Romans 14:5-18

A man drives by my home and shakes his head in disgust.  He thinks to himself, “Their lives a man who is too lazy to maintain his yard.” I drive by his house, and shake my head in amazement.  I think to myself, “Their lives a man who has nothing better to do with his time than play in his yard.” We are from two different cultures.  One values outward appearance more than many other things.  The other culture values many things more than outward appearance.  Neither is right or wrong, they are just different.

Things become much more complicated when theology and spirituality mixes with culture.  The church at Rome gives many examples of these complications.  What to do with the Sabbath is an example.  Many in the Roman gentile culture considered the day of rest to be an issue of laziness.  Their culture worked seven days a week and believed laziness was a character flaw.  Many of the Jews believed observing the Sabbath was a spiritual matter.  To work on the Sabbath, for them was a willful act of disobedience to God.  However, there were also Jews who believed they should move the Sabbath from the last day of the week, to the first in remembrance of Christ’s resurrection.  There were some Jews who stopped observing the Sabbath altogether because they believed they were no longer bound by the Old Testament.  Some believed, that in Christ, every day was sacred and none were more holy than others were.

In the midst of all of this, you had immature Christians that were quick to have dissension in everything.  They would form small groups of likeminded Christians and would become judgmental toward everyone else.  They were willing to damage the church and fellow Christians for the sake of being right.  God does not call Christians to being right, He calls us to living righteous.  It is not acceptable to act wrong just to be right.  Pleasing God requires moving past conflict to righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.