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Category: Romans (Page 1 of 27)

We Who Are Strong

November 20, 2025 / / 0 Comments

 

 

 

 

 

I told you I was behind on posting pictures of our new grandsons. This is the official four-month-old picture on top of the giraffe thing that was taken on the 8th, and another one of the boys propped up in the recliner before we went out to run some errands. It’s been almost two weeks since they hit four months. Elliott rolled over this week for the first time and is now doing it constantly. One morning soon, Valerie is going to walk in and they’re going to be standing up in their cribs, holding on to the top rails, and laughing.

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There’s a question that’s been burning in my bones the past few weeks, and I can’t shake it. As we approach this Sunday’s annual “4 Midland” pulpit swap and Thanksgiving Service, I’m deeply bothered by the twin realities in my own congregation.

We do not expect the Presbyterians to change their minds about predestination. We do not insist that the Baptists alter their views on the salvation efficacy of baptism. We don’t demand that the Methodists start sharing the communion meal every week. Yet we easily and joyfully set those doctrinal issues aside for the sake of our Christian unity, for the sake of worshiping and serving together, and the powerful Gospel witness it is to our city. At the same time, some of us are arguing and even dividing with our brothers and sisters within our own congregation over much lesser things.

Why would we ever expect everybody at GCR to agree on everything? If you don’t agree with everybody at GCR, do you leave? You decide you can’t worship and serve with people in your own church family because a few of them don’t see a couple of things the same way you do? Does Romans 14-15 have anything to say about this?

“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself.” ~Romans 15:1-3

As children of God and followers of Christ, we take our example from Jesus. The holy Son of God is the one who calls us and inspires us and empowers us to worship and serve and live together the way we do. We know that our Lord Jesus never did anything to please himself. Instead, he gave up everything, he sacrificed everything, to benefit and build up others. And by choosing to serve others instead of pleasing himself, Jesus sets the pattern that we have to make our own. Putting others first. Considering the needs of others more important than our own.

And the Bible puts this on the strong Christians. It’s up to the strong, not the weak, to make sure this happens. It’s up to the strong to make the sacrifices and concessions to our weaker brothers and sisters. That’s not easy. It’s much easier to be the weaker Christian, drawing the lines and insisting that other Christians cater to me.

Strong Christians–that should be Christians who’ve been following Jesus a long time; it’s not always, but it should be–with strong faith realize that the more you sacrifice and the more you give up for others, the more like Christ you are. The more you insist on your own way and the more you assert yourself for your own interests, the less like Christ you are.

So, if all of us decided today, to a person, that would put ourselves at the back of the line, that we would all bend over backwards to make everybody else happy and sacrifice our own feelings and opinions in order to build up others–if we all did that? Wow!

If we all accepted one another, just like Christ. If we all bore the failings of the weak, just like Christ. If we all pleased our neighbor for his good, just like Christ. It still won’t result in a perfect church. It won’t eliminate our differences of opinion. It won’t do away with the arguments and debates. But it would mean figuring out how to worship and serve and live together.

We know for sure that the Christ who unites us is greater by far than the differences that may divide us. And our grace-filled conversations and our mercy-full interactions with each other and our shared commitment to our Christian unity will reflect and bear witness to that conviction. It’ll prove it.

Peace,

Allan

Stop Saying “Salvation Issue”

November 19, 2025 / / 6 Comments

Watch this video. It’s our twin grandsons, Elliott and Samuel, two Thursdays ago, “meeting” each other for the very first time. I promise it will be the best 25-seconds of your day.

Twins Talking

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I love listening to Cowboys fans after Dallas beats a really bad team. All they need to do is go on a run. It’s finally coming together. This is the catalyst. The Cowboys got their fourth win the Monday before Thanksgiving week–seems kinda late. The four wins have come against the Raiders (2-8), the Jets (2-8), the Giants (2-9), and Washington (3-8). Monday was the only game all year Dallas held an opponent to under 20 points. Next up, Dallas plays the Eagles, Chiefs, Lions, Vikings, and Chargers. In that order. Yeah, they’re about to go on a run all right.

