Proper 19: Epistle, Romans 14:1-12                               

Romans 14:1-12

“You’re not the boss of me!” I remember hearing that as a kid when someone in the neighborhood wanted to impose the “my way or the highway” rule in some game or playtime practice. It is a mark of human nature to want to impose our way of doing things on others. As we grow older and gain more experience, we learn that life is full of compromises and that, doggone it, the way the other guy wants to do it ain’t that bad after all.

But in Romans 14 the Apostle Paul is warning the young Christian community in the great city that there is, at the end of the day and at the final day, just one judge for the believer in Christ. There are plenty of things that Christians do or don’t do, that are not connected to any command in Scripture. There are also things from which we have been freed in the death and raised life of Jesus, that did bind the Old Testament followers of Yahweh. Days and festivals and foods and washings. Rules, rules and more rules. Beautiful in their precision, they express the beauty and order of our God. But for New Testament believers, there is an expansive freedom that our spiritual ancestors could not have imagined. Some think they can eat anything while others might get nervous to have a certain piece of meat in their home. God says in Christ, “No worries.” The Old Testament and holy days are lovely pictures and reminders of the work of God for his people. Still. But there is no mandate for observance. You may choose to observe … or not. It is Christ Jesus who has brought fulfillment for all the restrictions once facing God’s people. And it is Christ Jesus and only Christ Jesus who has the final say on our “yes” or “no”.

Verse 8 of chapter 14 gives a beautiful and important-to-be-remembered summary of the measure of all our attitudes and practice: “For 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.” I am not performing for my neighbor except with the debt to love them. And in all honesty I am not performing for the Lord either. Not performing but LIVING. Living in and with a freedom that allows us to see fully, and experience the love we have received from the one who made us and our neighbor. A freedom that allows us to love God, ourselves and our neighbor in a way that truly honors God and looks confidently forward to the day when we will all bow before him with joy. He’ll be there as our only Judge. I’m thankful. You?