Romans 14

This is a set of verses talking about the Weak and the Strong. It starts with "¹Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters." The keyword to me here is "disputable." For, Paul goes on to talk about differing food and holy day observance as examples.

Then we must ask, what are disputable items? For, these days, I believe the enemy has brought, and we have accepted, into the Western Church such a multitude of "disputable" items that we now are disputing our very faith. We are then asked to abide by Paul's direction in Romans 14 here, that we live to the lowest common denominator of faith amongst the believers.

That brings up more interesting questions, as to how far that extends. In Paul's day, the community of believers extended as far as you could walk in a few days time. Now, every practice by every congregation on earth is common knowledge for all. If a Church in Kansas protests against homosexuality at Military funerals, should we in New Jersey join them? Of course, I'm unfairly combining the "disputable items" with the "common denominator" discussion now.

Good things to think about though, especially "¹⁶Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil." and "²²...Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves." The first gets to the idea that there is some line to be drawn by how far you're all allowed to push your fellow Christians. The second idea echoes Jesus, with the "take the log out of your own eye first" command. Also note here that all of this is directed at Christians. All the notions of Don't Judge in Romans 14 are only in the context of the body of believers.