Faith: Strong/Weak

 The Western church today is divided. I'm not talking about the different denominations, but even within each congregation there is a schism growing in regards to the Covid-19 restrictions. In Manitoba, the government did an amazing job of exacerbating the situation by mandating that no church could meet in any way, even in parking lot services, for about a month. They have since backed off on that position, though I doubt it was done for any reason other than the push back that they received, the lack of logic in the mandate and the possibility that it was not lawful to do so in the first place. I don't believe the government enacted this to intentionally single out the churches, but they acted out of fear, and that fear flowed down to the people of the province. Not only to those that attend church regularly, but even those for whom church has no meaning and no value. We saw not even a handful of churches stand up for their rights and continue to practice what they believe the Bible instructs them to do; they met regularly even though it was "against the law". This drew the ire of unbelievers as there was fear tat this would lead to a massive outbreak of the virus and further shutdowns province wide for something that was, in their eyes, an unnecessary risk. I suppose that is to be expected when all we hear from the government and media is "BE AFRAID!"

The problem is that there has also been severe backlash from believers, based on the same arguments. So there are people from the same religious community, and in some cases even the same church community, that are on polar opposite sides of this issue. How does that happen? My position is that it is an indication of the strength of a person's faith.

I was reading in Romans chapter 14 earlier this week. This chapter speaks to the strength of one's faith and how we are to act towards others who may struggle with things that we do not struggle with. In this passage, Paul begins by speaking specifically in regards to what one eats, using what seems to be a diet of meat and vegetables versus just a vegetarian diet as an example. This immediately brings to my mind his writings in 1 Corinthians 8 where he is talking about eating food that has been sacrificed to idols. In verses 4-13, Paul expounds on the duties of a believer whose faith is strong towards the believer whose faith is weak. He explains that the one with a strong faith recognizes that there is only one God and that this believer knows that food that has been sacrificed to idols has not been affected in any way that should bother a believer. Since there is only one God, there is no other deity to whom the food has any value or purpose, except in the minds of those who sacrificed it. Jesus also touches on the impotency of food on the spiritual being in Mark 7, where he states that food is ingested and it leaves the body, having had no affect on the the person's heart, their soul. The believer with a strong faith understands this and is able to eat this food, be it sacrificial or dietary specific, with a clear conscience. The believer that has a weak faith, possibly due to the faith being very new or otherwise untested, may not recognize that the food is unaffected and may struggle with a believer consuming it because of their own weak faith. The weak faith believer may wish to try to emulate the strong faith believer, possibly due to outside pressures or an earnest desire to be more like the strong believer, but if the weak believer violates his own conscience by doing so, is it of any benefit to him? Scripture tells us that it is not, it is to his own detriment that he violates his own conscience.

But we are instructed in both Romans and 1 Corinthians not to undermine a fellow believer's faith by exercising our strength in such a way as to cause an individual of a weaker faith to violate their own convictions by their mimicking what the strong has done. Romans 14:13-15 says "make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way.", "if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died." We are not to cause anyone to stumble in their faith walk by expecting, encouraging or forcing them to conform to our ideals when they cannot do so with a clear conscience.

This teaching does not only pertain to food though. Paul also speaks to the perceived sanctity of a given day of the week. Even now we have sects that believe that Saturday is the day of rest while others view Sunday as the day set aside to the Lord. But how then do we deal with the truth that we expect our pastor to work on the day of rest when we are not supposed to? We have to recognize that the pastor must make for himself an alternate day of rest, so we must inherently know that the specific day is of no importance, but the matter of setting aside a day for us to rest and to acknowledge God's edict to do so is what we are to be focused on.

Romans 14 opens with these words, "Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters." These issues were, and continue to be, disputable matters; things that had no bearing on the message of the Gospel or the salvation of people, but Paul uses these things to encourage us to be aware of and accommodate the strengths or weaknesses of our faith and the faith of others. But why was it important for Paul to address these things? I think it is partly to do with unity in the church besides the faith growth of individuals. So then how does this pertain to the divisions within the church in regards to the virus restrictions?

I have, in recent weeks, had a long running disagreement with a younger man for whom I was a youth leader many years ago. He took great offense that I will not wear a mask when I am in public and that I would support the actions of the churches that attempted to have in-person worship services, even in their own parking lots. It got to the point that this younger man has cut me off and distanced himself from me. This bothers me greatly. We used to get along quite well, got together socially and he credited me with helping him deal with great losses that he and his family faced. I still hurt today knowing that he feels this way about me, but I will not change my position, or even pretend to, in order to appease him, which has me wrestling with this topic today.

Is it a weak faith that has him so afraid of this virus? Is it a strong faith that has me unafraid of it? The same questions apply to my desire to have churches continue to gather and his desire for the churches to remain closed. I told him numerous times that I have no problem if he wants to wear a mask, but I take issue with his demands that I wear one as well. He didn't seem to understand that I was not demanding that he stop wearing one. He didn't seem to fathom how his position was an attempt to force his will upon me while my position was simply one of individual liberty to do as one desires, as one feels is right and conscienble. I just don't know if this is a faith issue or something else. And that may actually be the crux of the matter.

Is my refusal to bow to the edicts of a fearful government un-Christian? Am I disobeying God by not "submitting" to the authorities? That was his argument.

Were his actions to try to force me to do as he does wrong? Were they un-Biblical? I suppose, according to Romans and 1 Corinthians, an argument could be made that way, but then who is strong in their faith and who is weak? Is he strong in his submission to the governing authorities and trust that God has this in His hands? Am I strong in my aversion to having my freedoms quashed by a fearful government acting in unrighteousness over their fear of a virus and my trust that God has this in His hands?

Does it matter?

I think that this an attack against not only freedoms in Canada, but against the church. This is a non-theological way that the Devil is tearing apart the churches, friends and even families. He is using snitch lines and arguments on social media to divide us. There are even pastors from the church that I attend that are posting things online regarding this situation that I wholeheartedly disagree with. We need to get past this and remain united in Christ, though even as I write that I don't know how we do that corporately. It must be up to each individual to decide how to act for him or herself. I will not put my own wellness at risk by wearing a mask, but I cannot expect someone else to act the same way. Someone else must not expect that I will be willing to go against my own conscience in order to appease them, even as I believe that they are doing more harm to themselves than good by wearing a mask.

Romans 14:13 says "Therefore let us stop passing judgement on one another. Instead make up your mind not to put a stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way." 1 Corinthians 8:9 says "Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak." Verses 11-12 continue, "So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ."

I want to end this by drawing your attention to verses 22-23 of Romans 14. They read as follows: "So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin." I struggled with the meaning of "Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves". In the English language, that reads as a man is blessed by what he deems as right, but I don't believe that is what is intended when we look at it in context. I believe that the contextual meaning is that we are blessed when our actions (approval) align with our beliefs, leaving nothing to condemn us on, because if we act against our consciously held beliefs we are not acting in faith, which is a sin.

Romans 15:1 seems to wrap this up; "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves." There will be times when most of us will be on either side of that equation - we won't always be strong and we won't always be weak. I don't know what I could have done differently in regards to my exchanges with my old friend, but I will try to keep these lessons in mind in the future. I do not want to cause another believer to stumble in their faith walk because they do not understand as I do, and I do not want to stumble in my own faith walk either. I need to learn to recognize when I am standing in a position of strength and when I am standing in a position of weakness. I need to learn how to share my beliefs with others without making others feel as though my way is the only way that is acceptable, to me or to God. I am fully confident in my ability to occasionally fail in this endeavor, but I hope that as I practice, I will get better at it and fail with decreasing regularity.