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SECTION f (continued) – The Conduct
of The Saints (12:01
– 15:07)
Balanced
by SECTION F – The Conduct of Mankind (1:18
– 3:20)
Romans Fourteen – Verses 1 to 23
01. Now the
infirm in the faith be taking to yourselves,
but not for discrimination of reasonings.
Fellowship
among God's saints should not be based on knowledge or ignorance. God
receives us even when we are feeble in faith. We should not cut from our
fellowship one who does not follow all our deductions from the Scriptures.
Neither should we make light of his scruples. No foods are forbidden now.
Yet the undoubted wisdom of the food regulations under the law may well
help us to determine what is best, without abridging our liberty to eat all
things with a good conscience. We may not dictate to one another in these
things. They are to be settled by the individual conscience before
God. Concordant Commentary
Those who are being saved are those who have been
given to believe the essentials of the evangel - that Jesus suffered, died,
was buried, and roused from the dead by God for our sakes, and that He is
therefore Lord! God has designated beforehand who will be called now and,
to these, He gratuitously gives belief and justification
simultaneously. There is no middle ground where one only half-believes the
evangel and is half-justified.
Rom.10:8-11 Near you is the declaration, in
your mouth and in your heart—
that is, the declaration
of faith which we are heralding
9 that, if ever you
should be avowing with your mouth
the declaration that
Jesus is Lord,
and should be believing
in your heart
that God
rouses Him from among the dead, you shall be saved.
10 For with the heart
it is believed for righteousness,
yet with the mouth
it is avowed for salvation.
11 For the scripture is
saying:
Everyone who is believing on Him shall not be disgraced.
The
faith under discussion here, however, is NOT this given saving
faith. Rather, this is the faith that develops as a result of being
saved - a faith that arises and is nurtured by the saving faith of
Christ and the spirit of sonship which is given to those who are
believing. It develops on a continuing experience of God’s operation in
their lives. God’s gift of saving faith initiates our walk in faith. Though
saving faith through the evangel is an instantaneous gift of God, growth in
understanding what this entails is an on-going process under the
Lord.
Rom.1:16,17 For not ashamed am I of the
evangel,
for it is God's power
for salvation to everyone who is believing—
to the Jew first, and to
the Greek as well.
17 For in it God's
righteousness is being revealed, out of faith for faith,
according as it is
written: "Now the just one by faith shall be living."
Not everyone has been blessed with the same degree of this
faith and development in understanding. Scripture speaks of a measure
of faith that God bestows on one who has already become a believer. The
spiritual growth of each believer is in accord with God’s timetable for
that individual. As such, we do not all grow at the same rate under the
same stimulus.
Rom.12:3 For I am saying,
through the grace which is given to me,
to everyone who
is among you,
not to be overweening,
beyond what your disposition must be,
but to be of a sane
disposition, as God parts to each the measure of faith.
Eph.4:7 Now to each one of us
was given grace in
accord with the measure of the gratuity of Christ.
Eph.2:10 For His achievement are we,
being created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God makes ready beforehand, that we should be walking in
them.
Those
who are more mature in the faith should, therefore, be able to understand
this situation and graciously and sincerely accept the weaker brethren who
may still be adjusting from certain `hang-ups' and observances of old. We should not be judgmental over
these for GOD has chosen them, called them, and justified them. They, as
much as we, are HIS achievement - and He knows exactly what He is doing. It
is certain, therefore, that each one will be a
complete success in His capable hands.
Rom.8:30 Now whom He designates
beforehand, these He calls also,
and whom He calls, these He
justifies also;
now whom He justifies, these He
glorifies also.
We should be able to accept such ‘infirm’ believers in
this light. It is not for us to get into arguments and, perhaps even
unintentionally, force our understanding and ‘wisdom’ down their throats.
They are God’s continuing achievement, not ours. Ours is to present
and expound the evangel to them as clearly as we can, and for this we will
receive our ‘wages’ – but we need to leave their grasp of it and their
growth to God alone.
Eph.4:32 yet become kind to one
another, tenderly compassionate,
dealing graciously among yourselves,
according as God also, in Christ,
deals graciously with you.
1Cor.3:7,8 … neither is he who is planting
anything, nor he who is irrigating,
but God Who makes it grow up.
8 Now he who is planting and he who is
irrigating are for one thing.
Yet each will be getting his own wages
according to his own toil.
Our spiritual maturity is
seen in how we relate to these infirm believers. We are not
competing against them to appear, even in our own eyes, better than
they. We are competing together with them so that we all
attain to the same appreciation of God and of Christ.
Eph.4:12-14 toward the adjusting
of the saints for the work of dispensing,
for the upbuilding of the body of
Christ,
13 unto the end that we should all
attain to the unity of the faith
and of the realization of the son of God,
to a mature man, to the measure of the stature
of the complement of the Christ,
14 that we may by no means still be
minors, surging hither and thither
and being carried about by every wind of
teaching, by human caprice,
by craftiness with a view to the systematizing of the deception.
Rom.15:1-4 Now we, the able, ought to be
bearing the infirmities of the impotent,
and not to be pleasing ourselves.
2 Let each of us please his associate, for his
good, toward his edification.
3 For Christ also pleases not Himself, but
according as it is written,
"The reproaches of those reproaching Thee
fall on Me."
4 For whatever was written before, was
written for this teaching of ours,
that through the endurance and the consolation of
the scriptures
we may have expectation.
Rom.15:5-7 Now may the God of
endurance and consolation
grant you to be mutually disposed to one
another, according to Christ Jesus,
6 that, with one accord, with one mouth,
you may be glorifying the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
7 Wherefore be taking one another to
yourselves
according as Christ also took you to Himself, for
the glory of God.
02. One,
indeed, is believing to eat all things,
yet the infirm one is eating
greens.
Of late, vegetarianism has
become popular – especially among those who claim to be health-conscious.
Earlier, it was mainly part of the observance of eastern religions,
especially Buddhism, where the taking of animal life is taboo.
Some ‘Christians’ have adopted this reasoning and stay
away from eating meat. They claim that we should not take the life of
another creature in order to sustain our own lives, adding that the bible
commands that we should not kill.
The fact is that Scripture
commands that we do no murder. This word is from the Greek ‘phoneuö’
rather than from ‘apokteinö’, which is rendered kill.
When Adam and Eve realized what they had done in the
eating of the fruit in the garden, they attempted to cover themselves with
fig leaves. But God clothed them with tunics of skin, obviously from an
animal which had to be killed.
Gen.3:6-8 …And taking is she of its fruit and
is eating,
and she is giving, moreover, to her husband with her, and they are
eating.
7 And unclosing are their eyes, they two,
and knowing are they that they are naked.
And sewing are they fig leaves and making
for themselves girdle skirts.
Gen.3:21 And making is Yahweh Elohim
for Adam and for his wife tunics of skin,
and is clothing them.
Again, Cain brought an offering of the choicest
produce of the land, while Abel offered the life from the firstlings of his
flock.
Gen.4:2-5 … And coming is Abel to be the
grazier of a flock,
yet Cain becomes a server of the
ground.
3 And coming is it, at
the end of days, that bringing is Cain,
from the fruit of the ground, a present offering to
Yahweh.
4 Abel also is bringing,
he, moreover, from the firstlings of
his flock, and from their fat.
And heed is Yahweh giving to Abel and to
his present offering,
5 yet to Cain and to his
present offering He does not give heed….
The Temple ritual system given to Israel through Moses
required the daily slaughter of many animals. There were instructions to
the priests and people for the consumption of the meat – and this
constituted them participants with the offering.
1Cor.9:13 Are you not aware
that the workers at the sacred things are
eating of the things of the sanctuary?
Those settling beside the altar have their
portion with the altar.
1Cor.10:18 Observe Israel
according to the flesh.
Are not those eating the sacrifices
participants with the altar?
In a repetitive lesson it
was being demonstrated to the people of Israel that some creature had to
give up its life so that the sinner who brought it as an the offering could
have a continued lease of live instead of being executed for his sin. This
foreshadowed the ultimate Sacrifice, Christ, through Whom God creates all,
Who gave up His soul for the sake of that sinning all that He has brought
into being.
Heb.10:4 for it is impossible
for the blood of bulls and of he-goats to be
eliminating sins.
Let Scripture take us back
again in time to Adam to whom God gives special instructions.
When Adam had come into being,
he was told that herbs and vegetables were to be his food. And even the
animals were given these as fodder.
Gen.1:27-31 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His
image.
In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male
and female He creates them.
28 And blessing them is the Elohim. And
saying to them is the Elohim,
"Be fruitful and increase and fill the
earth, and subdue it.
