God's Black and White on Gray Areas (2) - "Life, Love and the Pursuit of Unity" (Romans 14:13-23)

Liberty of Conscience and Gray Areas in Romans 14

Well, be seated, please, thank you. Well, once again, a good morning to you all. Pray that this Lord's Day is a blessing to you. For the benefit of those of you visiting with us this morning, we are actually this morning gonna be halfway through a sermon series that we started last week, looking at Romans chapter 14 and 15, Romans chapters 14 and 15, and we've entitled the series God's Black and White on Gray Areas.

As we read God's Word, we recognize that there are some things that God's Word says quite plainly, and those are issues that we obey or abstain from, as the case may be. But then there are those areas in God's Word which are not quite as straightforward.

Matters of opinion. In the study of theology, they call them adiophora, things that are neither here nor there. And the question becomes, how do we as Christians navigate those areas, particularly recognizing that Christians don't always agree on everything?

And so if that's the case, well, biblically, how do we navigate those issues in a way that is sober-minded, that is biblically faithful, and that puts others first? I had a conversation with someone this week.

It might have been my wife. It may have been someone else. I have so many conversations, I lose track. But the conversation that I had revolved around the subject of defining what a gray area actually is.

Because I kind of use the term, I've kind of assumed, my wife's nodding, I guess it was with Laura that I had this conversation. It's kind of bad for me to assume that we all have the same definition for what a gray area is.

And so I think, yes, the conversation's come back to me now. Laura asked me to give a definition for one, and I kind of came up with one on the spot, having taken some time to think about it. And then I went back and checked it, made sure it was accurate, and thankfully it was.

When we talk about gray areas, we're talking about areas in which Scripture gives us neither a clear command or a principle that we can apply. And so the judgment is left to an individual Christian. I'll say that again.

Areas in which Scripture gives us neither a clear command or a principle that we can apply. And so we are called to walk in wisdom in relation to that issue. And there are loads of them. I think the issues change from age to age.

100 years ago, Christians were battling issues that Christians in 2020 aren't battling. If the Lord Jesus tarries and doesn't make his return speedy, we may find in 100 years from now that there are other issues that believers will have debates and conversations about and not be sure about.

So what the issue is doesn't matter. And in fact, as you look at Romans 14 and 15, the issue is very specific. But that being said, there are principles that we can learn, I believe, from this section of God's Word.

And so that's why we're taking four weeks to kind of walk through this section of Scripture. When you came in this morning, either on the seat or on the little table at the back there, there was a study guide that you should have.

You're definitely gonna need that for this morning as we look at this text. This morning, we're gonna look at Romans 14, verses 13 to 23. Romans 14, verses 13 to 23. I've tagged this text this morning.

Life, love, and the pursuit of unity. If that sounds familiar, I borrowed it from this country's history. I believe the phrase is lie.

What was the phrase? Make sure I get it right.

Yes, the pursuit of happiness, that's what. Wasn't there a film a few years ago that was also called that?

Yes.

I kind of borrowed that title because as I read this section, it made sense that really these are the three things that Paul discusses in this section of God's Word. So Romans chapter 14, verses 13 to 23.

As I said last week, each week we're gonna read the text that we're gonna look at together. Since it flows into, since last week's text flows seamlessly into this one, what I'm gonna do this week is I will have the whole thing on the screen.

I'll read verses one through 12, and then verse 13, I'll invite you to stand with me and we'll read the rest of the section from 13 to 23. So Romans chapter 14, I'm gonna begin reading in verse one. When we get to verse 13, if you'd stand with me and we'll read in unison like we did last week.

Romans chapter 14 then, beginning in verse one. Brothers and sisters, these are the words of God. Welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but don't argue about disputed matters. One person believes he may eat anything, while one who is weak eats only vegetables.

One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not judge one who does because God has accepted him. Who are you to judge another's household servant? Before his own Lord, he stands or falls, and he will stand because the Lord is able to make him stand.

One person judges one day to be more important.

Than another day.

