ANNOUNCER: Today, a question about faith. Is it sin to do anything without faith? This question comes from Romans 14 and let’s explore it. Thank you for joining us today, friend, here on Grace in Focus. This is a broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org. Go there to learn a lot about us and research one or more of hundreds of articles we have there for free. Also want to let you know about an event coming up in Idaho, Kamaiah Idaho. This is a five-day event Sunday through Thursday. It is a regional conference with Biblical teaching and recreational events. Even though it’s regional, you might want to even go there from far away. Find out more at our website faithalone.org/events. 

Now then, let’s hear from our hosts today. They are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, we’ve got a question from Todd and his question is on Romans 14:23 and specifically he said that he’s reading through Zane Hodges’ Romans: Deliverance From Wrath and he got to this section and he’s got a two-part question but I think we should read this Scripture first and I’ll read the version that’s in Zane Hodges’ commentary. 

BOB: Because that’s his own translation. 

SAM: Right. So his says, starting with verse 22, “Do you have faith? Have it by yourself before God. Blessed is the person who does not condemn himself for the thing which he treats as acceptable. But the person who is doubtful is condemned if he eats because he does not do so by faith. And whatever is not done by faith is sin.” So the first part of Todd’s question is, is Paul talking just about food here or can this be extrapolated to anything in the Christian life? 

BOB: Okay, so we’ll read Hodges’ comments in a minute, but the first part of what he’s saying is about food. As we’re going to see in Hodges, he suggests that he’s talking this whole section about the weaker brother. The issue was there were certain believers who believed that it was wrong to eat meat. They should be vegetarians, right? These are first century vegans or something. There were other believers that felt that eating meat was fine, and Paul calls those the stronger brothers or the stronger believers and the others are the weaker. 

So basically what he’s talking about in 21 and the first part of 22 concerns the specific issue of eating meat, but the last part of verse 22 is general. And he says, “for whatever is not from faith is sin.” Now that’s a general statement, because he has just said, “but he who doubts is condemned if he eats,” that is, if he eats meat, because he does not eat from faith or Hodges translates at by faith, doesn’t he? “For whatever is not from faith is sin.” 

So in answer to Todd’s question, there is a general principle at the end of this, that anything we do that’s not by faith or from faith is sin, and we need to talk about that, because that’s a little bit puzzling. But the first part is all about the weaker brother. And so Todd’s question is, is it a general or is it specific? And the answer is both. So now let’s read Hodges on 22 and 23. 

SAM: Yeah, he’s got a little bit of what you said. The beginning of 22 addresses the weaker brothers, but he’s saying, “The question for the weaker brother is to the point: do you have faith?” And that’s the beginning of 22. And he says, “The intended answer is yes. The question concerns not saving faith, but faith regarding the eating or non-eating of meat. Paul’s command is to have this faith by yourself personally and privately before God. The blessing here is to the one who does not condemn himself for the thing, which he treats is acceptable. It is better…” 

BOB: Which the King James is translated in what he approves. 

SAM: Right. And that’s dokimos. And he says, “It is better…not to eat certain foods or certain drinks if the result of that eating or drinking is that one has violated his own conscience.” 

BOB: In other words, his own beliefs. 

SAM: Right. Yeah. And then he concludes it by saying, “Paul concludes his discussion on food and drink with a general statement…whatever is not by faith is sin. In other words, the way in which we live the Christian life is by living out what God has impressed upon us from his word. If our actions are not by faith, that is, if our actions contradict what we believe the Scriptures teach, then they are sinful actions, not godly ones.” 

BOB: Okay. So let me see if I can bring this, Todd, right down to where we all live. Haven’t we heard on many occasions the expression, faith without works is dead? And haven’t we heard lordship teachers and works salvation teachers say, what that verse is saying is, if you claim to believe in Jesus, but you don’t have a life that’s just shining and overflowing with lots and lots and lots of good works, then you don’t really have saving faith. It’s dead. It’s not faith. Now, that’s a misunderstanding of what that verse means, but that’s real common, right? 

And what we would say that verse means is faith without works is unprofitable, unproductive. It’s not good, because James 2:14 starts what good is it or it can also be translated what use it or what profit is it, ti to ophelos in Greek. And the same exact three Greek words end verse 16. What good is it? What uses it? What does it profit? However you translate that. And the point is, the illustration in James 2:15 and 16 is you see a brother or sister in your local church that has insufficient clothes to keep warm at night. They have insufficient food to feed their family. And you say to them, hey, be filled and be warm. Hey, I’m praying for you brother. Hey, I’m praying for you, sister, but you don’t give them what they need for their body. ti to ophelos. What good is that? What uses that? What profit is that? Then he says, thus also faith without works is dead. That is unprofitable. It’s not good. It doesn’t help the person then. I should be helping nor does it help me because if I don’t meet the needs of others, then God’s going to judge me. 

