What Truly Matters

Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Spirit

UNSHAKEABLE: Trigger warning! So much of what Christians get uptight about, particularly as it relates to how others are living out their faith, really doesn’t matter in the larger scheme of how the Kingdom of God is to be fleshed out. It just doesn’t matter if some believers drink wine, play cards, put a dollar down on the lottery, go to movies, dance socially, or you name it. It doesn’t matter if some Christians run around, jump up and down, and wave flags when they worship, go to church on Friday night rather than Sunday morning, give their offerings online rather than in the plate, or whatever. Here’s the deal: You can do what you want as long as your bottom-line motivation in life is to bring honor to the Lord. Romans 14:7-8 reminds us, “For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. If we live, it is to honor the Lord. And if we die, it is to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”

Unshakeable Living // Romans 14:17

The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or what we drink, but of living a life of goodness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

So much of what Christians get uptight about, particularly as it relates to how others are living out their faith, really doesn’t matter in the larger scheme of how the Kingdom of God is to be fleshed out. It just doesn’t matter if some believers drink wine, play cards, put a dollar down on the lottery, go to movies, dance socially, or you name it. It doesn’t matter if some Christians run around, jump up and down, and wave flags when they worship, go to church on Friday night rather than Sunday morning, give their offerings online rather than in the plate, or whatever.

That is what Paul is really teaching here in Romans 14. Certain of the Roman Christians in Paul’s day were getting uptight with other believers because they weren’t living out their faith the way these Roman church members were. In that day, the issue had to do with certain foods that some believers felt was inappropriate to eat. The big deal about meat was that before it had been purchased, it had likely been sacrificed to an idol prior to its arrival at the market. That was a concern to the non-meat-eating believers because they believed to now eat that meat was to give tacit worship to idols.

Another issue had to do with what day they believed was the correct day to gather for worship. Some thought that Saturday, the Sabbath, was the correct day, while others preferred Sunday worship service. And as people chose sides over these issues, hard feelings and disharmony were the results in the church.

So Paul says, “look gang, what foods you eat or don’t eat and what day you choose to worship just doesn’t matter in the bigger picture of what the Kingdom of God is all about. You are free to do what you want so long as your bottom-line motivation in life is to bring honor to the Lord.” Notice these words,

For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. If we live, it is to honor the Lord. And if we die, it is to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. (Rom 14:7-8)

That is a great rule of life to live by. If — and that is a critical ‘if’ — your consuming motive is to bring honor to the Lord Jesus Christ, then nothing else really matters. Do what you want, eat what you want, drink what you want, worship when you want and in the way you want — as long as your sole purpose is to glorify the Lord. That’s why Paul went on to remind these believers, “the Kingdom of God is not a matter of meat or drink, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Now Paul gives a couple of caveats to this principle. One, if you cause a weaker brother or sister to stumble by deliberately doing certain things that offend their conscience, then you’ve missed the point. You are not glorifying God. You are unnecessarily creating disharmony, and harmony in the family of God is a big deal, a very big deal, to the Lord. And two, if you take advantage of this liberty in Christ to do something your conscience tells you not to do, you have crossed over into sin. So be careful in the exercise of your Christian freedom.

Here is what really matters in our Christian faith: Do everything to honor God, and you will be okay.

As St. Augustine said, “Love and do what you will.”

Get Rooted: Enjoy your freedom in Christ this week! But pass it by these questions:  1) Does it glorify Christ? 2) Does it cause another believer to stumble? 3) Does it violate your conscience?

Romans 12: The Noble Peace Prize

Read Romans 12:1-21

The Noble Peace Prize!

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
~Romans 12:18

Digging Deeper: No—you heard it right: Noble, not Nobel…the Noble Peace Prize.  Nothing is as prized by God as the noble efforts his children exert to achieve peace.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers!”  That proclamation of blessing came from Jesus’ very first sermon—the Sermon on the Mount—found in Matthew 5-7. He was just launching his messianic ministry, and in the opening lines (Matthew 5:1-12) of his first public address, he spelled out his kingdom agenda in bullet form. These “kingdom talking points” have come to be known as the beatitudes. This particular bullet point for blessing, peacemaking, along with seven others, reveal what God values most, what God blesses most, and what God expects most from his people as they expand his kingdom throughout planet earth.

God not only promises peace to his people (“and the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds” — Philippians 4:7) and expects his people to allow peace to govern their relationships with one another (“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace” — Colossians 3:15), he also calls his people to be emissaries of his peace to a human race at war with itself, and with him.

