Welcoming the Weak the Way God Welcomes Us

The Summit of Our Salvation

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

June 29, 2025

Welcoming the Weak the Way God Welcomes Us

Paul continues his theme of how believers are to relate to one another as we follow our Lord’s command to love one another and chapter 14 addresses the tensions and conflicts that can rise up in a church, sometimes over relatively minor things. What does love look like when two believers believe opposite things about a matter of conscience?

14 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 vaegetables. 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. Rom. 14:1-4

When Paul refers to the one who is weak in faith, he’s not talking about them having a weak faith in Christ as their Savior. He’s talking about them having a weak conscience in matters of Christian liberty. Jesus came to give us freedom – it was for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal. 5). We have liberty in Christ.

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We don’t have liberty to do things God’s word forbids us to do. We don’t have liberty to commit adultery or to steal or to murder. But there are a lot of gray areas that the Bible doesn’t expressly speak to, and people’s convictions can differ. Last week we talked about debt and how some believers don’t believe in having any debt and others believe that handling debt responsibly is permitted.

For the believers Paul is addressing two issues seem to be at the forefront: eating meat versus eating only vegetables. He doesn’t go into great detail here but in 1 Cor there’s a similar question because a lot of the meat sold in the market had been devoted to a pagan god before it was sold. Some believers were like, “who cares who it was devoted to, as long as it’s a good cut of beef?” Other believers felt it was polluted and to eat it would be to eat at the table of demons.

It's a matter of conscience and while there isn’t a right or wrong, Paul says there is a strong and a weak conscience. The strong conscience says, idols are nothing, I’m going to eat that burger to the glory of God! The weak conscience says, “I don’t know…it feels like a demon-burger to me. I’d feel guilty eating that.”

What do we do when your conscience and my conscience don’t agree on a matter that doesn’t have clear biblical instruction but feels very important to us?

1. We are to welcome each other with the welcome God has given us

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. 

The welcome goes both ways. Welcome the weak in faith – not to buttonhole them and try to talk them out of their conviction, just welcome them! Don’t despise the person on the other side of the issue, welcome them the way God welcomed you and for the same reason God has welcomed you!

If one of the things on your bucket list was to climb Mt. Everest and you finally got the chance to cross it off, as you approached Everest you’d start to see the peak when you were still 200 miles away from it. You’d have hours of driving with that peak in view.

In chapter 12 Paul writes “in view of God’s mercy.” He’s talking about the glorious mercy God has given us through all that Christ has done as outlined in chapters 1-11. We are can see the peak of that mercy all the way from here in chapter 14. How we walk out differences with love is by keeping the peak of God’s mercy in view. When conflict or tensions arise between believers, that’s when we need to see God’s welcoming mercy to us all the more clearly so we can give that welcoming mercy to others.

God has made us so welcome. Welcomed into His family. Welcomed into His kingdom. Welcomed into His heart. None of it because of what we’ve done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done for us.

Welcome them as God has welcomed you! Don’t judge them. Don’t bad-mouth them. Welcome them! They stand or fall before their Master and He will make them stand!

2. Christians can glorify God on both sides of these different convictions

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. Rom. 14:5-9

What do you do when two sides believe polar opposite things? If you were asked to mediate between believers who had convictions on opposite sides of a non-essential issue (meaning an issue that isn’t clearly governed by scripture)? The best thing would be to tell both sides, just lighten up, take a chill pill, don’t sweat the small stuff, right? That’s not what Paul does. Paul risks throwing gasoline on a fire when he says each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

Wait a minute! The problem is two sides that feel strongly about their convictions and what their conscience says is right and you tell them to be even more convinced they are right? Paul seems to be saying don’t be wishy-washy about what you believe. Believe what you believe strongly. Stand for what

you believe!

We don’t foster love and unity in the church by having mushy, weak convictions.

I believe that for some who have walked away from their faith in the Lord Jesus, the first step was to accommodate some sin or some value that was contrary to the word of God, and in so doing they violated not only God’s word but also their own conscience and convictions. The first step is always the hardest. The next step is easier.

The Bible warns that in the last days there would be a great falling away. Jesus said there would be such a spiritual deception that even the elect would be deceived if that were possible. The answer to falling away isn’t to hold Jesus loosely, it’s to hold him tightly! He alone is the Savior and though he slay me, yet will I trust him!

So how can we be fully convinced of our convictions and not become arrogant, judgmental people? By realizing that being convinced about my convictions doesn’t mean my convictions are the only right way for every believer but they are the right way for me. That my convictions aren’t leading me to sin. That I can honor and glorify God with my convictions.

And they can honor and glorify God just as much with the opposite convictions. Believers all belong to the Lord. If we live we live to the Lord. Our lives belong to the Lord and lived for His glory. If we die, we die to the Lord – in other words for the glory of God. Jesus who died and lived again is Lord over our life and our death.

Don’t get caught up in the minutiae – keep the big things in view. Judgmentalism turns us into small, critical people who feel bigger when we make other people look smaller. That’s not what Christ saved us for! Live for the glory of God! One day we’ll die for the glory of God! And what’s true for us is true for our brothers and sisters in Christ. God’s got them! He can cause them to stand in the end. So don’t pass judgment on them over minor, non-gospel issues. Welcome them with the same welcome God has given us.

3. Guard your conscience (and their conscience too)

¹³ Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. ¹⁴ I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. ¹⁵ For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 
¹⁸ Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. ¹⁹ So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

²⁰ Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. ²¹ It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. ²² The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. Rom. 14:13-23

God has given us the gift of a conscience and it is not wise to violate it. And we don’t want to cause another believer to violate their conscience either. Paul is saying here that if we cause someone to do something that isn’t inherently sinful but it goes against their conscience, we’ve caused them to sin.

In 1984 an Avianca Airlines jet crashed in Spain. When investigators studied the black box, they found that several minutes before impact the plane’s automatic warning system went off and a shrill automated voice told the crew repeatedly in English, “pull up! Pull up!” The pilot, thinking it was a system malfunction, said “shut up Gringo!” and switched the system off. A few minutes later the plane plowed into the side of a mountain, killing everyone on board.

It's dangerous for us to switch off our conscience. Paul tells Timothy to guard a clean conscience. Loving our brother or sister means we don’t want to cause them to stumble over a dirty conscience. If eating meat stumbles them, I won’t eat meat when I’m with them even though I’m perfectly fine with it.

Once again Paul helps us navigate the minor issues by reminding us of the massive truths of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is bigger than eating a steak or observing the Sabbath. The kingdom of God isn’t about nit-picking, it’s about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!