be something in us that pushes us to rush ahead, and to reach out for something when it is not the right time for it. Many sins have been committed simply because of a lack of patience. You will miss out on some important things in life, if you do not have the patience to wait for them. Impatience is tied closely to selfishness. A selfish person will be an impatient person. We will learn patience from the scriptures because the scriptures teach us to give up ourselves and to follow God. If you are impatient, it may be evidence that you are not believing in the power of God to work His will in His own time. The scriptures teach us that God loves His children, that He guides them and that He is involved in the daily activities of their lives. The scriptures will remind you of these things and therefore will help you to have patience.

Romans 15:4 also says that we will get comfort from the scriptures. We need to be comforted because there will be negative things that will happen to us. We will have enemies, because Jesus said that the servant is not greater than his Lord. Some of the enemies may be very close to us with a capacity to hurt us a great deal. Jesus said, "A man’s enemies will be those of his own household." We will have sorrows because death and disease are all around us. When the negative things do not happen to us, they seem to happen to our loved ones, and then we suffer with them. Jesus said, "In the world you shall have tribulation." But He also said, "Be of good cheer, because I have overcome the world." No matter how great is the cross that you must bear, you can be comforted by God through the scriptures. God has promised to take care of you, He has promised to be with you, and He has promised to make all things work out for good. There is a comfort that comes from thinking about the promises of God, a comfort that you can get nowhere else.

If you have patience because you are surrendered to God and because you wait upon Him, and if you are comforted by God because you think about His promises, then you can also have hope. Hope is a positive attitude about the future. The hope of the Christian centers around the return of Christ, the establishment of the Kingdom of God, and the glorious transformation of all the believers in which there will be no more death, no more sorrow, and no tears. The enemies of God will be finally and forever vanquished, and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. If you believe in Jesus, no matter what happens to you in this life, you have a marvelous future that awaits you because God forever has His arms held out to you and one day He will receive you unto Himself.

Romans 15:5-6 says; "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. That you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." The patience and consolation that only God can give is needed for Christian unity. Without patience, you will not be able to wait for God to work in someone’s heart. Without patience, you will demand that others see things your way now, and then your lack of patience will be a primary reason for the divisions between you and other believers.

Romans 15:7 says, "Wherefore receive you one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God." In Romans 14:1 we were told to make sure that we receive those that are weak in the faith, and now we are told to make sure that we receive all other believers. The one issue is this: are they a believer in Jesus or not? The question should not be: what is their denominational background? The question should not be: what is their system of theology? If they are a believer in Jesus, they should be received on an equal basis as all other believers in Jesus. We are not followers of men: we are followers of God. Because God receives people based upon their belief in Jesus, we should receive them for the same reason.

Do you wish to glorify God? Then you must receive other believers in Jesus. There is a strange doctrine that has been spread among some Christian groups in the last 50 years in America that they call the doctrine of separation, in which they try to justify a strange and arrogant separation from brothers and sisters in Christ. Because of their separation, they violate the admonitions to Christian unity that are given here in Romans Chapters 14 and 15 and many other places in the New Testament.

One of the problems is the failure to understand the parable of the tares and the wheat that Jesus taught us. Jesus said that in a field the tares and the wheat will grow together until the harvest. At the harvest is when the separation takes place. It is God who will separate the tares from the wheat, and He will not do it until the final harvest. Even in the group of twelve that Jesus had, one had a devil. When believers think that they are going to create a new group and make it better by separating from the old group, what usually happens is that the new group has some of the same problems. The parable of the wheat and the tares is in effect for both groups. Whatever group you are in, you are not compromising just because some are present who do not agree with you, as long as you do not compromise your message. If people are present who do not agree with you on one or more points, they may benefit from your teachings. If you compromise the principle of the unity of believers, you will cause divisions and you will weaken the testimony of the body of Christ.

Romans 15:8-9 says, "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to you among the Gentiles, and sing unto your name."

Jesus was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God. Jesus was circumcised according to the law of the Jews. He was a Jew, and Jesus fulfilled the law in our place. Jesus is the only one who has ever fulfilled all the requirements of the law. Those who trust in Jesus are given the truth of God as a free gift. And all the promises of God that have been declared over the centuries also become the possession of the believers in Jesus. Circumcision was a cutting away of the flesh, and was therefore symbolic of the removing of sin and of a life that is dedicated to avoiding sin. In order to avoid the consequences of sin, you must have the forgiveness of sins that comes from Christ Jesus.

According to Romans 15:9, it had been God’s plan all along that the truth would spread from the Jews to the rest of the world. The religion of the Jews came from God, but God did not want the truths about Himself that He revealed to the Jews to remain only with them. The truth was supposed to spread from the Jews to the rest of the world. This purpose became fulfilled through Jesus. If God had it His way, everyone would believe in Jesus and would be united in their common faith whether Jew or Gentile. Paul quotes from the Psalms, from Deuteronomy, and from Isaiah to make his point.

Romans 15:10-12 says, "And again he says, Rejoice you Gentiles, with his people. And again, Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; and laud him, all you people. And again, Isaiah said, There shall be a root out of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust." There are two groups of people mentioned here: the Jews and the Gentiles. God sent Jesus into the world to die for the sins of the world: the entire world. It is the desire of God that every Jew would believe on Jesus and that every Gentile would believe on Jesus. And then that the believers would all be joined to glorify God for the great salvation that He gave them.

As in other matters, many humans have refused or misunderstood the will of God. For the most part, except for the apostles and some of the other early Christians and a few Jewish people over the centuries, the Jews have not believed in Jesus their Messiah. It is still as it was when Jesus looked out over the city of Jerusalem and said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not." The Jews have failed to respond to the invitation of God, but the Gentiles have also failed. Most of the Gentiles have not come to Jesus either. Too many have turned their ears away from the truth of Jesus, and we can only pray that they do not die in that condition. Jesus said something that applies to both Jew and Gentile. He said, "What shall it profit a man should he gain the world but lose his own soul, or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" Many of those who have believed in Jesus over the centuries have also failed because of all the reasons that they have invented to separate from other believers in Jesus. There is strength in unity. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.

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