Andrew Streett, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Southwestern Seminary, preached from Romans 15, verses 1-7, in SWBTS Chapel on April 15, 2025.
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Following that song. I think if we can keep our attention on the crucified and risen Christ, we probably can make it through the sermon and but because this sermon is it’s a little hard to do. It’s about people being different, people having differences of opinions, people having differences in convictions and looking out at you all. You all are exactly the same. That’s a joke. You can laugh. Look around at each other. You all are different. There’s a lot of difference though, on this campus, differences of theological opinions, but also differences in culture, gender, all the other things that make us different. It’s going to be hard for us and any time we have these differences to get along together.
And I’m going to tell you where we’re ending up before we start, we’re going to end up with the mission of the gospel requires the difference, and it also means that some differences fall by the wayside or are dealt with as non essentials. I ministered for a few years at a seminary in Austin, and Austin people had a saying. Anybody know that saying? Keep Austin weird. Austin gloried in its difference. And they had another saying, and this one was about Dallas. So they never talked about Fort Worth for some reason. But you know what the saying about Dallas is? Don’t Dallas?
My Austin. I mean, I didn’t, I didn’t want to be weird, like Austin was weird, and I lived out in the suburbs, and the suburbs are about the same everywhere, but that’s one solution, if you’re going to have differences, keep them separate, right? And that’s oftentimes an easy solution for some situations, and we try to make that work. Seems to be one of the solutions that we’ve come up with. And a lot of denominations and a lot of churches, we’re just going to separate each other when we have differences, and try to make it work that way. Sometimes we have differences that are based in conviction, based in faith and our understanding of what’s required of us, and those are the most difficult ones, because then we cannot just say,
Ah, we’re just going to get over it, right? Because it’s something that comes out of our faith. It comes out of a real heartfelt conviction, from study of scripture or from study of theology or cultural boundaries that we sort of feel are tied to our faith. Paul’s dealing with a similar situation to one like that in Romans 15. And we’re going to go back to Romans 14 a little bit as well to give some context. And so let’s look at what Paul’s doing here. The main verse that Dr Grace read a moment ago is verse seven of chapter 15. Accept one another, just as Christ accepted us to the glory of God. That’s where we’re ending up, but we have a ways to go before we get there. Paul has written this letter to the church in Rome. Every one of Paul’s letters has a reason for being written. If you don’t understand that, you’re going to miss a lot. Why is Paul writing this letter to the Romans?
So there are probably multiple house churches in Rome, and they may be actually divided along ethnic lines. You may have some that are Jewish house churches, some that are Gentile house churches, or they may be divided along lines of similarity and practice certain ones, whether full of Jews or Gentiles, might respect the Jewish law and its observances and therefore feel like they cannot worship with other communities that say that the Jewish law is no longer in effect. It’s not a requirement. And Paul spends a long time in Romans talking about what is the actual role of the law in salvation history, and what is the law good for?
And his conclusion is, the law does not give righteousness the works of the law that you do in accordance with the law, they do not make righteous people. But he never once says it would be wrong to do that stuff. He never once says that that’s a fascinating thing. You would think that if it’s being misused, he would say you can’t do it. But he never says that. He leaves that up to conscience, and he knows that there are groups that do this. There are groups that still live according to the law, who have placed their faith in Christ. They have real faith in Christ. They recognize Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection as the basis of their righteousness, the basis of acceptance by God, but they feel like they really should keep following the law after God gave them the law, for generation after generation, their people had followed the law, it reveals God’s will in a certain way, doesn’t it? So you can understand the problem there.
Well, why is this a problem? If they can just remain separated? We’ll get to that in a moment. We’ll get to that in a moment. But Paul, for. James chapters 14 and 15 within the same context only. He doesn’t use the words Jew and Gentile, and he doesn’t mention the law, but he mentions a couple of groups here that probably represent those two ways of viewing the Christian life. He talks about the weak and the strong. Look back at the beginning of chapter 14. He says, 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.
So this is probably a reference to those who feel like they have restrictions on their diets according to the Jewish observance, because they are so concerned to stay away from meat that may have been sacrificed to idols, or meat that may have been prepared in the wrong way, may have been unclean, but other people feel like they can eat the meat and everything else. And I’m in that last group, okay? And I’ll just have you know that Paul’s in that last group too. And so the strong is how he’s going to characterize the group, to feel like they can eat anything. He refers to these people in verse 15 one as well. He says, Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength.