Yes, that is our call—emissaries of peace, representing the agenda of the one who was known as the Prince of Peace. Peacemaking is high on the kingdom platform of him who is known as the God of peace. (Romans 15:33, Romans 16:20, Philippians 4:9, I Thessalonians 5:23, Hebrews 13:20) How else will the world surrender their worship to the God of peace, and accept the Prince of Peace as their savior, and come under the rule of the kingdom of peace unless the subjects of that kingdom flesh out that peace in their everyday, ordinary, sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life”?

So that is your assignment today.  Mine, too.  There is no more noble pursuit. Will you be successful at achieving peace in your home, at work, while you are at school, or in your little corner of the world?  I don’t know.  But I do know that if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, your life can be a powerful catalyst for peace.

And if you will give that your very best shot, “the God of peace will be with you!”  (Philippians 4:9).  And not only will he be with you, he will bless you, for he has promised blessings to those who are “the peacemakers”. (Matthew 5:9)

“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate
instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover
who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
~Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:9 (Msg.)

This Week’s Assignment:

Read: Romans 12:1-21

Memorize: Romans 12:1-2

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

For Your Consideration: Stop at the very first word of chapter 12: “Therefore”.  Whenever you come to a “therefore” in your Bible reading, you ought to ask yourself, “what is it there for?”  What Paul goes on to say in these first two verses comprises what is arguably the most important duty of all true Christ-followers: The offering of our everyday lives to God as our only and reasonable act of worship.  “Therefore” …what is the basis of this call to Christian duty? (Hint: Go back to Romans 11:36.)

Good Grief!

Read I Corinthians 15

“I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does
the perishable inherit the imperishable.”
(I Corinthians 15:50)

Food For Thought… I suppose I have conducted close to a hundred funerals as a pastor. You have been to your fair share of them as well—or you will by the time you reach the end of your journey. Death is simply a part of life. It has been ever since the fall of Adam and Eve when sin entered the human race. And the fact of the matter is, you and I will die someday, too, because the last time I checked, the death rate was still hovering around 100%.

What is so profound is the amazing difference in the funerals I have conducted for non-believers and memorial services that I have led for Christians. I use the terms “funeral” and “memorial” as a very purposeful distinction. And I can sum up the difference in three words: hope, joy and peace.

Funerals don’t have much hope; there is not much deep and lasting joy at the death of an unbeliever; people don’t leave a funeral service for a non-Christian with much peace—if any at all. I am not saying that a non-Christian didn’t leave good memories. In many cases, they did. They just didn’t leave eternal hope, joy and peace.

To be sure, in a memorial service, there is grief at the loss at the passing of a Christian. But there is an amazing and undeniable sense of hope that pervades the atmosphere and sustains those who are grieving. It is the hope that Paul describes here in I Corinthians 15 that the dead body of that Christian has been transformed into a eternally living, spiritual body. As the wife of the great preacher R. A. Torrey said at the death of their twelve-year-old daughter, “I’m so glad Elisabeth is with the Lord, and not in that box.”

There is also a special kind of joy that just doesn’t make sense in the natural. I have often sat in amazement at such services as songs of praise and gratitude are lifted to the God of all comfort. That just doesn’t happen at the funeral of a non-Christian, where typically, wailing rather than worship fills the air. But at a Christian’s memorial, it is not untypical for worship and wonder to drown out the sounds of death.

And then there is the peace that passes all understanding that accompanies the believer’s death. It is the kind of peace that guards the hearts and minds of those whose lives have been touched by loss. It is God’s gift of peace, and it makes such a loss endurable. It is the kind of peace that comes from knowing that our gracious God is in control—even in the death of a loved one—and that our God does all things well, and will bring good out of loss and glory out of grief. It is peace that the world cannot give and the world cannot take away.

Of course, there is grief at the loss of a Christian loved one—but it is a good grief. How can that be? One word: Jesus. Sin and death entered the human race because of Adam, Paul says in I Corinthians 15:45-48, but through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the power of sin and the sting of death has been neutralized. Thanks be to God for our resurrected Lord and Savior, Jesus. Through him, we can defiantly declare to death,

“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?

Prayer… All thanks to you, Father God, for you have given me victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ my Lord.

One More Thing… “Death stung himself to death when he stung Christ.” —William Romaine