CCC Livestream - It's All About The Gospel - Romans 14:1-12
Live Worship Gathering: 11/4/2026
Preaching: Jason Purdy
What To Do With Disputable Matters
Jason Purdy
It’s All About The Gospel / Romans 14:1–12
Happy New Year Christ Covenant Church!
I invite you to turn with me to Romans 14.
We will look at verses 1-12 today.
We began walking through the book of Romans back in August, we took a short break for Christmas, and now we will jump back in this Winter/Spring to complete the final three chapters in our Sunday sermon times together.
We also discuss these passages in Community Groups beginning back next Sunday, so please let us know if you need to be connected to a group for next Sunday.
If we have not yet met personally, my name is Jason and I am one of the pastor/elders and the lead pastor here at Christ Covenant.
January is a special month at Christ Covenant Church because it is the month where we specifically focus on our church membership covenant to God and one another and this is capped off by a reading and taking of the Lord’s supper as an expression of our covenant commitments on the final Sunday of January.
If you are not a member with us and not familiar with this practice, our membership covenant is simply a document that summarizes for us what God’s word graciously calls us into as members of his family - the church.
And as we trust in God and His gospel, we need constant reminder and renewal in both our relationship with God and with one another, so I ask you to be in prayer, and take the time to read over the covenant before the Lord and examine your own heart in your commitments as we begin this new year.
If you are not yet a member here, we encourage you to learn more about what it means and why is matters. (Foundations Class)
I want to set us in the right mindset for our text today by sharing with you an experience I had with my wife Robin when we first started dating.
I remember right after we started dating, Robin wanted to take me to the church she had been attending.
I agreed to go, and we went, and the general feel and culture of the church and the service was pretty different than what I was used to growing up, but I tried to keep an open mind.
And after service, when Robin and I went to get lunch, she asked me if I would consider going with her again.
Of course, I said yes, but then she said something I wasn’t expecting.
She said, “Do you think you could wear jeans next time?”
And honestly, I was really offended.
You see, I grew up in a church culture that taught that we should wear our best to church in order to be honoring to God, and I didn’t really care that the way I dressed made me stick out like a sore thumb around all these jeans and tee shirt wearing people.
But, Robin grew up in a church culture that taught that we should wear what we would normally wear and be comfortable in what we wear because God does not look on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart, and it communicates to others that when it comes to Jesus and the gospel, you can come as you are, and she was bit embarrassed that I was dressed so differently than everyone else.
Here’s the question: who was right?
Whose position was the more God-honoring position?
Please don’t answer out loud.
But, here is what is going on in all of our heads right now.
For the Christians in the room, we are all assessing this matter and asking ourselves, are there Bible passages that tell us beyond a shadow of doubt how to dress when we come together to worship?
And the honest answer has to be no.
Now, there are biblical principles we can apply such as modesty and doing all things decently and in order, but there is no text that says, “Thou shalt wear suit and tie in the gathering, or thou shalt wear skinny jeans.”
Thank God for that right?
So, yeah, the Bible sets some boundaries, but neither Robin nor I were even close to crossing any biblical boundaries.
So, what do we think next?
Well, from here, we usually start gravitating toward our past experiences and our preferences, which is a very normal thing to do.
And the truth is: it is these types of matters that usually makes following Jesus in a unified church community so difficult.
So, I am going to read our passage today, and walk through how God’s word speaks to these kinds of issues:
Please follow along as I read:
Romans 14:1–12 ESV
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 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. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
1. Welcome Others As God Has Welcomed You
One big picture way to understand the book of Romans is to understand that chapters 1-11 explain what God has done in Christ to reconcile us to God, and chapters 12-16 is how we are to respond and live in light of what God has done.
And we have already seen in chapters 12 and 13 that we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God in genuine love of others.
So, in that context, we come to verse 1 of chapter 14:
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
So, this text begins by giving us a category of person that we are hearing about for the first time in the book of Romans.
