The Weaker Brother Principle
RO171-01

Different Opinions among Christians

You and I know people within the circle of our Christian community who do things that we would never think of doing. They go to places we would never think of going. They have habits and ways of doing things that we recoil from. How should we respond to people like that? How should we associate with them? What should be our attitude in our relationships to them?

Non-Negotiables

Salvation by Grace Alone

The Deity of Christ

No Human Efforts Added to Salvation

Secondary Issues

Mutual Toleration

Drinking

However, when I find preachers who imbibe, that's no problem for me. That is their freedom in their own conviction from the Lord to do that. I don't think it's a good thing to do. So, I don't it. They think that it's a good thing to do, and they are free to do it. And the consequences of each position must be left with the Lord.

What is God Like?

When you remember that, then you are not so inclined to go around muscling and straightening out people yourself. Local church unity has been created by God the Holy Spirit, not by us. The Bible never calls upon us to create a unity within a congregation. It only says, "You be respectful of the unity which God the Holy Spirit has created, and you leave things with the Lord, eventually, to resolve. The carnal Christian whose views are not accepted, because he is carnal, will shove off from the congregation to do his own thing elsewhere. Consequently, he often leaves his right church; his right congregation; and, his right pastor-teacher, and forever after, he's floating out there in a secondary religious experience because he was incapable of leaving things with the Lord.

Personal Conduct vs. Theology

Live and Let Live; and, Mind you own Business

Mutual Toleration is the Key to Christian Unity

There is no Ill Will on your Part

Our practices are then governed by our stage of maturity; they are governed by our background; and, they are certainly governed by our natural temperament. But Christianity gives the believer great freedom in his personal choices, governed only by the moral code and the principles of doctrine. But as Christians, we have liberty in Christ. We have great personal freedom to make all the choices in the world. Some Christians try to bring other believers under their own arbitrary rules – rules which are based on their preference; their temperament; and, their personal persuasions, rather than that they are rules of Scripture. That's what we're talking about – not trying to force other people into a lifestyle that you believe is what is the way it should be. But you believe that, not because there is a scriptural basis, but because that is what you see as the implications of doctrine, and because this is what appeals to you.

Brothers in Christ Forever

Weak Christians

Weak in Bible Doctrine

We may translate this, therefore, as: "Now him who continues to be weak in the faith," because that's the way the Greek language reveals what this person is. He's not just weak, but this is his lifestyle to be spiritually weak. He just keeps on. He never gets any strength. Yet, here he is: sitting among us; moving among us; and, operating within the local church. He has opinions. He has viewpoints. He has ways of doing things. He has a lifestyle. And he affects the rest of us. And we must be related to him.

This is not referring, however, to the Christian who is a rebel under negative volition to doctrine. This is referring to a Christian who just is unsure of the full implications of God's grace in his conduct, because he doesn't know enough about the Word of God, and he's not committed to Scripture.

The person who is weak is the person who does not understand the freedoms that we have in Christ. This is the kind of person who is hanging onto empty and pointless religious rituals and traditions from his past, very often. The weak Christian is the one who absolutely would not think for one moment of not being in church on Christmas morning. And certainly he would not think for one moment of not being in church on Christmas Eve. He would be fearful of God, were he not to show up for such holy occasions. He is weak, and he is ritualistic, and he thinks that he's making it with God by these little procedures. It is characteristic of weak Christians to be hanging on to pointless, empty, ritualistic events. He is basing his beliefs and his practices on something other than the Bible. He is basing his beliefs on something that his parents taught him. And they taught that child because their parents taught them.

Every now and then, God, in His grace, grabs one of us who came out of a system like that, and for no reason at all, he raises in our minds that marvelous question: how do I know? What is the basis of my authority? And once that thought enters a young person's mind, and he makes the connection that "I know from Scripture," suddenly all of the traditions in which he was raised, and all of the opinions that were unfounded in Scripture just roll off of him, and he makes the breakout from weakness into biblical strength.

The weak Christian is hanging on to beliefs that have been passed on to him that have no connection whatsoever with Scripture. He is trying to gain God's favor by ascetic practices. He is the legalistic type of Christian. He believes that he can gain God's favor by things that he does do, or thinks that he does not do. He does not understand that he already has God's favor 100%. And all he has to do is to be grace-oriented, and enter all that God already is ready to do for him. Because he is not grace-oriented, he does not feel kindly toward the Christian who is. He does not have a relaxed lifestyle before God, and he highly resents the Christians who are mature, and who walk in the happy freedoms that we have in Christ.

Receive Him

So, this is a very tender word here. The English just says "receive," but the Greek is much more tender. It says, "Reach out; take this slob; take this character that irritates you; take this person who is so dumb that you can't believe that anybody, at his age, could have grown so dumb so quickly; just reach out and put your arms around him; you draw him to yourself tenderly; and, you receive him.

