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A friend of mine gave me a call the other morning with a Bible question. He had one of those experiences where he felt God woke him up this particular morning really early just to read the Bible. My friend said that he fought that feeling and tried to go back to sleep but time and time again he was jolted awake. It was obvious that God had other plans than my friend's desire to sleep to a reasonable hour.
He said that he finally quit fighting the feeling he was to get up and just got out of bed. He sat in his favorite place and opened his Bible to Romans chapter 14. This is a really challenging chapter of the Bible to be reading early in the morning after a short night's sleep. Paul, the author of Romans, is writing about a subject that was dividing many in the Church at that time. Specifically, Paul was writing about whether to eat meat sacrificed to idols or not.
Can you start to feel my friend's pain about being woken up so early in the morning to read about this abstract subject? What in the world does Paul's discussion in this chapter have to do with our lives in today's age? Turns out it has a lot to do with the entire discussion of victim thinking and victor living.
My friend said that the last two verses of the chapter really had him puzzled. He read them to me over the phone and I found it pretty easy to relate to his feeling of confusion. I told him I needed a bit of time to let those verses settle in a bit. I was hoping God was going to help us get a perspective from these verses that might help us see this life as the victor God has called my friend and me to. That's exactly what God had in mind.
Here are the verses in question.
The "these things" Paul opens with in verse 22 has to do with what the readers believed about eating meat sacrificed to idols. You see, some believed it was perfectly OK to eat that meat. Others thought it to be sacrilegious to do so. The two camps were firmly entrenched in their thinking and division in the Church was the result.
I love what Paul says about such thinking. He simply says, "keep it between yourself and God." In other words, if you don't think God cares if you eat meat sacrificed to idols. then eat it in quiet. If you think God is telling you that meat sacrificed to idols is wrong, then quietly abstain. Both camps need to be quiet about the subject, because it is a minor thing. Division happens when we major on the minors.
Church after church has divided over things that really aren't all that important. I know of Churches that had horrible and hurtful splits over what version of the Bible they should be reading. Not only does this kind of public division hurt those in both camps of thinking, it makes those outside the Church see a way of living that isn't all that appealing. Majoring on the minors is something that makes victims of us all. It lets victim thinking take over in ways that put God and His people in a bad light.
I think that is why Paul was saying that we need to be so careful in what we say to our brothers and sisters when it comes to differences we might have in our Church traditions. It is when we keep our thoughts between us and God that division is that much harder to make happen. God is pretty serious about unity among His Children. I think Paul's advice is a powerfully unifying strategy that the Church needs to bring back into it's midst if we are going to have the kinds of impact God has planned for this world.
This doesn't mean that we can't agree to disagree. There is a power to being able to have an open and honest discussion with a brother or sister in Christ about what we believe God is saying in our lives. It is when we try to impose our beliefs on others in our Church body that trouble starts to happen. Frankly, it is when we try to impose our beliefs on those outside the Church that the door to trouble opens in ways God just doesn't want in our lives.
I'm in no way saying that we shouldn't share the good news of Christ to those around us. What I am saying is that imposition can never be a motive behind any discussion we may have with believers or non-believers alike. When are driven by the goal of conversion to our way of thinking, we miss the mark of what God wants us to be doing in this world. God wants us involved in conversations, not conversions.
You see, all God has done, all God is doing and all God will do is completely and totally about relationship. I know this will ruffle some feathers out there, but God really doesn't need us to convert the world. What God wants us to do is to love the world into seeing the power behind a relationship with the Lord. Sometimes the best way to do that is to shut our mouths and open our hearts. That's what conversation does - it opens our heart.
You can't have a real conversation without relationship. There is very little opportunity for relationship in conversion. Some religions actually have factions that believe that if you don't convert to their way of thinking you deserve to die. That' a pretty big relationship breaker if you ask me.
What's on your mind today? If it is a thought that makes you think you are right and someone else is wrong, I strongly suggest you take Paul's advice. Keep it between yourself and God. Don't sweep it under the rug. Take it to God and ask Him what He wants you to do with those thoughts. Then, let what happens next be rooted in relationship. That's what God does all the time. Doesn't it make sense that's what He would want us to do as well?
Your victor status has nothing to do with how many people you convert to your way of thinking. However, your father in heaven loves it when you take time to relate to people in ways where they can more clearly see His love for them. You don't do that with convincing arguments. You do that with getting to know those God puts in your path and then going on a journey called life with them.
Let God change the world around you though your life today. Make relationship be the power of God's Love seen in all you do as you live out your victor status with God at your side.
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