Someone else judges every day to be the same. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord. Whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, and whoever does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat it, and he gives thanks to God.

For none of us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself. If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Christ died and returned to life for this, that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living.

But you, why do you judge your brother or sister, or you? Why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, for it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God.

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. If you rise with me as we read our text for this morning, verses 13 to 23. Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead, decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister.

I know, and I'm persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one, it is unclean. For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love.

Do not destroy by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and receives human approval. So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another. Do not tear down God's work because of food.

Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make someone fool by what he eats. It is a good thing not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God.

Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves, but whoever stands condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin. Brothers and sisters, the grass withers, the flower fades,.

But the word of our God will abide forever.

Join with me as I breathe one more word of prayer after the Spirit's help, and then we study God's word this morning. Join with me as I pray. Heavenly Father, as always, I invite your participation in both the communication and reception of this word.

I pray that as we spend this time in your word that you use the word through the agency of the Spirit to make us more like Christ. Father, this is a passage that is easy to read and it's hard to swallow.

Help us that as we walk through Paul's logic in this text that we would submit ourselves to what the scripture has to say, not what our culture tells us, not what our upbringing has told us, not what our own experiences have told us, but that we would bring everything to the touchstone of your word.

Father, if I may pray a weird prayer for a moment, I pray that your word will be like sandpaper, that it would file off the rough edges in us that don't conform to your will and your way. Father, that process may be painful, but we ask that you help us that we would see the greater good that comes from that painful, refining experience.

We ask these things in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Defining Love and the Liberty Principle

As I said this morning, I've tagged our text, Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Unity. Years ago, I had a book recommended to me about the subject of love. It wasn't my standard type of reading material, but it was recommended to me, and so I took time and I read the book.

And as I read the book, the same way I read most books for the first time with pencil in hand and I'm kind of marking things and asking questions and making notes to myself, I couldn't shake a couple of things as I read this book.

First of all, this was an ostensibly Christian book. The author professes to be a believer, and yet it had almost no reference to scripture. And when it, actually I say almost, because it did have some passages here and there.

Scattered throughout,.

But when it did mention the word of God, it was out of context and it was what one author, Eddie's not in here, but Eddie and I were talking about this guy, Chris Rose, but he's termed it narcissus. Ever heard that term before?

Narcissus, it's a mixture of narcissistic and exegesis. The idea is that it's reading the Bible with you at the center of it. And every time that a verse of scripture was quoted in this book, it seemed to be just like that.

And it was like, okay, you quoted this verse, I'm looking, I know that verse, I'm looking at it in its context. It doesn't mean what you're making it mean. You basically put people at the center of this, not the meaning of the text at the center of this.

So that kind of worried me. But more so, the thing that worried me was that this book that I was reading, this ostensibly Christian book was incredibly self-centered. I think multiple times in the margin of the book, I kept writing self, self, self, and I always ping something off for me when I read a Christian book and it's incredibly self-centered in the way that it treats issues.

Sure, the book talked about showing love to others, but it was clear the author was more concerned with what he termed multiple times in this book as how you, and he was very emphatic in saying how you, quote unquote, receive love.

Well, still, I mean, it seemed innocuous enough, so I read it and didn't give it much thought afterwards. But I will admit, it kind of bugged me and I couldn't entirely buy in to the premise of the book.

Well, fast forward a number of years and I start doing biblical counseling training. And I'll never forget, it was in the first class, learning about varying psychological models that are out there and where they fall short in comparison to scripture.

First class, I'm sitting there and a brother who's teaching, starts teaching this stuff, and it hit me. I was like, in fact, I stopped him and said, have you heard of, and I mentioned the name of the book, because it's not really germane to our topic this morning, so I'm not gonna mention it.

But I mentioned the name of the book, have you heard of this? And he's like, oh yeah, the guy is an integrationist. He believes in the integration of psychology and Christian thought, and as is often the case, it's often the Christian thought that kind of gets edged out when you combine those two, tends to always be the rule.

