The Way You Walk

Introduction

Having taught us not to judge one another in the matter of personal convictions, and having hinted at the way to properly hold them in fellowship with those who disagree, Paul now moves to give positive instruction on how to hold a conviction. In a word, it matters very much the way you walk in Christ holding your convictions. We must not walk blissfully ignorant of the fact that what we do and say will have an impact on our brother. And so in what remains of his instruction in this letter, Paul gives us some rules of thumb to help us walk carefully before our brethren. What I want to do this evening is give you an overview of Paul's discourse on Christian Liberty, for that is his final subject. How are we to hold our convictions and not violate the liberty of those who differ with us in certain disputable matters? Paul gives us instruction that I want us to consider under six axioms or pithy sayings to help us keep our thinking clear.

• Axiom #1- Your brother's conscience is important (13-18)
• In brief, here is what Paul is concerned about in this section: We are not to place a stumbling block in the path of our brother in disputable matters. And the reason is that nothing is inherently evil in and of itself-not special days, not eating or not meat, nothing about these is evil. The chief thing is how we handle such matters. But what would be evil is if we used our convictions in such a way as to hurt our brother. Remember Christ died for him, and not for meat or special day observances. And if your conviction is used as a weapon then your good will be spoken of as evil. What we are to remember is that we are to seek the kingdom of God and it consists, not of our convictions but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And the chief thing that should mark our holding of certain convictions is Christ's pleasure, and that necessarily implies being loving to our brother.
• So the rule is to consider your brother's conscience as important. In fact, you are to consider his conscience as more important than your own (Phil 2:4). Again, it is not necessary to abandon your principles to love your brother. But you are to find a way to hold your convictions firmly without causing your brother to trip over or be offended by them. That will take some work, but Christ's pleasure is worth it, is it not?

• Axiom #2-Pursue Peace (19-21)
• Paul is simply expanding on what he said in Romans 12:18. We are to do all we can to be at peace with our brother. But even more than that, we are to seek to build our brother up, rather than tear him down. The alternative, says Paul, is to destroy God's work. By the grace of God your brother follows Christ. He is on a different path to be sure, but he follows Christ. So, says Paul, it is good to do nothing that would offend or cause your brother to stumble.
• Try asking yourself some key questions as you consider how to hold to your biblical convictions in fellowship with those who do not agree with you. What is the most peaceable way that I can both hold to what I believe and yet not anger or sadden my brother? What can I say about our differences, or his convictions, that will build him up and yet not betray my own conscience? Does he follow Christ? How can I help him to do that in this area as well? Will the way I and/or my family will behave when we are together offend him or cause him to violate his own conscience? What should I do to prevent that? You say, Oh, but that is so hard to do. You better believe it. It is downright painful at times! But if Christ could lay down his life for you, can you not go and do likewise for your brother? Pursue peace.

• Axiom #3-Re-examine your convictions for Biblical Foundations (22-23)
• Be sure you really do hold to what God's Word says and not just to a personal preference. Paul's concern here is that you hold your convictions before God with a clear conscience. You believe a certain practice is right or wrong. Why do you believe that? What in the Bible teaches what you believe? Are you sure? Paul says that if you do not have a biblical basis for your conviction, you are sinning. Are you sure you have understood the Bible correctly?
• You are simply being told here to do what the church must always do-to practice the principle of Semper Reformata; always reforming. It is an established and well respected principle in Theology that we must always re-examine our doctrinal standards to see if they are indeed reflective of what Scripture teaches. The Church once taught that there was a time when the Son of God was not. They also taught that the Holy Spirit was not a person. The study of Scripture over time changed those two teachings, thank God. And you must be willing to subject your convictions to the same scrutiny. If you are not sure how, come to the pastor or one of the elders and ask for help. But never hold a conviction without being sure first and foremost that the Bible teaches it. Re-examine your convictions for Biblical Foundations.

• Axiom #4-Serve your weak brother not yourself (15:1-3)
• We are to bear with those who are weak. We are to use our advanced understanding in Scripture to help our brothers in Christ to grow themselves. Notice how Paul here assumes for the sake of argument that the one a conviction is the strong and mature one, while the one who differs is assumed to be weak. That shoe fits either foot when brothers disagree. We are in such a case to view ourselves as the servants of our weaker brethren and make every effort to love them in practical ways. And to underline this, Paul reminds us that Christ did not serve himself but rather took upon himself our condemnation from God..
• Thus the rule is simple: be Christ-like. When your brother who disagrees with you is with you then seek to meet his needs rather than press your doctrinal agenda. See what you can do for his good that has nothing to do with your dispute with him and do that instead of getting into an argument with him. Don't press for the advantage and try to win the debate. Instead love your brother and show him your love by NOT arguing but instead meeting him with a cup of cold water. Don't be as Jacob and steal your brother's conviction by the use of a hot stew. Rather give him to eat and drink of the bread of life and the water of life. Serve your weaker brother.

• Axiom #5-Seek the Glory of God (4-6)
• And here we get to the real bottom line. The purpose of God giving us the bible is that we might learn how to serve God to his glory. And any convictions you may have are to aim at the same thing. And you are then to help one another to do the same thing, in order that the whole of the church might glorify God together, even as each of you glorifies God individually.
• We are back to the matter of priorities. I heard it said of one brother, who was very fierce in contending for his view of the Law of God, for he was a Theonomist, that he went for the jugular in every debate. He would not settle for just proving his point, he had to destroy his opponent both in his position and personally. Tell me how that glorifies God! It does not and you and I both know it. Oh the harm that has been done to the reputation of God and to our beautiful Reformed heritage by such a spirit of Belial (spirit of lawlessness)-it is foolishness to an abominable degree!. Seek God's glory, not victory for your convictions.

• Finally, Axiom #6-Seek to maintain the unity Christ began with (7-12)
• These verses are not hard to interpret at all. Christ came to save the Jew and the Gentile and make them one body. He received both. So we ought to receive as faithful brothers those who agree with our convictions and those who do not. And there ought to be no distinction made, no considering one to be a lower class version of Christian on the basis of differing convictions. Christ died to save one holy people and bring them into one holy and apostolic church.
• We do err in a violent way when we divide the church on the basis of non-essentials. Sure, your conviction is essential to you. But what emphasis does the Bible place on it? Is it so important that it means the one who disagrees is not trusting in Christ alone for salvation? If so then go to the elders with it! There is a fire in the church and it must be put out! But, no, it is more likely there is a fire in your belly and you must put it out and receive and embrace your differing brother in Christian love and kindness.

Conclusion

These then are the axioms, the rules of thumb we are to follow: Your brother's conscience is important , Pursue Peace, Re-examine your convictions for Biblical Foundations, Serve your weak brother not yourself, Seek the Glory of God, Seek to maintain the unity Christ began with. They are important to us, for if we will follow them we will find it easier to maintain the unity of this congregation and to have fellowship with other believers wherever God may send us. But more important than that, our God commands us to follow after such things. May his will be done by us with a good, true, loving and loyal heart both toward him and toward each other.

Rev. Arthur J. Fox, Pastor
10 Spruce Street
Middletown, PA 17057
(717) 944-5835