And sway over the fish of the sea, and over the
flyer of the heavens,
and over the beast, and over all the earth, and
over all life moving on the land."
29 And saying is the Elohim, "Behold,
I give to you
all herbage seeding seed, which is
on the surface of the entire earth,
and every tree which has in it the
fruit of a tree seeding seed.
For you it is coming to be for food.
30 And for all land life, and for every
flyer of the heavens,
and for every moving animal on the land,
which has in it a living soul,
all green herbage is for food. And coming is it to be
so.
31 And seeing is the Elohim all that He had
made, and, behold, it is very good. And coming is it to be evening
and coming to be morning, the sixth day.
Ps.104:14 You are the One making grass
sprout for the beasts
And herbage for the service of
humanity, To bring forth bread from the earth.
This condition held for
more than one thousand six hundred years from Adam to the time of the
flood. (Taking Adam’s creation as year 1, the flood occurred in year 1656.)
Because of being driven out of the garden for their disobedience, the lush
food of that garden was out of the reach of Adam and Eve and they had to
toil for their daily sustenance.
Gen.3:17-19 And to the human He says,
"As you hearken to the voice of your wife,
and are eating from the tree
of which alone I instruct you, saying not eat
shall you from it,
cursed shall be the ground when you serve
it, for your sakes.
In grief shall you eat of it all the days of your lives.
18 And thorns and weeds shall it sprout for
you,
and you shall eat the herbage of the
field.
19 In the sweat of your face shall you eat
your bread,
till your return to the ground, for from it are
you taken,
for soil you are, and to soil are you
returning."
At the time of Noah,
animals were taken into the ark, a pair of the unclean and seven pairs of
the clean, selected from among their own ‘kinds’. Though this drastically
cut down on the number of animals taken into the ark, there were still so
many that it could be likened to a vast floating zoo.
Gen.7:2-3 Of every clean beast
you are to take to you seven by seven,
the sire and his dam,
and of the beast which is not clean,
of it a pair, the sire and his dam.
3 And, moreover,
of the clean flyer of the heavens seven
by seven, male and female,
and of the flyer which is not clean, of
it a pair, male and female,
to keep alive seed on the surface of the entire
earth.
The flood lasted a hundred
and fifty days and the animals would have required huge supplies of food in
that time. If animals ate meat then, they would have soon run out of the
pairs of the every ‘kind’ that were to be preserved alive to repopulate the
earth. But God instructed Noah to stock up even for the beasts what
was food for men.
Gen.6:18-21
And I set up My covenant with you. And come do you to the ark,
you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.
19 And of every beast and of every moving
animal
and of every living animal of all flesh,
a pair from all, are you to bring into the ark,
to preserve alive with you.
20 Male and female shall they be.
Of every bird of the flyer for its from-kind,
and of every beast for its from-kind,
and of every moving animal moving on the ground for its from-kind.
Pairs of all shall come to you, to preserve alive, male and
female.
21 "And you, take for yourselves of
all food which is being eaten,
and gather it to you, and it comes to be for
food for you and for them.
Gen.7:24 And lofty are the waters on the
earth a hundred and fifty days.
Gen.8:18-20 And forth is faring
Noah, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him.
19 And every living thing and every beast,
and every flyer,
and every moving animal moving on the earth,
by their families they fare forth from the ark.
20 And building is Noah an altar to Yahweh
Elohim,
and taking is he of every clean beast,
and of every clean flyer,
and is offering up ascent offerings on
the altar.
It is only after the flood
that we first hear of flesh being recommended for food to Noah and his
family.
Gen.9:1-4 And blessing is the Elohim
Noah and his sons. And
saying is He to them, "Be fruitful and
increase and fill the earth and subdue it.
2 "And the fear of you and dismay
due to you
shall come on every living animal of the earth,
even on every flyer of the heavens, and in all
which is moving on the ground,
and in all the fishes of the sea.
3 Into your hand are they given.
"And every moving animal which is
living is coming to be food for you.
As the green herbage I
give to you all.
4 "Yea, only flesh with its soul, its
blood, you shall not eat.
It is probable that, due to
prevailing conditions since the flood of Noah’s day, herbs and vegetables
today may not have the same nourishment and potent energy they were able to
synthesize from the soil and sunlight earlier.
Probably because of more
conducive conditions which were extant before the flood, men enjoyed long
lives - for examples, Adam (930yrs), Seth (912yrs), Methuselah (969yrs),
and even Noah (950yrs).
It is interesting to note that there will be a return
to the eating of herbage during the time of the new heavens and new earth
for no animal life will be taken any more.
Isa.11:6-10
Then the wolf will sojourn with the he-lamb,
and the leopard will recline with the kid.
And the calf and the sheltered lion will graze together,
and a small lad will lead among them.
7 And the young cow and the bear
will graze together,
and together they will recline their young.
And the lion, as the beeve, will eat
crushed straw.
8 And the sucking will revel over
the hole of a cobra,
and on the light-shaft of a yellow viper the
weanling his hand obtrudes.
9 They will not do evil, nor will they
ruin, in all My holy mountain,
for full is the earth of the knowledge of
Yahweh.
As water for the sea floor is a covering.
10 And there comes, in that day,
the Root of Jesse, Who will stand for a Banner
of the peoples;
of Him will the nations inquire, and His rest
will come to be glorious.
Isa.65:25 Then a wolf and a lambkin
will graze alike,
and the lion, as the beeve, will eat crushed
straw,
and the serpent has soil for its bread.
They will not do evil, nor ruin in all My holy
mountain," says Yahweh.
Now that meat has been given for food towards our
well-being, we should believe God’s recommendation for it through Noah.
So, Paul instructs:
1Cor.10:25-27 Everything that is sold at the
meat market be eating,
examining nothing because of conscience.
26 For "the Lord's is the earth and
that which fills it."
27 If anyone of the unbelievers is inviting
you, and you want to go,
be eating everything that is placed before
you,
examining nothing because of conscience.
The fact is that Scripture forewarns us of the false
ideas that would be extant ‘in subsequent eras’, including that of
abstaining from meat, which would clearly indicate a ‘withdrawing from the
faith’.
1Tim.4:1-5 Now the spirit is saying explicitly,
that in subsequent eras some will be withdrawing
from the faith,
giving heed to deceiving spirits and the
teachings of demons,
2 in the hypocrisy of false expressions,
their own conscience having been
cauterized;
3 forbidding to marry, abstaining from
foods,
which God creates to be partaken of with thanksgiving
by those who believe and realize the
truth,
4 seeing that every creature of God
is ideal and nothing is to be cast away,
being taken with thanksgiving,
5 for it is hallowed through the word of God and
pleading.
03. Let not him who is
eating be scorning him who is not eating.
Yet let not him who is not eating be judging him who is eating,
for God took him to Himself.
Fellowship is neither an excuse nor an opportunity for
criticizing one another. Each one of us is directed to correctly cut the
word of truth to have a better grasp of what Scripture declares and to
apply that understanding to our lives. And, as each one should have a
genuine love and concern for the welfare and edification of the others,
this involves a sharing of our knowledge and understanding of the truth of
the evangel. So that all come to a correct understanding of the truth of
the evangel, there must be a willingness on each one’s part to adjust
his understanding to accord with it.
1Cor.1:10 Now I am entreating
you, brethren,
through the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ,
that all may be saying the same thing,
and there may be no schisms among
you,
but you may be attuned to the same
mind and to the same opinion.
Eph.4:11-14 And the same One
gives these, indeed, as apostles, yet
these as prophets,
yet these as evangelists, yet these as
pastors and teachers,
12 toward the adjusting
of the saints for the work of dispensing,
for the upbuilding of the body of
Christ,
13 unto the end
that we should all attain to the unity of the faith
and of the realization of the son of God,
to a mature man,
to the measure of the stature of the
complement of the Christ,
14 that we may by no
means still be minors,
surging hither and thither and being
carried about
by every wind of teaching, by human
caprice,
by craftiness with a view to the
systematizing of the deception.
But we should keep in mind that each individual within
the fellowship is the achievement of God. To be ‘judging’ and ‘scorning’ a
believer, then, is tantamount to showing dissatisfaction with the present
result of God’s operation with him.
Eph.2:10 For His
achievement are we,
being created in Christ Jesus for
good works,
which God makes ready beforehand, that we
should be walking in them.
Phil.2:12,13 ..with fear and trembling, be
carrying your own salvation into effect,
13 for it is God Who is operating
in you
to will as well as to work for the sake
of His delight.
