Insight for Living

Guest (Male): In a world fractured by division, where even churches make headlines for conflict rather than compassion, there's an obvious question: Can believers truly demonstrate unity that draws others to Christ?

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll will answer this question with a resounding yes. His conviction comes from Romans chapter 15. In this passage, Paul explains that Christian unity isn't about everybody agreeing on everything.

It's about demonstrating humility and love. More specifically, it's demonstrating that the church isn't the problem, it's the answer. Chuck titled today's message, "We Are One . . . Or Are We?"

Chuck Swindoll: The 15th chapter of the letter to the Romans holds the text for this morning's message. Let me read for you the first seven verses and then end with verse 13. Romans 15, beginning at verse 1 down through verse 7 and then verse 13.

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good to his edification. For even Christ did not please himself. But as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me."

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus.

So that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept one another just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. Verse 13: "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Guest (Male): You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message, "We Are One . . . Or Are We?"

Chuck Swindoll: The absence of unity in local churches around the country is table talk even in the homes of those who don't attend those churches. Isn't it amazing when there are church squabbles and church splits, it makes the community rounds?

In fact, it sometimes finds its way into the local newspapers. Always amazing to me that church difficulties are not a secret to people who don't even go to those churches. A motorist asked a boy on his bike where the Reformed Church was located.

The boy said, "Well, you go one block further on and on the left on the corner you'll see the United Church. Go one more block and you'll come to a church on the corner on the right-hand side. That one's not united, that's it."

A group of theologians were discussing predestination as opposed to free will. And the argument became heated and the dissidents split into two groups. One younger man who didn't know which group he ought to go to sort of drifted into the predestination crowd.

Someone said, "Why are you here?" He said, "I came of my own free will." "Free will! You can't join us, you belong in that group." So he wanders over to the other group and they ask, "Why are you here?" He said, "I'm here because I was sent."

"Sent! You can't come unless you come of your own free will." He wound up joining Stonebriar Community Church as I recall. One wag tells the story of three churches located on the same intersection. They were all singing at the same time.

One church was singing, "Will there be any stars in my crown?" Across the street in the other church, not knowing what they were singing, were singing, "No, not one." The third church was singing, "Oh, that will be glory for me."

And on and on the stories go. Admittedly, one church cannot contain all of the people in the body of Christ, nor should we ever think we would or should. There will always be disagreements, there will always be those who hold to differing opinions. It has nothing to do with our love for one another, or at least it should not.

The Lord did not pray that we would be uniformed, but unified. There's a difference. Uniformity means we all look alike, think alike, even dress alike. We all agree on everything, and if everybody agrees on everything, many people aren't thinking.

So obviously there will always be differing opinions and different beliefs regarding various doctrines, but that should have nothing to do with our love for one another. Paul and Barnabas worked together in the first missionary journey in the first century and they made great headway for the cause of Christ.

They took with them John Mark, who didn't stay with them. When he got to the rigors of the coastline of Pamphylia, he turned tail and went home. One writer says he wanted to go home to mama. We don't know why he went home. The point was it was too rugged for him or maybe he fell ill. But whatever, he left.

When Paul and Barnabas made plans to do the second missionary journey, Barnabas said to Paul, "Let's bring John Mark with us." And Paul said to Barnabas, "There's no way. He defected at one time, he could very likely defect again."

"Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint." Paul could have quoted to Barnabas that proverb. Barnabas says, "Look, I'm the one who helped introduce you to the disciples. No one believed in you at the time and thanks to me, you're among us and let's have a heart, let's let John Mark."

You know what? They had such a disagreement between them—the Greek word is paroxysm—they had such a paroxysm between them that they turned. Barnabas left with John Mark and set sail for Cyprus. Paul and Silas took the inland route, went north and then west across Turkey, across the northern part of the Aegean and into Europe for a very successful missionary journey.

But they worked separate from one another. I don't believe they stopped loving each other, they just couldn't work together. Luther and Erasmus in the 16th century had their arguments with each other. In fact, their arguments turned into public debates.

Both of them very learned men. Both of them very interested in the things of God, but they could not agree. Evangelist George Whitefield, evangelist John Wesley had great disagreements in their theology, could never work together, but there was a love and respect for one another that was notorious for those days.

