Kristine emailed me last night asking if I was following Challies’ latest posts titled: The Weaker, The Stronger, The Homeschooler, a series of posts based on Romans 14:1-12.
The posts discuss Christian Homeschoolers, Public Schoolers and Private Schoolers and their attitudes towards one another’s educational choices for their children. Apparently, there are some less than charitable attitudes towards one another within the church regarding these issues, which he describes in the first post.
As I read the posts, I couldn’t help but wonder if we don’t do the same thing here. Homeschooling vs. Public Schooling, Private Homeschooling vs. Charter School. What about our child training methods? To spank or not spank. These are things we all have strong opinions on, making it easy to fall into temptation and judge another or puff ourselves up with pride.
Here is the scripture in reference:
Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another
14:1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Here are the posts on Challies. I believe there will be three posts total. Below are the first two.
The Weaker, The Stronger, The Homeschooler
The Weaker, The Stronger, The Homeschooler (II)
In the third post which should be out anytime, he is going to reveal which he believes to be the stronger and the weaker. Based on the scripture, I would think the homeschooler is the one who abstains, so that would mean the weaker. Hmmm… we’ll see what he says.
And if you’re interested, our pastor recently covered Romans 14:1-12 over two Sundays. You can listen to those sermons if you scroll down to 10/10/10 and 10/17/10 on this page. The sermons are titled Mutual Forbearance Among the Weak and the Strong. It was very, very helpful to hear him walk through these scriptures and what they mean.
Post your comments if you have any!
Oh, and thanks again Kristine!!
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Since this writing, Kristine emailed me about another post on this topic so I’m just going to add it here, hopefully those who have already read this post will find this addition.
Brandi at Afterthoughts has posted a very thoughtful post in response to the Challies posts. She makes very good points so I wanted to share it with you here: Mr. Challies and the Strong Man.
If you have any thoughts to add or can help me un-muddle my thinking, I’d love to hear it! Post them in the comments here or there.