Now, why am I bringing this up? Because clearly James 2:14-17 links faith and works, right? And it’s saying faith, in order to be productive, must be applied. 

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BOB: So for example, if I believe it’s more blessed to give than receive, and I’m confronted by a needy brother or sister, and I don’t apply,  “it’s more blessed to give than receive,” I don’t benefit from it nor do they. If I believe I’m supposed to love my wife is Christ, the love of the church, but they don’t apply that, then my wife doesn’t benefit nor do I. And the same is true with everything we believe in Scripture. 

What Paul’s talking about here is the other half of it. In other words, if I do something that’s contrary to what I believe to be true, I’ve sinned assuming, of course, that what I believe to be true is correct. If I believe, for example, that I should not steal, and then I go out and steal, I’ve contradicted, I’ve done something not by faith, because my stealing is not by faith. The same thing would be true of anything I did that wasn’t by faith. In other words, everything I do should be because I’m convinced I believe that this is what God would want me to do. 

SAM: So then where do the weaker brothers and Romans fall into that? Because the Bible doesn’t command us not to eat meat, but if that’s their belief or their conviction and they’re supposed to hold to it, then is, in verse 22 when it says, do you have faith, is that the faith that’s talking about? 

BOB: Let’s say the weaker brother has been egged on by the stronger brothers, like, come on, come on, you can do this, have a steak, have some chicken, have a pork chop, whatever it is. And the person, even though they don’t believe that they should do this, they go ahead and do it because they’ve been egged on. Well, they’ve just sinned because they violated their own belief system. They’ve violated their own conscience. And so the way it would apply is if you can’t eat the meat in faith, that this is something which God approves and which therefore I can approve, then you shouldn’t do it. 

So I would say that’s how the weaker brother comes in and it would be true of anything.

Like for example, there’s nothing in Scripture that forbids drinking wine or beer. Now I don’t happen to drink and it’s because I grew up in an alcoholic family, it’s not because I’m convinced in Scripture that it would be wrong to drink. But I do believe it would be unwise for me to drink because I’m ten times more likely to be an alcoholic than the average person. So it seems to me that you could call me the weaker brother when it comes to drinking of liquor or whatever, but if I just decide, you know, I’m going to show that I’m free in Christ and I’m just going to go out and I’m going to have some liquor. That would not be flowing from faith. 

It’d be a different thing if I said, look, this has happened to me on a few occasions. I’m going to family gathering or something in there like, well just sip the wine. So a couple of times I’ve been like, okay, I’ll sip the wine. I don’t like wine. I don’t want to drink, but I’m not afraid it’s going to make me an alcoholic to sip something I don’t like. So I’ve sipped the wine a few times and I didn’t feel like I was sinning. 

But if I went to a bar and I was trying to, you know, impress people that I could hold my liquor, that would be sin because now with as little as I’ve had in my whole life, never more than like, I think when I turned 21, some people in my dorm who are unbelievers, all three of us turn 21, they wanted to go to this bar locally. And so they had a couple of hard liquor drinks and I had a beer, which I drank maybe a third of it and I didn’t like it. Well, I didn’t get a buzz or anything else from what little I drank. But if I had tried to keep up with them and had a couple of drinks, I think I would have sinned because I probably would have been intoxicated with two drinks, never having had anything to drink. 

So I think that’s the key here is that what we do should flow from faith. Everything we do should flow from faith. And so that’s why it’s important to have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16. God transforms our behavior by renewing our minds, right, Romans 12:2. So what do you think, Sam, have we answered Todd’s questions? 

SAM: I think so. 

BOB: So basically, if it’s violating your conscience, don’t do it. And if you believe this is something which is pleasing to God, then what Paul says like in 1 Corinthians 10, where he says if an unbeliever invites you over to eat, if you don’t want to go, don’t go. If you do want to go, go, don’t feel like you’ve got to go or you don’t have to go. It’s a matter of your choice, but just do what you do out of faith. 

All right, well thanks so much and let’s keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: does John 12 present salvation as a two-step process? Come back and join us in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.