Judgment and Judgmentalism, Part 2: Unity and Fellowship

Judgment and Judgmentalism in Matthew 7

Well, this morning I was originally planning on pressing on to verses 3 through 5 in Matthew 7 and talking about that dreadful spiritual disease known as planki, which is so prevalent among us as fallen human beings.

But I thought it perhaps needs a little more of a foundation, maybe an orientation. And so I plan to lay some groundwork for verses 3 through 5 this morning. So in some ways, this is part two to what we began discussing last week.

So we're still looking at Matthew 7, 1 and 2. We're still talking about the difference between judgment and judgmentalism. We've talked about a very positive, necessary place for judgment among Christians, moral discernment, moral evaluation.

Judgment is something that Paul rhetorically says in 1 Corinthians 5 is to take place in a church if it's to strain out chaff from wheat, the goats from sheep, or wolves from sheep for that matter. And so there is a proper place for judgment.

What Jesus is teaching against is judgmentalism. And that's what we began discussing last week. So we've been looking at with everything we've established last week and will establish this morning. We're looking at how we relate to one another.

And really here at the beginning of chapter 7, that's how we relate to one another as fellow believers, as brothers and sisters in Christ the Lord. And so that's how we relate inside, so to speak, inside the church.

And after we get to verse 6, we're going to start talking about how we relate outside. That is to those who are unbelievers. What do we do with what is holy? What do we do with pearls? And then that turns over to how we relate to God above us.

So inside, outside, above, in terms of asking for the things that we need. This relation of dependency upon God, and that comes full circle with verses 12 through 15. And really the idea there in verse 15 is you have the golden rule.

We've come full circle to how we treat others in the way we want to be treated, which sounds a lot. The measure with which we judge is the measure by which we will be judged. And how we treat others is how we can expect to be treated.

And so Jesus says here at the beginning, judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Well, let me lay out a little bit of groundwork of where we're going this morning.

At first, just a sort of recap. Judgment and judgmentalism. Beginning really with that latter end, this danger of judgmentalism. And the call is to properly love the brethren. That love involves moral judgment at times.

But that moral judgment, that moral discernment or evaluation of others' failures or sins, is never to be carried out against them in the form of judgmentalism. A sort of sneering condescension, a malicious intent, a braggadocious egoism that stands over and looks down upon.

Those things are all forbidden here if we're understanding Matthew 7, 1 rightly. And so what's forbidden is judgmentalism. Love requires us not only to notice our brother or sister, but to even at times faithfully wound our brother and sister.

This is what love requires.

Love requires, as we'll see, a willingness to go to the one who has the splinter in their eye and seek to remove it. For their sake, for their health, for their wholeness. And of course, the difference between the two is really boiled down to love.

Do you properly love the brethren? That's what we're after. Do you really fulfill the righteous requirement of the law, which includes a righteous judgment, as we saw from John 7, 5? Do not judge, but have a righteous judgment.

That's the answer. A righteous judgment always includes mercy. The intent is for the sake of the other, not for yourself. And so James says in James 2, 8, if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well.

Think of the context of James, where he's going from chapter 2 towards chapter 3, the power of the tongue. And he sets out this whole beginning in chapter 2 with, if you really fulfill the law, which says you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you'll do well.

Now, on the one hand, he's saying it's not an easy thing to do. You'll do well if you can do that. You'll exhaust the rest of your life trying to do that. And I love that he has this little word translated, really, if you really fulfill.

Because he knows it's very easier for us to say, of course, I love the brethren. Of course, I love my neighbor. I love them. Normally, this is how we say that. I love them. But. I love my brother. But.

And then we go on to show the ways that secretly in the caverns of our heart, we don't actually appreciate or love, honor or respect our brother or our sister. That's why James says, if you really love your neighbor as yourself, if you really love in the way that you would want to be loved, you'll do well.

That's pretty rare. As we said last week, the golden rule is called the golden rule for a reason.

It's as rare as gold.

Go panning for gold and see how many grains you can come up with. That's what it's like to find someone who's actually doing the golden rule. If you really fulfill the royal law. So, James, James, James, I actually do love my neighbor as myself.

I love the brethren with a holy love. And he goes, really? Like that meme with the boy with his eyebrow cocked. Really? Do you really love in that way? And he comes to verse 13 and he says, judgment is without mercy to the one who does not show mercy.

