Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter
14 as we continue our study through Paul’s letter to the
church in
But starting in chapter 12 of Romans and on through chapter 15 verse 13 Paul is dealing with the application of the truths of God to our lives. It is how we live out our faith and that is difficult for many to swallow. This is the kind of stuff that rubs people the wrong way many times. For instance, “What do you mean I am to respect and submit to the government? Are you kidding me? They are the most ungodly group of people I know! I don’t surrender to anyone but God!”
That sounds so good, it sounds so spiritual and yet it is wrong. Paul said in Romans 13:1-4, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”
How easy is that to swallow, especially today and yet, that is what God says. We are to respect and obey those in authority over us unless they tell us to do something that goes contrary to God’s Word, even pay taxes! This is hard because our flesh gets in the way but remember, our lives are being transformed into the image of God. Thus, be a model citizen, obey the law, don’t be rebellious or disobedient to the government. Live peaceably with all men so that as people see us they see the transforming power of God in our lives! As Paul said, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities . . .”
And this morning we are continuing in our study on Christian liberty and this is a very touchy subject because, many times, people take what God has told them to do or not to do and they make it into a law that everyone must obey or they are not spiritual, they are carnal. And Paul hits this subject very hard and my prayer is that my heart and your heart will be open to what the Holy Spirit is showing us in this section. It is that important I believe! And this subject of Christian liberty can be very tricky as this story illustrates for us.
Maybe some of you have heard the story of the woman, a very poor woman, who visited a church that was upper class you might say, kind of the high society church. You would never find anyone wearing jeans let alone shorts. They were decked out like they were going to some high-class event and thus, that was the standard.
The woman attended the church for a period of time and then she applied for church membership. Her application though, was rejected. She then sent a second one a few months later and that too was returned and she was rejected. She did this a third and a fourth time and finally she decided to go to the chairman of the membership committee and she asked him, “Why are you rejecting my application for membership to this church?”
The chairman answered the woman in a very professional manner, “You need to go home and pray about this and I think the Lord will show you why you have been rejected, what the real issue is all about?”
A few years went by and the chairman of the membership committee saw this woman working at a local hotel, scrubbing the floors and he said to her, “You haven’t made an application for membership lately. In fact, I don’t recall seeing you in church at all! Tell me, when I told you to go home and pray about this situation, did the Lord speak to you?”
Very politely the woman replied back and said, “Why yes, the Lord spoke to me and He told me not to feel bad about being rejected because He has tried to join that church for twenty years before He finally gave up!”
We laugh at that but do you see how we can allow our views, our legalistic views, our ideas to cause disunity, conflict, and ultimately division in the body of Christ? I am not talking about doctrine, I am talking about liberty and that is what Paul is speaking about here in Romans chapter 14. Now, as I have said before in our previous studies, you are not going to be able to walk in unity until you first surrender your life to the Lord, place your entire life on the altar of sacrifice, consecrating yourself to Him. Paul said in Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” It is out of that we can then walk in the unity that is found in Christ Jesus our Lord!
With that said, let’s begin reading in Romans chapter 14, starting in verse 5, and see what the Lord has for us this morning as we look at conflict within the body of Christ or Christian liberty.
Last week we looked at the introduction to this section and that covered the first four verses of Romans chapter 14. And the focus was unity and not division. You see, our unity first of all is in Christ and His truth and then our unity with believers is linked to the way the church represents Jesus to the world! As Augustine wrote, “On essentials – unity; on non-essentials – liberty; in all things – charity.” That is what it is all about. We tend to find disunity, division over the silliest things and yet, when it comes to doctrine, there seems to be no concern. We have it reversed!
This morning, in Romans 14:5-21 we are going to focus on CONVICTION, and we will see what that is all about in regards to Christian liberty. With that said, let’s begin to break down these verses and see what the Holy Spirit has for us this morning.
Here was one of the problems with the church in
And folk’s don’t think that this debate has gone away, not at all. The Seventh Day Adventists believe that Saturday, the traditional Sabbath day is the day you must worship on or you will lose your salvation! Some of the debate goes like this. If you worship the Lord on Sunday then you are worshiping the Sun god, from which the name derived. Now that is great except if you worship the Lord on Saturday then are you worshipping the god Saturn, from which this day was named after? Do you see how foolish the debate becomes?