So there’s another issue that goes right along with this issue over the Jewish law, and that’s probably observing days. So look at verses five. Verse five in chapter 14, one person regards one day above another, and another regards every day alike. Each must be fully convinced in his own mind. So there’s a difference of opinion here. That’s a real, honest difference. When the church gets together for the Lord’s Supper, however, and you cannot, sort of, you cannot abide these differences. If there are real convictions, if one person says, I am not going to eat that meat, and I cannot even sit at the same table with it, and you are doing things that are unclean, I can’t, I can’t fellowship with you, this is going to cause some huge problems, theological and social problems, and so Paul has to try to find a way through this, because it is extremely important for Paul that there be unified churches, not just because this is what Christ came for, to create one new humanity, redeemed from sin on a level playing field before God, but also because Paul’s trying to get money from them.
That sounds crass. Paul’s trying to fund his mission to Spain. And if he only finds funding from one group or another, because the church is so disunified that they can’t join hands in this mission, then his mission is unsuccessful. So what’s he going to do? Now notice that this may the strength of the of the person’s faith, or the weakness of the person’s faith, may be tied to these cultural differences where it is a true, heartfelt limitation that they feel they’re not making this up. And they’re not one of these people that just says, I don’t like that thing, and therefore I’m not going to do it. You know, those kinds of people, the people that just have opinions that they feel really strongly, and then they try to make you do it, or make you believe it, or say you can’t express that opinion. Sometimes things like politics or theological positions are this way, and you just have trouble makers. But that’s not what this is, all right.
So the problem is that we have these theological and social divisions based in heartfelt conviction about what people believe is actually true and required of them by God. And Paul has to try to keep these churches together from a distance, even writing a letter so that the mission can be accomplished. So what is happening? Then? These people are condemning each other and judging each other for their different ways of life. He says this in verse three of chapter 14. Look at that one. He says, The one who eat 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 for God has accepted him. Well, that’s, I mean, that’s simple, right? He could have just stopped there. Just don’t judge each other. Accept each other. God has accepted those people. But it’s not so simple when you have heartfelt convictions. Now, this is a first step, to not condemn each other. But then what do you do? Then, when you feel like you are being defiled when you eat the Lord’s supper together.
So let’s talk about the solution. That’s the problem. The solution that Paul lays out is in response to a number of alternative solutions that are just not viable. He talks about these also in chapter 14. So what are these unacceptable solutions you can act like it doesn’t matter, right? You can just say, well, there’s no right position, you know, and we all believe different things, and we should all just not care. That sounds very cool and very modern, but that’s not a viable position, because Paul. Actually believes there’s truth. That’s not that’s not a very modern thing. Paul actually believes there’s truth. He actually is part of the strong group. Notice in verse 15, verse one of chapter 15, we who are strong.
He puts himself in that same group, and then he expresses his opinion also about whether all foods are clean or there are some that are unclean. In chapter 14, look at verse 14 of chapter 14. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, To him, it is unclean. It sounds like Paul’s a relativist or something, doesn’t it? He’s not a relativist. He states what he believes is true. And then he says, but within a person’s own experience, it’s going to make a difference for how they function in the Christian life. We’ll get to that in a moment. He says it again, something similar in verse 20, Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed, are clean, but they’re evil. For the man who eats and gives offense.
So clearly there is truth. And Paul also just can’t say all things are okay. I mean, I mean all positions are okay. It doesn’t really matter, because he doesn’t believe that. He doesn’t believe that all positions are okay either. He believes that there are some things that are too far there are some things that are betrayal of the gospel. If you ever read Galatians, you you know what he’s talking about. He thinks is that it is a betrayal of the gospel to say that the works of the law are required for righteousness, that would that would completely make the death and resurrection of Christ devoid of effect. He is not willing to do that. In fact, you know, a pretty strong language. He says, I guess if people like to circumcise people so much they can, well, I’ll let you read it yourself. There are certain things that he says they can do to themselves if they if they like that so much, that’s not an option for Paul. Paul does not say everything’s okay, because some things clearly are not. So the things that threaten the basics of the faith are too far now, you know, in a confessional setting, we have some certain things that are identified in our statement of faith that are the basics of the faith.
There are also some things in there that are not the basics of the faith, that are our preferred theological positions, right? And then beyond the statement of faith, there’s all a whole world of theological options out there, whole world of Christian practice. So we already have an agreed upon basis of some basic facts. And you could also just look at what all evangelicals hold to be true, which is a very few number a few things these days, but things focused on the divinity of Christ and His necessary, necessity of His death and resurrection and faith in that for salvation and inspiration of Scripture and things like that. None of those get too close to practice, though, do they? And this is where it really hits the sociological side of things. When it comes down to convictions or basic beliefs about practice, or we’re more likely to run into these big speed bumps. Well, we can’t just say nothing matters, and everybody can do what they want. He can say everybody can do something different.
