{"id":460,"date":"2006-03-21T19:15:28","date_gmt":"2006-03-21T19:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/03\/romans_14_and_t.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:46:46","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:46:46","slug":"romans_14_and_t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/03\/romans_14_and_t.shtml","title":{"rendered":"Romans 14 and the Unity Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Please keep in mind that I’m still having issues with the site. Your comment will likely generate an error page, but it should go through. Please hit back and refresh to check before re-submitting your comment (you might want to compsose your words in another program so they aren’t lost). I’m working on finding a new host, please bear with me. Thanks.<\/em><\/font>
\nIn light of the current buzz on the Unity Proposal in my ICOC fellowship and my recent study of this passage, I decided to create a paraphrased version of Romans 14 (ESV) tailored to our current dilemma:<\/p>\n

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he needs no written statements of unity, while the weak person feels compelled to sign on. Let not the one who does not sign despise the one who signs, and let not the one who signs pass judgment on the one who does not, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
\nOne person esteems this unity plan as valuable and needed, while another thinks it unnecessary. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who signs, signs it in honor of the Lord. The one who does not sign, does not in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who signs, signs in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
\nWhy do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written,<\/p>\n

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
\nand every tongue shall confess to God.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this first passage, I’ve placed the signers in the weaker position. It seems appropriate to the passage. They feel more at ease with a written agreement defining their church to church relationships while others have no need of any such agreement to be unified just as, in that day, some needed rules about what to eat to feel secure in their faith while others did not. Their rules about eating helped support their faith just as this agreement will help support their feelings of unity. No judgment here, just and observation and comparison.
\nIn the second passage, however, it seems more natural to reverse the roles, to make the non<\/em>-signers in the insecure position and the signers secure:<\/p>\n

Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by your signing, you are no longer walking in love. By your signature, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of signing agreements but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
\nDo not, for the sake of a document, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by signing a paper. It is good not to sign this agreement or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he signs, because the signing is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those of us who don’t like the agreement feel insecure about signing it. Our faith is perhaps challenged or weakened by it’s existence (I know I feel a little uneasy about it) and are not sure what those who feel great about it will do with it.
\nSo, by taking either side, we are perhaps proclaiming a weakness in our faith. (Could it be that those who don’t care one way or another who are the strong ones?) If either side demands their way is right and best and refuses to be sensitive to the weakness inherent and revealed in the other’s position, unity – and the work of God in us – will be damaged or even destroyed. Love demands sensitivity, tolerance and patience.
\nOf course, this is not a perfect analogy and I’ve probably mucked it up a bit, but I think that both sides would do well to keep this passage of scripture in mind as we proceed down this road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Your comment will likely generate an error page, but it should go through. Please hit back and refresh to check before re-submitting your comment (you might want to compsose your words in another program so they aren't lost).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":578,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/10\/the_unity_propo.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":460,"position":1},"title":"Unity Proposal Stuff","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"October 31, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in September the UP folk announced their work was done and it's on to the next step for the UP. (Yeah, I'm late on this, it's been in draft on my blog for around a month. Sorry.) 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This may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":459,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/03\/thoughts_on_the.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":460,"position":3},"title":"Thoughts on the Unity Proposal","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"March 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Please keep in mind that I'm still having issues with the site. Your comment will likely generate an error page, but it should go through. Please hit back and refresh to check before re-submitting your comment (you might want to compsose your words in another program so they aren't lost).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":982,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2009\/10\/romans_15-16_-_unity_and_greetings.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":460,"position":4},"title":"Romans 15-16 – Unity and Greetings","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"October 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Romans 15:1-7 - Paul speaks of peace and harmony and of bearing with those who are weak, assuming (as most of us would) that we are those \"who are strong\" (verse 1). This made me think of Jesus and the disciples. They were knuckleheads, selfish, power hungry and prideful. 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