Our Attitude Toward Those Weak in Faith

When I observe and analyze the tone set by the different books of the Bible, I always see that combination of love and mercy, and holiness and integrity. In his writings, the apostle Paul reflects that mysterious balance between these two extremes.

In Romans chapter 14, Paul speaks about the stance we must take toward people who are weak in the faith. Paul is not referring only to people with sinful tendencies or those struggling with various addictions. In Romans 14 and 15, he is also referring to people who are weak because they are rather scrupulous and deeply concerned about holiness. They think that any kind of food might be contrary to what God wants, and they worry a great deal about rituals and the mechanical aspects of holiness.

He is referring specifically to those who may worry about Christian feast days, the rituals of Judaism, or food sacrificed to idols. They do not live in the freedom to which God has called His children; they are preoccupied with the smallest things and are always afraid that they might somehow be offending the Lord. By contrast, there are others whom Paul describes as more mature and stronger in the faith. They know that in Christ Jesus we have been freed from the bonds of legalism and Pharisaism, and that we can walk the Christian life with greater freedom and lightness, knowing that we have a merciful God who has compassion on us and walks through the Christian life with us, even while He is a holy, pure, and perfect God.

And so Paul invites believers who are stronger in the Lord to show kindness and mercy to those who are weaker. These may be, again, people who are excessively concerned about holiness, or people suffering under certain bonds and sins from which they have not been able to free themselves completely and who need merciful and compassionate treatment.

That is why Paul says in Romans 14, verse 13: “Therefore let us stop judging one another.” Do you see that? We cannot judge one another; we cannot go around condemning one another and criticizing every little thing one or another of us does. “Let us stop judging one another, but rather decide not to put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in a brother’s way.”

I believe that this is a priority in the Christian life: that we not be a stumbling block in the process of sanctification of another brother, of a congregation, or of an unbeliever who is just beginning to take their first little steps along the paths of faith, but instead be a resource for them. And it is this stance of mercy and fatherly care—a pastoral stance rather than one of demands, sterility, and legalism—that the Lord counsels us to take.

Paul continues in verse 14, saying: “I know and am persuaded in the Lord that nothing is unclean in itself; but to the one who considers something unclean, to that person it is unclean.” Evidently, he is referring to people who, if they ate meat that had been dedicated to idols, immediately felt as though: Oh, I’m eating unclean food and sinning against God.

But Paul was saying: You know what? If your faith enables you to believe that idols are nothing and that God is more powerful, and that if you sanctify the food you eat and declare it pure and holy, you do not have to worry about it, then there is nothing sinful about your eating it. But even though we have that confidence, there are people who do not think that way. So we must have mercy on them and walk with them step by step, right?

Sometimes churches are excessively concerned about not offending the Lord, and so we create neurotic churches. Sometimes we parents are too demanding of our children, constantly lashing out at them, making demands of them, and pointing out their flaws. And often we do not understand that the best way to raise a healthy child, whether in the faith or in biological parenthood, is to affirm them, heal them, and win them over through kind, merciful, patient, warm behavior, and then combine that positive behavior with a call to integrity, seriousness, and discipline. That is how to be effective parents, both in the spiritual realm and in the biological one.

The apostle Paul says later, in chapter 15, verse 1: “So we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak and not please ourselves.” Many times along the path of faith, we will have to be compassionate precisely because we are strong and know where we stand.

In the Christian church, those who have been in the faith for a long time and are firm in it must show great mercy to those who are only just beginning the journey of Christian faith, or to those who struggle with wounds from the past, distortions, and addictions. And instead of pleasing ourselves precisely because we are strong, we must set aside our own comfort and reach out to others so that they, little by little, can become firm and strong as we are.

That kind of church will always keep the devil neutralized, and the devil will not know what to do with such churches, because they will be filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, with His mercy and His kindness, and they will be protected; for whoever shows mercy to others receives mercy from God. May God bless you. Until our next meditation.