And it's like, yeah, Kofi, at the core, the problem of that book is, it doesn't have a biblical definition of love. And I was like, oh. This year, I just studied it for a second, like this. He's got a point.

The book actually didn't define what love was once. It just kind of assumed a almost worldly definition of what love was, and kind of left it at that. Now, of course, Christian publishing is kind of notorious for having bestsellers with almost zero biblical fidelity.

Almost seems like, for you to have a Christian bestseller nowadays, the primary requirement is that it's actually not too biblical. But it did highlight for me a painful reality, that whole experience of a number of years, actually, from when I read the book to sitting in that counseling class to thinking about it some more.

It did highlight a painful reality for me that Christians, you and I, we often don't define our words. And so because we don't define our terms, we end up, when we have to start thinking about them, co-opting the world's definitions.

Rather than saying, okay, what is it that the word of God says about the subject, in this case, the subject of love, it's, well, I mean, we all have a definition of what love is, so we'll just work with that, and then from there, we'll start talking about it.

Rather than allowing the word of God to define our terms, we just kind of co-opt the world's definitions. Well, I say that as we introduce this message this morning, because as we continue in Romans chapters 14 and 15, Paul's gonna talk to us about love this morning.

In fact, he explicitly says so. You notice it there in the reading, verse 15. For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. You remember that I said that Romans chapter 14 and 15, through to verse 13, kind of breaks down into four.

That there are four principles that Paul wants us to bear in mind as we navigate these areas that Christians don't always see eye to eye on. Last week, we began by looking at what we call the liberty principle, the fact that God alone is Lord of the conscience, and that as Lord of the conscience, he's left it free from any doctrine or commandment of men.

Men don't get to tell you, in relation to matters of worship and life, what it is you can and can't do. Only God reserves that right. Well, this morning, we come to the second of these principles in verses 13 to 23, and it's the principle of love.

The principle of love. Now, before we go on, I do need to give one technical detail this morning, and it's about the structure of this passage. Typically, Paul's thought is very linear. He starts in point A, he goes to point C, and he concludes with point B, excuse me, and concludes in point C.

It's very easy to follow his thought. This section is slightly different. Rather than moving in a sort of linear A to B to C kind of fashion, he kind of starts a point, brings another one in, develops one, makes a final point, and then goes back and recovers the first three points that he made.

The technical term for this is what's called a chiasm. It's a cross-shaped structure, that's what chiasm means, and it has the main point, not at the beginning of the section or the end of the section, it has it in the middle.

I struggled with how to explain this in a way that actually makes sense, and then I found a diagram that actually showed this. So on the back of page one of your study guide this morning, you should see something that looks a lot like this, for the benefit of those watching at home.

This is Romans 13, 23 to, well, 13 to 21. This is from a really great resource I recommend actually called Teaching Romans by a British teacher called Christopher Ashe. And what he does is note where the structure actually starts as you bought my cool pointer this morning to help me out with this.

So if you notice in verse 13, you have the language of stumbling. So instead, make up your mind or judge not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. Well, jump down to verse 20, there's the language of stumbling again.

In fact, verse 21, I think in the CSB, it translates it as stumble. NIV, which is what he was using, says to fall, but it's the same root word, to stumble. So you've got stumbling at the top and stumbling at the bottom.

Well, go in a level, you have the language of clean and unclean. So verse 14, I'm convinced that no food is unclean in itself. If someone regards something as unclean, for him, it's unclean. Well, jump down to verse 20, all food is clean.

So you've got that parallel there. 15 to 19, the language of destruction. So do not buy your eating, destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Verse 20, do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food, same point made.

And 17 to 18 is kind of the core idea, this idea of the kingdom of God. So notice the kingdom of God, matter of eating and drinking. Verse 18, whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

So again, you have this, like I said, inverted structure where everything's kind of leading to verses 17 and 18. And so this morning, well, as I put this message together, I realized kind of just going from verse 13, just marching down doesn't work.

