I won’t insert the entire text here (please check it out for yourself!), but let me give a quick summary.

Paul is writing to the church in Rome – made up of believers, both Gentile and Jew – and he’s urging them to be unified. And what is he worried might disrupt their unity and community? He’s concerned that the believers might get caught up on the differences and opinions they held regarding eating vegetables, consuming meat, celebrating certain holidays, and sipping certain beverages.

In short, he’s worried that carrots, pork, the Sabbath, and wine were going to cause division. Doesn’t sound that different from 2017, huh?

“Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats…One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike…”
Romans 14:1-5

Again, Paul is concerned that judgment and contempt will stand in the way of of Kingdom work.

So what does he say?

1. Stop the judgment and don’t be a stumbling block! 

…let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way. v. 13

2. Don’t let the preferences and opinions tear down the unity Christ died for! 

For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. v. 15

Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. v. 20

3. Pursue peace! 

So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. v. 19

4. Remember what matters! 

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. v. 17

5. Whatever you do, do it for God! 

He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. v. 6-8

6. Let God be the judge. 

Each one of us will give an account of himself to God. v. 12

Friends, the bride is diverse!

And ya know what?

Though it can be scary, yucky, and downright out of our comfort zones at times, if it was growing and good for the Church in Rome, it can be growing and good for the Church in the 21st century.

We need ‘different’ in our pews, and we need variation in our buildings. We need the stretching and growing that comes with different opinions and particular preferences. We need the beauty of each other and the difference of YOU because different can bring perspective; different can bring needed-challenge and change; and different can bring beautiful and necessary growth in your heart and in mine.