Romans 14:5-9

Christian ethics and theology with an Anabaptist perspective
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Josh
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Romans 14:5-9

Post by Josh »

I think Romans 14:5-9 is foundational to living a Christian life, observing traditions and keeping them, yet maintaining Christian bonds of unity with people with different traditions.
One person regards one day holier than other days, and another regards them all alike. Each must be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day does it for the Lord. The one who eats, eats for the Lord because he gives thanks to God, and the one who abstains from eating abstains for the Lord, and he gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for himself and none dies for himself. If we live, we live for the Lord; if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For this reason Christ died and returned to life, so that he may be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
Please don't discuss if Paul's words are to be respected as scripture in this thread. It's fine to open another thread to discuss if we should ignore Paul's words.
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Josh
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Re: Romans 14:5-9

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gcdonner wrote:What about the example of Jesus? I suspect he never taught these things since they were forgone conclusions amongst the Jews, of whom he was one.
That's right. Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He raised up Paul to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles, who then really hammered out if Gentiles needed to observe every Jewish tradition. The answer was a resounding "no".
Christ never taught to worship on Sunday...
That's right. Jesus never told us what days to worship on at all. But Paul, whom Jesus appeared to, personally saved, and then sent to preach the gospel, taught that one man regards some days as holy, and another regards them as alike.

Sometimes when I'm travelling for work, the believers where I am like to worship on Saturdays. So I do that when I'm in those places. At home, they worship on Sunday, for the most part.

In my own church, we also worship on Wednesdays.
Christ taught against a hierarchy...
I agree. At the same time, ministers (or elders) and deacons are ordained in scripture. And it's clear in Hebrews and Timothy that some people are leaders in the church.
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Valerie
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Re: Romans 14:5-9

Post by Valerie »

Could someone please clarify what you mean by 'hierarchy' in these contexts that you bring up?
Considering Ephesians 4:11:

King James Version
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Then of course Bishops, elders, deacons-

Then the Church went 'worldwide' and had to have some kind of organization in an attempt to keep the 'brotherhood' speaking the same things- so there would be representatives from each area/country etc- this was vastly different than Israel which was 'one' nation-
It always made sense to me to have hierarchy-

Jesus sent the Apostles to start the Church worldwide so He didn't specifically explain how that was going to all be worked out but it seems to me that there needed to be hierarchy- like in any other organization where there needs to be order-
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