You need to kind of follow Paul's structure here. As you look at Paul's structure in this passage, you get three big ideas. I'm looking at this sort of structure here, three big ideas. The idea of conscience, the idea of love, and the idea of the kingdom.

The idea of conscience, the idea of love, the idea of the kingdom. Conscience, that we must never pressure another Christian to do something unless they are convinced in their own mind that it honors Christ as Lord.

So we must never pressure another Christian to do something unless they are convinced in their own mind that it honors Christ as Lord. So that's the principle of conscience. The second principle is the principle of love.

And the principle of love basically says that we must build up God's people in love by putting them first, excuse me, rather than ourselves. So we must build up God's people in love by putting them first rather than ourselves.

And then there's the principle of the kingdom. Principle of the kingdom, and that principle basically says that we must submit to the reality that God rules his people. This will be a long one, so I'll say it a couple of times.

We must submit to the reality that God rules his people who live together in right relationship to him, harmony with him and others, and in joy in the Holy Spirit. We must submit to the reality that God rules his people who live together in right relationship to him, harmony with him and others, and in joy in the Holy Spirit.

Three principles that come out of this passage. And so we wanna be faithful to Paul's structure this morning. And so it's gonna seem like we're going back and forth through our text, and I'll encourage you, even if you're not the note-taking type, jot some things down.

It might help you to follow along. In the spirit of capturing how Paul lays out this second principle of love this morning, I've got three lessons in love that I want us to consider. Three lessons in love that Paul gives us in this section so that we can walk in others' focused love and not in self-centered judgment.

Three lessons in love that Paul gives us in this section so that we can walk in other-focused love and not in self-centered judgment. So three lessons. Can I hasten on to give you the first of these?

Love Respects the Conscience of Others

First of these is this, that love respects the conscience of others. Love respects the conscience of others. Verses 13 or 14 and verses 22 and 23. Well, verse 13, Paul picks up the thread that he started all the way back in verse one.

So remember in verse one, he says, "'Accept anyone who is weak in faith, "'but don't argue about disputed matters.'". Verse 13, he picks up that thread again. "'Therefore, let us no longer judge one another.

"'Instead, decide never to put a stumbling block "'or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister.'". Using a play on words, it's interesting, the word that's translated judge and the word that's translated decide is the same word.

It's the same word. Paul says we are called not to pass judgment on each other, but to use that ability to reason and to determine and to come to a decision. Take that faculty and Paul essentially says, put it to better use.

Don't judge one another. Instead, decide to never put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister. Now, if you've grown up in church like I did, or you've been around church people long enough, we use this term stumbling block a lot, or we used to anyway nowadays, maybe not so much, but this language of the stumbling block exists in our thinking.

And I think we've used it for so long and so often that we often don't stop and define the term. Here's how one standard resource on the language of the New Testament puts it. It says a stumbling block is an opportunity to experience inward pain or take offense or make a misstep.

An opportunity to experience inward pain or take offense or make a misstep. The term that's translated pitfall here, Jesus used it, if you're taking notes, Matthew chapter 13 and verse 41, where he says that at the end of the age, the father will send the angels into the earth and it says to remove all things that cause sin.

Same word that's translated pitfall here. In fact, that same resource that I mentioned is called BDAG. Same resource defines pitfall like this. It defines it as to put temptation in someone's way. To put temptation in someone's way.

So you take those two definitions, you put them together and you get this kind of a sense. Paul doesn't want the Roman Christians, those who were strong in their faith, those who knew the, like we said last week, knew the implications of what they believed.

He did not want those who were strong in faith to act in any way that would cause somebody pain in their conscience or lead them to sin. Say that again. Paul doesn't want the Roman Christians who were strong in faith to do anything that would lead either to pain in one's conscience or would lead to sin.

Can I pause and say that part of Christian love that Paul would have us to understand is that love is not leading someone to compromise his or her own principles or to do that which they think to be wrong.