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Today’s post is a bit of an aside in our conversation this week about Christian unity and accepting our brothers and sisters in Christ and refusing to judge other Christians or churches according to beliefs or practices that may differ from mine or yours. This is a suggestion. I believe this is a good idea for all of us. It’s at least something to consider.

Stop saying “salvation issue.”

Most Christians I know agree that we should not divide over “disputable matters” or “matters of opinion.” The problem, as we discussed here yesterday, comes when people believe a disputable matter is actually a matter of doctrine or faith. Many Christians I know call it a “salvation issue.”

When we start talking about “salvation issues,” we rank things in order of importance to God and according to what’s going to save us and what’s going to condemn us. We talk about baptism and church and communion and worship. But we don’t talk about helping the poor or loving our enemies or forgiving others, which the Bible says are actually the more important matters. Jesus calls those things the weightier matters. So, at best, we have a misunderstanding of the things that are most important to God or, at worst, we’re really only concerned with what’s important to us.

If we insist on using the term, I would suggest that all things are “salvation issues.” Everything is a “salvation issue.” Whether a church has a kitchen or not is a “salvation issue,” not because the kitchen is right or wrong, but because of how you treat people who feel differently about it than you do.

Give me a break. You people who don’t have kitchens in your churches. Grow up. You’re so legalistic and patternistic. You’re like the Pharisees. You’re more worried about the things of man than the things of God. Big picture, man. When are y’all going to get serious about the Kingdom of God?

You people who have kitchens in your churches. I guess you’ll do anything. You see any church kitchens in the Bible? I guess the Bible doesn’t mean as much to you as it does to me. You let the culture dictate everything in your church? When are y’all going to get serious about the Scriptures?

See how kitchens is a “salvation issue?” Not the kitchen itself, but your heart. Your attitude.

We won’t fellowship a church because they sing different songs or pray different prayers than we do or we won’t accept a group of Christians because they understand baptism differently than we do, but we’re okay with lying to our customers or cheating on our spouse or ignoring the poor. We should stop saying “salvation issue” because we don’t do a good job with it. We use that term to categorize what issues are important or not important to us based on our own preferences and opinions. The “salvation issue” is your attitude when you and another Christian disagree on anything.

“The Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God.” ~Romans 14:17

Romans 14-15 is calling for unity in spirit, not unity in opinion, not unity in practice, not even unity in belief. Unity in spirit so that “with one heart and mouth” we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peace,
Allan

Disputable Matters

November 18, 2025 / / 2 Comments

Before we get into part two of this week-long series on Christian unity from Romans 14-15, check out this picture of Sam and his granddad watching college football together two Saturdays ago. The little dude is locked in, huh? Two football zombies right there.

You already know I am a conscientious resistor when it comes to digital technology and smart phones. I never take my cell phone with me into a meeting or a restaurant or to any kind of social or business setting–my phone is always either on my desk or in my truck. Now, I’ve got another reason to make sure my phone is never on me: it keeps me from bugging every single person in my path with two dozen of the latest pictures and videos of my incredible grandchildren.

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Most Christians I know agree that we should never divide over matters of opinion, or what we might call “disputable matters.” That’s the problem the apostle Paul is addressing in Romans 14-15: the Christians in Rome are arguing and separating over what he calls “disputable matters.” When Paul calls on the disciples in Rome to accept one another and stop looking down on others and stop judging others, the context is in these disputable matters.

The problem, though, is that when we argue and divide, at least one of the parties believes the issue is one of doctrine.

In Churches of Christ, we’ve generally used this as a guiding principle:

“In matters of faith, unity; in matters of opinion, liberty; in all things, love.” 

That’s a creed, by the way. And it’s fine. It’s good. But it doesn’t help much, because what some Christians consider a matter of opinion, others consider a matter of faith. We don’t agree on which is what. That’s where this gets touchy. Because if you and I are arguing about something and the argument and the feelings are such that it’s threatening to divide us, then at least one of us believes with all our hearts that it’s a matter of doctrine and faith.

But even then, the Bible says it’s okay. It’s not something that should divide us.