Being adamant and insistent on matters of observance,
such as the abstinence from certain food, will disrupt fellowship and
provide a wedge through which the Adversary will infiltrate the
congregation to plant resentment and disharmony so as to impede it from
functioning effectively.
1Cor.8:11-13 For the weak one is
perishing also by your knowledge;
the brother because of whom Christ died.
12 Now in thus sinning against brethren,
and beating their weak conscience,
you are sinning against Christ.
13 Wherefore, if food is
snaring my brother,
I may under no circumstances be eating meat for
the eon,
lest I should be snaring my brother.
1Cor.10:29-31 …why is my freedom being decided by
another's conscience?
30 If I, with gratitude, am partaking,
why am I being calumniated for that for which
I am giving thanks?
31 Then, whether you are
eating or drinking, or anything you are doing,
do all for the glory of God.
1Cor.10:32,33 And
become not a stumbling block
to Jews as well as to Greeks and to the ecclesia
of God,
33 according as I also am
pleasing all in all things,
not seeking my own expedience, but that
of the many,
that they may be saved.
Phil.1:9-11 And this I am praying, that your
love
may be superabounding still more and more in
realization and all sensibility,
10 for you to be testing what things are
of consequence,
that you may be sincere and no
stumbling block for the day of Christ,
11 filled with the fruit of righteousness
that is through Jesus Christ
for the glory and laud of God.
04. Who are
you who are judging Another's domestic?
To his own Master he is standing or falling.
Now he will be made to stand,
for the Lord is able to make him
stand.
Each and every one of us has the same Lord and Master,
Jesus Christ. None of us have been appointed masters over any others in the
ecclesia. Are we supposing that Jesus is unable to adjust and correct wrong
observances within the fellowship? We cannot look at the speck in another’s
eye while we have a beam, involving some other observances, in our own. We
are expected to humbly share our understanding with others and to leave it
to God to bless them with conviction and growth.
1Cor.8:8,9 Now food will not
give us a standing with God,
neither, if we should not be eating are we in
want,
nor if we should be eating are we cloyed.
9 Now beware lest somehow
this right of yours may become a stumbling
block to the weak.
1Cor.6:13 Foods for the bowels
and the bowels for foods,
yet God will be discarding these as well as those….
Heb.13:9 By varied and
strange teachings be not carried aside,
for it is ideal to be confirming the heart by
grace, not by foods,…
While we are not to push others into accepting our
understanding concerning such observances, we should not allow ourselves to
be bullied or ridiculed into accepting that of others, either. It is
incumbent upon us to correctly cut the word of truth for ourselves.
Col.2:16-19 Let no one, then, be
judging you in food or in drink
or in the particulars of a festival, or of
a new moon, or of sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of those things which
are impending—
yet the body is the Christ's.
18 Let no one be arbitrating against you,
who wants, in humility and the ritual of the
messengers,
to parade what he has seen, feignedly, puffed up
by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding the Head, out of Whom the
entire body,
being supplied and united through the
assimilation and ligaments,
is growing in the growth of God.
Eph.1:3-6 Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who blesses us with every spiritual blessing
among the celestials, in Christ,
4 according as He chooses us in Him before the
disruption of the world,
we to be holy and flawless in His sight,
5 in love designating us beforehand for the place
of a son for Him
through Christ Jesus; in accord with the delight
of His will,
6 for the laud of the glory of His grace, which
graces us in the Beloved:
05. One
indeed, is deciding for one day rather than another day,
yet one is deciding for every day.
Let each one be fully
assured in his own mind.
The
observance of days is also a matter of individual preference. It is
abundantly evident that no day is above another, so far as the Scriptures
are concerned. The seventh day, the sabbath, was never given to the
nations. To observe it is to put ourselves under the curse of the law. The
first day of the week, called Sunday, is never once referred to in the
Scriptures, properly translated. The phrase should always be rendered
"one of the sabbaths." In order to get "the first day of the
week" it is necessary to alter one to first, to insert the word day,
and change the plural sabbaths to the singular week. It is a desperate
attempt to find some scriptural excuse for the prevalent observance of
Sunday. There is nothing wrong in the setting aside of a day to the Lord.
Custom has made Sunday the most convenient for this purpose. But let us not
mar the word of God in order to uphold the practice. Neither should we ride
roughshod over the religious scruples of those who look upon Sunday as a
day sanctioned by God for divine worship. They have no basis for their
belief, nevertheless their conscience demands consideration. Concordant
Commentary
Rome was the center of the empire and its people were
from diverse areas of the world under its sway. As such it was a melting pot
of religions, too. In accord with the rites and rituals of each of the
various religious persuasions, certain days in the calendar were looked on
as more auspicious than others.
1Cor.12:2 You are aware that when
you were of the nations,
you were led away to the voiceless idols, as ever
you were led.
Gal.4:8 But then, indeed, having no
perception of God,
you were slaves of those who, by nature, are not gods.
To those of the nations who
had become believers, however, these ‘holy days’ of pagan origin and
associated with idol-worship, which they had held in esteem before they
came to believe, should not have posed too much of a problem at the outset.
The problem for them,
however, arose from teachings of the God-authorised evangel of
the Circumcision. In most of his letters to the ecclesias he had
jurisdiction over, Paul deals with this distraction arising from the
evangel of the Circumcision which, at that time, was in effect
parallel to that of the Uncircumcision which he had been
commissioned for.
The Circumcision evangel
required the observance of days as stipulated in the law given to Israel
(and is in contrast to that of the Uncircumcision which is based on God’s
grace through His gratuitous gift of faith). Paul declares that such
observance is elemental and equivalent to that of the paganism they had
recently renounced.
Gal.4:9-11 Yet now, knowing God, yet rather
being known by God,
how are you turning back again to the infirm
and poor elements
for which you want to slave again anew?
10 Days are you scrutinizing, and months
and seasons and years.
11 I fear for you, lest somehow I have
toiled for you feignedly.
Those out of Israel who now believed in the evangel of the
Uncircumcision faced another type of distraction. The Sabbath occurred
every week while festival holy days or ‘high sabbaths’ were seasonal. These
were God-prescribed days given to His chosen people and
which they had been faithfully observing all their lives. This became a
point of confusion when they were in fellowship with believers of the
Circumcision who, of course, insisted that such observances were necessary
for salvation.
Col.2:16,17 Let no one, then, be judging you in
food or in drink
or in the particulars of a festival, or
of a new moon, or of sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of those things which
are impending--
yet the body is the Christ's.
Sabbath observance
The Sabbath extends from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday.
This is the day set by God for special observance by the people of Israel.
It was an exclusive covenant identifying Israel as His chosen people.
Ex.31:12,13 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying:
13 Now you, speak to the sons of Israel saying,
Surely, My sabbaths shall you keep,
for it is
a sign between Me and you throughout your generations
to know that I, Yahweh, am hallowing you.
Ex.31:16,17 Hence the sons of Israel
will keep the sabbath
so as to make the sabbath an eonian covenant
throughout their generations.
17 Between Me and the sons
of Israel it shall be a sign for the eon,…
Ezek.20:12 And also My sabbaths I have given
to them,
To be for a sign between Me and them,
To know that I [am] Yahweh their
sanctifier.
But, since this covenant was
made over two thousand years after that first seventh day of Genesis One,
and not even the patriarchs of Israel had been required to observe it, how
would Israel determine the actual occurrence of the Sabbath? God identified
it for them by not providing manna for collection from the field on
that day and by dispensing a double portion of provision on the
previous day.
Ex.16:25-27 Then Moses said:
Eat it today, for there is a sabbath today to
Yahweh!
Today you shall not find it in the field.
26 Six days shall you pick it up,
yet on the seventh day, the sabbath, none shall
come to be on it.
27 And it came to be on the seventh day
some of the people went forth to pick it up, and
they found none.
This ‘manna’ from heaven was a miraculous provision by
God. What was collected each day could not be kept till the morrow for it
would turn to worms. Yet, what was left over from the double portion
collected on the sixth day remained fresh for use on the seventh. This went
on for forty years in the wilderness – leaving Israel with no doubt about
the day that is the Sabbath.
Ex.16:4,5 Then Yahweh said to Moses:
Behold Me causing bread from the heavens
to rain for you.
When the people will go forth they will pick up
a day's matter in its day,
that I may probe them, whether they shall go by
My law or not.
5 And it will come to be on the sixth
day
when they prepare what they are bringing in
that there will come to be a duplicate amount
over that which they are picking up day by day.
Ex.16:19,20 Then Moses said to them:
Let no one reserve any of it until the
morning.
20 Yet they did not hearken to Moses,
and some men reserved some of it until the
morning.
So it rose high with worms and stank….