And that category is one who is weak in faith, and he contrasts them with those who are strong in faith whom he explicitly mentions in chapter 15 verse 1.
And for the sake of time, let me just say, if you study through chapters 14 and 15, you come to the conclusion that the weak in faith are genuinely saved followers of Jesus who take a wrong position on a disputable matter yet they still glorify God in how they live out their wrong position.
If that definition makes you feel a little uncomfortable, it does me too, but stick with me, I am going to prove it from the text.
But one more time, when Paul writes here about one weak in faith, he is talking about a genuinely saved follower of Jesus who takes a wrong position on a disputable matter yet still glorifies God in how they live out their wrong position.
And how is the church commanded to respond to people who fall in this category of weak in faith? Welcome them.
They are brothers and sisters adopted by God through faith in the gospel just as all believers in Jesus are.
So, welcome them, but not to quarrel over opinions.
That word “opinions” in the original language can also be translated disputable matters.
So, let’s just pause a second and acknowledge the reality of another category Paul is giving us that is absolutely essential to understand in order to live a life of unity in following Jesus as a member of HIs family - the church.
And that category is the category of opinions and disputable matters.
Another word we can us is “non-essentials.”
Praise God that His word gives us a category for opinions, disputable matters, and non-essentials, because if it didn’t, I would have to attend the first church of Jason Purdy, and I would be the only member, in other words, church and reconciliation with other people could not exist without this category.
Because there are hundreds of matters in living life, following Jesus, and being members of his church that do not have a chapter and verse that say make the carpet color blue not red, in our case, have no church carpet at all.
And notice, some disputable matters do have a right and a wrong, that’s why one category is called “weak” because there is something wrong about it, but it is not sinfully wrong.
We will see more about that later on.
Welcome the weak in faith and do not quarrel over opinions and disputable matters.
What disputable matter was Paul specifically addressing for the Roman church at that time?
Verse 2: One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
So the disputable matter here is that some members of the church believe they can glorify God by eating any and all kinds of foods, and other members of the church believe they can glorify God by eating only vegetables, implying that it would not glorify God to eat meat.
It makes sense that this would have been a cultural issue of the day.
The Old Testament ceremonial law prohibited the eating of certain animals, and most likely it was mainly Jewish background believers who, though they had embraced the gospel of Jesus, still thought it was best and most God-glorifying to simply abstain from those things.
Yet, Jesus had clearly taught that with the coming of the new covenant in Christ through the gospel, all foods are now clean, for it is what comes out of a man that defiles him, not what goes in.
So, that is why the category is called weak, because they have something wrong in their failure to apply the gospel to this matter of eating.
So, what does the Bible tell them to do? Repent and change your position on this matter immediately? No it doesn’t do that.
Which is surprising, because in Galatians, there is a group of people saying you have to believe in Jesus and follow Old Testament commands in order to be saved and Paul calls them condemned unbelievers who are preaching a different gospel.
So, what is the difference between the condemned unbelievers in Galatians, and those weak in faith in Rome?
The difference must be that those weak in faith did not tie the not eating of meat to a prerequisite for salvation.
They were not saying trust Jesus and abstain from meat and you will be saved.
No, they believe in salvation by grace alone through faith alone, they just held the position that it now glorifies God more to not eat meat.
That’s why Paul does not say repent.
Instead, he says:
verse 3: Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
This fleshes out what welcoming one another looks like from a heart level.
For the one who freely eats all things, do not despise the one who abstains.
Do not judge them in your heart as legalists and holier than thou do gooders.
And for the one that abstains, do not pass judgment on the one who eats.
Do not say that they must not take their faith seriously enough or even worse, I can’t wait to see when they cross the line into sin which is obviously inevitable.
Don’t think that.
Now, remember, we are talking about opinions and disputable matters.
