Here’s a question that should get your group talking and help introduce the key theme of this week’s lesson: What actions are most destructive of Christian community?
Some answers should be obvious. Actions like murder within the community, stealing, adultery, and lying are not conducive to community. The fact is, no community really can exist where these activities take place. Trust is broken, and the ties that bind people together are severed. These, however, are not the only ways to destroy a community from within. Another corrosive action within a community is judgmentalism.
Unlike the more obvious destructive actions, judgmentalism may be subtle and slow-acting. It may be conveyed through a look, through whispers meant to be overheard or through a prayer request that ends with “bless their hearts.”
On the other hand, it may be conveyed more directly through personal confrontation or public humiliation. The goal of all of these actions, however, always is for the one doing the judging to appear superior by making the other feel inferior. The command in our passage, however, is clear: “Stop passing judgment on one another” (Romans 14:13).
Two insights govern this command. The first flows from the earlier part of chapter 14 where the Apostle Paul has reminded the church everyone will give an account of themselves before God (v. 12).
God is the Master, and we who have responded in faith to his call are the servants. Judging the nature and the motivation behind the works of the other servants is not our responsibility. Understood this way, the command to stop judging one another also is the command to get busy with our own responsibilities and quit trying to usurp God’s responsibility.
A second insight that informs our understanding of the command to stop judging one another is a larger vision for our life with Christ. There simply is no place in the kingdom of God for petty arguments and minor quarrels about things that have no eternal significance.
Allowing ourselves to be so distracted has two bad outcomes. First, we can “destroy [our] brother for whom Christ died” (v. 15). Second, we can damage our witness in the world (v. 16). To a world looking to see the reality of God’s love in us, it can be enormously damaging to earn a reputation as a people who are more interested in winning insignificant arguments than in loving those we call brothers and sisters in Christ.
It is better to focus on the significant values of the kingdom: “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (v. 17), for this is the way to please God (v. 18).
In summary, Paul teaches us to “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (v. 19).
I find this principal to be easy to understand but difficult to put into practice. Making every effort to do what leads to peace can be inconvenient. I often am more task-oriented than people-oriented, and I am tempted to accomplish the task as quickly and efficiently as possible without regard for those who may view the task a little differently.
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Yet in Romans, I am reminded again that God is extremely interested in his family getting along and living with one another in unity. When Paul says, “Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food” (v. 19), I think we can say confidently that we are not to destroy the community of Christ for the sake of music, architecture, carpet color or programing either.
We are to live, work and worship with each other. We also should always be mindful that the Father loves those around us, Christ died for our neighbors, and the Holy Spirit of God moves among us not only as individuals but as a body.
When disagreements arise, do we look at them through the lens of God’s values? Do we make every effort to pursue peace? Do we seek solutions that are mutually edifying, preserving and building up the entire church?
As our passage closes, Paul extols the virtues of not jumping into every disagreement that comes along. He also reminds us that all we do should be done in faith. Faithfulness to God’s will, God’s values and God’s commands ensures the things we do and say have eternal significance.
It is entirely possible for us to attempt to do “good” yet find ourselves missing the mark of God’s perfect will because we have defined “good” according to selfish values or political values or national values or any other value besides that derived from faith in God.
To wrestle with Paul’s conclusion that “everything that does not come from faith is sin” (v. 23) is to be drawn deeper into the enormity of our own sinfulness and the even greater depths of God’s grace. As a church, we are meant to be a people who are guided by our new identities in Christ, focused on the tasks of God’s kingdom, and valuing each other as God values us.
To what work has God called you such that if you were really involved in it, you would not have either the time or the inclination to indulge in judgmentalism? Is there some action you need to take or some silence you need to embrace as you pursue peace within your congregation?
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