Ex.16:22-24 Now it came to be on the sixth day
they picked up a duplicate amount of bread, two
omers for one.
When all the princes of the congregation came
and told it to Moses,
23 then he said to them: This is what
Yahweh has spoken,
A cessation, a holy sabbath to Yahweh is tomorrow.
What you are baking, bake, and what you are
cooking, cook,
and all the superfluity, leave it in your charge until the
morning.
24 So they left it until the morning, just as Moses had instructed,
yet it caused no stink, and no maggots came to be in it.
Ex.16:25-27
Then Moses said:
Eat it today, for there is a sabbath today to Yahweh!
Today you shall not find it in the field.
26 Six days shall you pick it up,
yet on the seventh day, the sabbath, none shall come to be on
it.
27 And it came to be on the seventh day
some of the people went forth to pick it up, and they found none.
High Sabbaths or festival holy days can occur on any
day of the week. Because of this there were two Sabbaths, one a high
Sabbath (which was the Passover) and the other a weekly Sabbath, during the
week in which Christ was crucified. Had this fact been taken into account,
there would not have been an observance of a ‘good Friday’ evening and a
distortion of time to fit in a pagan ‘Easter Sunday’ morning. The sign
given was to be verified by the time span between the burial and the
resurrection of Jesus.
"A generation, wicked and an adulteress,
for a sign is seeking,
and a sign will not be given to it except the sign
of Jonah the prophet.
40 For even as Jonah
was in the bowel of the sea monster three
days and three nights,
thus will the Son of Mankind
be in the heart of the earth three days and
three nights.
The Passover is an example of a high Sabbath, a God-given
observance binding on the sons of Israel for the eon.
Ex.12:11-14 And thus shall you eat it,
with your waist girded, your sandals on your
feet and your stick in your hand.
You will eat it in nervous haste. It is the
passover to Yahweh.
12 For I will pass through
the land of Egypt in this night
and smite every firstborn in the land of Egypt,
from human even unto beast,
and on all the elohim of Egypt I shall execute
judgments; I am Yahweh.
13 Then the blood will become a sign for
you on the houses where you are.
When I see the blood I will pass over you.
And there shall not come to be a stroke on you
to cause ruin when I smite in the land of
Egypt.
14 Hence this day will
become for you a memorial day,
and you will celebrate it as a celebration to
Yahweh.
Throughout your generations shall you
celebrate it as an eonian statute.
Ex.12:42 It is a night of observances
for Yahweh
to bring them forth from the land of Egypt.
This same night is to Yahweh,
observances for all the sons of Israel
throughout their generations.
How are we to look on this
subject of God-prescribed observance of days? In the stipulations for each
of these holy days is the restriction to ‘the sons of Israel’. As
such we are not in any way bound to any of these observances.
06. He who is disposed to the day, is disposed to it to the Lord;
and he
who is eating, is eating to the Lord, for he is thanking God.
And he
who is not eating, to the Lord is
not eating, and is thanking God.
It cannot be wrong to set
aside to God a particular day for special worship, keeping in mind that no
24-hour span of time is essentially different frr. So, for an assembly of
believers to worship God together and for fellowship,
convenience and consensus should decide the day and the time.
1Cor.10:31-33 Then, whether you are
eating or drinking,
or anything you are doing, do all for the
glory of God.
32 And become not a stumbling block to Jews
as well as to Greeks and to the ecclesia of
God,
33 according as I also am pleasing all in
all things,
not seeking my own expedience, but that of
the many,…
The Roman ‘Catholic’ Church
insists that it is obligatory to observe a Sunday holy day, claiming
that the seventh day Sabbath has been moved to the first day (which is a
day pagans have dedicated to the worship of the sun god) in keeping with
its claim that Christ’s resurrection occurred on ‘Resurrection Sunday’.
Almost all ‘Christian’
denominations have been taken in by the contorted rendering of the phrase ‘eis
mian sabbatön’ as ‘on the first day of the week’ (which is Sunday) –
when it should correctly be ‘into one of the sabbaths’.
In many countries, the
weekly holiday is on Sunday. For convenience, then, rather than out of some
prescribed obligation, there is nothing prohibiting believers from
assembling for worship on this day.
For the individual,
however, should we not take every opportunity to worship and honour
God and not put a self-imposed limit on this privilege to just one day in
the week?
07. For not
one of us is living to himself, and not one is dying to himself.
The key here lies in the ‘…of
us…’ which restricts the context of this living and dying to believers.
Others do not believe that Christ died for their sakes and cannot,
therefore, live with this understanding.
2Cor.5:15 And He died for the sake of all
that those who are living should by no means
still be living to themselves,
but to the One dying and being roused for
their sakes.
08. For both,
if we should be living, to the Lord are we living,
and if we should be dying, to the Lord are
we dying.
Then, both if we should be living and if
we should be dying,
we are the Lord's.
Each of us has been bought
with a price so that we belong to the Lord and He it is Who decides
on whether we are living (and how we live) or dying (and even how and when
we die). Living or dying, no matter which, we are the Lord’s.
Gal.2:20 With Christ have I been crucified,
yet I am living;
no longer I, but living in me is Christ. Now
that which I am now living in flesh,
I am living in faith that is of the Son of God,
Who loves me, and gives Himself up for
me.
1Cor.6:19,20 Or are you not aware
that your body is a temple of the holy spirit in
you,
which you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you are bought with a price. By
all means glorify God in your body.
1Cor.3:21-23 So that, let no one be boasting in
men, for all is yours,
22 whether Paul, or
Apollos, or Cephas, or the world,
or life, or death, or the present, or that which
is impending--
all is yours, 23 yet you are Christ's, yet Christ is God's.
09. For for
this Christ died and lives,
that He should be Lord of the dead as well
as of the living.
The joy He would have as ‘Lord of the dead as well as
of the living’ is part of the motivation that moved Christ to go through an
ignominious death and into a glorious resurrection. As the faithful who
have died cannot now respond, His Lordship over them is being held in reserve.
For now He is actively Lord of the faithful who are living.
Lk.24:26 Must not the Christ be suffering these things,
and be entering into His glory?
Heb.12:2 looking off to the
Inaugurator and Perfecter of faith, Jesus,
Who, for the joy lying
before Him, endures a cross, despising the shame,
besides is seated at the
right hand of the throne of God
Believers
were conciliated through His death and are being
saved in His life.
Rom.5:10 …we were conciliated to
God through the death of His Son,
much rather, being
conciliated, we shall be saved in His life
Rom.6:8-11 Now if we died together with
Christ,
we believe that we shall be living together with
Him also,
9 having perceived that Christ, being roused from
among the dead,
is no longer dying. Death is lording it over Him
no longer,
10 for in that He died, He died to Sin once
for all time,
yet in that He is living, He is living to
God.
11 Thus you also, be reckoning yourselves
to be dead, indeed, to Sin,
yet living to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Phil.4:13 For all am I strong in Him
Who is invigorating me--Christ!
Eph.6:10 … be invigorated
in the Lord and in the might of His strength.
2Tim.2:1 … be invigorated by
the grace which is in Christ Jesus.
2Tim.4:17 …the Lord stood beside me,
and He invigorates me,
that through me the
heralding may be fully discharged,
and all the nations
should hear;…
1Tim.1:12 Grateful am I to Him
Who invigorates me, Christ Jesus, our Lord,
for He deems me faithful,
assigning me a service,
The context in our passage is limited to those of
faith and is not open to the rest of mankind. It is for those (who have
died or who are still living) who have been enabled through God’s
gratuitous gift of holy spirit to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord.
Rom.10:8,9 …the declaration of faith
which we are heralding 9 that,
if ever
you should be avowing with your mouth the
declaration that Jesus is Lord,
and should be believing in your heart that
God rouses Him from among the dead,
you shall be saved.
1Cor.12:3 … no one is able to say
"Lord is Jesus" except by holy spirit.
But this does not take away
from the fact that through His faith in God, Christ died for all
mankind and that, as a consequence, all mankind will be saved
and come into the knowledge of the truth - just as God wills and in the
order He has pre-determined.
1Tim.2:3-6 …our Saviour, God,
4 Who wills that all
mankind be saved and come into a realization of the truth.
5 For there is one God, and one
Mediator of God and mankind,
a Man, Christ Jesus,
6 Who is giving Himself a correspondent
Ransom for all
(the testimony in its own eras),
2Cor.5:14 For the love of Christ
is constraining us, judging this,
that, if One died for the sake of all,
consequently all died.