In the 20th century when you got to the fall of 1929, the long-standing Princeton Theological Seminary had split. Conservative faculty led by J. Gresham Machen went to Philadelphia and they set up a new school that they named Westminster Theological Seminary.

Princeton Seminary remained on and to this day continues, as does Westminster. There would never have been a Westminster had there not been a split in the school at Princeton. Back in the first century, they argued over the issue of meat offered to idols and days in the week.

Some believed that certain days were more significant than other days. Many in the church at Rome believed all days were the same. Some in the church believed that if meat had once been on an idol's altar, you had no business eating that meat.

Others believed there's nothing wrong with the meat because there's nothing to an idol. It's just a carved piece of wood or stone or whatever may be the element. It's just an idol. The meat's good. The church at Rome was at odds with each other because of disagreement over that particular issue.

Now I've said before and I'll say again today, that's not our battle today. As far as I know, nobody in our church argues over whether you can eat meat or not eat meat, unless you're one of the vegetarians in our midst.

And my answer to you is you don't know what you're missing. But that's another subject and I don't want to go there. You can see what camp I'm in. Interesting, Paul states that the strong are to have a heart when they are with the weak.

In other words, if you see no problem eating meat at any time, you're to realize there are those around you who do see a problem with it. So when you find yourself in a public gathering, when you're in a place where that kind of thing can become an issue, have a heart.

Don't ignore, don't flaunt your liberty. Back away. Get a to-go box and take it home and enjoy it there. But before we get into that issue, I want you to go back up into the last three verses of chapter 14. This is one of those passages where I regret that there's a chapter break.

Now when I say that, some folks look at me like, "Chuck, you can't change the Bible, you'll get hit with lightning." Well, actually, when you change the verses and the chapter breaks, you're not changing the Bible because the numbers in our Bibles are not inspired.

For years, people read the Bible with no break in chapters or verses. And can you imagine how difficult it was to locate verses before that practical answer came in giving chapters numbers and giving verses numbers?

But here's a case where I wish there were verse 24 and verse 25 and on down through verse 13 of chapter 15, all part of chapter 14, because he's still on the same subject. But there is a chapter break and we'll get into chapter 15 in a moment. Let me go back to verses 21, 22, and 23. See those verses at the end of chapter 14?

For the sake of God's work, Paul writes to the people of Rome words of unity, encouraging love for one another. And he leaves them with three very simple guidelines. Verse 21, he's saying, "Be considerate." Just be considerate of one another.

It's good not to eat meat or to drink wine or do anything by which your brother stumbles. So have a heart. If you're going to serve a couple that you love in your home and you're going to provide a meal for them, and let's say the husband in the family is allergic to certain foods, your friends will probably tell you, "You know, if we're going to come over, we'd love to be with you, but he's allergic to melons and he's also allergic to onions."

So you don't say when you hear that, "I don't care what he's allergic to, I'm going to put melons in the salad, I'm going to put onions in the..." No, you right away say, "No problem." What are you doing? You're being considerate.

You're saying, "I'll adjust, I'll make allowance for the facts so that it doesn't create an allergic reaction." Paul is saying that here in the spiritual realm: Be considerate. Now verse 22 is saying, "Be convinced."

"The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before the Lord." I am looking into the faces of some folks who aren't yet convinced as to where you stand on some things, maybe many things. You may be brand new to the family of God.

You're still sort of learning what it's all about and you come into situations and you don't know where you stand. So you feel insecure and uneasy. As time passes, you will grow and you will learn where you are on these issues, whatever may be the issues in question. But you must come to terms with where you stand and you're convinced of that.

And thirdly is the word consistent. Be consistent. He who doubts is condemned if he eats because whatever he's not eating of faith is sin. So you live with guilt and an uneasiness because you're not sure and so you're inconsistent.

Let me say to all parents listening to me right now, if there's one thing your teenager wants from you, it's consistency. You know that, and it's one of the hardest things to live out. Teenagers are the first people on the planet to call us hypocrites.

Most adults will not look over at us and say, "You know, you're a hypocrite." I can't remember the last time I've said that to somebody, maybe never. But when you've got young people in your home, they're looking for you to be the same.