“One person considers one day more sacred than another, another person considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. The one who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and the one who abstains, does so to the Lord, and gives thanks to God.” ~Romans 14:5-6

Each of us should be fully convinced that we’re doing is the right thing to do in the eyes of God, but do not bind that on another brother who doesn’t feel the same way. If he believes or practices something different, you assume he’s doing it to the Lord, before the Lord, and in the presence of the Lord with a clear conscience. We give all Christians the benefit of the doubt. We always assume the best. I assume that my sister in Christ who has a different belief or a different practice is not believing or practicing arbitrarily or haphazardly. She’s doing it with careful study and serious prayer and reflection. And she’s fully convinced that she’s doing the godly thing. So everything’s fine. Don’t judge her. Don’t divide from her. Accept her.

As Paul reminds in Romans 14:9-10, this is the whole reason Christ was crucified and resurrected, so he can be Lord over these things and not you. Why are you judging your own brother in Christ? Why are you looking down on other Christians?

Now, there are some things that are non-negotiable doctrinal matters in which Christians must be unified. There are issues of settled, historical, biblical, orthodox Christianity that cannot be argued. As to belief, all of those are in the Apostles’ Creed; as to practice, all of those are in the sacraments; as to ethics, all of that has long been settled by the clear teachings of holy Scripture.

As for everything else? Anything else? Accept. Do not judge.

“To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” ~Romans 14:4

Peace,

Allan

Accept Without Judgment

November 17, 2025 / / 0 Comments

This is our older (by 45-seconds) grandson Elliott, showing off his brand new teeth after his Saturday night bath. He and his brother, Sam, aren’t even four-and-a-half months old yet! This seems early for teeth, right?

As always, you can click on the pic to get the full size. While you’re at it, look at those eyelashes. Man, that’s a good looking kid.

I’m way behind on posting pictures here of Elliott and Samuel, so I’m going to post at least one a day this week, no matter what.

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My posts this week will mainly be excerpts from the sermon we preached here yesterday at Golf Course Road Church on Christian unity from Romans 14-15. As we make plans for our annual “4 Midland” pulpit swap and Thanksgiving service this next weekend, it occurs to me that we have no problem putting aside the doctrinal differences that divide our Christian denominations for the sake of our God-ordained unity in Christ. But we allow disputable matters or matters of opinion to divide us within our own congregation. Why is that? And what do we do about it? Romans 14-15, I believe, has the answer.

The apostle Paul distinguished the disciples in that church in Rome as strong Christians and weak Christians–those are his words, not mine. Romans 14 details the problems Paul is addressing in his letter. The weak believers are vegetarians; the strong believers enjoy a good steak. The weak brothers and sisters keep all the Jewish holy days; the strong brothers and sisters don’t. The weak Christians are developing elaborate worship and lifestyle theologies and drawing lines in the sand over what’s right and what’s wrong; the strong Christians don’t have very many lines and they’re not as concerned about which worship and lifestyle practices are good or bad. The weak are criticizing the strong for being spiritually insensitive; the strong are looking down on the weak for being spiritually immature. The strong proclaim freedom in Christ; the weak say, “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything goes.” The weak tell the strong, “You’re wrong;” the strong tell the weak, “Grow up.”

Over what? Over food. Over worship styles and religious traditions. And… keep going?

Over women’s roles and deacons and divorce and remarriage. Song selection and church budgets and Lord’s Supper prayers. Small groups and creeds and Bible translations and politics.

Over… you name it. There are all kinds of issues and beliefs and practices that Christians in the same church argue about.

The Bible makes the solution to this problem easy because it gives both strong Christians and weak Christians the exact same instructions: Accept all Christians and don’t judge any Christians.

“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without passing judgement on disputable matters. One person’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another person, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not look down on the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not condemn the one who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.” ~Romans 14:1-4

Nobody look down on anybody. Nobody condemn anybody. For God has accepted him. Accepted who? Whom has God accepted? This brother or sister in Christ who disagrees with you about some church thing. This group of Christians who don’t see eye-to-eye with you on some disputable matter, some matter of opinion, that in no way should ever divide Christians. You are not that guy’s master. You’re not in charge of that Christian.

