>> Jen: Hello there, Faith listener. You've tuned in to season seven of the Bible explained podcast. So make sure to grab your cup of coffee, because today we are going to be discussing the book of Romans. Howdy and good morning, Faith. A listener welcome to the Bible explained podcast. For those of you who don't understand why I call you all faithful listeners, it's because you're not faithfully listening to me or to this podcast. It's because you are faithfully
listening to scripture. So that is why I, coined that little slogan, which, by the way, I heard somebody else, a, different podcast, use it recently, and I just want to say I did it first. But that being said, I don't know if somebody did it before me. Also, I'm sure there's a podcast out there that is older than mine that calls people faithful listeners. Okay, let's read Romans 1413 to the end of the chapter, verse 26. This is a continuation of what we talked about on Thursday.
The entire chapter is addressing christians and how they should be treating each other, especially since in Paul's day his churches were very mixed with both jewish people and, gentile people. So that would have caused a whole lot of issues inside of the church. So Paul is going to address that in today's portion. So let's read Romans 14 1326, the version that you prefer. But I will be reading from the web.
Therefore, let's not judge one another anymore, but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling block in his brother's way or an occasion for falling. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean of itself, except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don't destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Then don't let your good be slandered.
For God's kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then lets follow after things which make for peace and things by which we may build one another up. Dont overthrow gods, work for foods sake. All things indeed are clean. However, it is evil for that man who creates a
stumbling block by eating. It is good not to eat meat, drink wine, or do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn't judge himself in that which he approves, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats because it isn't of faith, and
whatever is not of faith is sin. Now, m to him who is able to establish you, according to my good news and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret through long ages, but is now revealed, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known for obedience of faith to all the nations, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.
So this entire chapter is Paul appealing to people who are stronger in the faith and how stronger christians need to accept weaker christians into the faith community. And especially these stronger christians should not be judging these weaker christians over things that just don't matter, over things that are personal preference. And Paul gave a few examples, actually, of. Of what a weaker Christian might look like.
For example, in Paul's time period, a weaker Christian might be somebody who does not want to eat meat because the meat might not be kosher, or they don't know where it came from, or if it touched something that was unclean before it made it to the dinner table, or if maybe this meat was at one point sacrificed to idols. These weaker christians might not want to eat that particular meat.
Or it could be that one Christian wants to celebrate the Sabbath day on a specific day, every single week at a very specific time, whereas another Christian wants to just celebrate the Sabbath day on any day that they want, and they think that God made every single day. So it doesn't matter when you celebrate the Sabbath
day. So Paul is just talking about christians who are just a little bit more legalistic, and how other, christians who are less legalistic need to accept the christians that are a little bit more legalistic because they're still learning, how to live in the freedom that God has given them. So that is what we discussed on Thursday. But there was a lot more nuances than that. So listen to that episode if you haven't gotten a chance yet.
But now, in verses 13 through 21, Paul is once again appealing to the stronger Christian. He says, therefore, let's not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother's way or an occasion for falling. I know, and I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus, or rather in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself, except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him, it is
unclean. Now, you might ask, is this a contradiction of scripture, because the Old Testament law specifically states that there are some foods that are unclean that people just shouldn't eat. So is what Paul's saying here a contradiction to the Old Testament law? No, and here's why. Because the Old Testament law was specifically given to people to show them what a sinner they are. That was the entire purpose of the Old Testament law until Jesus came and fulfilled it.
So if the Old Testament law was showing people that they were sinners, that means that no matter how much unclean foods that they avoided, it still didn't matter because they were still unclean. They were still sinning, they were still becoming unclean all the time. And so Jesus, in Mark, chapter seven, I believe it was, which I forgot to turn over there. So let me, find it real quick. Mark seven,
one eight, says. So he said to them, are you also without understanding, like them, are you not aware that nothing from the outside that enters into a man can defile him, since it enters not into his heart, but into his stomach, and it passes out into the sewer? Thus, he declared all foods clean. And that is Jesus speaking. He was talking about, it's the heart that actually makes people
unclean. And so Jesus, by saying that, declared the foods to be clean, because it does not matter what somebody eats, they are still unclean. But back in Jesus day, you know, they believed very strongly that if they ate a, certain food or if they didn't wash their hands the right way or something like that, that they would become unclean. And Jesus is like, no, you're already unclean because your hearts are wicked, you are sinners. And that was the entire point
of the Old Testament law. That was the entire point was to show people that they are unclean. No matter what ceremonial laws they tried to follow about hand washing and, not eating pork or shrimp or something like that, no matter what they tried to do, they were still unclean. So then Jesus came and fulfilled the Old Testament law. He made it complete. We are now washed clean because of him, not because of what we're following or not following
in the Old Testament law. And because of that, foods have become clean due to Jesus's sacrifice. And that's basically what Paul says here. He says, I am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean of itself, except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him, it is unclean. So this brings in a point that I've often made on the podcast about the three different types of Old Testament law. So there was the ceremonial laws,
there was the morality laws. And there is also the judicial or civil laws. So the ceremonial laws would be all the ones about, you know, unclean foods or how the priests were supposed to do what in the temple or anything that involved ceremonies, like years of jubilee or any kind of festival that would take place in the jewish calendar. Those were the ceremonial laws. The judicial laws would be anything that had to do with the government or how the government is supposed to function.