And we’re not going to say it’s all okay, but at least this is a practical solution. You go over there, like some of these house churches may have been doing, and you go over there and you guys eat the meat, and you guys don’t eat the meat. But this doesn’t work, because there’s no then unified one humanity that Christ has redeemed, that gets together and glorifies his name and joins mission together. You could also say, stay in the house churches, and you guys bring in one house church. You guys bring your meat and eat it at the table, and you guys don’t bring your meat and eat at the table. And that’s what we’ll do. But he says, This is not a viable option either. Look at verses 14 to 17 in chapter 14. He says, I know and am convinced the Lord that nothing’s unclean in itself. But to him who thinks anything is unclean to him, it is unclean. For if because of food, your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love, do not be do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Skip down to verse 20.
Then he says, All things do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. So there is this, this idea that people who are witnessing other people eat the meat may be, may be forced to violate their conscience. They may be tempted to eat the meat themselves, to capitulate, and they also may be feel, may feel like they are being made unclean simply by being there. And Paul says that is not a viable option for those who want to eat meat, because you are destroying someone else’s faith, and if you make them compromise. This by putting pressure on them to eat, then you have violated their own faith. Look at verse 23 he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin. So what are we going to do? Then, what are we going to do? Paul starts by recognizing that these issues are matters of conscience based in a person’s real faith. These are not just whims of opinion. These are not just following a crowd and to to bend over backwards, to compromise would be to destroy their own faith, to violate their own conscience.
So some people are going to come to different conclusions based on conviction, and that’s an important place to start. I have theological convictions and convictions about practice in the Christian life that you may not have, and you may have the same with regard to me this, it doesn’t mean we can ignore them. We cannot ignore them. We can’t just pretend they don’t exist, and we can’t force each other to do it in the seminary community, we don’t often have the things that would stop us from actually ministering together. We don’t often have things that are so that are so different about us on a social level, or what we’re going to eat or which days we’re going to honor, that would keep us from communing together. And so we’re dealing much more often with theological differences and what is acceptable teaching, what is acceptable belief, but But still, we have to have some foundation here there.
So let’s move along and get to Paul’s solution. Then we’ve got an unviable solutions as we move forward and think about a seminary community that is willing to accept each other, what is that going to look like? So first of all, Paul says the solution is you accept each other. You welcome each other. That means you’re going to get together to eat the Lord’s Supper. Because his theological reasoning for this is God and Christ have accepted us. He says this in a couple of places. Look at 14, three. He says it there, you can’t judge each other because God has accepted that other person you can’t condemn if God accepts that’s a general rule. He says it again in our theme verse in verse seven of chapter 15, therefore accept one another, just as Christ accepted us to the glory of God.
And this is his whole point in Revelation in Romans, sorry, I was thinking about revelation from yesterday in class, from Romans, Christ has accepted both Jew and Gentile. He has not required anything of them except faith. He has poured out His favor on them. He does not require the works of law. He does not require anything in addition to that, and so you cannot also, you cannot require more than that to accept each other. That’s a pretty narrow and small basis of acceptance, isn’t it? This means that no matter how sophisticated we want to become in our theology and belief and practice, that acceptance of one another as brothers and sisters in Christ and the willingness to commune together is on the lowest shelf possible.
That means across denominations. That means across nationality. That means across ways of life, across political lines, it is the lowest possible. I think you can see this division sometimes that sometimes rises above that lowest shelf when you see how people respond to, for instance, the death of Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter died recently. You know, Jimmy Carter was a Southern Baptist almost his whole life, a Baptist his whole life, a professing Christian, strong witness who has political opinions that are very different than many people, and it is very difficult sometimes for people to put that other stuff aside and say based on his profession of faith and a life lived in faithfulness to Christ.
Jimmy Carter was a brother in Christ. Now choose the political difference because that’s often the ones that causes the that may cause divisions even within churches, but theological differences can do the same. It is very difficult sometimes for people who believe in believers baptism, to talk about people who believe in paedo, baptism, infant baptism, as if they are genuine believers who are just have a have a difference of opinion, going to make it very difficult to get together in a church and baptize people in that situation. But I’m talking. Across denominational lines here, but it’s such a low level you have faith in Christ. Christ has accepted you.