Whether he stands or falls is up to the Lord. Whether he’s right or wrong is up to the Lord. Paul says we can’t judge that. But then Paul goes ahead and makes the call. He judges it anyway.

“He will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” ~Romans 14:4

He’ll stand. He’s fine. Whether y’all agree or not, whether y’all are on the same page or not, he’s good because he’s in Christ. Jesus died for him, Paul says in verse 9. That’s the whole reason Jesus died, so he could be the Lord over these things and not you. So you accept him without judgment. Because God accepts him in Christ.

Peace,

Allan

Continuing a Troubling Legacy

August 12, 2025 / / 4 Comments

I am troubled by the Midland School Board’s move to rename Legacy High School back to Lee. The board is meeting this evening and it feels like it’s a done deal.

The school was established in 1961 and named after Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, as a protest against new federal laws banning segregation. In 2020, the name was finally changed to Legacy High School, in a move that many celebrated as cutting ties once and for all with the Confederate names and symbols. But now, five years later, a few new school board members are changing it back. The proposal is to name the school Midland Lee High School, instead of Robert E. Lee High School. A vote on the matter is scheduled for tonight.

I won’t respond here to this group’s claim that the name won’t be tied to the Confederate General, but only to our high school, exclusively the school’s history and nothing else. That is an insult to the intelligence of everyone who hears it.

I do want to address the other thing I’ve heard several times over the past couple of months: This move to rename the high school after Lee is not racially motivated, the African Americans in our community don’t see it as racist, Black people in Midland are not offended, they don’t really care. My question for the board is: Who would they complain to?

What if a middle-aged Black man drives past Lee High School every day on his way to and from work? Maybe his children go to this school. He sees Lee stickers on the back of every other pickup in Midland County. He sees Confederate flags flying out the back of some of those trucks and in front of some of the houses and ranches they belong to. He sees that name “Lee” and the history it represents every day. In the newspaper and on TV, on the sides of helmets and across the fronts of jerseys, on the wall of our restaurants and the sides of our buildings–every single day. If he hated that name and the symbols associated with it, if he found the name and the symbols to be an affront to his dignity and a source of deep pain, who would he complain to?

Oh, I see, you’re trying to put yourself in his shoes.
Yes. Yes, I am.

Shouldn’t we all be doing that? As a Christian speaking to mostly, I think, fellow Christians, isn’t that exactly what our Lord Jesus did? Isn’t that our calling as disciples of Christ, to empathize, to sympathize to walk alongside and understand?

Minorities–by the very definition of the word in conjunction with the broken ways of our world–African Americans, Hispanics, minorities, generally speaking, do not experience an equal status. In this country, because of past history and current structures and a thousand other complicating factors, minorities do not have the same opportunities. The playing field is not level. In our city, African Americans make up less than eight-percent of the population. They are marginalized. Who would they complain to? What could they possibly say? What power do they have? What choice do they have?

But they have complained. They have expressed their disgust with the name. They do speak often about what that name communicates to them.

My question for Christians who want to change the name back to Lee is: If you know how African Americans read that name, if you know the name and the symbols associated with it make minorities feel vulnerable and oppressed, why would you insist? Why would you fight with your words and your good name for a mascot or a logo that you know causes deep pain?

Scripture says be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. In that same Romans 12 context, the Bible says live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, it says, but be willing to associate with people of low position, people who don’t enjoy the same status or numbers or power. Christians treat others the way we want to be treated. We love our neighbors as ourselves. Christians who are seeking the attitude, or the mind, of Christ, the Bible says, consider the needs of others more important than their own.

Slippery slope arguments about erasing history and heritage are completely missing the point. The question for Christians is: Will you identify with the city that’s fading away or with the enduring city that’s coming? Will you love your neighbor more than you love a school name or a flag? Will you love your neighbor more than you love the history and heritage of the South? Will you love the African American men and women of our community more than you love the faded words on your 25-year-old diploma?

We’re known for a lot of things here in Midland. We are known as a people of great generosity. We go out of our way to sacrifice to help others, to give to others, to take care of others, to make others feel loved and like they belong. Can’t we apply those same guiding values and principles to how we name our high school? For the sake of others?

