Weekly Devotional - October 5th

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his

opinions.  One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.  The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.  Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.  He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for

himself;  for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.  For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 

For it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me,

And every tongue shall give praise to God.”

So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.  I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

Romans 14:1-14

There are two highly destructive distortions of the way of Christ. The first is known as

antinomianism, or “against the law,” which teaches that believers are exempt from obeying the laws of scripture. The second distortion is its opposite, commonly referred to as legalism,

characterized by an excessive reliance on obedience to the law apart from the liberating grace offered in Christ. As a result, Paul felt it necessary to address the Christians in Rome regarding the appropriate application of the freedom they have received in Christ. Sadly, this is a message that each generation of believers must continually revisit. This is referred to in theology as the proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel. They are equally important, yet must never be combined in any way, or we lose the significance of both.