This is in the present tense, which indicates to us that this is to be our constant attitude as Christians toward weaker brothers. It is in the middle voice, which in the Greek language tells us that if you do this, it will be to your great personal benefit. Middle means that it bounces back to you. It is in the imperative mood, which means it is a command from God. So, the idea is "keep on receiving to yourself." The Christian who is strong in spiritual maturity is tempted to reject the weak Christians as irritating idiots. And indeed they are. And because they are irritating idiots, we are tempted to push them aside; to brush them off; and, to want to pass by and have nothing to do with them. The Word of God says, "Don't do that."

People who waste their lives and their freedoms tend to want everybody else to do the same thing. So, that's irritating. The strong Christian knows what freedom is. He knows what freedom is from control of the sin nature. He knows what grace has done in breaking that hold on him. And here comes a weak Christian, and wants to re-impose that legalistic binding of the sin nature upon him. The strong Christian is simply not a legalist type who's out there trying to gain favor. He knows he already has it in Christ.

Legalism

It says, "Receive this believer who is weak in the faith. Draw him tenderly to yourself, but not for a certain reason." He says, "Be careful that you don't do this for doubtful disputations." The word doubtful looks like this in the Greek Bible: "diakrisis." And this actually refers to an act of judgment. It means don't receive him for passing some judgment on him. Don't come up and put your arm around him because you're going to let him have it. That is exactly the picture that you have here – "not for doubtful disputations." Disputations is the word "dialogismos." "Dialogismos" means "an opinion" or "a reasoning." So, it refers here to the sincere conviction that the weak believer has which is not justified by Scripture. This is his personal doubts or his personal hang-ups. And Christians who are strong in the faith and in sound doctrine are not to pursue Christians just to pass judgment on their views. When you do receive this weak Christian, and you do treat him kindly, it should not be from the motivation that you're going to straighten him out. He may invite you to straighten him out. Then that's something else. But you're not lying in the bushes, waiting to pounce upon him.

That's what Paul means by these two words. Don't receive him just so that you can expose his erroneous views and his legalistic conduct. Do not pursue this person so that you can start a quarrel. And it's very easy to do this. You have to be very careful not to do this publicly.

I read of a group of people who are having a social event. And there was one young lady who was very zealous for the Lord. And she would go right to every stranger, and want to know whether they were Christians, and what they thought about Jesus Christ. And a lady was invited by one of the people in the group. She was a total stranger. This zealous Christian girl went up to her and said, "Are you a Christian?" And the lady said, "No." And she said, "What do you think about Jesus Christ?" The lady said, "Well, frankly, I don't believe he is God." And she promptly said to the whole group of people in the room, "Folks, this is Pam. She doesn't believe that Jesus Christ is God. We want you to meet her."

This is what Paul is saying: "Don't do that." Don't come up and greet somebody to expose his error to the group, under the hope that somehow you will shock and straighten him out. Fortunately, there was another person there who was kind enough to walk right up, and take her by the hand, and say, "Well, maybe someday she will. Come here and let me show you around." And she saved the day for the lady, who later said, "I was ready to walk out at that point."

You may be able to refute your weak brother's scruples with Scripture, but you might so devastate him in the process, and you might so shake his confidence in ever knowing what is right and wrong, that he may get so discouraged, and just quit seeking what is right and wrong. Some people cannot take a heavy hand of being corrected. They have to take correction gently. Some will become so discouraged, when they were so confident that they were right, to get blown out of the water, they just throw their hands up and say, "That's it. I'll never be able to figure this out." And what you have done is that you have caused them to be so discouraged that they will not pursue the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, and for them to pursue spiritual maturity. It takes time, and it takes instruction in doctrine to build a spiritual maturity structure in the soul. Many people will never make it. They must be pitied, but they are still our brothers in Christ. They must be pitied, but they must not be pilloried. Some Christians will resort to human viewpoint. They miss the glories of grace. It takes a lot of patience on the part of mature saints in associating with people like that.

Now this is not to say that false doctrine is not to be corrected. You are to do that. But the response is to be left with God. Someday we will all know which one of us is right, and which one of us is wrong. Someday we will all know who of us lived a life with wisdom, so that we maximized our opportunities, and we maximized our eternity. Someday we will all know who blew it; who wasted his life; who pursued temporal trivials; and, who has lost out in a great enrichment in eternity. But you don't treat rudely or with contempt those whose religious opinions you do not share.

Just remember that all parts of your human body are needed, even if some part of it is not too healthy, and even if some part of it is very unpleasant to you because it's hurting. You still need all parts of the body; and, so too, in Christ, all parts of the body are important.

