LET US NOT THEREFORE JUDGE ONE ANOTHER

A clear distinction must be made between those described as ‘weak in the faith’, Rom 14. 1, and those who said ‘Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved’, Acts 15. 1. The latter kind were men who denied justification on the grounds of faith in Christ alone, and Paul’s treatment of such was never less than swift and without compromise. Those who were ‘weak in the faith’, however, were confident of salvation but had a lingering, genuine conscience about things attached to their lives before they were saved.

The converted Jew who was ‘weak in the faith’ understood that God had finished with the old order of things but still could not bring himself to eat foods that were previously forbidden. It was possible that a converted gentile idolater who had known nothing of such restrictions might think harshly of his brother for his apparent failure to emerge fully from the legal requirements of Judaism. Even as he thought such things, the converted idolater might still be harbouring superstitious notions about certain auspicious days that had once dominated his calendar before he knew the Lord. To the converted Jew such superstition was deplorable, and he might speak harshly to, or about, his brother for allowing such relics of his past to affect him. And are we not the same sometimes? Are we sufficiently compassionate to care about the tender conscience of a dear believer who does not yet enjoy the full liberty into which Christ has brought him?

These matters upon which brethren were sitting in judgement were neither doctrinal nor of material effect upon the order and testimony of the church. In such cases there was to be forbearance with one another, and a respect for the sincerely held views and consciences of one another. We would do well to learn this important lesson today, and not impose our own preferences or opinions of liberty upon our fellow brethren and sisters. The day is coming when each of us will answer to the Lord at the Judgement Seat, and there we let these non-doctrinal matters rest. We must simply take care that the exercise of our own liberty does not cause another to stumble.