Posted in Bible Study, Romans

Session #17 – Romans 13-14

 

 

 

Romans 13-14 —
Living the Good Life

Paul knows it’s in our nature — we always want to be right.  That instinct is probably in all of us to one extent or another.  Different temperaments manifest this in different ways, but it’s always there ready to rise its selfish head.  “I have a right…” — “I don’t care what you think…” — “I hear what you’re saying but…”  In Romans 12, Paul lays down a platform from which we should live the Christian life.  As a New Creation in Christ, we are to live our life in Christ according to two criteria:  follow the Bible’s model for sacrifice in our own life, and be empowered and enabled for ministry by the Spirit’s gifts.

Paul is moving through his epistle from the foundation of our Great Salvation to now look at living a Christlike Life.  One of the interesting things we sometimes hear  from a person who has come to know Christ as Savior is “I thought you said everything would work out ok after I got saved.” We know that is a lack of good communication on our part and we can look together with the new Christian into the Bible to understand how God continues to work in our lives even through difficult times (Rom. 8:28; James 1:12).  So, here’s another mistaken perception:  “OK, I’m saved now, so I can just coast, do my own thing, and wait for the Rapture.”  Paul is making sure we don’t go far down that road.  We started with Rom. 12:1-2, “…present your body as a living sacrifice.”  Surrender to God, dedicate yourself to Him, be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and be a positive member of the body of Christ.  Now in Romans 13-14, Paul drills down another layer: Submission.  He wants us to see that the responsible Christian is going to demonstrate godly, humble character in daily life.

Romans 13 – Life in the Real World

Paul’s letter was going to the church in Rome.  These believers lived in a society that was hostile to their beliefs.  In 64AD, the city would burn as a conspiracy inspired by Emperor Nero, who had probably just come into power in 54AD, about two years before Paul wrote this letter.  The fire left 70 percent of the city in smoldering ruins.  In order to stage his false innocence, Nero spread the rumor that the fire was started by the Christians, which resulted in heightened hate and persecution, and many Christians fled the city.  The believers who received this letter lived in a government and society that was antagonistic to everything they stood for.  Paul knew that they needed to be encouraged about  how to honor God as Roman citizens.  Many Christians worldwide face similar circumstances today and we need to be praying for them.  We can also see influences in America that could extend into similar circumstances.  Paul answers the question, how should I live in the midst of an ungodly culture?

Romans 13:1-7 addresses how we are to live as a godly, Christ-honoring citizen in relation to our government.  Jesus told us to “render to Caesar what is due” (Matt. 22:21) — there are some other passages that also deal with responsibility to government, such as 1 Tim. 2:1-4; Tit. 3:1; 1 Pet. 2:13-14.  Many times we struggle with giving in to all the requirements of our government.  Whether it’s taxes or speed limits, we want to set our own parameters.  Paul guides us to consider our heart attitude and how that should impact our outward acts.  God has provided three institutions to guide our life:  Family, Church, and Civil Government.  While we are on Earth, we need to demonstrate godliness in all three.  It comes down to our heart attitude, it’s the right thing to do because our ultimate submission is to God.

Government is part of our life by God’s design.  Consider Daniel’s exemplary life under Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4:17-25, 34-35).  Rebelling against our civil authorities would amount to rebelling against God.  There are at least two good motivations for being a “good citizen”:  Positively, we contribute to maintaining order & peace in our society.  Negatively, we avoid incarceration!  When we look at our elected officials, we realize it’s sometimes hard to pray for them if we have issues with their lifestyle or their record.  But they are in a position that makes them a servant for God (v1) regardless of their private life.  This subjection requires the right heart attitude.  While they are in office, we regard them as such and pray earnestly for them.  When they go back into private life, that position changes, although we may still pray for them.  We need to be careful about “taking positions” — instead, stick with principles and Truth. Consider these texts which express God’s rule over the affairs of man:  Dan. 2:21; 4:17, 25; Prov. 21:1; Psa. 47:2; 1 Sam. 2:7-8; Job 5:11; Mal. 1:11.