Phil.2:5-11 …Christ Jesus also, 6 Who, being inherently in the form of God,
deems it not pillaging to be equal with
God,
7 nevertheless empties Himself, taking the form
of a slave,
coming to be in the likeness of humanity,
8 and, being found in fashion as a human, He
humbles Himself,
becoming obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross.
9 Wherefore, also, God highly exalts Him,
and graces Him with the name that is above every
name,
10 that in the name of Jesus
every knee should be bowing,
celestial and terrestrial and subterranean,
11 and every tongue should be
acclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord,
for the glory of God, the Father.
10. Now why
are you judging your brother?
Or why are you also scorning your brother?
For all of us shall be presented at the dais of God,
It
is not ours to pass judgment in these matters. It is not the place of the
church to fix any days and condemn those who do not observe them. Only the
observance of days as a matter of law keeping is condemned. Though there
may be nothing wrong in working on Sunday, it is wrong to keep it as a
means of salvation. The same is true of the seventh day, or sabbath. Concordant
Commentary
If we understand that the Lord is in charge of
each and every one, there should be no more reason for judging and for
scorning one another concerning observances.
‘…For all of us shall be presented at the dais of God,…’
A ‘dais’ (from the Greek ‘bema’,
literally, STEP-EFFECT) is a
raised platform and alludes to a place or seat from which judgment is
conducted. The dais of God refers to the period of judgment
when each one of humanity will answer for himself to God
concerning his walk.
This will take place at the
close of the fifth, and final, eon during which there will be the new
heaven and the new earth.
Not the Dais of Christ
The judgment
at the dais of Christ is reserved for believers who constitute the body of Christ. This will follow their ‘snatching
away’ to be with Him in their proper realm. At that time He, their Lord,
will requite the members of His body for all faithful service rendered in
accord with their evangel.
1Thes.4:16,17 for the Lord Himself will be
descending from heaven
with a shout of command,
with the voice of the Chief Messenger,
and with the trumpet of God,
and the dead in Christ shall be rising
first,
17 Thereupon we, the living who are
surviving,
shall at the same time be snatched away
together with them in clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air. And thus shall we always
be together with the Lord.
Phil.3:20,21 For our realm is
inherent in the heavens,
out of which we are awaiting a Saviour also,
the Lord, Jesus Christ,
21 Who will transfigure the body of our humiliation,
to conform it to the body of His glory,
in accord with the operation which enables Him
even to subject all to Himself
2Cor.5:10 For all of us must be
manifested in front of the dais of Christ,
that each should be requited
for that which he puts into practice
through the body, whether good or bad.
Gal.6:4,5 Now let each one be
testing his own work,
and then he shall be having his boast for
himself alone, and not for another,
5 for each one shall be bearing his own
load.
1Cor.3:11-15 For other foundation can no one lay
beside that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone is building on this
foundation
gold and silver, precious stones, wood, grass,
straw,
13 each one's work will become apparent,
for the day will make it evident,
for it is being revealed by fire.
And the fire, it will be testing each one's
work--what kind it is.
14 If anyone's work will be remaining which
he builds on it, he will get wages.
15 If anyone's work shall be burned up, he
will forfeit it,
yet he shall be saved, yet thus, as through
fire.
1Cor.4:5 So that, be not judging
anything before the season,
till the Lord should be coming,
Who will also illuminate the hidden things of
darkness
and manifest the counsels of the hearts.
And then applause will be coming to each one
from God
Not the judgment of the
nations
This is not the judgment of the nations for
that will take place some time after the snatching away and the dais of Christ.
Then it will be that Christ will come onto the mount of olives and into
Jerusalem to establish the much-prophesied kingdom of God on the earth,
bringing an end to this present ‘wicked’ third eon and introducing the
fourth. At that judgment He separates the existing nations (rather than individuals) in accord with their treatment of His faithful people.
Mt.25:31,32 Now, whenever the Son of Mankind may
be coming in His glory,
and all the holy messengers with Him,
then shall He be seated on the throne of
His glory,
32 and in front of Him shall be gathered all
the nations.
And He shall be severing them from one
another
even as a shepherd is severing the sheep from
the kids.
Mt.25:35 For I hunger and you
give Me to eat; I thirst and you give Me drink;
a stranger was I and you took Me in; 36 naked and you clothed Me;
infirm am I and you visit Me; in jail was I and
you come to Me.'
Mt.25:37-39 "Then the just will be
answering Him, saying,
`Lord, when did we perceive Thee hungering and
nourish Thee,
or thirsting and we give Thee drink?
38 Now when did we perceive Thee a stranger
and took Thee in,
or naked and we clothed Thee?
39 Now when did we perceive Thee infirm, or
in jail, and we came to Thee?'
Mt.25:40 …
the King shall be declaring to them, `Verily, I am saying to you,
In as much as you do it to one of these, the least of My brethren,
you do it to Me.'
Mt.25:42,43 For
I hunger and you do not give Me to eat;
I thirst and you do not give Me drink;
43 a stranger was I and you did not take Me in;
naked and you did not clothe Me;
infirm and in jail and you did not visit Me.'
Mt.25:45
…`Verily, I am saying to you,
In as much as you do it not to one of these, the least, neither
do you it to Me.'
Not the Great White Throne judgment
The Great White Throne refers to the judgment of all unbelievers, all who have ever been
born and have not been given salvation until that time. It will be at the close of the fourth
eon, after the last rebellion against the millennial reign of Christ from
Jerusalem is comprehensively crushed.
Rev.20:7-10 And whenever
the thousand years should be finished,
Satan will be loosed
out of his jail.
8 And
he will be coming out to deceive all the nations
which are in the four
corners of the earth, Gog and Magog,
to be mobilizing them
for battle, their number being as the sand of the sea.
9 And
they went up over the breadth of the earth,
and surround the
citadel of the saints and the beloved city.
And fire
descended from God out of heaven and devoured them.
10 And
the Adversary who is deceiving them
was cast into the
lake of fire and sulphur,
where the wild beast and where the false
prophet are also….
Jude
14-16 …"Lo! the Lord came among ten
thousand of His saints,
15 to do judging against all, and to expose
all the irreverent
concerning all their irreverent acts in which
they are irreverent,
and concerning all the hard words which
irreverent sinners speak against Him."
16 These are murmurers, complainers, going according
to their desires,
and their mouth is speaking pompous things,
marveling at the aspect of things, on behalf of
benefit.
Rev.20:11-14
…I perceived a great white throne,
and Him Who is sitting upon it, from Whose face earth and heaven fled, and
no place was found for them.
12
And I perceived the dead,
the great and the small, standing before the throne.
And the scrolls were opened.
And another scroll was opened
which is the scroll of life.
And the dead were
judged
by that which is written in the scrolls in accord with their acts.
13
And the sea gives up the
dead in it,
and death and the unseen
give up the dead in them.
And they were
condemned, each in accord with their
acts.
14 And
death and the unseen were cast into the lake of
fire.
This is the second
death--the lake of fire.
But of all humanity
The dais of God is the appointed time when
God’s righteousness will be evident to all of His creatures for all
that has happened since creation will be justified and death will be
abolished. This culminates with the Consummation at which the curtain is
brought down on the eons - for then the purpose for creation and of
the eons will see fulfillment.
Eph.1:9,10 making known to us the
secret of His will
(in accord with His delight, which He purposed in Him)
10 to have an administration of the
complement of the eras,
to head up all in the Christ--both that
in the heavens and that on the earth--
Eph.3:9-11 …to enlighten all as to
what is the administration of the secret,
which has been concealed from the eons in God,
Who creates all,
10 that now may be made known
to the sovereignties and the authorities among
the celestials,
through the ecclesia, the multifarious wisdom of
God,
11 in accord with the purpose of the eons,
which He makes in Christ Jesus, our Lord;
1Cor.15:25-28 For He must be
reigning
until He should be placing all His enemies
under His feet.
26 The last enemy is being abolished:
death.
27 For He subjects all under His feet.
Now whenever He may be saying that all is
subject,
it is evident that it is outside of Him Who subjects all to
Him.
28 Now, whenever all may be
subjected to Him,
then the Son Himself also shall be subjected
to Him Who subjects all to Him,
that God may be All in all.
Rom.3:4 …"That so Thou shouldst be
justified in Thy sayings,
And shalt be conquering when Thou art
being judged.
Can we grasp the import of this revelation in Rom.3:4
– that God sets Himself to be judged by His creatures? It is the
action of One Who is supremely confident of His own righteousness in every
operation. When all is said and done, every individual will acknowledge
that He is in every aspect wise, righteous, circumspect. Then He
will be all to each and every one who has ever come into
being.