The argument continues on in that the Lord told the children
of
Now let’s fast forward to the early church, when did they gather to worship the Lord? According to Acts 20:7 we are told, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.” The first day of the week was Sunday and they worshiped on Sunday because it was the day that Jesus rose from the dead! We also read of this in I Corinthians 16:2, “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.” So at the start of the church, they met on Sunday to worship the Lord!
And remember what Paul said in Colossians 2:16-17, “So
let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival
or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come,
but the substance is of Christ.” You see, all these
things in the Old Testament were a shadow of what was to come,
Jesus, He is the substance. Thus, and this may surprise you, I
don’t worship the Lord on Saturday or even Sunday as you
may think, but I worship the Lord every day. We just gather together
on Sunday here at
And the bottom line is this, you will not find any place in the New Testament where Christians are told to keep the Sabbath and thus, if this was a requirement for salvation, I think the Lord would have told us, don’t you? Of course He would! If you want to worship the Lord on Saturday that is great but don’t lay a guilt trip or tell people that they are going to lose their salvation if they don’t, that just is not true, the Scriptures do not support that!
And it is not just days that were a problem, but it was diet also, what you ate and Paul will deal more with this as we move on. The key here is that we are not to play the Holy Spirit and lay our convictions on other people. This is a matter of individual conviction, what you feel is right in these situations.
Now, in saying that I know what some will do. They will do things like this, “That means I can live with my girlfriend because it is my personal conviction to do so and thus, I love her and it is not wrong! You can’t lay a heavy guilt trip on me for this!” If you feel this way let me know and we will get the elders together and lay hands on you! No, but as silly as that sounds, there will be people who will try to justify their sin like this.
This principle that Paul is laying down does not apply to essential Christian doctrine but they only apply to matters that are morally neutral, those gray areas where God speaks to our hearts and it is not in His Word. Areas that we need to respond and obey and then, don’t play Holy Spirit and lay the law down. This is your conviction! Paul is not giving us a license to sin as some may argue, but he is telling us that whatever we do unto the Lord, let our convictions be our guide, our convictions that are directed by the Holy Spirit according to the Word of God! It is when we move away from God’s Word and the conviction of the Holy Spirit that we get ourselves in trouble! And again, these are speaking of morally neutral issues, what to eat, what day to worship the Lord on.
This is a powerful point that Paul is making here. He is telling us that it is the lordship of Christ that should rule our lives and we are not to rule our lives. We don’t die to ourselves but to the Lord. And the idea here is that we are all part of the body of Christ and thus, we are all connected to each other. What we do will affect others in the body of Christ in some way. We can affect them in a positive way or a negative way by the way we respond to them. But if the Lord is ruling in our lives, then what we give to others will be positive, it will be good for them and not destructive to them. The reality is, if He is not Lord of all your life then He is not Lord at all! You only want Him for what works for you and that is not lordship in your life, at least not the lordship of Christ! And the bottom line is this; Christ’s death and resurrection are given as grounds for Him to exercise lordship over both the dead and the living.
John Calvin saw the importance of this and wrote about it. He wrote, “God claims such power over life and death that every individual is to bear his own condition in life as a yoke laid on him by God. It is just that God should assign to every man his station and course in life. In this way we are not only forbidden to attempt to do anything hastily without a command from God, but we are also commanded to be patient in all trouble and loss. If, therefore, the flesh at any time shrinks from adversity, let us remember that a man who is not free and master of himself perverts law and order if he does not depend on the will of his Lord.”
Thus, if we live “to the Lord,” then we will be able to receive everything from the Lord with joy and with thanksgiving. That is what Paul is talking about here. And the reality is this. Everything that we do in this life is subject to Christ’s scrutiny and approval. You see, if He is Lord of your life, that won’t be a problem, it won’t bother you. But if He is not, then that will bother you; it will be a problem for you! You see, in death and life we belong to Him and thus, all that we do in this life and even in our death should bring glory to God!
To sum this up for you, let me share these words from James Montgomery Boice as he wrote on this subject here in Romans chapter 14. He wrote,
There are not many people who have studied seventeenth-century English prose [writing style] literature even if they were English majors in college. But I had a good college course on it and found the prose of that time to be a treasure.
