On Being Easily Edified

The modernization of the world seems to be constantly moving towards a single goal: we get what we want when we want it.

Amazon, drive-throughs, and DoorDash constantly reinforce our entitlement to our preferences. While the Bill of Rights may be enshrined in the American Constitution, it is the right to our preferences that we fiercely protect the most.

It is so easy to make our preferences king in church when they already rule every other area of our lives.

Whether it is the preaching, the style of worship, or how we are greeted when we walk in, our preferences are often more important to us than our edification.

But the picture the bible gives us for the church is much less a food court of options and much more a family potluck.

Here’s the picture that Romans 14:17-19 paints of the kingdom of God:

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”

Romans 14:17-19 ESV

Eating and Drinking

Paul is writing to a church loaded with a diversity of convictions and preferences. They are wrestling with the Jewish food laws. Having lived their whole lives under the law, the Jewish Christians were not quite prepared to walk in the newfound freedom that the gentile believers reveled in.

Yet Paul’s prescribed cure to the conflict is contrary to both the Roman culture and ours. In the surrounding context, he encourages the gentile believers with more freedom to sacrifice their freedom of conscience.

Paul establishes that our preferences are not what the kingdom of God is about. In verse 20, he adds that we destroy the work of God in our brothers and sisters in Christ when we fail to sacrifice our preferences.

Righteousness, Peace, and Joy

When we do this, we often rationalize ourselves in some of the following ways:

“My preferences are the best way for the church to walk in righteousness” or “To experience the peace of Christ I need to be at a church that does everything how I like” or “I am just more joyful when I am surrounded by people who think like me.”

in Luke 10:29, the “expert in the law” thought this way about righteousness. He knew the commands of God, but seeking to justify himself he twisted God’s commands into something more comfortable.

Jesus responded to this way of thinking with one of his most famous and culture-defying parables, the good Samaritan. Following in Jesus’ footsteps, Paul also does not have any time for these rationalizations.

The gentile believers in many ways were “correct” in what they could or couldn’t eat. Yet Paul does not believe the argument warrants division in the church. Instead, he calls for the sacrifice that will produce righteousness in both the Jews and the Gentiles.

In the same way, when we divide into preference groups, we do not experience biblical peace. True peace is found when we mutually submit our many preferences to the Lord to find unity in Christ.

Finally, the momentary joy of being with only people who agree with us is hollow in comparison to the joy found in the diverse yet unified church of Christ.

Acceptable to God, Approved by Man

Paul makes clear that when we cling to our preferences it clouds our vision towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are quick to view them not by God’s standards but by our own.

Paul exhorts the Roman church that whether they are Jews or Gentiles, they are acceptable to God and should be approved by man.

Acceptable in this case does not mean “just barely good enough.” Instead, it implies the significance of God the Father being “well pleased” to call us sons and daughters in Christ.

And within the church, we are all called to “approve” of each other in Christ. The Greek word translated as “approved” carried the cultural context of a metallic coin that was of full value. Oftentimes, deceitful people shaved down the coins to swindle the market. But men of integrity only “approved” of coins that were the correct weight.

In the same way, all of us who serve Christ have been made completely valuable in him. We should view our brothers and sisters in the same way as Christ does whether or not they share our preferences.

When we place our preferences above those around us, we assert that our brothers and sisters are less valuable to the kingdom of God than we are.

Mutual Upbuilding

When we begin to prioritize the peace and unity of the church, we will become people who are easily edified in Christ.

When we often feel like we are just going through the motions in our walk with Christ, this is the answer! Every preference sacrificed for the sake of the church is one less barrier between us and being built up in faith by those around us.

When this takes place, we create an environment of unity around the essential commands of Christ while we can still pursue deeper things without sacrificing our neighbor along the way.

Paul understood this to be hard work, but he encouraged them that it was worth pursuing.

Let us strive to be people who exhibit righteousness, peace, and joy as we humbly sacrifice our preferences for the sake of the body of Christ’s mutual upbuilding.