It can be very easy to think that because we're right, others have to be right along with us. Remember growing up, my mother used to say Kofi, everybody has, well, actually she did say Kofi sometimes.

She also called me Douglas, that's my actual first name. Either way, she would say, Douglas, people have the right to be wrong. And that was her simple way of saying, you don't have to always labor and fight with people to come to your perspective on an issue.

Paul would say, actually, the loving thing to do sometimes is just to leave that person alone. Remember what we saw last week? That you might think something is fine or not fine. You might feel strongly one way or another and Paul doesn't say that.

In fact, Paul himself says that something is strong and something is weak. Did you know that last week when we looked at this text? Paul says that the person who eats only vegetables and won't eat everything, he says that's weak.

Paul doesn't say that it's wrong to say something is fine or not fine. After all, Paul, as an apostle, he wouldn't violate liberty of conscience. In fact, he's quite plain about that throughout the New Testament.

But listen to what Paul says in the parallel to this in 1 Corinthians chapter eight. 1 Corinthians 8, nine. He says, but be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.

Be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak. You see, brothers and sisters, it's very possible to be right in such a way that it would honestly be better to be wrong yet walking in love.

That may sound counter-cultural for many people. You say, wait a minute, Kofi, don't we always want to be right? Yes, we always want to be right. We want to be accurate. We want to be faithful to what God's word says.

Yes, we don't want to violate our conscience. Absolutely, no debate. But if in the pursuit of being right, we end up trampling roughshod over somebody's conscience, might sound harsh, but you'd be better off being wrong than to just keep trampling over that person's conscience.

If I could put it another way, more positively, the fact that you have freedoms, the fact that you have an opinion on a matter is superseded by the fact that you are called to walk in sacrificial, others-focused love.

You love your brother and sister not by endlessly regaling them about how wrong they are. You love your brother and sister not by griping or complaining internally or vocally. You love your brother not even by trying to change their mind, no.

You love your brother or sister in the Lord with whom you disagree by determining not to flex your freedoms if they don't see it that way. Let me say that again. You love your brother or sister by determining not to flex your freedoms if they don't see it that way.

Just in case there would be any confusion, Paul once again lays out himself as an example, practicing what he preached. You see that there in verse 14? He says, for I know and I'm persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.

Paul was convinced beyond question that nothing was unclean. I can eat whatever I want. But before we run too quickly, do you know it's where Paul finds his confidence? You see it there in the text? It's one of those blink and you'll miss it moments.

He says, I know and I'm persuaded in the Lord Jesus. It wasn't his ability to reason through the issue. It wasn't his experience as a church planter, an evangelist, as a theologian. It wasn't his stellar spiritual experiences.

Remember, this is the Paul who saw the resurrected Jesus, not once, not twice, but multiple times over the course of his ministry. If anybody had reason to say, listen, you should listen to me. Have you seen Jesus?

No, I have. Have you seen? No, you haven't. Did Jesus tell you directly to go into the ministry? No, he did me. That's not what Paul bases confidence in. He says that it's in the Lord Jesus. Paul's conviction was that eating something was no, Paul's conviction, excuse me, that eating something was no big deal.

That conviction flowed out of the fact that his identity, get this, wasn't in his liberties. His identity wasn't found in his ability.

To do this or do that.

His identity, get this, was in his union with Christ. His identity was, that's why you can say it's in the Lord Jesus that he knows and is fully persuaded. Can I pause and say, union with Christ, union with Christ.

How often do you think about that doctrine? The fact that when you became a Christian, God, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, united you savingly to Jesus Christ, such that everything that Jesus is, or everything that Jesus procures in salvation, I should say, everything that he receives as the reward for his suffering is now yours.

How often do we think about that? How often do we take time and meditate on this fact that now Jesus is not somebody out there, I believe it's Calvin in the Institute who says that everything that Jesus is means nothing to us as long as he's out there.

It's only as we're joined to him, as we're connected with him, it's only through that that we're able to receive any of the benefits that Christ procures for us. It's out of that union with Christ that Paul could say simultaneously, see there in verse 14, I know and I'm persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself.