You notice how he frames this call toward corporate love in the context of the judgment of God. And he says that the judgment of God will have no mercy toward you if you are unable to show mercy to the brethren, unable to show mercy toward others.

Judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. That sounds a lot like Jesus saying that the judgment that you judge with is how you will be judged. So if we desire mercy, then we are those who show mercy.

James goes on to say in chapter four, if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge. You think you're the judge in the jury. You're not. There's one judge. His reckoning is what you'll stand before.

You might call others to your own reckoning, but what good is that? You're not the lawgiver. It's not ultimately you that they must answer to. In fact, you'll have to answer to someone as well. If you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge.

So don't stand over the law and go around grabbing everyone by their collars and neckties and saying, pay me what you owe. You rather minister and relate to others as one under the law. One call to fulfill this law, which includes loving God so that you can love your neighbor as you love yourself.

James says there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. He's ratcheting things up to the larger context of this judgment seat of Christ. And then he says, who are you to judge another? So just like we see in Matthew seven, there's this Godward vertical view, this this sort of view, this glimpse of judgment that is to animate and alleviate all of the the calls of how we relate to one another.

A Godward vertical view in light of the judgment to come means that we will relate to one another as brothers and sisters, fellow servants of God. We will not preen and prude and judge one another, but rather we will look toward the good and hold one another in higher esteem.

Paul says the same language of James says in James four. Who are you to judge? Paul begins that in 14, three Romans, 14, three. Who are you to judge? It's this constant refrain throughout scripture. What does that tell you about churches?

What does that tell you about churches? Churches are hotbeds of this kind of fleshly judgment, aren't they? The church at Rome. The church at Galatia, the church at Philippi, the church at Corinth. If you found this perfect church that is all daisies and flowers and hugs and kumbaya circles, tell me about it.

It's not a New Testament church. I can tell you that. This is what the church looks like. This is where Satan is seeking to sow division and discord. This is where people are reeling in this warfare between the flesh and the spirit of God.

This is where we're seeking sanctification, which involves not our not only our own isolated, individualized walks, but our corporate walk together. And so you find this constant refrain. Who are you to judge?

Who are you to judge? Why are you judging? Stop judging. You see the YouTube comments on videos like I saw one the other day and someone commented, there's there's no hate like Christian love. That was someone's comment.

There's no hatred like Christian love. Sometimes that's how the world thinks of the church. All under the guise of love, it's actually just hatred. Now, I can easily dismiss that. I can say all that. They're actually far more hypocritical.

They could even realize that Christians all own that we are sinners. But the reality is to the degree that anyone thinks that. There is some blame that we all should feel. The church can have a very hollow practice of Christian love.

Who are you to judge another servant, Paul asks. To his own master, he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand for God is able to make him stand. But verse 10, why do you judge your brother?

Why do you show contempt for your brother? We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Notice that Paul does what James does, what Jesus does. He frames this context of judgmentalism in light of the judgment of God.

Are you going to be the judge? Well, we'll all be before the judge one day. You see, that's a prospect. So a Godward view in light of this judgment, in light of our common hope, helps us to follow through on Jesus teaching, judge not lest we be judged.

And it helps us in this way because we're focused on our own need for mercy. If I'm conscious of the fact that I must answer before my God, my maker, my creator and my savior for all the deeds in my body, whether good or bad, I will live with the constant need for his mercy.

I will be living by grace. As we sang from the hymn based on Titus three, five, not by works of righteousness that I have done, but by mercy, he saved me. That'll be my life. And if I'm living in light of that constant need for mercy, the mercy that he's faithful to renew every morning, then I won't be judgmental toward others.

I will, in fact, be merciful toward others. Because I'm recognizing the mercy that I am not only receiving, but will need to receive on that great day when everything is laid bare, everything exposed before the one who sees and knows all things.

And on that harrowing day, my only plea will be that my savior shed his blood for me. My entrance into glory will simply be that I laid hold of a savior who showed me mercy undeserved. Now, if that is true, how should I relate to others?

How should I relate to others? If you really fulfill the law, which says you'll love your neighbor as yourself,.

You do well.

Jesus stands before those who had attained works of righteousness, the zealous Pharisees, the scrupulous scribes, and he condemns them both as those who are unable to show mercy. He reminds them of the prophets who say, mercy, I desire not sacrifice.