On that account, God has accepted you, therefore I accept you as well. But Paul’s problem is different, right? His His problem is welcoming each other in a social context focused on the Lord’s Supper. So that general level of acceptance is not going to be is not going to work on a seminary level. This works just fine. I think Jim wicker and I have differences of opinion on eschatology, and depending on which day we’re on, the way that I differ from Dr wicker is probably going to be different because I go back and forth different days of the week.
But the way that we speak about each other, the way that we speak to students about our differences of opinion, whether this is on how communion is done, or issues of eschatology or local church governance, or any other thing, even down to ethical issues, is is the is a huge thing. We can never describe our own positions as if it is the only possible position for a believer to have think about how this, what this would do to our mission together. We would never be able to get together for mission if we present it that way. Sometimes in a classroom, we forget this right, and we’re only concerned with our position and describing it and defending it and vilifying others. We can’t do this. And so Southwestern has always had theological diversity, sometimes more and sometimes less, but always the theological diversity.
And you’ve heard Dr Dockery talk about the diversity and how it’s waned and waxed and gone in different directions, but we have never held up a narrow view of Christian belief and of practice as an ideal, even in the times where it was more narrow. We never held that up as the ideal. We still want to reach across the lines. We still want to teach the full breadth of Christian theology. We still want to treat others as believers, never to denigrate others. Look at what Paul is doing, though both sides have to practice this. Both sides have to accept each other, the weak, who still have a conviction about the way things should be done with regard to meat and days, they still have to accept the strong. They cannot vilify or condemn the strong, and the strong cannot look down on the weak and say, You guys just don’t have enough faith, even though they feel like they can move across these cultural lines and take it or leave it so very practically, then you’re going to have to live together in Rome in a way that is going to allow you to eat the Lord’s supper together.
So what’s going to happen? And this is where we come to, verse one of chapter 15, the strong have an obligation. Sometimes the translation mine says ought to but sometimes we don’t feel the full force of that. The strong, those who are able, have an obligation. They are obliged by God himself, to bear with the weaknesses of those who do not have strength or who are not able. So those who are not able are the ones who feel like they are not able to live according to their conscience and eat the meat or to neglect the Sabbath day or festival or something like that. They are simply not able without violating their own faith. But the strong are able to change practice, and so they are the ones who must bend within a church context and on the mission field, this is much more likely to come up and notice what it requires.
It requires the strong, those who may be more mature in their faith, to be able to distinguish between what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. And again, that’s a pretty low level. This is not, this is not saying that you have to have a full huge confession signed and dated and then signed every year in order to share the Lord’s supper with another believer. This is saying that the strong on matters where there is a differences, a difference of opinion. Who are able to put those differences aside, must do that. What is the what is up with this? Must I can understand Paul saying, you know, it would be best if you would do this. He, in his mind, has the obligation, because this is the only way the mission goes forward if the strong do not bend in ways that they can bend that others cannot, then the mission stops. This is a problem Paul deals with everywhere he goes. If you have Jews and Gentiles divided, then who has Christ died for?
If you look at someone else and say, the fact that we are together in Christ is not. Enough for me to get over my difference with you and to share the Lord’s Supper, which we say is a memory of his body and blood broken for us as one group, one covenant group, then what are we saying to people? What are we going to say to the pagans? What are we going to say to people whose natural impulse is to divide over everything, to say, I’m right and you’re wrong, and that’s what gives my life meaning. In fact, to make you something other makes me feel better. So do you want to be mature? Sometimes we have in our minds. Maturity means getting everything right down to the very smallest dot Paul says you can have it all right. The mark of maturity is knowing what is essential loving other people as God loves us.
So this requires that you’re not going to please yourself. And I hate that part, because I I like to please myself. I don’t know about you, this goes against the natural impulse, doesn’t it? But Christ Himself is the example. So Paul, when he gives an example and tells why you should do this thing, look at what he does in verse three. For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me, for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction. Now that’s a bold statement, right? David writes this, and God intends it for our instruction.
So the unity of Scripture is here, and it speaks to the use of Scripture in the present day church. It was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. You can look at the witness to the suffering and death of Christ, and say to yourself, that is what God wants from me, too. You can see it in the Psalms. You can see it in the Gospels. Anywhere we share a testimony, share the gospel that Christ died for others, we are also saying, therefore, there is a requirement that I bend, that I give up my pleasing of myself for the sake of others as well. Now there’s something weird going on with Psalm 69 we don’t have time to go look at that. But you know, it looks like the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.
