Unlimited: Don’t Quarrel Over Disputable Matters
Sep 25, 2023 479
Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters (Romans 14:1).
Unfortunately, this is one command of the apostle Paul that Christians in particular have stumbled over again and again. They love to debate, argue and quarrel over disputable matters.
Christians are good at justifying the topics of their religious and doctrinal quarrels as being of great importance. But they are often trivial and largely immaterial to salvation. However, these topics provide religious people with an opportunity in which their pride and selfishness may be invested. We turn these issues into the basis of our identity instead of Christ, and we consider those who do not agree with us to be lesser Christians, or in danger of being “lost”.
Accept such believers, and don’t get involved in disputable matters.
However, Paul tells us to accept the one whose faith is weak. When Paul talks about those whose faith is weak he is referring to those who “make mountains out of molehills” and who make relatively insignificant and disputable matters the key tests of faith.
Paul is telling the church at Rome to merely accept such believers, and not to get involved in the disputes about the things they want to argue about.
This is not an easy thing for us to put into practice, since we all love getting into arguments. However, Jesus wants us to love others and not to “major on the minors”.
Spiritual Application
Can you think of a time in the past when you “majored on minors” in religious matters? What did that do for you? What did it do to your relationships? Or are you perhaps still “majoring on minors” today?
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