Romans 14:1 says, "Receive him that is weak in the faith." Tenderly draw to yourself the Christian who is weak in personal grace freedoms. But don't do it just to expose him, and because you're going to straighten him out. Do it just because he's a brother or a sister in Christ.

Romans 14:2 says, "For one believes that he may eat all things; another who is weak eats herbs." So, Paul says, "Let me illustrate what I'm talking about." Here we have one Christian who believes something. He has a personal conviction. It's his personal confidence and attitude. Here it is in reference to something that he may eat: that he may consume certain foods. Here you have a Christian who has no problem consuming all kinds of foods. He does not feel under restrictions of avoiding certain kinds of food for religious reasons. He does not hold to the Old Testament dietary rules that were imposed upon the Jewish people. They were not to eat certain foods. These were not simply because of religious reasons, but because there were health reasons. But we Christians may eat those things.

So, you're a Christian who chooses not to eat pork chops. You don't eat ham. You don't eat all that good stuff, because you think that there is a dietary law that's revealing that pig meat is not good stuff to eat. It's not healthy. But here comes another Christian. He loves pigs' knuckles. He goes crazy over pickled pigs' feet. And those tails, oh those tails – how he loves those tails. It's a holiday treat. And all the rest of that. Now what is your attitude to be? You look upon him and say, "Boy, you really ought to know better than that. There are good reasons why you shouldn't do that." And the weak Christian is going to jump on the strong Christian who goes for a ham and cheese sandwiches: "Let not him that eats (those of you who have no restrictions, and you have no hesitancy about eating anything – you have that freedom in Christ) – don't you people, on the other hand, despise those who don't eat it."

So, don't go looking down upon those of us who are not pig-eaters. If you are, just go ahead and do it. Just be very relaxed, and very happy about it. And don't make any issue, because it is no issue. You can do it; or, you cannot do it. Ant the apostle Paul says, "There is that difference. There are some in our congregation who will eat anything." We have something like that here. They'll just eat anything. But there are some people who will not eat meat. This happens to be here in reference to eating meat. You have the person who is weak, and all that he will eat is herbs. The Greek word is "lachanon." "Lachanon" is a word for "green plants." It's a word for "vegetables. It refers to a Christian who is a vegetarian because he believes it is either wrong or it is unhealthy to eat meat.

You may not like to go to dinner to somebody else who is a vegetarian. I've done that. That's an experience in itself. It was like Churchill always hated to eat with General Montgomery because Montgomery was a vegetarian. And anytime that Montgomery invited him to lunch, Churchill hated it, because it was going to be a vegetarian meal, but he had to go just to be nice.

Here's a Christian who only vegetables. Some New Testament Christians had scruples about eating meat. Some of them had scruples that they thought were based on good reason. There was the problem about eating meat which had been previously offered to an idol in worship. People would bring animals to sacrifice at the pagan temples. I'm talking about the pagan temples. They would make their offering, or they would bring a piece of meat. They would go through the ritual of worshiping the God through this sacrifice of the animal and of the meat. Then, when the ceremony was over, the priest would take the animal; dress the animal down; and, then send the parts of the animal to the temple butcher shop. If you wanted the best meat in town, you went to the temple butcher shop, because that's where the best stuff was. People brought good things to worship their God. Now all this meat is hanging here in the butcher shop, and Christians, who are not under any restriction over where this meat had come from – the fact that it had once been on the altar of this idol God, and knowing that there is a demon behind this idol God, they would go, and they would buy these choice cuts of meat. And other Christians looked at that and said, "That is terrible. You shouldn't do that. That meat was once offered to an idol. It was in respect of a demon God. I don't see why you don't gag on that meat when you try to eat it. I can't eat that."

Well, the apostle Paul gave some precise guidelines for dealing with these weaker brethren. Notice 1 Corinthians 8:1-13. The apostle Paul had to deal with this issue, and it became so big (such a big conflict) in the early New Testament church, that he had to deal with it. And it was an example of the whole thing that he's talking about in Romans 14. In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul says, "Now as touching things offered unto idols. When he begins a section in that way – "Now as touching things . . . ," he's indicating that he has had a question which has been sent to him previously, and he's now going to give the answer to that question. Christians have finally sent to him through messengers and said, "Paul, give us the scoop. Is it all right for us to buy this meat at the temple butcher shop, and eat it?"

"Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies." Paul says, "We have information. Those of us who are versed in doctrine – we've got a lot of information, but you have to be careful because that can make you arrogant. It can make you puffed up." But if your "agape" impersonal love is working, you're not going to let your superior knowledge steamroll over the weaker brother. If any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know." That's a good principles. Those of you who are students of any subject know that, as you study a subject, you finally come to the point where you've learned so much about that subject, that now you know how much you don't know. When you stepped in, you learned it early on, and you thought you knew a lot about it. But the more you get into it, that's when you discover: "Boy, I don't know very much about this," because you do have a handle on the thing now.

So, Paul says, "When you really get a handle on spirituality, on spiritual principles and doctrinal truth, you'll be overwhelmed with how much you don't know. So, you're not going to go playing an arrogant pope who knows it all.

There is no other God but One

Verse 5: "For though there be that are called gods, weather in heaven on earth, as there are many gods and many lords. But to us there is but one God, the Father of Whom are all things, and we are in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things, and we are in Him." So, here Paul is laying the basic groundwork. You have to have a right understanding of the nature of God – who He is as the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Creator. You have to have a right view of Jesus Christ and His role in your personal salvation. That is our common ground on which we must have to stand together as Christians.

Verse 7 says, "However there is not in every man that knowledge. For some with conscience of the idol into this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol. And their conscience, being weak, is defiled." There are some Christians who are so spiritually immature that they are not comfortable about eating this meat offered to an idol. Why? Because genuinely within their own consciences, they understand the Word of God at that point of their maturity, and in their thinking about the things of God, and in their personal experience, they think this is wrong. It is a wrong thing to do.

So, what should you do to a Christian like that? You know that it's not a wrong thing to do. He thinks it's a wrong thing to do. Now what are you going to do to him?

Verse 8: "But food does not commend us to God; for either if we eat, are we the better; and, neither if we do not eat, are we the worse." Nobody gains any favor; any spirituality; or, any merit with God by the principle of the kinds of food you eat or don't eat. What you eat does not affect your relationship with God. Under Judaism, what they ate affected their relationship with God. What you eat does not affect your relationship with God.

So verse 9 says, "But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours to eat anything become a stumbling block to them that are weak." The concern here now is that you're not going to hurt a brother or a sister in Christ because you know that you have freedom to eat that good meat from the idol altar: "For if any man sees you, who has knowledge, sitting at the table in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols?" Here's another principle. Every one of you here, I can assure you, has someone who looks upon you as an authority in spiritual things. He looks upon you as someone that is a role model in some respect.

It is Dangerous to Ignore your Conscience

That was Martin Luther's claims. When he stood before the papal court at the Diet of Worms, when he said, "If you may show me from Scripture that the books I have written and these things I've said are wrong, then I will recant, and I'll take it all back. But if you cannot do that, then for me to take all this back and say it is not true would be a violation of my conscience. And that is wrong before God and man." Luther put his finger right on the issue. Even if your conscience is legalistic in some way, you must respect conscience. And this Christian who is weak – his conscience is misguiding him. It's denying him some Christian freedom. He shouldn't be pushed around, and he shouldn't be moved in the direction to ignore his conscience.

Verse 11 says, "And through your knowledge shall your weak brother perish for whom Christ died." How? Well, he's not going to lose his salvation. But it does mean that you have taught this brother not to be sensitive to what he thinks is right and wrong. But he will just look on the crowd, and what he sees others do, that's what he'll follow.

Well, maybe in your case, if he follows you, all will be well. But when you have instilled that attitude in him, there's a lot of people he will follow, as role models, that are wrong, and then things will not go well for him: "But when you sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ." It's a sin to wound the conscience of another Christian. And when you do that, you have also sinned against Jesus Christ, because Christ is in this believer. He is part of the body of Christ. And when you wound a believer spiritually, you have wounded the Lord Jesus Himself.

The Weaker Brother Principle

What foods a Christian eats today are only governed by their dietary significance and importance. There is no spiritual significance on whether you are a vegetarian or a meat-eater. In the book of Colossians, the apostle Paul points this out again in Colossians 2:16-17: "Let no man therefore judge you in food or drink, or in respect of a feast day, or the new moon, or of a Sabbath day, which are a shadow things to come, but the body is of Christ." The point that he is making is: don't let anybody judge you with these religious rituals; with what you eat; with what you drink; with the holidays you observe or don't observe; or, the special occasions. All of that indeed was in Judaism. But all of that were pictures of Christ. Christ has arrived. All that He was to do has been fulfilled. You don't need the pictures anymore. And don't let anybody tell you that you must hang on to the picture when the reality has finally arrived.

Live and Let Live

The rest of this section, all the way through Romans 15:13 is going to further illustrate and explain how to deal with Christians, and live with Christians who have different opinions; different ways of doing things; and, different lifestyles, and how we deal with them, and still maintain the unity and the forward motion of the work of God in that local congregation. Live and let live.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1988

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