Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
The Apostle Paul exhorts the believers to practical piety to do good to your neighbour. Bless your neighbour and you will not be poorer for it. The mentality of the fallen man is to exact advantage or good from your neighbour. But the Christian ethos is to do good to your neighbour.
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. 13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
Romans 15:2 Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. Do good to others is the exhortation of the Apostle Paul. Exercise charity and benevolence in your conversation and interaction with your neighbour. This is …
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The stronger believer ought to bear the infirmities of the weaker believer is the continuing exhortation of the Apostle Paul in this chapter. William MacDonald explains well, “Treat the weaker brother with kindness and consideration.” The reference here is between the difference in practices of eating habits and observing of holy days between Jewish and Gentile Christians.Disharmony arises that disrupts the peace in the body of Christ.
Whatever in the Christian’s life that “does not spring from faith,” that is, “is not in harmony with an inner conviction that what he is doing is in line with his Christian faith,” this person is sinning because he is trying to silence the voice of conscience…To be sure, a person’s conscience is not the Final Judge of his actions…that Final Judge is God, or if one prefers, the Word of God. [Hendriksen]
Acts 6:8-15 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. 9 Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. 10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. 11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God. 12 And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, 13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: 14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. 15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
The believer who has a matured faith will have the spiritual strength to defer to the weaker believer. Exercise it. God’s blessing will come upon you, the Apostle Paul exhorts, for exercising forbearance. It shows forth the Spirit’s fruit when the believer is able not to take issue with the ways of the weaker believer.
(1) What is Saving Faith? (Part 2)
The Westminster Confession of Faith, the best summary of the Christian faith in the English language states:
By this faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God himself speaking therein; [e] and acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth; yielding obedience to the commands, [f] trembling at the threatenings, [g] and embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come. [h] But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace. [i]
The Apostle Paul is urging the believers to refrain from judging one another over inconsequential matters threatening to disrupt the harmony of the body of believers in the local church in Rome. Why does he have to repeat time and again throughout this chapter the same point? Why is he so longwinded? I believe this is a pertinent principle for the believers’ to learn for blessed church life.
God is doing a blessed work of sanctifying the lives of His people through the putting on of holiness in the believers’ life. May His children not impede the spiritual progress of God’s body by taking issue with the weak brother on inconsequential issues. Be willing to give deference one to another. Let Christian fellowship be sweet when the believers focus upon those things that work to build up one another in the faith.