How are we to keep the Sabbath today? How should I school my children? What music is acceptable or not to listen to? Can my children wear a costume on Halloween? Can I ever drink alcohol? What about dancing? What about Harry Potter books? How modest is modest enough in dress? How do the particular applications of male headship flesh out in the home and the church? The list can go on and on…
These are just a sample of disputable matters.
Now, make no mistake, we are called to confront other believers when we see sin: adultery, lying, manipulation, slander, gossip, obvious biblical sins are to be judged properly through loving correction and discipline, but that is not what Paul is talking about here.
Instead, in disputable matters, welcome one another, love one another, accept the difference, honor one another, and do not argue over it.
Welcome others as God has welcomed you.
2. God Is Able to Make All Believers Stand On Both Sides Of Disputable Matters
How do we keep from judging others with different opinions on disputable matters?
We remember that we are not in the role of judge and other people are not in the role of our servants.
Verse 4: Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Every person lives before an all knowing all righteous judge to whom they are accountable to and servant of, and that is not you and me, but God alone.
And it is before God that each person stands or falls.
So, do not allow a fellow believer in Christ to stand in your eyes or to fall in your eyes based on a disputable matter upon which you disagree.
Instead, consider that they, just like you, are a hopeless sinner who is fallen in every way, but that God has radically and graciously come and begun the work of faith and salvation in them, and He will bring it to perfect completion and we are all works in progress and none of us has it all right.
Do not think about one who has a glass of wine with dinner that they are on a slippery slope, when Jesus himself made and drank wine.
Growing in Christ likeness is not about saying no to everything!
Growing in Christ likeness is about surrendering to Christ in all things!
And, as we have seen in Romans already, the heart of the one who never allows for anything can be just as far from God as the heart of the one who enjoys something in moderation with a proper heart to glorify God.
So many times, we are tempted to think about growing to be more Christ like as saying “no” to as many things as possible.
Yet, growing in Christ likeness is just as much if not more about filling your life with the heart of God and the fruits of the spirit and the character of Christ as it is saying no to the world.
And do not be deceived to think you stand or fall as a Christian based on how many limits and parameters you put in your life and how many rules you can erect.
It is God who does the work of salvation in you.
It is God who does the work of sanctification and growth in you.
You participate, yes, but He is the one who ultimately makes you stand, not that you never read Harry Potter books or took a sip of wine.
And it is God who will finally bring you to glory and glorify you!
God is able to make all believers stand no matter what side they fall on disputable matters!
3. Be Fully Convinced For Yourself What Brings Glory To God In All Matters
In verse 5, Paul is going to switch his example from eating certain foods or not to esteeming certain days or not, which helps us understand this passage can apply to all sorts of disputable matters, not just one.
Verse 5: One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
Just like the Old Testament ceremonial law had laws about the eating and not eating certain foods, it also had laws about the observance of certain special days, so you had some believers in the Roman church who still believed it was good, right, and God glorifying to keep those special days, while you had others in the church who no longer did, because they understood that all of those days pointed to the coming of Christ and that Christ is the substance of the shadow that the special day represented.
Once again, those who still kept the days fall into the weak category because they were wrong in not applying the truth of the gospel to those days, but they were not sinful, because their was no explicit command of God to not keep those days.
Now, I just have to mention, I do not believe this text is arguing that there is no place in our lives as believers to set apart the first day of the week as the Lord’s day, but that would be a whole other sermon, so we won’t go there this morning.
Instead, I want us to see here that God through Paul tells us something that seems very counterintuitive at first, where I would have expected him to say the opposite.
He says, “Every one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”
Now, it is my natural personality to simply not have strong opinions about things.
When someone shares their perspective with me, it is very easy for me to want to just go along with what they say on the matter,
But when someone else shares with me the opposite perspective, it is easy for me to see it their way too and go along with them.
And in my natural flesh, it makes sense to me that this is the way to keep peace and unity with everyone.
That is not what God commands us to do.
