Chapter # 14 Paragraph # 2 Study # 14
August 22, 2021
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: Keep "your" faith to yourself before God when its exercise is not "good".
Introduction: Last week we considered Paul's "upgrade" in respect to how we are to "get along" with one another. We saw that his focus was upon making sure that our behavior was "good". We saw that "good" means "advantageously beneficial" and it signifies making the brother as valuable to us as he/she is to God. Christ
died for the brother. That is His declaration of value. It is, therefore, heavily incumbent upon us to do anything for that brother that is to any degree less than "dying". In this context, it means exercising restraint when in the presence of a brother when God's "release of restraint", if exercised, will give that brother heartburn.
This evening we are going to look into Paul's instruction regarding how to "live by faith" when that "faith" includes "being free from constraints that were formerly placed upon the people of God by God Himself". If we act as though "bound", when we are not, will that not hinder the brother's development in The Faith? No, for the text in its context says that if we act as though "free", when the brother is "bound", he will not be profited, but will, rather, be destroyed because the bottom line in the concept of relating to God is the condition of the conscience, not the condition of one's "faith".
- I. Paul's Insistence Upon "Private Faith".
- A. According to Paul's final statement in this chapter, whatever behavior is not rooted in "faith" is sin.
- B. But, before he comes to that final statement, he has a couple of other statements that must be properly understood.
- 1. The first of those prior statements is in the first part of 14:22.
- a. There is an emphatic "you" at the beginning of this statement.
- 1) It is emphatic because Paul was intent upon making a distinction between the one who actually "possesses faith" and the one whose "faith" is actually not "faith" because it is ill-founded upon a faulty perception of the meaning of God's words.
- a) All "faith" is "faith" in one respect: "faith" is tied to decision making and, consequently, also the actions taken because of that decision.
- i. It is illegitimate to call something "faith" that makes no difference in the ways a person thinks, decides, and acts.
- ii. This illegitimacy is widely practiced by mankind: multitudes claim to "believe" things which are not allowed to make any difference in the decision-making of living.
- b) But, it is also illegitimate to call something "faith" that is not rooted in the divine meaning of the words which God has uttered.
- i. All legitimate "faith" is rooted in divine revelation as opposed to other sources of information so that it is illegitimate to call something "faith" that has no roots in what God has revealed as Truth.
- ii. It is this illegitimacy that dominates this context: those not "you" have not understood God's "meaning" in His dietary instructions.
- i) They take those words to mean that "diet" is mandatory for relational Life with God (this is a variation of the false dogma that "man was made for the sabbath").
- ii) Instead, they should be taking them to mean that "diet" is conducive to the health of the physical life of man in God's creation (this is a variation of the truth that "the sabbath was made for man").
- iii. This illegitimacy is also widely practiced by mankind: multitudes claim to "be believing" when they are taking God's words to mean "do this or I will condemn you" instead of taking them to mean "do this because it is helpful to you for your physical life".
- 2) It is a mistake to overlook this emphatic "you" because it signals Paul's intended audience: those who possess a healthy grasp of "The Faith" in respect to the issues of "Grace", not those whose grasp of "The Faith" is diseased.
- b. There is a description of the emphasized "you": You are having faith.
- 1) This description includes the fact that anyone who fits the identity of the "you" is in actual possession of the "faith" that pleases God.
- 2) What this means is that those who disregard dietary and liturgical constraints imposed by the Law are correct in their "believing" so that they both eat as it pleases them and they make no effort to go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices on the altar of the temple.
- a) These "believe" so that they "eat" without constraints.
- b) These "believe" so that they "do not observe special days" but consider all days alike.
- c. There is a specific demand placed upon the emphasized type of person who actually possesses "faith".
- 1) This demand is that they exercise this "faith" "according to the standard of themselves".
- a) In this context, this "standard of themselves" is the inner condition of a harmony that has "harmonized" actual truth, inner ease of mind before the judgment of the conscience, and action taken without qualms.
- b) Also, however, this context adds another factor to this "standard": a consideration of the "brother" whose grasp of The Faith is diseased and is in a condition of confusion that leaves him/her in a dangerous state -- liable to destruction and even more confusion ("torn down").
- 2) This demand is that they exercise this "faith" "before The God".
- a) The phrase "The God" signals the identity of the reader as a Gentile.
- b) The requirement, "before The God", means, in essence, "privately" as opposed to "to be seen of men" as in Matthew 6:1-6 where "giving" and "praying" are restricted to what "the Father sees in secret".
- 3) This demand is made in view of the danger that exists for the "ill-believing brother".