Romans 13:8-14 looks at how we interact with our fellow citizens, our friends & neighbors.  Verses 8-10 remind us that loving one another, including those who don’t know Christ, sums up God’s Law, it is an overarching principle for the Christian.  Avoid doing anything that would harm our neighbor, physically or emotionally.  Then in verses 11-14, we are reminded of a special perspective we have as Christians:  “knowing the time”, living with the awareness that Christ is going to return at any moment.  That awareness should keep us being careful not to drift into apathy, lethargy and unresponsiveness to God.  We have to care that we are showing Christ to a lost world.

When Paul says we “know the time”, what time is he referring to?  In 2 Cor. 6:2, Paul quotes Isa. 49:8 to declare the “day of salvation” is here.  In Gal. 4:4, this is referred to as the “fullness of time”, expressing that everything that’s needed was now in place for Christ the Messiah to come — and He did!  While God has opened the opportunity to people to come to Him through Christ, this “eschatological” reference occurs as Paul is thinking in terms of what God has revealed for the “last days”, when the night ends and the day is near, as this world’s pursuit of Satan’s agenda ends with the return of Christ . We know that the Rapture of the Church will bring about the Tribulation, thus the “end of time” will have begun.  “The Day” is at hand, a soft reference to the cataclysmic Day of the Lord which will culminate in the Millenial Kingdom.  We are the ones who know this time table, and we need to not be lulled into sleep by the sinful world around us (Eph. 2:1-5) but rather cast off darkness and wear the armor of light (Eph. 6:10-18).  Paul challenges us to take our walk in Christ seriously.  We need to “put on Christ” in our neighborhood (James 1:22-25).  This is a call for personal renewal, allowing God to renew us as Paul described in Rom. 12:1-2.

Bible Study Journal

      • Consider how each of these verses applies to Rom. 13:12, “cast off the works of darkness”:  Eph. 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:7-8; 1 Pet. 2:9.
      • What do we need to do or not do to live “as in the day” (Rom. 13:13)?  How does Gal. 5:19-21 apply to this?
      • How does Eph. 4:24 and Col. 3:10 help to apply Rom. 13:14?
      • Remember… The additional Scripture references in these notes are an important part of your Bible Study.  Be sure to take time to look up these verses and make notes about how they relate to the passage we’re studying now.  Enjoy the riches of God’s Word!

Romans 14 – Real Christianity 

Romans 14:1-12, Don’t Judge Others

The body of Christ is composed of many millions of people that compose a vast number of differences related to culture and ethnicity, customs, traditions, beliefs and other factors.  It is remarkable to envision this mass of diverse people gathered from across the millenia before the throne of the Lamb (Rev. 4) singing “Worthy is the Lamb!”  It is good to know that we will be in harmony from then on into eternity.  Sometimes that harmony eludes us in our church life today.  We have to remind ourselves that we know we aren’t perfect and we need to grant that being the case for your brother or sister in church as well.  We will occasionally encounter someone that is not as “enlightened” as we are on a matter – or maybe the other way around.  Our commitment to Christ to walk as He walked (1 Jn. 2:6) must prevail, and Paul provides guidance now on that challenge.

We all know that certain things are just simply wrong, no discussion needed – e.g. adultery, drunkenness, murder.   But most people in the Early Church period are still coming out from cultures that worshipped idols in many ways, often including sacrificing idols.  The Early Church was surrounded in their cultures across the Roman Empire with idol worshipping religions.  As a result, it became known that the best meat markets in town were the ones around the corner from the local idolatry temples.  The problem was that this meat had been offered already to an idol.   Jews already believed that to eat such meat was forbidden because it was unclean.  Gentiles traditionally had no such qualms with eating the meat.  However, now Jews and Gentiles were both becoming Christ-followers and fellowshipping together in a local church.  They would often share meals together as part of their church fellowship.  Meat offered to idols quickly became a big point of contention.  The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) clearly stated that eating meat offered to idols was forbidden.  The Council set the tone for the basic unstanding of deference among believers.