Your translation may have a capital Y, there on the U. He seems like he’s talking about the reproaches that are aimed at God fell on Jesus. But Paul’s point really is, you need, need to bear with each other’s reproaches, right? And so look, you should go read Psalm 69 and read the context around it. You may see some hints there, and but this is stuff I love to talk about, but it’s not going to be useful for interpreting the passage. So ask me afterwards. Christ Himself does not please himself, but sacrifices himself for the good of others. Therefore we can do the same and it and it’s about meat. You know, it’s not a big deal. Paul says, I don’t care about meat. It’s good not to eat meat or drink wine, especially if you can help the kingdom of God by doing it. What a ridiculous thing to make a stumbling block.
So what’s the result if we are to take his path here and we both sides accept each other, and the strong, if necessary, bend, because they can handle it where the weak cannot. What’s the result? Then? The result is that the mission can move forward. It moves forward within congregations. First of all, look he Well, look what he says, What scripture is written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of scriptures, we might have hope. If you’re separate, what’s the hope? But if God has created a new humanity in relationship to him who can then join each other in this life together, then you have hope. There’s hope for the world. Hope for a divided world. Hope for a world where hatred is the key, where is the thing that defines us.
We might have hope that one day, Christ is coming back, and that everything that divides us is not even an issue anymore at all, because we have received encouragement that Christ has done this, we can do this. We look forward to those days, and we can see it in our lives now, within our communities, every time we take the Lord’s supper together, every time we eat and commune together. We can do this in the classroom, the fact that we could disagree with each other on. Things. Now, you should never disagree with me on a test, because that would be wrong. But you know, when we’re talking about stuff, the fact that you could disagree with me and I, being the one in control in a classroom, could disagree with you in a way that recognizes that we are brothers and sisters, is the same attitude, right?
The fact that we can do that is hope, hope that our focus is not on ourselves and pleasing ourselves, but on something far greater, that when we then take Scripture and we take our theology out into the world, that we are there together, we are supporting each other, and the mission goes on. He does this also in the after the section, our passage is from, if you read from seven and following, what does he say, accept each other, just as Christ also accepted you us to the glory of God, because this will result in great glory for God. For I say that Christ has become a servant of the circumcision on behalf of truth of God, to confirm the promises given to the fathers and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy.
This word will go out again and again and again to Jews and Gentiles, and Christ came to serve both of them. We then join him on that mission. If you read the rest of chapter 15, that’s what Paul says. Paul says that the gospel has come to Jews first, and then it has also come to Gentiles. And he says, I Paul, am like a priest to the Gentiles, taking them from where they are, out in the pagan life, and bringing them to God and joining them together. This cannot go forward if we allow such things to divide us. So as we move forward, we have to, you know, we have to get our focus off of ourselves, and we have to put our focus where it belongs. We have to put our focus on what it means to actually live a life of mission. We can join together and with one voice glorifying God, we can build churches that don’t require strict subscription to every single doctrine that you value or that I value, or that anyone values.
They can be based on simple basics. They can be based on simple basics within our communities. They can those simple basics can encourage us to reach across to other churches that don’t have the same theology and doctrine, to join in mission. How important think about how important it is to have this mindset in the mission field. How will you minister to people different than you who have convictions, maybe based on immature faith that require of them certain culturally bound practices, and for you to say you must now do this differently when it is not one of the basics of the faith would be to do exactly what Paul says the strong could do to the weak.
Think about how important it is to have mature people as missionaries who can cross those cultural boundaries and maintain focus on what is really important. This is convictional to me, because I like to be right. And you know, as far as I know, I am, and I think you probably are as far as you know too. That’s why you think the things you think. But it should teach us true humility as we pursue theological integrity, as we pursue integrity in ministry, our focus must mean be maintained on Christ died and crucified, creating one new humanity to stand before the throne of God, glorifying Him forever. And that can start now. Let’s pray together.
Our Father fill us with this humility that is not our natural state. We are people who like to be right. We are people who like to have our own way. We are people who accepting others does not come naturally to us. Fill us with your mind and with your Spirit, so that when we look at others who are different, though they may have convictions based in faith or opinion that we see them with your eyes. We see them as one who has been brought near based on nothing in themselves, but because you love them, fill us with that love as well, and then give us the integrity to move forward together on that basis, not compromising on the important issues, but holding things loosely when they are not, so that we can be a light in this world, unifiers of people, unifiers of others, with. You pray in the name of Christ, Amen.