You look very fancy with your long robes and your best places in the synagogue, and you love the greetings in the marketplace, but you don't know how to show mercy. You might feel all the adulation of man, but you won't find the adulation of my father.

Look, prostitutes and tax collectors enter the kingdom ahead of you. Those who realize they have nothing to offer to God. In terms of saving merit. But their guilt. Nothing to offer God, as Jonathan Edwards said, but the sins which made their salvation necessary.

Those that realize, as Paul says, we've all together become worthless. And that's the sigh of their heart will be led to seek after God and live upon his mercy from mercy to mercy. Nothing but mercy. It's a comfort them to know that all of God's ways are mercy and people who recognize themselves and recognize the Lord in this way will become merciful.

We receive mercy from the God of all mercy. How could we fail to be merciful? There's an utter incongruity. Did I say that right? I'm not going to try it again. There's an utter contrast. Between someone who truly understands the mercy they have received.

To then go out and be judgmental and condescending and sneering. Against those who require that same mercy. It cannot be. It cannot be. Rather, we we look at our lives and we think, what a poor return I am for this kind of mercy.

How long have I been walking with the Lord and I'm still. Backward in all of these ways.

Still dull.

Still slow of heart to believe. Still so thick headed. But the very things I've learned and rehearsed and recited and memorized, I can't actually carry into practice. What a poor return this is. For the love that has been poured out upon me.

What a drag I am on this kingdom's holy advance. But the paradox is in the degree that I'm realizing that, I'm that much closer to the fruit of the cross. Because in that humility, there is a certain blessedness.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus reminded us. So in that sense of poverty, there's actually a place for God to become my all in all. In that place of meekness and humility. Where my sins, my sins are constantly weighing me down.

As the hymn says, I can then go my sins, my sins, my savior. And now there's a fullness that comes into my life. Mercy cascades toward me. It makes my life fruitful. As D .L. Moody once said, God never sends away anyone empty.

Except those who are full of themselves. Jesus says, the sick have no need, the healthy have no need for a physician. It's for the sick that I've come. What does Paul say to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 4?

You have it all.

You're already kings.

I wish I could reign with you.

You've arrived.

You're so full of yourselves. And look at the fruit of that. You're splitting the church four ways. There's nothing but infighting and backbiting. And now you're beginning to even question and depart from me.

I wish I could reign with you. You guys have really nailed this whole spirituality thing. You see how he's rhetorically dismantling all of the pride and pageantry of the church at Corinth. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

The Christian brings his emptiness to Christ. The Christian brings her need to Christ. And there at that very moment, the hand is now open to receive. They're in that place where we are, as it were, exposed before God.

Now is there an opportunity to be covered by God? That covering has a ripple effect in the way that we think of and regard and treat others. Those who are mature, in other words, realize that they are not yet mature.

Those who have arrived in the graces of Christianity realize they have not yet arrived in the consummated graces of Christianity. You can hardly say anything about your relationship to God without realizing this dynamic.

How much more I need him. Maybe as a new Christian, you think, ah, every week, every week I need him. Once a week, I need him. And you press on in the Christian life and you're like, I need him daily.

And you press on in the Christian life and you start to sing like the hymn writer, every hour I need thee. I need him every hour. That's maturity. That's maturity in the Christian life. What does that maturity look like?

A humility, a dependency, a weakness that is seeking fullness, a restlessness that is seeking satisfaction. Are we mature in these ways? Well, let's think about this corporately. There's only two things I want to accomplish this morning in trying to pave the way for verses three through five.

That's in part because I'll be away next week. I think Greg is planning on completing Jonah in the last chapter of Jonah. And then I'll be back to pick up Planki in verses three through five. But in paving the way, I want to think about are we actually mature?

Are we able to love in these ways? Two things that I want to focus on. First is unity and the second is fellowship. I ask the question, are we mature in these ways? Are we corporately mature in these ways?

Well, the answer to that consists largely in unity. Are we mature in these ways? The question is, are we unified? Think of a marriage. How do we get our handle around defining a mature marriage? What's a mature marriage?

What does it look like for a husband and a wife to have matured into their calling, into their roles as a husband and wife? Well, not the only way, but perhaps the best way to answer that question is, is that marriage unified?