Romans 14:1-4 focuses on those with “weak faith.”  Basically, this refers to the Jewish Christian who is struggling with letting go of past Jewish rites and prohibitions.  Add to that the weak Gentile Christian who had been steeped in idol worship, and was repulsed to engage with any item related to that tradition.  These believers had a sensitive conscience and weren’t ready to ignore the issue.  Paul tells us to receive one another because our purpose as members of the church is to build each other up.  None of us are going to be perfect.  The bigger issue can be when the more mature Christian takes a judgmental attitude towards the weaker one.  Paul, in Rom. 14:3 mentions to “despise” or “judge” a person – do we really want to do that to one another?  The key is that God has accepted each of us on equal terms – ALL we like sheep have gone astray.  Each of us are to be growing in Christ, so our expectation should be that if it really is God’s will that the person not “eat meat” (or drink, or dance, or play cards, or…) they will be growing in Christ too and will come to the place where they mature in desire not to partake in that wrong thing.  And we should honor them in that decision.

In Romans 14:5-9, Paul expresses the essence of a worshipping heart.  Whatever one holds as valuable and believes, it is God Who leads each believer along to choose how to worship Him in their life.  We are all following, worshipping, living for the Lord.  We all stand equally accountable to God (v7), not focused on ourselves but on Him.  For all of us, the overarching truth is that Christ died for us (v9), He will reign over us for eternity.

Then in Romans 14:10-12, Paul puts judging in its only proper context – we will be judged by Christ at His Judgment Seat (1 Cor. 3:12-15).   Interesting that Paul quotes Isa. 45:23 and 49:18 to emphasize the certainty of this event.  In the sequence of End Time events, we know this will happen in heaven after the Rapture, and likely before the end of Tribulation.  There is also mention of a “Marriage Supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:7-10) that seems to involve the raptured Church, and likely occurs before the end of the Tribulation.  At the Judgment Seat, for each of us as Christians, our worthiness as Christ-followers will be revealed and rewarded.  Each believer’s life of service will come under review under the Lord’s piercing scrutiny (Rev. 1:4) with some type of loss and/or reward (1 Cor. 4:5).  For each of us as Christians, this judgment should be our singular focus, there is no room for our judging one another.

Bible Study Journal

      • What can we learn further about the issue of eating meat offered to idols from 1 Cor. 8?
      • According to Rom. 14:4, why are we in no position to pass judgment on someone else?
      • From Rom. 14:3, which person is considered the weak believer?  Compare the attitudes of the two believers.

Romans 14:13-23, Don’t Cause Others to Stumble

In this last half of Romans 14, Paul extends the discussion of judging others to raise up the real problem:  When we negatively impact our Christian brothers, the negative results will happen, and it could be that if that believer hasn’t matured adequately, he might “stumble” – that is, knock into what you dropped in his path, and stumble or even fall to the ground. You have to ask yourself the question: Do you really want to have that kind of impact on people?

In Rom. 14:15, Paul brings us to terms with this:  If your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love, you are not modeling Christ.  You could potentially “destroy” the person because you insisted on your liberty.   Further in Rom. 14:17, we must not lose our commitment to God’s priority for our life — it’s not eating & drinking, it’s righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  You may be drifting in the wrong direction if you don’t make those priorities paramount in your life.  Verse 19, he expands this to say don’t tear down the work of God — don’t become a person who actually fights against the Church.  The principle as given in Rom. 14:21 is that if what you want to do and have the liberty to do will cause a brother to stumble, skip it, forget it, it’s not worth it.

Bible Study Journal

        • What does Paul mean in Rom. 14:14, that nothing in itself is unclean? What is the real problem Paul is concerned about?
        • Based on Romans 14, how would you respond to a Christian that says “unless people can prove 100% that this is sin, I’m going to do it”?
        • In what ways has Rom. 13-14 caused you to think that you need to adjust your attitudes and responses to people?