That was the century of John Donne, best known for his “Songs and Sonnets.” But Donne became a preacher and also wrote great sermons as well as other prose literature. Among his prose writings are some “Meditations” he composed while confined to bed recovering from a serious illness. At one point he heard a church bell ringing the death toll of some other person, and he reasoned that it is never merely for other people the bell rings. Since each of us is mortal, it rings for us. Donne wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the maine; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends, or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Those last words are well known. They are the source of the title of one of Ernest Hemingway’s best known novels, for example. But they come to mind now not because of Hemingway, but because of Paul’s teaching in Romans 14:7–8: “For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”
- James Montgomery Boice, Romans volume 4, pp.1747-1748
First Paul speaks to the legalist Christian who found it easy to come against the Christian who walked in liberty, seeing him as a compromiser of the faith. Then Paul speaks to the one who walks in liberty showing contempt or despises those who were legalistic in their faith, kind of being uptight holier-than-thou thinking of them! Forget about it – don’t you have enough to deal with in your own life, with your own walk? You are going to have to answer before God for your own actions!
Then Paul speaks of the Bema Seat or the judgment seat of Christ that we as Christians will appear before. To illustrate this point he speaks of the Isthmian Games, which were like the Olympics except they were held in Corinth. And like the Olympics, the winners would receive a crown for their victory.
Paul, in II Corinthians 5:9-10 tells us, “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Then he expounds on the Bema Seat of Christ in I Corinthians 3:12-15 as he tells us, “Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” You see, God will judge the motives of our hearts, why we did this or that and reward us accordingly. We can lose our rewards by not having the right motives but we can’t lose our salvation!
There is coming a day when we all will appear before God in humility to give an account of our life, and like I said, for those who are saved, not for judgment but for rewards. On the other hand, those that are not saved, they too will bow in humility before the Lord and ultimately appear before the Great White Throne judgment where they will receive their eternal punishment for their actions in this life in the Lake of Fire! Thus, in all that we do, may we follow Paul’s admonishing in Colossians 3:23-25, where he tells us, “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.”
And the bottom line is this. As Christians, like I have said, we are not going to be judged for punishment but for rewards. And these rewards given at the Judgment Seat of Christ or the Bema Seat, which means the “rewards seat,” will not be given out based on how big or successful or how important our ministry was. We will be rewarded based on how faithful we were in doing whatever the Lord gave us to do! Now in saying that this Judgment Seat of Christ is not a punitive judgment doesn’t mean that it will be without much sorrow and tears. Let me explain. The sorrow I believe will be over the wasted time and opportunities we had and the tears will be over the lost rewards and the shame of unfaithful service to our Lord! In other words, at the Judgment Seat of Christ there will be tears and cheers!
When will this Judgment Seat of Christ take place? I believe it will be after the Rapture of the Church and before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to establish His Kingdom on this earth. How do I know this? In Revelation 22:12-13 Jesus tells us, “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” While the Tribulation Period is taking place on the earth the Judgment Seat of Christ will be taking place in Heaven!
And if you want your experience to be joyful at the Judgment Seat of Christ then you must be DILIGENT IN SERVICE as II Peter 1:10-11 tells us, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Also see I Corinthians 15:58 and Romans 12:11).
If you want your experience to be joyful at the Judgment Seat then you must PERSEVERE TILL THE END IN FAITHFULNESS as we are told in II John 1:8, “Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.” (Also see I Corinthians 9:27).
If you want your experience to be joyful at the Judgment Seat then THE MOTIVES OF YOUR HEART must be pure, they must be right. The reason you are doing things must be unto the Lord. It is as Paul tells us in I Corinthians 4:5, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.” And in I Corinthians 3:13-15 Paul tells us, “each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
You see, the Lord does not reward us based on just what we did for Him, but it is also based on what motivated us to do what we did for Him, did we persevere till the end in faithfulness, and were we diligent in service!
Thus, if you know Christ, if He is your Lord and Savior, then you will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. But, if you don’t know the Lord, if He is not your Lord and Savior, you have a big problem. You will appear before the Great White Throne Judgment, not for rewards but for punishment in the Lake of Fire! Thus, if you don’t know the Lord, won’t you ask Him to forgive you of your sins and be Lord and Savior of your life? You see, He died for you so that you can live in Him and with Him!
Paul now summarizes what he has said so far, that we are not to judge our brothers and sisters in the Lord when it comes to non-essentials and we are not to use the liberty we have in Christ to cause them to stumble. You see, if a brother or sister is sinning, we do need to come to them in the love of Christ and correct them. But in non-essentials, you can state your view but don’t go into a filibuster over it!
