Whether We Live Or Die, We Belong
To The Lord
Accept
the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One
person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak,
eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt
the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge
the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone
else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will
stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
One
person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day
alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever
regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to
the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord
and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of
us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die,
we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For
this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord
of both the dead and the living.
You, then, why do you judge your
brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all
stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says
the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
So then, each of us will give an
account of ourselves to God.
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one
another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle
in the way of a brother or sister.
Romans 14:1-13
According to
Paul, the way to agree to disagree is to recall that each of us will answer to
the Lord not only for our opinions but also for how we treat one another in our
differences.
Conditions
of conflict can actually become occasions to remember
that there are some things more important than our own ideas – even more than
our interpretations of the Bible. All of us will answer for whether we have
loved one another, and even our enemies, as Christ loved us.
It is not
only good to agree to disagree, and to do so with mutual love and respect.
We can agree to disagree-in love.
Our Daily Bread – October 30, 2018