Rom. 14:1-13, Do Not Disregard God

(This post stands on its own.) 

One of our favorite memory verses is Prov. 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lead not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.  I emphasized one phrase.  Every time we come to a “fork in the road of life” we need to know (Heb. yara) what God’s thought is on the choice of which fork to take. 

In Isaiah we see that this was one of Israel’s failures.  They did not “regard (Heb. nabat, to listen to) the work of the LORD (i.e. understand what He was doing so that we might make a choice that fits the work He is doing) nor consider (Heb. ra’a, to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider) the operation of His hands” (Isa. 5:12).  The result was that they had no “knowledge” and thus ended up in bondage (Isa. 5:13).  It is a fact.  Every person becomes captive to the choices they make.  Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness (Rom. 6:16)?  If we do not regard the Lord in our choices we become subject to yourselves.  We are on our own, which is never good. 

This brings me to today’s passage.  It concerns how we treat one another in the Body of Christ, but we get reminder of the bigger picture of how we see life. 

·       14:3: We cannot treat another brother in a way that is different than God.  If we “regard the work of the LORD” we will understand that God has received him.

·       14:4a: We cannot make ourself the judge over this brother because we are not his master.  This is the Lord’s work because He is judge of all the earth.

·       14:4b: We cannot put down our brother because God has already promised to make him stand.  If you do put him down you are working against God.

·       14:5-8: We are all the Lord’s.  In other words, we give account to the Lord as well as the brother we are criticizing. 

·       14:9-12: Jesus is the Lord of all believers, dead or alive, because He died and rose again for all men!  Have you done that?  No, of course not.  Regard the work of the LORD!!!

This is just one of the many aspects of our daily lives where we are reminded that we must not lean on our own understanding but we must regard and consider what God is doing in the situation.  The Bible will tell us what He is doing.  We then will need to submit ourselves to His work, lest we become hopelessly stupid by being opposed to the work of the God who is Creator of all things.  In all your ways acknowledge Him!