“Let not then your good be evil spoken of. 17. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy of the Holy Spirit.”
The theme of Romans 14 is primarily about eating meat offered to idols. Under grace we can eat whatever we want, but not every Christian in Rome had reached the maturity for that. They could not eat meat offered to idols, which was sold in the meat market, and were the best cuts of meat, because it might hinder their new found faith. More mature Christians insisted that eating that meat was alright. Paul’s idea was that it was not wrong to eat that meat, but if eating it became a stumbling block to new Christians, then they should not eat it. In the two verses under discussion here, Paul is reminding both groups that the kingdom of God is not about what to eat or what not to eat. He wanted them to get away from such mundane arguments and think about the higher elements of the Christian faith. The kingdom of God is about righteousness. Righteousness in the kingdom of God does not have as much to do with what we eat and drink as much as it does about how we live our lives. The first step to the righteous life is faith in Jesus Christ, for our righteousness is not our own, but is imputed to us through faith in Jesus Christ. This does not mean, however, that righteousness does not have to do with our behavior. For example, Paul asked the mature Christians to “let not then your good be evil spoken of.” It would not be righteous to eat the meat sacrificed to idols if it hurt the faith of a fellow Christian. Righteousness is not just refraining from doing things that we used to do, but to do things that would be pleasing to God and a good witness to people. I think that a good measurement here is what has become a cliché, but is nevertheless important: "What would Jesus do?” I doubt that anyone could ever keep that admonition perfectly, but it surely is a good goal, and would lead to kingdom righteousness. The kingdom of God is about peace. Kingdom peace is not about “Peace on earth.” It could have to do with that, but it is mainly about peace in our hearts. Jesus told us that we would have trouble in this world, but that He was giving us His peace. (John 16:33) Kingdom peace is peace of mind and heart in spite of turmoil. Paul certainly knew something about this, for he experienced a lot of turmoil everywhere he went. Leonard Ravenhill wrote that everywhere Paul went there was a revival or a riot. But Paul had kingdom peace, because he was at peace within himself. I think that the turmoil in a lot of churches could be done away with if people were at peace in their hearts. The point is that instead of worrying about legalistic things like what we should eat, we should be trusting the Lord and living in His peace. The kingdom of God is about “joy of the Holy Spirit.” When we spend our time arguing about this, that or the other, we are not taking advantage of the “joy of the Holy Spirit.” Like peace, this is not just outward joy but it is inner joy – joy in the heart. Part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, is joy. It is not joy that comes and goes with circumstances but stays in our hearts through good times and bad. In fact, it is joy of the Holy Spirit that gets us through good times and bad. It is this joy that helps us to love one another, minister to one another, and witness to the world. With this spiritual joy we can go forth into the world and spread the joy of Jesus. Everybody will not appreciate it or share the joy, but those who do will have a better life. Let’s take Paul’s teaching about true kingdom living to heart, and cease worrying about things that do not really matter and concentrate on those that do, such as, rigtheousness, peace, and the joy of the Holy Spirit.
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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