Let’s turn now in our Bibles to the fifteen chapter of Romans as we continue our journey through the word of God. In the fourteenth chapter you will remember that Paul is dealing with Christian unity that is created by Christian love, accepting each other though we may differ in some of our ideas and interpretations of the Scripture. Basically the early church had a split over the Jewish aspects of the church and the Gentile aspects of the church. Many of the Jews were still following the Kosher laws. They were very concerned about the diet, that it be Kosher. Many of the Gentile believers had never really heard of the Kosher laws and were not really worried about keeping Kosher. So it developed this kind of division between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers. Many of the Jewish believers were insisting that you could not really be a Christian without keeping the Jewish laws, even the ritual of circumcision. So Paul, an apostle to the Gentiles, though he was one of the strictest Jews at one time, he had been called of God to be an apostle to the Gentiles. God took one of the most strict of all of the Jews and made him an apostle to the Gentiles. In so doing, Paul came to a recognition and a realization that Jesus Christ has really set us free from the traditional observances of dietary laws and things of that nature. So going to the Gentiles, he had this liberty and this freedom. So yet the rule of Paul was to walk in love and try not to be an offense unto people. So he said he had learned to be all things to all men that he might gain the more. To the Jews, I became as a Jew. He could go and enjoy fellowship with the Jews, keep Kosher and all. Or he could go into a Gentile home and have ham, just give God thanks and eat it. He had this liberty. He said all things are lawful for me. There is nothing unclean of itself unless a person esteems it to be unclean. Then to him it is unclean. Now Paul sort of put it in the category of “weak in the faith” and “strong in the faith.” If you have a tender conscience, weak in the faith, then you are better off not to do those things for which you feel guilty. In the same token, a person who had no qualms or conscience about it, should not openly flaunt his liberty in Christ to the extent of stumbling another brother for whom Christ died. If you have liberty, Paul said, have it to yourself, in your own homes, enjoy it. But don’t just flaunt that liberty so as to stumble or hurt someone else. But basically the real law is love! Walk in love. Be considerate. Now Paul is showing that in the church, we are one, both the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers. Throughout the Book of Romans he has been showing that we are all of us sinners. We have all come short of the glory of God. We were all in need of redemption. God has provided that redemption through Jesus Christ through whom we must all come in order to be redeemed.