I like the way that John MacArthur sums this up for us as he wrote,
Our Christian liberty is vertical, before the Lord. But the exercise of that liberty is horizontal, because it is seen by and affects others. To rightly understand and use our freedom in Christ brings great satisfaction. But that satisfaction is multiplied when we willingly surrender the exercise of a liberty for the sake of other believers. More importantly, it greatly pleases our Lord and promotes harmony in His church. . . . For example, although the New Testament does not forbid the drinking of alcoholic beverages, there are many good reasons for Christians to abstain. One of the most important is the detrimental effect it can have on a former alcoholic. Our drinking, even in moderation, could easily place a stumbling block in that brother’s way and cause him to fall back into his former addiction.
The same principle applies to any activity or practice that is not inherently sinful. Problem areas vary from society to society and from person to person, but the principle never changes. The loving, caring, strong Christian will determine in his mind and heart to be sensitive to any weakness in a fellow believer and avoid doing anything, including what is innocent in itself and otherwise permissible, that might cause him to morally or spiritually stumble.
- John MacArthur, Romans
Please understand that Paul is not making a blanket statement here that we can do whatever we want, that all things are clean. He is speaking specifically here about eating meat and meat that was sacrificed to idols. That was a big issue in the church and Paul is addressing that now. And here’s the thing. God has not said that it is wrong to eat meat that was sacrificed to idols, and the left over meat was good meat that was being sold. But, if your convection points to you not to eat it, then don’t eat it. That is Paul’s point here.
Now how does that apply to us since we don’t have to worry about this specific issue? There may be things that we know are not sinful, they are not wrong, but we are not comfortable doing them or even being around those that are. For instance, drinking alcohol, for me, I don’t drink alcohol. The Bible does not tell me that, in fact the Bible says that drunkenness is wrong, but we can have a drink if we want. But for me, being a pastor, the Lord has put it on my heart not to have a drink, not even wine with my pasta! So I don’t and if I did, I would be going against what my convictions are on this subject. But that does not give me the right to go and say that if anyone has any alcohol they are compromising their faith. That would be wrong! But many do that because they feel if they can’t do it then nobody can, and that is wrong!
And thus, if you feel that way, that you should not do something, then you should avoid doing it. You see, if you consider something to be unclean, then it is unclean to you, and let me say that again, it is UNCLEAN TO YOU and not to everyone around you! Our convictions are telling us not to do it and we need to obey or if we don’t we can become more insensitive to the things of God. And it is a sin to us and God will chasten us for it. But again, it is not a sin for someone else to do it, please remember that. The things that God has not specifically said are wrong to do are left up to our own convictions, which, if we violate, we sin!
Also, listen carefully to what Paul told Timothy in I Timothy 4:4-5, “For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” So if you go to someone’s house, don’t ask if they sacrificed the meat to idols before they cooked it. Pray over it and receive it with thanksgiving because the Lord sanctifies it!
Paul’s major point in this passage is how our words and how our actions affect the spiritual welfare of our brothers and sisters in the Lord. The point is this, if because of food, or any other issue, our brother or sister in the Lord is hurt, we are no longer walking in love. In other words, if what you are doing is causing another to stumble, don’t do it for love’s sake! Can you give it up to help a brother not to stumble? Now we can go crazy with this and thus, just be wise and walk in love.
Now in saying that, we have so much freedom in Christ but let’s use that freedom we do have to edify, build up the body of Christ and not to tear it down. A neat example of what we are to do is given to us from this World War II story. Back in the early days of that war, German U-boats attacked allied ships traveling from the East Coast to Europe. To rectify this problem they decided to travel in large convoys. The problem was that the convoys could only go as fast as the slowest boat. So the faster boats slowed down so that they all might be protected. In other words, don’t let the enemy torpedo our brothers and sisters in the Lord because we are running on ahead of them in the freedom we have in Christ! Know who you are traveling with and adjust your speed and surround them with the love of Jesus because folks, we are the body of Christ and not out there on our own!
Let me give you an example of how we are to walk. Say you invite a Christian couple over for dinner and they are very strict vegetarians; don’t go cooking that 2-pound individual steak for them, that would be wrong. That is not walking in love! Or what about a Jewish believer, inviting him over for a big old fashion pig roast, that would be wrong, that is not walking in love. Do you see what I mean? I hope so. Yes, there is nothing wrong with these things, but put their feelings and their convictions first, die to self or really to the Lord and your freedom to do those things and show them the love of Christ!