Are they unified?

That unity will speak volumes to maturity. That unity betrays a certain spiritual depth, a recognition of God's calling, an intention, a purpose, a motion toward God's calling. And so one of the ways you answer the question of maturity is unity.

Are we a mature church body? Let's answer the question. Are we a unified church body? Why does Paul call the church at Corinth childish, immature? Because they're disunified. And he presses on to say, if you're going to be mature, if you're going to be complete, you'll actually recognize these gifts shouldn't be dividing you, they should be uniting you.

All of chapter 12 in the wholeness of the body, not every body part looks the same or functions the same, but they all require one another. And Paul says, that's the more excellent way. If you recognize what the body is and you focus on love, chapter 13, then you will be mature.

And so maturity is one of the ways we get at unity. One of the ways we can answer the question, are we a mature church is, are we a unified church? And here's my two sort of overriding statements for where we're going this morning.

First, where there is judgmentalism, there will be no unity. Where there is judgmentalism, there will be no unity. Secondly, where there is a lack of unity, there cannot be fellowship. Where there is a lack of unity, there cannot be fellowship.

That's essentially all I'm trying to answer or to elaborate this morning. Where there is judgmentalism, there is not unity. Where there is not unity, there is not fellowship. Paul knows that Christian maturity comes about largely through the unity and fellowship of believers.

That's why it's such a constant theme throughout every New Testament letter. Anything that's addressed to a church has this all over it, a constant reminder, exhortation, and call for unity and like-mindedness or fellowship in the things of the gospel.

Maturity comes about through unity and fellowship. It's why you ask the question, are we mature? Are we unified? What does our fellowship look like? Well let me say this about unity. First, unity is not uniformity.

Paul dispels that in 1 Corinthians 12. We're not all hands, we're not all feet, stomachs, eyes, mouths, noses. The stomach can't say to the foot, I have no need of you. The hand can't say to the eye, I'm better off without you.

The whole body has to function together, the parts for the whole and the whole for the parts. Everyone doing what it's been equipped and called to do for the sake of the whole. You don't want to see the Adams family hand kind of crawling around the floor in the Church of God.

Unity is not uniformity. That means we don't all talk alike, look alike, act alike. That's actually a good thing in the Church of God. I mean we're scary enough for people coming off the street, imagine if people came off the street, we're all wearing gray, you know, trench coats.

We all have weird mushroom haircuts from the 90s. We're all talking the same, we all have the same posture. I would get people running to the hills. Unity is not uniformity. We don't all drive beige sedans, wear identical outfits, eat nondescript oatmeal for lunch.

It's a good thing that unity is not uniformity. God has called us into communion with him as distinct individuals. Distinct backgrounds, distinct callings, distinct abilities, distinct weaknesses, all these things arrive together for his purpose according to the wisdom by which he composes a church body.

Unity is not uniformity. If we're aiming for uniformity, we actually won't arrive at unity, not in the way that Scripture calls. So we have to understand the difference between uniformity and unity. Part of this understands the nature of the calling itself, to walk worthy of the calling with which we were called, Ephesians 4 .1, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. So the unity of the Spirit doesn't snap into being, not according to Ephesians 4. It doesn't fall into place effortlessly.

Just reading this passage, what does the unity of the Spirit require? Lowliness, gentleness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, self-control, self-denial, not only bearing with but bearing up one another.

That's part of how you maintain the unity of the Spirit. In other words, it's a progress. This is the calling and we're growing into it. Until when? He says in verse 13, until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man.

Notice again, the translation perfect there, don't get thrown off, to a mature man, to a complete man. So what is the lack of unity, the lack of all these things look like? Immaturity. You see again, maturity is the way we get at unity.

We will not be a complete, a mature, a grown man. We will be like toddlers if we're not able to be lowly and gentle, long-suffering, willing to bear, endeavoring to maintain the unity of the Spirit. Part of this means to have the same mind.

Paul knows that sincere, mature believers are going to differ, but that's not a reason for them to stop striving toward having the same mind. You're ever striving to think about things in the same way.

It gets hard when there's a diversity, when there's so many different backgrounds and unique individuals in a church body, and yet if we're all striving toward the same mind, we'll continue to get closer and closer and closer.