Instead, he says, “Every one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”
You see, God does not want his children spending their days wondering if what they are doing and how they are living is pleasing to him or not.
God leads us not only to desire to glorify Him with every aspect of our lives, but He also uses His word and His Spirit to give us confidence when how we are living is pleasing to him.
So, when it comes to a disputable matter of opinion, God does not want you to be unclear about if you are pleasing him or not.
God doesn’t want you to think, well, I’m not sure if drinking this glass of wine is pleasing or not, but I’m just going to do it.
Or I’m not sure if it would be wrong to send my kid to that school, so I just won’t to be safe.
No, instead, think through it and pray through it for yourself, and then be at peace in your own heart before God fully convinced that this is the way God would have you glorify Him.
For
1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Prayerfully make up your mind and be confident in your decision on disputable matters, just don’t uphold it as a rule and law for others.
Because here is the incredible thing about it that comes out in verse 6:
The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
Wow! One person can be fully glorifying God in their eating meat, and another person can be completely glorifying God in their abstaining from meat, why?
Because it is not a matter of sin, it is a matter of conscience.
Can you freely worship and give thanks to God in the midst of doing what you are doing?
The answer is always no when it comes to obvious sin.
But in disputable matters, make up in your own mind through prayer, and ask yourself if you can honor God as holy and be thankful to him in the midst of whatever it is you are doing.
And be humble enough to realize it is a matter of the heart, so someone who does the exact opposite of you in these matters can be just as pleasing to God.
And when it is time to stand before God and give an account for your life, I will not be there with you, and your fellow church members will not be there with you, and your family members will not be there with you, and no one else’s thoughts or judgments are going to hold any weight besides God alone.
So, be convinced in your own mind and give thanks and glory to God in all matters.
4. Trust That Each One Of Us Will Ultimately Give An Account To God
Verses7-12: For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 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. 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. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
It is helpful to think that in the midst of a section of Scripture that is all about how we are to live in loving relationship with other believers, Paul takes us right back to our ultimate relationship and our ultimate responsibility and our ultimate priority being our standing and relationship with God.
Because we cannot truly love others as we ought unless we relate with them in light of our relationship with God.
We were made by God alone. We belong to God alone. We are ultimately accountable to God alone.
And the only way we are saved from God’s wrath and punishment is by trusting that Christ died and lived again being Lord of all.
And we surrender to Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, and we live focused on our own proper fear of God.
And in so doing, we find no need to judge others or look down on others in disputable matters and matters of opinion.
Instead, we live to God.
We major on the major and minor on the minors.
We major on the gospel that is the only to salvation for all who believe.
We major on the glory of God and learning to live every aspect of our lives in response to his glory.
We support and uplift and encourage one another even when others make different decisions than we would on certain things.
I warn you: do not take God’s word on these matters lightly.
Many churches have fallen and God’s glorious light has been dimmed out by churches passing judgment on disputable matters and despising those who hold a differing view on a matter of dispute or opinion.
There are indisputable realities of gospel truth and God’s word that we must always stand on and be willing to fight for, but may we never mix those things up with the many disputable issues that we can honor one another while thinking differently about.
Our church covenant speaks to this issue in this way:
Together, we will seek to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3). We affirm that we are God’s church and not our own. Therefore our preferences, needs, and desires are secondary to
the mission and vision of the church.
The call to trust in the gospel, preach the gospel, and go and make disciples by exalting Christ, equipping the saints, and evangelizing the world must be prioritized over our own preferences, needs, and desires, and the beauty is that by the power of the gospel, we can be about this mission together even though we think and feel differently about some disputable matters.
But, there is no power to honor and welcome others from the heart without a deep trust and relying on the gospel.
In this day of blogs and social media where every opinion seems to rise to the level of law and gospel, may we trust that we are sinners, God is savior, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and we are empowered to live a life of thanksgiving and glory to God, even though we all do it a bit differently at some points.
Do you need to trust in Jesus for salvation today?
Let’s pray.