And then the morality laws are the Old Testament laws that I deeply believe that we are still supposed to follow to this day, which are the Ten Commandments and other morality laws that are strewn throughout the old testament laws. We are still supposed to follow those morality laws to this day because the morality laws have all been repeated in the New Testament of things that
we should be doing. For example, in romans 13, how many things did Paul mention in romans 13 where he said christians should be doing all of these different things? And you could tie pretty much all of those back to the Ten Commandments. But we are not bound by the ceremonial or the judicial laws of the Old Testament any longer. But the morality laws are laws about how individual people should be acting towards their fellow neighbor, which is why we still follow those
to this day. You might be like, well, Jen, what does this have to do with eating pork or any other unclean foods? Well, even though typically the foods in the Old Testament law would be considered ceremonial, laws that we are no longer bound to, certain individuals in the christian faith believe that they should still hold to those ceremonial laws.
So let's just say that a certain Christian truly believes that it is a sin to eat any kind of pork or bacon or shrimp or, crab legs or whatever else that would be considered unclean in the Old Testament law. This person is like, no, I'm not going to eat those foods. Well, now Paul is saying, even though we are no longer bound by the ceremonial eating laws of the Old Testament, that particular person is bound to them because he or she decided that it was important to not eat those
foods. It was important to their morality and their christian faith to not eat those foods. So in a way, that ceremonial law became a morality law for them. So if it's a morality law, they should be following it. That's kind of how I describe it. I hope that makes sense to people. So Paul says that nothing is unclean of itself, except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean, meaning because that person decided that pork was unclean to them,
they should not eat it. Is a sin. If they eat it, then yes, to them, pork truly is unclean, and it should be that way. They should not eat it. Yet if because of food, your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in
love. So this means that if you're going around, you know, eating whatever you want in front of people, and, you know, you absolutely know that they are, not eating pork or something like that, and you invite them over to your house and you cook up a whole thing of bacon for them and expect them to eat it and, like, get irritated because you think they should be eating bacon. Paul is saying that if you force something like that on another Christian, you're no longer walking in love,
which is true. It is not loving to force somebody or expect somebody or tease or get angry at another person just because they don't want to eat pork or bacon or something like that. Paul describes this. Don't destroy with your food him for whom Christ died, then don't let your good be slandered. For God's kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. So Paul is basically saying, you know, food is not really what matters. Jesus actually said
something like this in the sermon on the mount. He was talking about worry and anxiety to everybody who was listening to him, and he said, don't you know that your father already knows what you need? Isn't life about more than food and clothing? And that's what Paul is saying here. Life is about more than food or clothing. So don't let your food cause somebody else to stumble, if that makes sense. And honestly, this could be applied to many other things other than food as well. Maybe, um,
for example, drinking alcohol. I know that there are Christians who just don't want to drink. They think that it is wrong to drink alcohol. But there are other people who enjoy having a glass of wine and who enjoy fellowshiping and having beverages while they're fellowshiping with people. Don't get angry at the person who does not want to drink because you think that that is silly or something. Paul
says life is just m about more than that. The christian church should be unified, for he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let's follow after things which make for peace and things by which we may build one another up. Don't overthrow God's good work for food's sake. Now, here's another thing about all of this. You might be like, well, what is this? Why is Paul being so obsessed with food
in this chapter. Well, because think about the time period he was writing to think about how gentiles lived back in these days, and think about how the jewish people lived. The jewish people still held to the Old Testament laws, whereas the Gentiles did not. The Gentiles ate whatever they wanted to eat, the Jews didn't. And so there's probably a lot of infighting and a lot of struggle in the churches where there was a partial jewish and gentile, uh, uh, congregation.