For Paul, that looks like having the same judgment. Something comes up and we're unified in it. We're all looking at Scripture in the same way. That's unity. Now unity is not a virtue in itself. Unity is not actually the be-all end-all.

Truth, truth is that which is to unite believers. How can believers be of the same mind if that mind is not pursuing what is true? So the virtue is not unity at any cost. It's rather unity in the pursuit of what is true.

Unity, it's not a virtue in itself. There is a dividing line between truth and error. Think of Paul writing to the Galatians. He does not want them to be unified with the Judaizers. He wants them to be divided from them.

And what's the dividing line? It's the truth of the gospel. He's even willing, as it were, to divide from Peter over the truth of the gospel. So there's no sense in having some semblance of unity if the unity is not oriented toward truth.

If we're not striving for what is true, what is biblical, we might as not strive together at all. We might as well be Unitarians and just make sewing circles. It just doesn't matter at that point. It only matters to the degree that we're seeking what is true.

Jeff Thomas, one of my favorite preachers, he puts it this way, I'm alarmed when I hear a nervous refrain in certain church prayer meetings. Keep us united, Lord. I want to ask the person praying that prayer, well, united in what?

The Gadarene swine were all united when they went over the top of the cliff. United in what? What morality will unite us? What theology will unite us? What are these prayers going on about? Far better prayers are prayers for a growing understanding of the truth, a growing obedience to the truth, and a growing love for the truth.

May truth reign in every church. That is a far more biblical prayer than keep us united. That's a very truthful statement. So unity is not a virtue in and of itself, but unity in truth, unity in the gospel is a mark of Christian maturity.

Unity in the truth, unity in the truth of the gospel is a mark of Christian maturity. Now how do we parse this out? Well, there are secondary issues. We think of things like certain traditions, certain practices that are secondary issues, like traditions over a proper subject or mode of baptism, a proper application of the sacraments in light of baptism, right?

These are secondary issues. Secondary not meaning unimportant, but vitally important and yet underneath what is of cardinal importance. So secondary issues are very important. Churches essentially have to be united in some ways on secondary issues as a church.

My particular view would be you have a unity with all believers on the primary truth, which is the truth of the gospel, that which divides believer from unbeliever, and then the secondary issues are that by which you form churches or church traditions.

What's our view on baptism? What's our understanding of the nature of a church, of a church body, right? These differ across traditions and we would say they differ as secondary issues. I do not think it's wise for a individual church to have a mix of secondary views.

I think it's far better to create multiple congregations that can agree and move toward the same secondary views. And then there's tertiary views, those third-level views, and that's down to how much seasoning you put on your chicken for dinner, things of that nature.

What style of music, perhaps? Contemporary? Classic? Of course, even with any of these debates, there's a sort of seesaw between the second and the third level of doctrine, but we should say there are clearly secondary issues.

The primary thing is the gospel that all believers have in common, the truth that we all contend for, the secondary issues by which various theological traditions emerge, and out of those theological traditions, churches are formed.

We hold to be dear brothers and sisters, our Christ-believing gospel-saturated Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, even a Methodist maybe in there somewhere? No, of course, there's many godly Methodists, Calvinistic Methodists.

And then, of course, there's the tertiary issues. Now the tertiary issues, those third-level issues, are what often threaten an individual church, a local church, and Paul shows us again and again and again that we are not to deny those who differ on secondary matters, and we are not to judge those who differ on tertiary matters.

Let me say that again. Paul will show us again and again not to deny those who differ on the second level, certain practices underneath the gospel. We're not to deny them as brothers and sisters if we're aligned on the first level, but we are not to judge those on the third level.

We're not to judge one another on the third level. It's a very, very important point. The fact that God is a revealer means that Christians can trust the Spirit will lead them into what is true, and that can afford a church body with those who have been walking with the Lord for 10, 20, 30 years to grow in the same patience to show for those that have only been growing in the Lord for one, two, or three years.

God is patient in how he reveals things to us. He feeds us in due time with what's appropriate for our age, and Christians who are maturing need to recognize the same thing. A foolish dad is gonna try to feed a six-month-old a meatball sub, right?

God doesn't do that. God is a lot more like the wise mother who will almost brawl with the dad who's trying, what are you doing? It's food that's appropriate for the season or the time. God is patient in how he brings us along, and so maturing Christians are to be patient with how they are to bring the immature along.

