“And if another believer is distressed by what you eat, you are not acting in love if you eat it. Don’t let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died. Then you will not be criticised for doing something you believe is good. For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.”
Romans 14:15-19 NLT
Perhaps we are by now feeling that Paul is labouring his point about eating, or not eating, food offered to idols. But as we have said, we have to look beyond food to all aspects of our lives that could cause problems for other believers. Remember those early days as a Christian? When everything was rosy? When the worship service was almost angelic? When the words of God leapt out of the Bible every time we opened it? And then something happens and we are faced with a dilemma, because a fellow member in the church has behaved in a way that seems at odds with what we, rightly or wrongly, expect from them.
I can remember in my early Christian days looking up to one of the venerable saints who uttered such gracious God-words, with wonderful prayers infused with Heavenly language. They seemed to be using the words of angels. In my limited understanding I thought it may even be the language of Zion. And I can remember thinking that I would never be able to pray in that way, so apparently spontaneously with words so full of worship that they seemed to penetrate the heavens above and go straight to the throne of God. But then I came across the same person in another setting outside the church and saw a different side of them. The pedestal beneath them crumbled and I was then at a vulnerable point in my early days of faith.
We believers experience a problem. In our minds we develop an ideal for how we should behave, inspired by what we read in the Bible perhaps, and even though we ourselves don’t live up to it, we expect others to. And that can lead to criticism. Jesus taught about this very thing, and we can read His words in Matthew 7, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5). Why is it that we can become blinded to our own faults yet can see them in another person?
In Paul’s letter he was developing the theme that we should not live in a way that invites criticism. Good may even come from what we are doing, but in it there is a danger that another Christian might be upset by our actions. Sometimes criticism of another can result from a misunderstanding. For example, a believer might be seen in dubious company, and end up being criticised for it, without the knowledge that the meeting was for noble purposes. A person’s reputation can be trashed with unjustified criticism.
We pilgrims must remember that we are called to love one another. Perhaps 1 Peter 4:8 applies to what we do. “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.”
Dear Father God. Please help us to replace the critical thoughts that start to well up within us with thoughts of love and the other person’s highest good. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 