My lesson from Romans

You ever have it where you are reading a certain part of the Bible and it exactly coincides with what you may be dealing with or someone else (who talks to you about it) is dealing with? Well it was intersting. I was recently talking to someone about some things they wanted to do. They called me and asked my opinion on somethings. And what they planned to do would have influence on young people and those young people could possibly look up to them. And I couldn't really articulate what I wanted to say or I couldn't be certain that what I was saying or wanted to say was right or correct. But the next morning when I picked up my Bible the marker was on Romans 14. That chapter was exactly what I was trying to portray. I spoke on the fact that it is impossible for us to be isolated in our life here on earth.. no matter what we do it will have an effect on someone somehow whether good or bad. The only time we could ever possibly be isolated would be when we stand before the judgment seat of God but then even at that point.. if we ran the race and faught the good fight we will have Jesus with us to rep for us. And then it spoke about judging people and that we cannot judge others because we ourselves are men under judgment. And the fact that we are responsible for our neighbors conscience in the way that we cannot do something that is neither right nor wrong if it defiles our neighbor's conscience. We cannot condone something that our neighbor thinks is wrong even if we think it right.. IF it is something that is neither right or wrong. .. .. .. .. .. William Barclay had this to say about it. And it made sense to me.

The Stoics used to teach that there were a great many things which they called indifferent. In themselves they were quite neutral, neither good nor bad. The stoics put it this way-it all depends by what handle you pick them up. Now that is profoundly true. To a student of art, a certain picture might be a work of art, to someone else an obscene drawing. To one group of people a discussion might be an interesting and stimulating experience, to someone else a succession of heresies, and even blasphemies. And amusement, a pleasure, a pastime might seem quite permissible but to another prohibited. More, there are pleasures that are quite harmless to one man, which can, in fact, be the ruin of another. The thing itself is neither clean nor unlcean; it's character is determined by the person who sees it or does it.
That is what Paul is getting at here. There are certain things that a man strong in the faith may see no harm in doing; but, if a person with a more narrow outlook saw him doing them, his conscious would be shocked; and if such a person were persuaded to do them himself his conscious would be outraged. We may take a very simple example. One man would genuinely see no harm in playing some outdoor game on Sunday, and he may be right; but another mans conscious is shocked at such a thing, and, if he were persuaded to take part in it, all the time he would have the haunting feeling that he were doing wrong.
Paul's advice is clear. It is a Christian duty to think of everything, not as it affects ourselves only, but also as it affects others. Note that Paul is not saying that we must always allow our conduct to be dictated by the views of others; there are matters which are essentially matters of principle, and in them a man must take his own way. But a great many things are neutral and indifferent; a great many things are neither in themselves good or bad; a great many things are not essential parts of life and conduct but belong to what we might call the extras of life. It is Paul's conviction that in regard to such things we have no right to give offense to the more scrupulous brother by doing them ourselves, or by persuading him to do them.
Life must be guided by the principle of love; and when it is, we will think, not so much of our right to do as we like as of our responsibilities ot others. We have no right distress another man's conscience in the things that do not really matter. Christian freedom must never be used as an excuse for rough riding over the genuine feelings of others. No pleasure is so important that it can justify bringing offense and grief, and even ruin to others. Augustine used to say that the whole Christian ethic could be summed up in a saying; "Love God, and do what you like". In a sense it is true; but Christianity consists of not only loving God; it consists of also loving our neighbor as ourselves.