That means that a maturing church actually has patience toward those who are immature, charity toward those who are weak, gracious toward those who are wayward. That is a mark of Christian maturity. Now, of course, it takes a lot of wisdom and maturity just to discern what's a secondary issue and what's a third-level issue.

Where is something, as it were, right underneath the gospel, and where is something a matter of practice or family tradition? And some of the difference emerges right there. Some of the division in a church body, some of the friction can be, this brother thinks it's a third-level issue and this brother thinks it's a second-level issue.

Now, there's a problem bubbling beneath all of this, and it's especially true among Reformed Christians. We always want to have our convictions maxed out on just about everything. We want to turn that volume dial all the way up.

I call it reference there, all the way up. If we didn't think we were right about an issue, we wouldn't hold on to it, right? In that level, it seems like every issue we're holding on to is a first-level issue.

There are no second, there are no third-level issues. Every issue is a gospel issue. Well, now there's no opportunity for real Christian unity, no opportunity for real Christian fellowship. If we're turning our volume all the way up, we're gonna be like Roger Williams.

You excommunicate everyone in your church, including eventually yourself. The church is some empty building. Where'd all the believers go? We turn the volume all the way up. If we didn't think we were right about an issue, we wouldn't hold on to it.

And it's because we think we're right about an issue that we contend for it. We hold it because we believe it to be true. We argue for it because we believe it to be true. And what Paul says, and what Paul models out is, we should always be mindful of, first, what is most important for the Christian, and second, what is most helpful for them to attain what is most important.

This is where the mature learn to bear with the immature. This is where those who perhaps are strong in the Romans 14 sense learn how to defer to those who are weak in the Romans 14 sense. And Paul doesn't actually assign the labels.

Well, wait, Paul, who's strong, who's weak? Because we always want to be strong, and he goes, figure it out. I think he's doing some really neat rhetoric there by just unloading the strong and the weak.

Probably our definitions and parameters for who is strong is not what Paul would understand to be strong. The strong is the one who has such a regard for his brother that he will not cause him to stumble.

So though I have something that I believe to be true, I'm convicted it is true, I want to contend for it as truth. All these things are right and fitting, and they have their place among the people of God.

And yet what is to be overarching for all of these convictions, whether second or third level, is that I am to have a regard, first and foremost, for who is this brother or sister in Christ, and therefore what will be most helpful for them to take the next step in their walk with the Lord.

That means I'm not going to shout down or tire out, I'm not going to throw them a pair of boxing gloves and say, get in the ring, I've been here for 15 years, you've been here for five, now we're going to do...

That's just, there's no place for that in the church of God. If it is a brother, if it is a sister, we think of them first in relation to their identity in Christ. We know that we have a role to play in their walk with Christ.

We who have gone on before have a certain pattern and an example that is meant to influence them, where to feed them the right food in the right season, to show them the steps that we have also trod, to avoid the snares that perhaps have caught us along the way.

These are all things that we're called to do to one another. So I regard my brother or my sister first with the freedom that they have in Christ. They're Christ's servant, not mine. They answer to Christ, not me.

I answer to Christ. Who would I be to judge? So there's no place for judgmentalism. I respect their ability to look at the Scriptures like a Berean. I respect their God-given conscience. It may not be as informed as it ought to be, but I respect it to the degree that it is informed.

I honor it. I seek in a winsome and loving way to shed more light. Now the weaker brother needs to be willing. There's no place for the weaker brother to become the very thing that he would kick against.

The golden rule helps us so much here. The weaker brother is not able to be judged right here. Hey, how dare you tell me I can't do this? How dare you try to advise me otherwise? I'm the weaker brother.

Leave me alone. I can do what I want. I believe the Gospel. R .C. Sproul has a tremendous sermon called The Tyranny of the Weaker Brother in Romans 14. Now the weaker brother is one who recognizes, I need to be teachable.

There's someone who has walked a lot more faithfully, someone that I look up to. They may not be perfect in every respect, but they have a lot more figured out in the Christian life than I do. They spend a lot more time in God's Word, a lot more time using the means of grace than I have.

I need to be teachable to them. Right now I don't know that I agree or disagree with them. I need to be teachable. You see, both sides moving for the sake of the other, both sides deferring, esteeming, honoring one another, viewing one another through the lens of who they are in Christ.