Search through the
purported ‘revelations’ of all the religions that ever have been – and none
have their gods daring to submit themselves to judgment by ‘their’
creatures. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – He is the only
true God.
However, though it is
called the dais of God, it will be the Lord Jesus Christ
Who will actually administer the judging.
Rom.2:14-16 For whenever they of
the nations that have no law,
by nature may be doing that which the law
demands,
these, having no law, are a law to
themselves,
15 who are displaying the action of the law
written in their hearts,
their conscience testifying together and
their reckonings between one another,
accusing or defending them,
16 in the day when God will be judging the
hidden things of humanity,
according to my evangel, through Jesus Christ.
Act.17:30,31 "Indeed, then, condoning the
times of ignorance,
God is now charging mankind that all everywhere
are to repent,
31 forasmuch as He assigns a day
in which He is about to be judging the
inhabited earth in righteousness
by the Man Whom He specifies,…
Jn.5:22,23 For neither is the
Father judging anyone,
but has given all judging to the
Son,
23 that all may be honoring the Son,
according as they are honoring the Father…
Jn.5:26,27 For even as the Father has
life in Himself,
thus to the Son also He gives to have
life in Himself.
27 "And He gives Him authority
to do judging,
seeing that He is a son of mankind.
11. for it is
written: Living am I, the Lord is
saying,
For to Me shall bow every knee,
And every tongue shall be acclaiming God!
There will be the obeisance of every knee and the acclamation
of every tongue and these will be spontaneous and heartfelt for all
creatures will have been reconciled to God as the culmination of the very
purpose of creation. What glory can there be in a forced
acknowledgement, in a confession obtained under duress?
Isa.45:23 By Myself I swear.
From My mouth fares forth righteousness, and My
word shall not be recalled.
For to Me shall bow every knee, and every
tongue shall acclaim to Elohim."
Phil.2:10,11 that in the name of
Jesus
every knee should be bowing,
celestial and terrestrial and subterranean,
11 and every tongue should be acclaiming
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
for the glory of God, the Father.
12.
Consequently, then,
each of us shall be giving account
concerning himself to God.
Nothing has been hidden from God’s sight. Every act, whether
good or evil, will have left its mark on the tapestry of life of the
creation, and each deed will be dealt with in justice and to the complete
satisfaction of all..
Mt.12:36,37 Now I am saying to you
that,
for every idle declaration which men shall be
speaking,
they shall be rendering an account concerning it
in the day of judging.
37 For by your words shall you be
justified,
and by your words shall you be convicted.
Rom.2:15,16 their conscience
testifying together
and their reckonings between one another,
accusing or defending them,
16 in the day when God will be judging the
hidden things of humanity,
according to my evangel, through Jesus Christ.
Eccl.11:9 Rejoice, choice youth,
in your childhood,
And let your heart make you cheerful in the days
of your prime;
Walk in the ways of your heart and by the sight
of your eyes,
Yet know that for all these the
One, Elohim, shall bring you into judgment.
Eccl.12:14 For the One, Elohim, shall bring
every deed into judgment
concerning all that is obscured, whether
good or whether evil.
13. By no
means, then, should we still be judging one another, but rather decide
this, not to place a stumbling block for a brother, or a snare.
Therefore,
we should not be judging (in the context of scorning and condemning) other
believers over observances. It is not we who give the growth in the faith
and understanding to brethren – that is the reserve of God.
1Cor.3:7 … neither is he who is planting anything, nor he
who is irrigating,
but God Who makes it grow up.
On the
other hand, instead of judging each other, we should be doing all that is
possible to encourage in each one an endeavour for growth, and to seek not to
place any hindrance or impediment in the way of our brethren.
1Cor.6:12,13 All is allowed me, but not
all is expedient.
All is allowed me, but I will not be put under
its authority by anything.
13 Foods for the bowels and the bowels for
foods,
yet God will be discarding these as well
as those….
Rom.15:1,2 …Now we, the able, ought to be bearing
the infirmities of the impotent,
and not to be pleasing ourselves.
2 Let each of us please his associate, for his
good, toward his edification.
1Cor.10:23,24 All is allowed me, but not all is
expedient.
All is allowed me, but not all is edifying.
24 Let no one be seeking the welfare of
himself, but that of another.
1Cor.8:9-13
Now
beware
lest somehow this right of yours may become a
stumbling block to the weak.
10 For if anyone should be seeing you, who
has knowledge,
lying down in an idol's shrine, will not the
conscience of him who is weak
be inured to the eating of the idol
sacrifices?
11 For the weak one is perishing also by
your knowledge;
the brother because of whom Christ
died.
12 Now in thus sinning against brethren,
and beating their weak conscience,
you are sinning against Christ.
13 Wherefore, if food is snaring my
brother,
I may under no circumstances be eating meat for
the eon,
lest I should be snaring my brother.
1Cor.10:31-33 Then, whether you are eating or
drinking,
or anything you are doing, do all for the
glory of God.
32 And become not a stumbling block
to Jews as well as to Greeks and to the ecclesia
of God,
33 according as I also am pleasing all in
all things,
not seeking my own expedience, but that of the many, that they may
be saved.
2Cor.6:3 We are giving no one cause to
stumble in anything,
lest flaws be found with the service,
We, believers in the
evangel of the Uncircumcision wherein we have salvation, constitute the
body of Christ. Each member has a different function yet all of us are
blended together and given growth by God to serve His purpose.
Eph.3:8-11 To me, less than the least of all
saints, was granted this grace:
to bring the evangel of the untraceable riches
of Christ to the nations,
9 and to enlighten all as to what is the
administration of the secret,
which has been concealed from the eons in God,
Who creates all,
10 that now may be made known
to the sovereignties and the authorities among
the celestials,
through the ecclesia, the multifarious
wisdom of God,
11 in accord with the purpose of the
eons,
which He makes in Christ Jesus, our Lord;
The way to ascertain what has been given to us to
believe in is to endeavour in correctly cut the word of truth. Pursuing
this truth, we can be strong in the faith and not be drawn into the
non-essentials of observances and of things terrestrial.
Col.3:1,2 If, then, you were roused together
with Christ,
be seeking that which is above, where Christ
is, sitting at the right hand of God.
2 Be disposed to that which is above, not
to that on the earth,
Col.2:16-19 Let no one, then, be judging
you in food or in drink
or in the particulars of a festival, or of a new
moon, or of sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of those things which
are impending—
yet the body is the Christ's.
18 Let no one be arbitrating
against you,
who wants, in humility and the ritual of the
messengers,
to parade what he has seen, feignedly, puffed up
by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding the Head, out of
Whom the entire body,
being supplied and united through the
assimilation and ligaments,
is growing in the growth of God.
14. I have
perceived and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus
that nothing is contaminating
of itself,
except that the one reckoning anything to
be contaminating,
to that one it is contaminating.
The
distinctions instituted by the law between things which are to be reckoned
clean and unclean have no place in the economy of grace. God has no
hesitancy in associating with us, sinners of the nations. A strict Jew
could not eat our food without being contaminated. Yet, before God, we are
holy and the Jew is unclean! Hence no food is ceremonially unclean. It is
only an uninstructed conscience which counts things common. Concordant
Commentary
We are judged by the
knowledge and understanding we have – not by that which we do not have.
Tit.1:15 All, indeed, is clean to the
clean,
yet to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is
clean,
but their mind as well as conscience is
defiled.
Rom.14:23 Now he who is doubting if he should
be eating is condemned,
seeing that it is not out of faith. Now everything
which is not out of faith is sin.
1Cor.8:7-9 But not in all is there
this knowledge.
Now some, used hitherto to the idol, are eating
of it as an idol sacrifice,
and their conscience, being weak, is being
polluted.
8 Now food will not give us a
standing with God,
neither, if we should not be eating are we in
want,
nor if we should be eating are we cloyed.
9 Now beware lest somehow this right of yours
may become a stumbling block to the weak.
Paul, before he was struck down on the road to
Damascus, in his fervour for the religion of his fathers ravaged the church
– yet he carried out his persecution of the believers in ignorance of the
truth. And, also, the Jews crucified Christ in ignorance of the facts, too.
1Tim.1:12,13 Grateful am I to Him Who
invigorates me, Christ Jesus, our Lord,
for He deems me faithful, assigning me a
service,
13 I, who formerly was a calumniator and a
persecutor and an outrager:
but I was shown mercy, seeing that I do it being ignorant, in unbelief.
Lk.23:33,34 And when they came away to the
place called "Skull,"
there they crucify Him, and the malefactors,
one, indeed, at the right, yet the other at the
left.
34 Now Jesus said, "Father, forgive
them,
for they are not
aware what they are doing."