Yes, we have freedom in Christ but don’t let the freedom you have cause a brother or sister to stumble as I have said, or else good will be looked upon as evil! Paul, in Philippians 2:1-4 tells us, “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” You see, if you are walking in the Spirit the focus of your life will be righteousness, joy, peace, and you will not be focused upon yourself but upon others! That is the mind of Christ! And as we do then our service is acceptable, it is good before the Lord. In other words, don’t focus on the externals but the eternals in our lives and that is righteousness, peace and joy!
In Psalm 133:1 we are told, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!” Yes, it is good but it is difficult to dwell together in unity, why? Because we let the externals get in the way of the eternals and that should not be! Don’t let your good conduct be spoken of as evil because you are using your liberty in a wrong way! We serve the Lord and thus, may we live that way as we dwell together in the unity of Christ! And that is done, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:21, “submitting to one another in the fear of God.” The Amplified Bible puts it like this, “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).” And The Living Bible says, “Honor Christ by submitting to each other.” I think you get the idea!
Again, we need to be careful that as we are doing these things we are not succumbing to their legalistic heart. You see, in this chapter Paul is speaking of someone who has a sincere heart, that they may be stumbled by our liberty in Christ. We don’t want to encourage someone to remain legalistic, but we also want to be careful we don’t cause someone to stumble by our actions. Now some want a black and white answer to this question, “How do I know how to respond?” It is not black and white, you need to pray about it and let God speak to your heart in these areas! The thing is, don’t force your convictions upon another, but walk in love. I would never tell someone they have to listen to a certain style of music, that is wrong. We all have different tastes and praise the Lord for that. Walk in love, be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading and you will not destroy the work that God is doing!
And let’s put this in perspective for a minute. God is doing a work in the lives of each one of His children; I don’t think anyone of us would disagree on that. But in saying that, doesn’t it scare you, frighten you to think of hindering that work in the life of a weaker brother over issues that are not black and white, that are not sinful, that are secondary matters? It should! You see, the weak must learn from the strong, that is how it should be. And the strong must love the weak. And you know what happens when we respond like that? “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!” You see, there is righteousness, there is peace and there is joy in the Holy Spirit!
And so, what is the conviction of your heart in certain areas? Let them not be a stumbling block to others, don’t make them into a law for others to obey, but walk in love knowing that God is working in all of us and we don’t want to hinder the work of God over issues that are not sinful, do we? Next time we will deal with CONSCIENCE and CONSIDERATION as we conclude this topic of Christian liberty!
Let me conclude with these words from F. B. Meyers. He wrote,
He that herein serveth Christ is well-pleasing to God, and approved of men.
Dean Howson renders this verse thus: “He who lives in these things as Christ’s bondsman is well-pleasing to God, and cannot be condemned by men.” There are two rules, therefore, to be observed by us when we consider our behaviour in that great borderland which lies between the dark and light, the clearly wrong and clearly right. We are all conscious of habits and tastes, of inclinations towards certain forms of amusement and recreation, of methods of life, which do not contravene any distinct law of God, but are certainly open to question. It is such things that fall within the scope of these two principles.
First, we must always remember that we are Christ’s bondservants. — Let us look then, every day and hour, and as to the mental habit, every moment, upon Jesus Christ as our Master. Saintly George Herbert chose that to be, as it were, his best — beloved aspect of his Savior; “My Master, Jesus.” “An oriental fragrancy, my Master.” Let us do the same. Let us wear the word next the heart, next the will; nay, let it sink into the very springs of both, deeper every day. And as each fresh question arises in our life, let us stand close beside Him, noticing the expression of His face, asking Him what He would desire, and always reckoning that the least suggestion of his preference is law. “None of us liveth to himself for, whether we live, we live unto the Lord.”
Second, we must always bear in mind the spiritual life of others. — We are to put no stumbling block, or occasion for falling, in another’s way. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor drink wine, nor to do any other thing, whereby our brother is made to stumble. Let us each of us please his neighbor for good ends, to build him up; for Christ pleased not Himself.
- Meyer, F. B. Our Daily Homily Vol. 5
Folk’s, in these non-essential areas, everything is pure, but if there is anything in which you have a personal problem with, it is unclean to you, then don’t do it. Determine where you are at, but don’t impose your convictions on others, don’t make your convictions into law. Let love rule, let the Lord guide and you will find righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit as Paul has said.