So I'm sure Paul was dealing with this particular topic all the time. And so he's telling the gentiles, don't get angry at the jewish people because they don't want to eat your specific foods. Don't get angry about it. But also, you gentiles, you're not wrong to want to eat those foods, so eat them. But let the jewish people refrain from eating because they think that that is right to do so. Let's stop infighting about all of this and instead let's find peace together.
So that's why Paul is really honing in on this topic of food, because it was so prevalent in his day and age. All things indeed are clean. However, it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating. It is good to not eat meat, to drink wine, or do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak. So if you know that somebody is struggling in a specific way and you just decide, oh, well,
you know what? I'm just gonna drink my wine in front of them and eat my bacon in front of them, and they can just suck it, Paul is saying, no, it is not good to do that because you are the stronger Christian. Be considerate of other christians sensitivities. Now, I should mention here that Paul is talking to christians in this chapter. This is not Paul talking about christians, uh, and non Christians. I should mention, Paul's talking to christians
dealing with other christians. Verse 22, do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn't judge himself in that which he approves. Now, first and foremost, Paul is not talking about blatant sin in this passage. He's not saying, oh, well, if you think it's right to go out and cheat on your wife and you decide that that's good to do according to God, then you're happy. You're a happy person for, um, not judging yourself in doing those things. That is not what Paul is
saying here. Paul always says, turn away from sin. But when it comes to other things that are listed in the Old Testament laws, ceremonially, not morally. For example, uh, eating pork, getting a tattoo, drinking wine, whatever it might be. If that person believes in his heart that he has freedom in Christ and he is not sinning by breaking one of the morality laws of the Old Testament, then, Paul says that person is happy because he's not judging himself in the thing that he approves
of. However, there's a caveat to this. Paul says that the person who does disapprove of these things is not acting out of faith. He says he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn't of faith, and whatever is not of faith is sin. So the person who, you know, maybe thinks, you know what, it's wrong for me to go out and get a tattoo, but then sees some cute pictures of tattoos and all their friends are going out and getting tattoos or something, and then starts
to, you know, doubt it, and it's like, you know what? Instead, I will go get a tattoo. Even though I kind of think it's wrong, it would still be kind of fun to go get a tattoo. If that's the case, that person is sinning, which is why I cannot go get a tattoo, because I was raised with the belief that tattoos are wrong. And so because of that, I still have that inside me, that tattoos are wrong, at least wrong for me to get. So I am not
going to go get a tattoo. However, my best friend, who doesn't have that belief and who is a very strong christian herself, she went out and she got a tattoo because she said, you know what? I have freedom in Christ. I am going to go out and get this tattoo. And I don't believe it was a sin for her to go out and get that tattoo. But for me, like, if I had a gone with her and gotten a tattoo myself, I would have been sinning by getting that particular
tattoo. That's just an example. You can use this passage of scripture for many different areas of life, whether it's eating, drinking, tattoos, whatever it might be, according to the Old Testament, or even sometimes the New Testament. I know some ladies who think that they should cover their hair when they pray or prophesy, because that is what the New Testament says to do. But I know other women, like myself, I don't cover my hair when I pray or
prophesy. We'll get into that, portion of scripture later on about hair covering. Anyway, to finish up here, Paul kind of gives a nice little
exhortation. He says now to him, who is able to establish you, according to my good news and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept secret through the long ages, but is now revealed, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal goddess, is made known for obedience of faith to all the nations, to the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.
Okay, faithful listeners. So I did not end with me explaining what Paul means in the end of this portion that we read today, and that's because I think Paul did a really good job of explaining it himself. And, it was a really good place just to end because it was meant to be the ending of Romans chapter 14. So I figured, you know what? Scripture's words better than mine, I'm just gonna end it there. I hope you guys liked today's episode. On Thursday, we will be talking about Romans chapter 15,
so stay tuned for that. We're only in the book of Romans for another couple chapters. Let me see how many we got left here. We only have. Yeah, we only have, um, 1516 left. And then we'll be moving into first corinthians very, very shortly here. I want to say in two weeks, we'll be in first corinthians. Let me double check that. I think we'll be in. Yep, we'll be in first corinthians starting the 15th, so that's coming up very, very quickly. Anyway, guys, I will see
you all on Thursday. Or also I hope to see you guys tomorrow as we discuss the Old Testament and David coming back into Jerusalem after being basically banned by, um, his own people. Have a fantastic rest of your day, faithful listener, happy listening, and God bless.