Thoughts on Romans 14

Today's reading: 1 Samuel 12; Romans 14

Romans 14 is something God has changed dramatically in my heart over the years. I used to really struggle with this chapter because I wanted everything to be black and white. No, Paul, it's not okay that one person esteems one day as better than another while another esteems all days alike! Which is it? Is one day more important than the others, or are all the same? It has to be one or the other! So tell us which it is and whoever is wrong can just get with the program!!!

There is still a part of me that bucks against this and that wants a rigid definition to everything. We have one God, and there is only one reality. Either Jewish dietary laws are still operative or they aren't, either the Sabbath is still a unique day to be held sacred or it's not. I just want the answer so we can all be on the same page and move forward as a proper Christian hive mind. I mean, obviously not really a hive mind, but that probably is a good picture for what I am looking for when this is the kind of spirituality I say I want. But the problem is that pesky God we serve who is more interested in relationships with us than He is in having a bunch of theologically correct automatons running around...

There are a few things that have softened my desire for rigidity here over the years, but the biggest one is probably a shift in thinking about sin like I wrote about a few days ago. When your thinking about sin starts to change from, "Am I allowed to do this?" into, "Does this glorify God?" or, "Will this negatively impact my experience of relationship with God?" there is really very little room left for rigidity. Obviously there are still things which are blatantly sinful for everyone, but what crosses the line into sin may very well differ from person to person. I wouldn't consider going to an all-you-can eat buffet at all sinful, but for someone who struggles with gluttony, it could be. Watching a tv show or movie with nudity or sex in it might not be an issue for some, while for others who struggle with lust or pornography, watching it might be sinful. Using social media in general is not wrong, but if someone uses it for escapism or disregards important responsibilities because of it, for them it is could very well be sinful.

Each of us is unique and God is relational, dealing with each of us in our individuality. So while there are those things which are always sinful, so much of life is lived in the moral gray area where things become much more personal between us and the Lord.

The other thing that has tempered my rigidity is convictions I feel the Lord has put on my heart that are clearly not intended for or directed toward all His people. One example is a conviction I felt years ago about what I wear. Anybody who knows me personally will know that I almost exclusively wear plain t-shirts. In fact, the other day at work one of my co-workers asked, "How many plain black t-shirts do you own?" This isn't a fashion choice so much as personal conviction.

Years ago the vast majority of what I wore were either Ohio State University or Baltimore Ravens shirts, with a few event/software-conference shirts thrown in. But there was a day I saw a You-Tuber I like wearing a Christian t-shirt and I just had a strong reaction to it like I would never be willing to wear it. And I remember feeling like the Lord asked me why. Why is it that I will proudly walk around associating myself with OSU, or with the Ravens, and I'm fine walking around advertising myself as a software developer, but I have such a strong reaction to walking around associating myself to Christ in the same way? It was an identity issue for me. Having gone to OSU, or being a Ravens fan, or being a software developer are all not just acceptable, but celebrated identities in our culture, but not so much being a Christian. I very much had my priorities out of order and was still drawing my identity from the things that gave me my identity before I knew the Lord. I felt the conviction that if I was not willing to be associated with Christ in that way, I should not seek to associate myself with lesser things than Him in that way, and so I largely stopped wearing those other shirts.

But here's the thing, as much as the Browns fans around me disagree, it is not sinful for me to wear a Baltimore Ravens t-shirt, and clearly God is not calling on every Christian to get rid of any non-Christian clothing. This is a personal thing between myself and the Lord, and something I do to try to glorify Him in the way I live my life. I don't know if this will be a permanent conviction for me or not. Maybe when the Lord has sufficiently worked out the identity issues in my heart I will go back to advertising my Ravens fandom, but I really have no idea. All I know is that, for now, this is what it looks like for me to glorify God in this area of my life, and to do otherwise would bother my conscience, so this is what I wear.

So as much as I think I want things to be very black and white spiritually, the God we serve loves us too much for that and meets each of us where we're at, drawing us to Himself and transforming us from the inside out by the power of His Spirit. Praise God for the reality of Romans 14.