1Cor.2:8 …for if they know, they would not crucify the Lord of glory.
Men are held accountable for what they have been given
to know. Obviously, they cannot conform their acts to accord with
revelations which, for them, do not exist.
15. For if,
because of food, your brother is sorrowing,
you are no longer walking according to love.
Do not, by your food, destroy
that one for whose sake Christ
died.
The
liberty to eat anything should not be allowed to infringe on the prejudices
of others. Those who have a conscience about partaking of certain foods are
easily offended. We should not stand on our rights but seek rather to restrain
our liberty to conform to the religious scruples of our fellow believers.
Concordant Commentary
Though we have been given
growth in understanding concerning the matter of foods and such like observances,
those who have not as yet matured in the faith have not attained this
level. It would be unreasonable and presumptuous of us to expect them to
conform our convictions on such matters.
Rom.14:2-4 One, indeed, is believing to
eat all things,
yet the
infirm one is eating greens.
3 Let not him who is eating be scorning him
who is not eating.
Yet let not him who is not eating be judging him
who is eating,
for God
took him to Himself.
4 Who are you who are judging Another's
domestic?
To his own Master he is standing or falling.
Now he will
be made to stand, for the Lord is able to make him
stand.
Rom.14:20,21 Not on account of food
demolish the work of God.
All, indeed, is clean, but it is evil to the man
who with stumbling is eating.
21 It is ideal not to be eating meat, nor
yet to be drinking wine,
nor yet to do aught by which your brother is
stumbling,
or is being snared or weakened.
1Cor.6:12,13 All is allowed me, but not all is
expedient.
All is allowed me, but I will not be put under
its authority by anything.
13 Foods for the bowels and the bowels for
foods,
yet God will be discarding these as well
as those….
1Cor.10:23,24 All is allowed me, but not all is
expedient.
All is allowed me, but not all is edifying.
24 Let no one be seeking
the welfare of himself, but that of another.
1Cor.8:10-13 For if anyone should be seeing you,
who has knowledge,
lying down in an idol's shrine, will not the
conscience of him who is weak
be inured to the eating of the idol sacrifices?
11 For the weak one is perishing also by
your knowledge;
the brother because of whom Christ died.
12 Now in thus sinning against brethren,
and beating their weak conscience, you are
sinning against Christ.
13 Wherefore, if food is snaring my brother,
I may under no circumstances be eating meat for
the eon,
lest I should be snaring my brother.
1Cor.10:32,33 And become not a
stumbling block
to Jews as well as to Greeks and to the ecclesia
of God,
1Cor.13:1-8 If I should be speaking in the languages of men
and of the messengers,
yet should have no love, I have become
resounding copper or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I should have prophecy
and should be perceiving all secrets and all
knowledge,
and if I should have all faith,
so as to transport mountains, yet have no love,
I am nothing.
3 And if ever I should be morselling out all my
possessions,
and if I should be giving up my body, that I
should be boasting,
yet may have no love, in nothing do I
benefit.
4 Love is patient, is kind. Love is not jealous.
Love is not bragging, is not puffed up,
5 is not indecent, is not self-seeking, is
not incensed, is not taking account of evil,
6 is not rejoicing in injustice, yet is rejoicing
together with the truth,
7 is forgoing all, is believing all, is expecting all, is enduring
all.
8 Love is never lapsing:….
Gal.5:13,14 For you were called for
freedom, brethren,
only use not the freedom for an incentive to the
flesh,
but through love be slaving for one another.
14 For the entire law is fulfilled in one
word, in this:
"You shall love your associate as
yourself."
Phil.2:1-4 If, then, there is any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort of love,
if any communion of spirit, if any compassion
and pity, 2 fill my joy full,
that you may be mutually disposed, having
mutual love,
joined in soul, being disposed to one
thing--
3 nothing according with faction, nor yet
according with vainglory--
but with humility, deeming one another superior
to one's self,
4 not each noting that which is his own, but
each that of others also.
1Tim.4:1-3 Now the spirit is saying
explicitly,
that in subsequent eras some will be
withdrawing from the faith,
giving heed to deceiving spirits and the
teachings of demons,
2 in the hypocrisy of false expressions,
their own conscience having been
cauterized;
3 forbidding to marry, abstaining from foods,
which God creates to be partaken of with
thanksgiving
by those who believe and realize the truth,
16. Let not, then, your
good be calumniated,
Though our insistence may
stem out of a genuine desire for their growth, our being critical
and overbearing in these matters can lead to a misunderstanding of our
intentions and give rise to feelings of resentment.
17. for the
kingdom of God is not food and drink,
but righteousness and peace and joy in
holy spirit.
This
is not a definition of the kingdom of God, but a statement of its bearing
on this subject. The distinctive truth for the present economy was not yet
known, and the saints are included in the kingdom of God in its widest
aspect as denoting the sphere of God's rule. Concordant
Commentary
Scripture speaks of the kingdom of God that will be
established on the earth in our near future at the end of a very tumultuous
introduction and it will last a thousand years. But this is not the context
of our verse under study.
The fact is that God rules the heavens and the
earth. So, it follows that all of creation is in the kingdom of God.
Scripture declares that wherever others seem to be in charge, it is only in
accord with God’s design and operation. During this present time even the
Adversary has been given sway over the world and he wields this opportunity
to mould a mind-set which is the wisdom of the world.
Rom.13:1,2 Let every soul be
subject to the superior authorities,
for there is no authority except
under God.
Now those which are, have been set
under God,
2 so that he who is resisting
an authority has withstood God's mandate.
In practice, however, only those who have been given
the privilege of acknowledging Him as God are in His kingdom. This kingdom
is spiritual.
We, believers, members of
the body of Christ who have been sealed with holy spirit, are now in this
spiritual kingdom having been delivered out of this authority of darkness.
Eph.2:2-5 …once you walked, in accord with
the eon of this world,
in accord with the chief of the
jurisdiction of the air,
the spirit now operating in the sons of
stubbornness
3 (among whom we also all behaved
ourselves once in the lusts of our flesh,
doing the will of the flesh and of the
comprehension,
and were, in our nature, children of
indignation, even as the rest)
Col.1:12,13 … giving thanks to the Father,
Who makes you competent for a part of
the allotment of the saints, in light,
13 Who rescues us out of the
jurisdiction of Darkness,
and transports us into the kingdom of the
Son of His love,
To those in this ‘kingdom of God’ the emphasis is on
the spiritual so that things of the earth should be of little consequence.
Col.3:1,2 If, then, you were roused together with
Christ,
be seeking that which is above,
where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
2 Be disposed to that which is above,
not to that on the earth,
Eph.1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who blesses us with every spiritual blessing
among the celestials, in Christ,
1Cor.8:8,9 Now food will not give
us a standing with God,
neither, if we should not be eating are we in
want,
nor if we should be eating are we cloyed.
9 Now beware lest somehow this right of yours
may become a stumbling block to the weak.
Phil.1:9-11 that your love may be
superabounding still more and more
in realization and all sensibility,
10 for you to be testing what things are
of consequence,
that you may be sincere and no stumbling
block for the day of Christ,
11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that
is through Jesus Christ
for the glory and laud of God.
18. For he who in this is slaving for Christ,
is well pleasing to God and attested by men.
Nothing
is contaminating of itself, for contamination depends on the conscience, the
frame of mind. We should not disturb and upset the consciences of others,
for the kingdom of God that is being spoken of, really, does not consist in
watching what we eat or drink but, rather, in `righteousness and peace and
joy in holy spirit'. Those who follow these simple principles are pleasing
to God while being commended by men for their sensibility and sensitivity
concerning their situations and problems..
2Cor.8:21 for we are providing
the ideal,
not only in the sight of the Lord, but in
the sight of men also.
Col.3:23,24 All, whatsoever you may be doing,
work from the soul, as to the Lord and
not to men,
24 Being aware that from the Lord
you will be getting the compensation
of the enjoyment of an allotment: for the
Lord Christ are you slaving.
19.
Consequently, then, we are pursuing that
which makes for peace
and that
which is for edification of one
another.
These
are safe tests to apply to all our intercourse with our fellow saints. Will
it provoke strife? If so, let us avoid it. Will it edify? If not, let us
forego it. Peace and the edification of others, rather than our own
privileges should be pressed. Things which we can do with a good conscience
before God, may give dire offense if done before some of His saints. Concordant
Commentary
Since we are slaving for
Christ it is not our desires for progress and our schedules for growth that
others have to meet. The Lord sets the timetable for each member in His
body. We should be walking worthily of our calling, competing together with
each other towards our common goal and not cause disruption by insisting
that our walk and understanding concerning the things ‘of the earth’ should
be the yardstick to measure the growth of others.