And he can say, rest of the verse, still to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one, it's unclean. He said, you can feel strongly in your conscience about an issue. And there's your brother and sister and they feel differently and be just fine.

In a very real sense, brothers and sisters, Paul was free. He was free to love others who differed from him. He was free to love others without wounding their consciences. Can I put it to you that sometimes it's hard for us to love well, it's hard for us to love people because we're trying to love people in our own strength.

Has that hit you before as a Christian? The reality that it's really hard to love people sometimes. And of course, as Christians, what we tend to do is try and guilt trip people at this point. Well, you should love one another.

That's what the Bible says you should do. I'll be honest. I've had people tell me that over the years at various points in my life. I know that's what the Bible says, but it's really hard. Have you encountered humanity lately?

You see, you can try and white knuckle it and do it in your own strength, but it'll only take you so far. You see, that might work for some people just to kind of say, well, you know what? I'm gonna try really, really hard to just love everyone.

That might work for some people, but it doesn't work for everyone. In fact, I would argue it doesn't work for most people. No, you need divine empowerment to love others with the, if I can say it like this, the God kind of love.

You can't do that in yourself. You can't say, well, I'm gonna try really, really, really hard, and if I really try, I can love people. No, no, no, that's not how that works. Willpower does not work here.

No, you need divine empowerment, and where do we find that divine empowerment? We find that divine empowerment as we're united to Christ. I wasn't planning on going here, but let's do this real quick.

John 15, John chapter 15. John chapter 15, one of the great texts on this subject of union with Christ.

John chapter 15, I'll begin reading in verse one.

John chapter 15, verse one. Word of God says, I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit, he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.

Can I pause and say we've all experienced that painful moment at one point in our lives where, oh, I'm making real growth, and then something really bad happens. We start feeling like, what in the world happened?

I thought things were going well. No, that's a perfect sign that everything's going well. Verse three. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit. If you're the underlining type in your Bible, you might want to mark this. Because you can do nothing without me.

Part of the problem we have in loving at times is that we're trying to do it ourselves, but Jesus gives us the cheat code, as it were. He says, listen, you can't do it without me. Far from being a sort of works program where we have to make ourselves a white knuckle, no, we're called to receive the empowerment that only God can give so that we can love one another in such sacrificial ways.

Turning back to Romans chapter 14, Paul gives us the what in verses 13 and 14. I'm just gonna tell us how you do that. So jump, like I said, because of the way this thing is structured, jump all the way down to verse 22.

Verse 22. How do you love one another in this kind of radical Christ-empowered way? Number one, Romans 14, 22. Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. One commentator I read this week, he was an Australian, and you can tell, I'll read it and you'll realize why very quickly.

One commentator I read this week, he quipped this. He said, quote, this is hilarious. Paul clearly didn't live in 20th century America, nor believed in its First Amendment.

Ouch.

Granted, he goes on to say that being an Australian is not much different where he's from. Coming from the UK, I can testify it's not much different there either. If there's one thing that our culture does not abide by, it's telling somebody that though they have the right to say how they feel, they probably shouldn't sometimes.

Think about it. Think about how we're raised when we're children. I know how I was raised. I think it bothered my father that I'm kind of a quiet one of my four siblings, my three siblings, four of us, that I'm generally not given to talking much.

My father's most annoying, for him it was really annoying, I could tell. Why are you so timid? His way of saying, why don't you ever speak up? It's like, I'm just not naturally built like that, I suppose, I don't know.

We're all raised from when we're really young. No, you speak up for yourself. You advocate for yourself. Now, that's not always wrong. There are times and places where that's absolutely needed, but Paul seems to reckon that there are times when you probably shouldn't.

My pastor back in London used to say, can't get over it, can't get around it, just have to go through it. You need to just stop sometimes. Paul calls us to honor the consciences of others, to respect the conscience of others by, get this, opting not even to place a burden on another believer by even vocalizing how we feel about an issue.