Minorities have a much different experience and viewpoint about life in our city than we do. Our Lord would try to put himself in their shoes. Actually, he did.

Peace,

Allan

Beyond the Law

August 11, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” ~Galatians 5:6

We are not saved by obeying the law or observing the traditions or keeping the rules, we are saved by our faith in Christ alone. That’s the point of Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia. And it’s one that bears much repeating.

Circumcision? Doesn’t count! Uncircumcision? Who cares! In Christ Jesus, those kinds of things don’t have any force. It doesn’t exercise any power.

Worship styles? Don’t count! Denominational differences? Who cares! Women’s roles, baptism methods, spiritual gifts–you name it! Small groups, Wednesday nights, lectionaries and missionaries, premillennial or amillennial, kitchens and KJVs–don’t give it any energy! Don’t waste your time. Don’t worry about it, don’t fight over it, and don’t divide over it. Why? Because it doesn’t count! The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. That’s it. Do we trust that, or not?

“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful humans to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful humans, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us.” ~ Romans 8:1-4

God in Christ has fulfilled the entirety of the law’s purposes on our behalf. The whole point of the law and the rules has been fulfilled for us by Jesus. That’s the whole point of Jesus! Do we trust that or not?

The perfect Son of God, the one who’s never broken the law, took on your sin, he became your sin for you and took all of it to the cross. And when your sin is condemned in him, you become in God’s eyes like you’ve never sinned. Through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has taken care of absolutely everything to set you totally free from sin and death. Now, is your faith in that? Or is it in something else?

We spend so much energy debating worship styles and doctrinal positions and denominational differences, when there’s only one thing that matters. We argue about methods and traditions and structures and rules, when there’s only one thing that’s important. We get worked up over interpretations and translations and obligations, but only one thing counts.

You can only experience God’s freedom when you give all of yourself to the fact that your salvation has already been secured, that there’s nothing left to do, that it’s all been done. When you embrace that in faith, now you’re living in freedom. In Christ alone, you are free from your sins and anything that’s ever happened in your past. You’re free to stop worrying about yourself and your rights and your preferences and your understandings and to start loving and serving other people so that walls can be torn down and wounds can be healed. You’re not anxiously fretting about your standing with God, you’re not looking for proof of who’s in and who’s out. You are free! Free to become what God created you to be, what you always wanted to be, you just didn’t know what it was.

And whatever rules there are, whatever obligations remain, you are free to live above them and beyond them. You don’t worry about the law or the rules because your faith in Christ alone has you loving so much. Our faith expresses itself through love. And that makes the rules and laws irrelevant.

Here’s the best way to illustrate this:

There are laws in the State of Texas, and federal laws, that regulate how parents must treat their children. Child welfare laws. There are state and federally mandated requirements about food and nutrition, about not locking your kids in a closet; there are laws that prohibit physical and verbal abuse, laws regulating how much school my children get and their living conditions.

I have no idea what those laws are.

And you know what? I don’t care! I don’t. Why would I?

My deep, undying, committed, all-in love for my children has me so far beyond the letter of those laws, they don’t matter to me. I’m not under those laws. They don’t concern me. I’ve blown past all that. My love for my kids makes the law irrelevant. I’m free from those laws.

The Gospel truth is that you are saved because Jesus Christ has become for you your righteousness, holiness, and peace. You faith in him, and in that, compels you to love. It moves you so much that the law doesn’t matter. It transforms your heart and your head, it changes your principles and priorities, so the rules no longer matter. The Gospel truth and your faith in Christ alone moves you to defend the weak and stand with the accused and speak up for the oppressed. It motivates you to give and forgive with abandon. It empowers you to let go and live the way God lives, with abundant grace and giving everybody the benefit of the doubt.

That’s the only thing that counts.

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Carrie-Anne and I spent this past weekend up in Tulsa with Elliott and Samuel who turned one-month-old on Friday. We spent a little bit of time visiting with their parents, too. As always, you can click on the pictures to get the full size. You should especially click on that first one. Look at these guys!

Peace,
Allan

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