Eph.4:1-7 I am entreating you, then, I, the
prisoner in the Lord,
to walk worthily of the calling with
which you were called,
2 with all humility and meekness, with patience,
bearing with one another in love,
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit with
the tie of peace:
4 one body and one spirit,
according as you were called also with one
expectation of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one
baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, Who is over all
and through all and in all.
7 Now to each one of us was given grace
in accord with the measure of the gratuity of
Christ.
Phil.1:27 Only be citizens walking
worthily of the evangel of Christ,
that, whether coming and making your
acquaintance, or being absent,
I should be hearing of your concerns, that you
are standing firm
in one spirit, one soul, competing
together in the faith of the evangel,
2Cor.13:11 … rejoice, adjust, be entreated, be
mutually disposed,
be at peace, and the God of love
and of peace will be with you.
Ps.34:14 Withdraw from evil, and do good; Seek peace, and pursue
it.
Ps.133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant for
brothers to dwell as one.
Mk.9:50 Ideal is the salt, yet if the salt
should be becoming savorless,
with what will you be seasoning it?
Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with
one another."
Rom.15:2,3 Let each of us please his
associate,
for his good, toward his edification.
3 For Christ also pleases not Himself, but
according as it is written,
"The reproaches of those reproaching Thee
fall on Me."
1Cor.14:12 Thus you also, since you are
zealots for spiritual endowments,
seek that you may be superabounding to
the edification of the ecclesia.
Col.3:12-15 Put on, then, as God's chosen ones,
holy and beloved,
pitiful compassions, kindness, humility, meekness,
patience,
13 bearing with one another and dealing
graciously among yourselves,
if anyone should be having a complaint against
any.
According as the Lord also deals
graciously with you, thus also you.
14 Now over all these put on love, which is
the tie of maturity.
15 And let the peace of Christ be
arbitrating in your hearts,
for which you were called also in
one body; and become thankful.
Jas.3:13-18 Who is wise and an adept among you?
Let him show his works by an ideal behavior in
meekness of wisdom.
14 Now if you are having bitter jealousy
and faction in your heart,
are you not vaunting against and falsifying
the truth?
15 This is not the wisdom
coming down from above,
but terrestrial, soulish,
demoniacal.
16 For wherever
jealousy and faction are,
there is turbulence also, and every
bad practice.
17 Now the wisdom from above is first,
indeed, pure,
thereupon peaceable, lenient, compliant,
bulging with mercy and good fruits,
undiscriminating, unfeigned.
18 Now the fruit of righteousness
is being sown in peace for those making peace.
Eph.4:29 Let no tainted word at all be
issuing out of your mouth,
but if any is good toward needful edification,
that it may be giving grace to those
hearing.
Eph.4:31,32 Let all bitterness and
fury and anger and clamor and calumny
be taken away from you with all malice, 32 yet become kind to one another,
tenderly compassionate, dealing graciously
among yourselves,
according as God also, in Christ, deals
graciously with you.
1Thes.5:11-15 Wherefore, console one another
and edify one the other, according as you
are doing also.
12 Now we are asking you, brethren,
to perceive those who are toiling among you
and presiding over you in the Lord and
admonishing you,
13 and to deem them
exceedingly distinguished in love, because of their work.
Be at peace among yourselves.
14 Now we are entreating you, brethren;
admonish the disorderly,
comfort the fainthearted, uphold the infirm, be
patient toward all.
15 See that no one may be rendering evil
for evil to anyone,
but always pursue that which is good for
one another as well as for all.
20. Not on account of
food demolish the work of God.
All, indeed, is clean,
but it is evil to the man who with
stumbling is eating.
Peace should reign in the ecclesia, and in this
environment we should all grow to maturity. We should not let these
inconsequential observances disrupt the harmony within the fellowship –
which should be one of mutual understanding and brotherly love.
Eph.4:15,16 …in love we should be
making all grow into Him,
Who is the Head--Christ-- 16 out of Whom the entire body,
being articulated together and united
through every assimilation of the supply,
in accord with the operation in measure of each
one's part,
is making for the growth of the body, for
the upbuilding of itself in love.
Food, that we partake of,
cannot adversely affect us spiritually. It is more important to be careful
about our attitude towards others for this is where spiritual contamination
may interfere with the smooth functioning of the ecclesia.
Mt.15:11 Not that which is entering into
the mouth is contaminating a man,
but that which is going out of the mouth,
this is contaminating a man.
Though we may not have issues concerning food, new
believers and infirm ones may find difficulty in adjusting to the truth.
Should they partake of such under their immature understanding, they would
be doing wrong by acting against their own conscience. Over-insistence on
our part will put unnecessary pressure on them and stir resentment.
Rom.14:14,15 I have perceived and am persuaded in the Lord
Jesus
that nothing is contaminating of
itself,
except that the one reckoning anything to be
contaminating,
to that one it is
contaminating.
15 For if, because of food, your brother is
sorrowing,
you are no longer walking according to
love.
Do not, by your food, destroy that one for whose
sake Christ died.
21. It is ideal not to be eating meat, nor
yet to be drinking wine,
nor yet to do aught by which your brother is stumbling,
or is being snared or weakened.
We should, therefore, be doing all that contributes to
a peaceful environment for mutual edification. The partaking of certain food
should not be the cause of disruption and a forfeiture of mutual spiritual
benefit. It would be better if we could forego food for a weaker brother's
conscience sake.
Rom.14:2,3 One, indeed, is believing to eat all
things,
yet the infirm one is eating greens.
3 Let not him who is eating be scorning
him who is not eating.
Yet let not him who is not eating be
judging him who is eating,
for God took him to Himself.
1Cor.8:11,12 For the weak one is perishing
also by your knowledge;
the brother because of whom Christ died.
12 Now in thus sinning against brethren,
and beating their weak conscience,
you are sinning against Christ.
13 Wherefore, if food is snaring my brother,
I may under no circumstances be eating meat for
the eon,
lest I should be snaring my brother.
Rom.15:1,2 Now we, the able, ought to be bearing
the infirmities of the impotent,
and not to be pleasing ourselves.
2 Let each of us please his associate, for his
good, toward his edification.
22. The faith which you have, have for
yourself in God's sight.
Happy is
he who is not judging himself in that which he is attesting.
As mentioned earlier, to each believer God has
deigned to give a different measure of faith. We cannot, therefore, use our
own faith as a yardstick to compare the faith of others against. Our faith
is between ourselves, individually, and God. We should have a clear,
scripture-trained conscience in whatever we do - for where there is doubt,
an unclear conscience, there is sin, a missing of the mark, and an
impediment to growth.
Rom.14:
5,6 One indeed, is deciding for one day
rather than another day,
yet one is deciding for every day.
Let each one be fully assured in his
own mind.
6 He who is disposed to the day, is disposed to
it to the Lord;
and he who is eating, is eating to the Lord,
for he is thanking God.
And he who is not eating, to the Lord is
not eating, and is thanking God.
1Jn.3:21 Beloved, if our heart should not be
censuring us,
we have boldness toward God,
This does not mean that we
should let everyone continue to do what is not right according to
our evangel just because they are convinced that what they do is
right. This would be a recipe for confusion and chaos within the
fellowship. Those who understand the truth concerning these observances
should bring up that truth for the attention and consideration of the
weaker ones. This is why certain ones are given gifts that function towards
the growth of the ecclesia. Again, attitude is important.
Gal.6:1 Brethren, if a man should be precipitated, also,
in some offense,
you, who are spiritual, be attuning such
a one, in a spirit of meekness,
noting yourself, that you, also, may not be
tried.
1Cor.1:10 Now I am entreating
you, brethren,
through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all may be saying the same thing,
and there may be no schisms among you,
but you may be attuned to the same
mind and to the same opinion.
Eph.4:11-13 And the same One
gives these, indeed, as apostles, yet these as prophets,
yet these as evangelists, yet these as pastors
and teachers,
12 toward the adjusting of the saints
for the work of dispensing,
for the upbuilding of the body of Christ,
13 unto the end that we should all
attain to the unity of the faith
and of the realization of the son of God,
to a mature man,
to the measure of the stature of the complement
of the Christ,
23. Now he who is doubting
if he should be eating is condemned,
seeing that it is not out of faith.
Now everything which is not out of faith is sin.
When we use peer-pressure,
or ridicule, or outright bullying, to have someone act to accord with our
knowledge and understanding and against his own convictions of
the time we actually make him do wrong. To act against one’s own
convictions, one’s own beliefs, is to sin.
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