Romans 14-16: Did I Make a Brother Stumble?

What would make a brother stumble today, in the sense Paul discussed in Romans 14? We can easily see the Jews not wanting to eat certain meats, while the Gentiles might throw a barbecue with no violation to their consciences. We can see the Jews observing special days (resting on the Sabbath, celebrating the Passover, etc), while the only special days the Gentiles had were pagan and obviously sinful.

A Gentile could become a stumbling block to the Jew by bringing a big loaf of leavened bread over during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Gentile might say, "Brother Jew, you know these old customs of your old law are no longer in force. Why don't you dig in to this wonderful loaf with me to prove it." And the Jew might follow suit. There would be nothing sinful about the action...except that the Jew would FEEL like he was forsaking his God. It would bother his conscience, because he has NEVER eaten leavened bread during this special feast in his entire life!

Paul's point to the Gentile is, leave Brother Jew alone! If he has such trouble with this, allow him time to come around. When he purges his house of leaven during the special feast week, he is doing that towards his God. Don't make him stumble; don't make him violate his conscience.

Years ago, I was driving my wife, my brother and sister-in-law, and a Zulu lady from South Africa up to Virginia for a wedding. On the trip, we opened up our Harry Potter book and began reading. Harry Potter is a fantasy book about wizards, giants, flying broomsticks, dragons, and all kinds of weird creatures. It also has some dark elements to it in the fight of evil vs. good. As we were reading the book out loud, it suddenly occurred to me that the Zulu lady may have some real problems with this book! She was raised in a society where there were witch-doctors, praying and sacrificing to ancestors, occult-ish rituals, etc. But we had just plunged right in to this fantasy novel without thinking about her. Was she thinking, "This stuff is really bad. I can't believe my brothers and sisters would read this. Well...maybe it's okay, since these are Christians... I'll just go along with it and not say anything." But maybe it hurt her conscience.

Now I understand there is much controversy over these books. I'd be glad to offer my opinion, if anyone wants to know. But I completely respect the family who decides not to participate in such types of literature. And I need to be careful not to push my own OPINIONS upon my fellow Christians in such a way as to push them to take part in something they would FEEL is wrong. Because if they FEEL it's wrong, it IS wrong to them!

God bless,
Nathan

Tomorrow's Reading: 1 & 2 Thessalonians