Romans
15:1-2 We
who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please
ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.
Romans 15:1-13 reinforces
Paul’s plea for tolerance. The significance of his teaching for the
contemporary church is great. Tolerance is to be extended to areas of belief
that do not counter the teachings of Scripture. This is not a passage to apply
liberally to theological beliefs that are not found in the Bible.
Paul’s advice in this
chapter can only be applied to issues that are similar to the ones he is
dealing with here. Eating meat, drinking wine and observing Jewish holy days
belong in the category of ‘adiaphor’: things neither commanded nor prohibited
to Christians. Extending Paul’s plea for tolerance to other issues is both
wrong and dangerous.
The need to limit the
expression of our liberty out of love for God and fellow believers is the key
principle in this chapter. Our culture insists on rights, and it is easy for
Christians to bring that attitude into the church. But the spiritual health of
the body is far more important that our rights as individuals.
The freedom God has
purchased for us through his Son is a gift. It is a freedom to live as God
wants us to live, not as we want. Luther says it well in his comments on
Christian liberty: “A Christian man is a most free lord of all, subject to
none. A Christian man is a most dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” (From:
On the Freedom of a Christian Man)
