Agree to Disagree

Romans 14:1-12

Introduction

Imagine a congregation that has a wide range of beliefs. One person feels strongly that no Christian should drink any alcohol and another person thinks drinking in moderation is acceptable. One person believes that gay people should have full access to all levels of church life including leadership and another thinks that homosexuality is one of the worst sins. One person thinks women can be pastors and another feels strongly that leadership and teaching is only for men. One person thinks that Christians should only listen to Christian music and another thinks Christians can listen to any music they want. I could go on and on.

Could such a church exist and could it be sustainable?

I was not born and raised Baptist. I grew up Anglican and spent close to a decade as a Pentecostal. From my experience, Baptists, at least Canadian Baptists, are one of the most diverse groups that I have been involved in. It was actually one of the things that attracted me to the Baptists, that we agree on the basics and then there is room for us to disagree on other issues. I have seen some pushback on this from some Baptists who have called for us to be a fellowship of “like-minded” people with more uniformity and less diversity. It definitely is something that is worth reflecting on.

As someone who has spent much of my life studying the Bible, I am drawn to what the Scriptures say about this. I believe this because I believe that God has communicated through the Bible and because the biblical writers were wrestling with the same issues that we face, even if the cultural context has changed.

This includes how to deal with diversity of beliefs and how far that goes. I will not pretend that this is an easy topic to deal with. The reason that there is conflict is that we often hold our convictions, especially our theological convictions, so tightly. How we interpret the Bible and what we think is right or wrong is not like picking a favourite flavour of ice cream. What we need to wrestle with is how to hold our convictions while remaining in fellowship with people different from us.

The Roman Context

You do not always need to know the full context of a book of the Bible but in the case of Romans, the context is often the key to understanding the passage. This is especially true for this passage. This is what you need to know.

The Roman church was likely originally made up of Jewish believers in Jesus. The earliest part of the church was like this and we are told in Acts 2 that there were visitors from Rome at Pentecost. So we start with a largely Jewish church in Rome. Of course gradually they begin to share their faith with Gentiles or non-Jews in Rome. We gradually begin to see a mixed church, but probably with Jewish leadership in the majority. But then the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled all the Jews from Rome. He did not care if they were traditional or Christian Jews, they all had to go. This left just the Gentiles as the church and so they began to grow the church in their own way. Eventually the Roman edict was lifted and the Jews, including the Jewish Christians returned. But by this time, the Roman church was largely Gentile and the church was much different. This caused a lot of issues because there were certain things that each group thought were important that they disagreed on.

Imagine we had a small group of 16-26 year olds start to attend our church. Then all of you went off to Halifax for three years before returning. How would the church have changed? How comfortable would you be with those changes? What if they had different interpretations and traditions from those you deem to be important? That is the context in which Paul is writing this letter and this passage.

Roman Quarrels

What Paul has to say here is not abstract but reflects what was actually going on. There were quarrels and conflicts. It is likely that there were a number of issues that were disagreed on but Paul focuses on food and days. Now that might seem like some minor issues compared to what we face today, but it actually was very contentious.

Think about food. Food was not just about consuming the nutrition to stay alive, it was the foundation for fellowship and community. And for Jewish people, the kind of food you ate was closely tied to your identity. The Jewish Law had very complex rules about what could and could not be eaten. While Jews were not required to be vegetarians, the rules about meet were so specific that in Gentile dominant areas, it was easier to eat only vegetables than to track down the proper kinds of meat. So what’s the big deal? The Jewish Christians would have a strong conviction that they must be very careful with what food they ate. But at the same time, the Gentile Christians would be convinced that we have freedom in Christ and we can eat whatever we want. This would have been a major conflict.

In terms of special days, once again the Jewish Christians would have seen some days as more important than others. This would include the Sabbath as well as other special days in the Jewish calendar. This was more than just which day you got off. There had been debates over whether you could defend yourself during a time of war on the Sabbath. The Gentiles would have seen each day as being like the other. They were not against taking a day off but it could be Saturday, Sunday, or any other day. At this point, Sunday was not yet the recognized day for all Christians. People had strong convictions.

Paul does not give any advice as to how to convince the other group that they are wrong. Paul’s advice is that they need to be convinced in their own mind and they must remember that we all stand before God and we only answer for ourselves and it is not our place to judge others. If they are wrong, let God take care of that the way he wants.

Our Conflicts

That’s all fine for the church in Rome two thousand years ago but what about us? I would like to say that we have advanced beyond debates over such things but if anything, we have only expanded the areas in which we divide over.

There will always be minor disagreements, points where we have different opinions but they are not that big of a deal. For example, you might prefer if I wear a tie to church, but if I don’t, it’s not the end of the world. But there are going to be other issues that are going to hit closer to home. For example, there are those who feel strong wrongly that women should not preach or teach or have a position of leadership in the church. For them, this is not a minor issue. I remember in seminary some of the male students trying to talk female students out of pursuing their call to pastoral ministry. There are other people who not only support women in ministry but who are women in ministry. How would this passage inform such a conversation?

The first thing is that it is not something that should be dividing a church. Secondly, this is not about men putting up obstacles for women but for women to discern what God is calling them to. No man is going to have to stand before God and have to answer why they allowed a woman to become a pastor. But women will stand before God and have to answer to how they responded to what they understood God calling them to.

The same principle applies to other controversial issues. You may be absolutely convinced that it is never acceptable for a Christian to consume even the smallest amount of alcohol. Paul would say that if that is your conviction, then you should not consume any alcohol. If another Christian believes drinking in moderation is acceptable, they must be sure in their own minds and follow that conviction. Each of us will stand before God and have to answer for ourselves and not for others.

I understand that this is very difficult. There are certain things that we hold so close to our heart that we might find it offensive if others do not follow that same conviction. What Paul teaches here and in some of his other epistles is that we can follow our own convictions faithfully without enforcing those convictions on others. It does not mean that there is no right or wrong on these issues, what it means is that it is up to God and the individual to sort these things out.

Conclusion

Is it possible to agree to disagree? In some ways, we have no choice. We cannot make someone else change their mind by just wanting them to change. It really comes down to how much can we disagree on and still fellowship? If I started preaching from the pulpit that God does not exist, we might agree to disagree, but I still should be removed from the pulpit. But what about some of these other issues where devout Christians have gone to the Scriptures, studied them prayerfully, and have come to different conclusions? In the case of the church in Rome, that was definitely the case. They disagreed strongly over issues that were very important to them. But Paul called them to unity with diversity rather than uniformity. 

I believe that God has the same call upon us. You most likely have some very strong convictions on certain issues. I am thankful for that, even if we might disagree. I would rather convictions I disagree with than an apathy that did not care about anything. But can we get to the point where we respect each other’s differences and recognize that we will only answer to God for who we are and not for who we allowed someone else to be? I pray that we can.