And let me say to you, the weak are looking to the strong to be the same. Be consistent. Be consistent. Consistently considerate, consistently convinced of where you stand. No extra charge for this warning label on the can, if I may.

Our adversary, the devil, would like nothing more than to split this church and any church apart based on whatever may be the issue, because a broken church is a weakened church. Weakened church.

If you've ever fought in the military, you know that when morale goes down and the soldiers begin to have different feelings about the words of the commander or the plan of attack, you know that you're on your way to defeat.

A unified squad wins a battle. A unified team is more likely to win a game than a team that's disunified. That's true of whether the church is new or old, whether it's large or small, whether it's rural or urban. Mainly the enemy works to bring disunity in a church.

If you see people and hear people sowing discord among the church, you know they are breaking down the unity in the church. There are ways to deal with things that you don't agree with. Spreading discord is not one of them.

It's the goal of every pastor worth his salt to help keep the unity of the congregation. And it's the same for all who are members of that church. Speaking of that, and I turn now to God's people, verse 1. We who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.

Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good. This is a strong, strong exhortation and there's both positive and negative. It's addressed to people in the Roman church. First, we are to bear with them. See the word "bear" with them?

*Bastazo* is the Greek word, and *bastazo* does not mean just tolerate or put up with. It means to carry, to support. To be of support to them. It's a little tender illustration, but let me say to you who are adults, we all have friends who have children that perhaps live with congenital problems.

Maybe there are neurological difficulties, they may be autistic or there may be other characteristics of a disability of some kind. You're very careful with them. Parents treat them with special care, and we should. We should.

It's called having a heart. We feel for them. Our hearts go out to them. And in that sense, we support them. We help carry them, if you will. So you see, one person's strength is to compensate for the other's weakness.

Now you know what that takes, don't you? It takes unselfishness. And that works against our nature. Everything within us wants our own way. But he says, verse 2, each of us is to please the other person for his good and for his edification.

Now, this needs a disclaimer because if you take just verse 2, you'll spend your entire life pleasing people. And you and I know that there's more to the Christian life than that because there are some people who have no business being pleased.

There are some people who are doing wrong and they want your approval. Or to make matters more complicated, they want to control you. And by dominating you to move into their sphere or their realm in agreement is to compromise your principles.

Remember, Whitefield couldn't move there for Wesley. Luther wouldn't go there for Erasmus. Paul wouldn't do that for Barnabas. And you will find as a person that learns to stand on his own two feet, there will be people you will have to say no to.

And you won't be popular, not only with them but with their friends and their spouse and others. But nevertheless, you must answer to Christ, not them. And you understand why I'm clarifying this with the disclaimer.

And let me show you a verse that's helped me. Hold your place, just a quick glance: Galatians 1, verse 10. Galatians 1:10. Let me tell you the dilemma I was in at another church at another time—and it's been decades ago, so don't try to figure out where it was, okay?

I was serving on a board and half the board was persuaded of one thing and the other half was persuaded of something else and my vote was the swing vote. Now isn't that fun? So whichever way I voted, I've got the other ones against me and I've got some of them for me.

And it was driving me crazy. I was young, I was too much of a man-pleaser back then. I wanted to make them all happy, which is impossible. And I decided I need some time alone and I decided I would go into Galatians and I didn't even get past verse 10 and I had my answer.

Look at verse 10 of chapter 1: "Am I now seeking the favor of men or of God?" Great question. "Or am I striving to please others, men or women? Am I striving to please men?" He adds, "If I were still striving or trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ."

That tells me two things. One, Paul was once a man-pleaser. The word "still" tells us that. If I were still engaged in pleasing people, I wouldn't be a servant of Christ. Which says there are times that you must simply stand against those who want you to stand with them.

Now if you have to be accepted and if you have to be popular more than you must be right, then you'll live in a dilemma. But I can tell you, when I went back and cast my vote, my face was on the dartboard of the other guys that didn't agree with my decision.

And I learned then three great words for every pastor to memorize: You can't win. Very helpful. Very helpful. And when you live with that, you live a lot more easily. You sleep a lot better.