God and Vegetarianism

© Meredith Sizemore Photography

¹ Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. ² One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. ⁴ Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 

Romans 14:1-4

When I read this last Sunday, it made me smile.  I never realized the Bible had anything to say on vegetarianism!  This passage speaks directly to the issue.  If you want to be a vegetarian, do so.  But whether you are a vegetarian or not, you should not be judging people who have different diets.  Instead you should support their gastronomical choices.

This verse is of course more than just about food.  It's about the fact that it's not our job to judge others.  That's a tough thing to swallow. (Pun intended.)  It's much easier to judge.  We all have perceptions of good and bad.  God says that he doesn't care, he forgives it all whether we think an act is good or bad.  And that's the point: God is the arbiter.  He decides what is good and bad.  It doesn't matter what we think, whether we agree or not.  God decides when someone has done something wrong and will handle the situation at the appropriate time.  It's our job to do our best to forgive.

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Being Cheated On

³The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" ⁶They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." ⁸Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

¹¹"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

John 8:3-11 (NIV)

Today's passage is third in a three-day series. I have been talking with a number of people about cheating lately, both spouses and boyfriends/girlfriends. Today's verse is for people who have been cheated on.

You may be surprised by the verse I chose. I think it is appropriate when you are hurt by someone else to take a step back before going on the offensive. Jesus did say that if your spouse commits adultery you can divorce them. But is that what we should do? And what about dating? In today's passage, Jesus tells us that we shouldn't be accusing others unless we too are blameless.

As painful as it is, a relationship takes two. It takes two to make work and it takes two to mess up. Having someone cheat on you hurts, and abandoning the relationship seems like the easy thing to do sometimes. If you've been dating for a month when you are cheated on, you probably don't want to be in that relationship. Cheating is a hard thing to recover from and it requires a past history of trust and a lot of unconditional love.

If you have a long relationship and you are cheated on, look at why it happened. Is the relationship recoverable? If so then that is probably the right course of action. Hard times include those that are self-inflicted. Ultimately it may not be an easy decision, and you may not be able to make it work; but your first response should be to try to forgive.

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Watch Yourselves

¹Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. ²It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. ³So watch yourselves.

"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him."

Luke 17:1-4 (NIV)

Today's passage was inspired by a conversation I had with Taylor Swanger yesterday. It was about forgiving our fellow Christians. There are a number of other verses I could have chosen, some of which you have probably heard.

However this verse says a lot to me about how we are always supposed to interact with our brothers and sisters in Christ. When a brother sins against you, and you rebuke him, you must do so in a loving way. If you rebuke him in a way that is confrontational, you will escalate the argument, possibly causing him to sin more as he responds in anger.

When people hurt us, or those we love, it is difficult to forgive them. We want to hurt them back - sometimes even more so when it is a loved one that is wronged. We want to defend them. This verse speaks to that need, telling us that it is ok to call someone out when they do something wrong. But it tells us that we are to do so in a way that builds him up. This verse also talks about how we should forgive every time someone asks for forgiveness. It's a difficult thing to do, especially if our trust has been betrayed time and again.

It's easy to give into our anger when we are wronged. It's much harder to act in a loving manner, but that is what we are called to do.

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No Sin Is Too Big

"Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses."

Acts 13:38-39 (NIV)

I was talking to my best friend Nate the other night and he asked, "What's the worst thing you've ever done? Whatever it is, it is forgiven." It brought me back to forgiveness and Grace. God's grace cleanses us from all sins - there are no exceptions. There is no sin too big that God will not forgive it. Grace is a wonderful thing.

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Forgiveness

¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;

² O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

³ If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?

⁴ But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.

⁵ I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.

Psalm 130: 1-5 (NIV)

I was driving to work today and got cut off by someone today. It made me angry, and I remembered what I had written only an hour before about being a Christian. So I let it go - after I yelled a little. However, I didn't honk or try to cut him off. Instead I took a deep breath and let it go - eventually. Still, I was reminded of times when I haven't let it go.

It's easy to say, "I'm gonna be a good Christian today!" It is another thing entirely to actually do it. In the end we don't always succeed. The psalmist tells us in today's verse that God forgives us and we should put our hope in Him. This isn't to say that we should sin willfully and then ask for forgiveness. We're not mobsters, and God isn't a car wash for our sins. But when we do try and fail, we ask for forgiveness and help. And we can be encouraged by the fact that we can do better next time. The clock restarts every time we mess up, and not just on Sunday mornings when we confess our sins and take communion.

So even when we do yell at someone while driving, or lead a less than Christian example, we can still take a deep breath and try again - right then and there. God is always ready to forgive.

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