Soyeong
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- Mar 10, 2015
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The thing about diet is, that the Bible is clear that what one person may be convicted about in terms of eating or not eating, is not necessarily the same for another person. So we must not cause another to stumble by burdening them with what we are personally convicted of.
Romans 14
During the 1st century, there was a large body of Jewish oral laws, traditions, rulings and fences, which would later be written down in the Mishna, and which were a major source of conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus so much so that he called them hypocrites for setting aside the commands of God in order to establish their traditions (Mark 7:6-9), so it is critically important to correctly distinguish what is said about man's law and God's Law so that we do not make the mistake of taking something that was only against obeying man as being against obeying the God that we serve.
In regard to Romans 14, no one was questioning whether followers of God should follow God's commands or whether we should follow Christ's example, and Paul was certainly not saying that we are free to commit murder, theft, adultery, or to disobey any of God's commands just so long as we are convinced in our own minds that it is ok. Rather, the topic of the chapter is stated in the first verse, namely how to handle disputes over matters of opinion. So for example, they did not dispute whether to obey God's clear command against idolatry, but they did dispute what things counted as idolatry. Meat that had be sacrificed to idols was often later sold on the market, so someone at a community meal who couldn't verify how the meat had been slaughtered might be of the opinion that only vegetables should be eaten (Romans 14:2). They were judging those who ate everything at the community meal and were in turn being resented (Romans 14:3), so it was exactly this sort of judging each other over opinions that Paul was writing this chapter to quell, which means that we should not take anything in this chapter as being against obeying God. I think that Paul never spoke against anyone obeying a single one of God's commands, but we must obey God rather than man, so if you nevertheless continue to think that Paul was speaking against obeying God, then when it comes down to it you should obey God instead of Paul, and disregard what Paul said. Again, I do not think that it comes down to that, but if you do, then you should not be a follower of Paul instead of a follower of God.
Also, Jesus' perfect obedience to the Law/sinlessness is ultimately what enabled Him to save us (as He was the spotless Lamb of God). It is true that He taught His disciples many things, but precisely because they were His disciples. Those things would not save them in and of themselves, but are the result of having been saved and forgiven.
Out of love for Jesus our Saviour, we too should desire to take up our cross as His disciples and be imitators of Him. We grow in Christian maturity throughout our lives.
I agree, but if Titus 2:11-14 is true that our salvation involves being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, then growing in maturity is also part of our salvation.
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