Depends on where you are standing
Lily Cathcart
September 22, 2017
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Romans 14: 1-12
1 Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions. 2 Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. 3 Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. 4 Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5 Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. 6 Those who observe the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God.
7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God. 11 For it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.’12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
The series ‘Deutschland 83’, while being full of action and intrigue, is also full of observations about daily life in 1983 Berlin. Martin crosses an uncrossable divide and finds on the other side that, for all their different opinions and views on simple things, they are also all people just like him, trying to do their best in an impossible situation.
In today’s world this is a big lesson that needs to be learned across the globe and in our own streets and churches. It seems that thousands of years are not enough time for this message to sink in, nor are the decades since 1983.
‘It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.’ (from v4).
This passage reminds us that we stand before God and that to God we are all loveable and flawed and in need of grace.
Dear God,
We are your children and you love us all
even when we forget how to love each other.
Please be our guide and help us to see your children through your eyes.
Amen.
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