Our position on people weak in faith

When I look at and analyze the tone that the different Books of the Bible set, I always see that combination of love and mercy, and of holiness and integrity. The apostle Paul in his writings reflects that mysterious balance between these two extremes.

In Romans chapter 14 Paul talks about the position we have to hold towards people who are weak in faith. Paul is not referring only to people who have sinful tendencies or who struggle with different addictions, but in Romans 14 and 15 he is referring to those people who are weak because they are like finicky and very concerned about holiness, and who think that any type of food can be contrary to what God wants, they care a lot about the rites and the mechanical things of holiness.

And it refers specifically to those who perhaps care about Christian holidays and the rituals of Judaism or the meals sacrificed to idols, and who do not move in that freedom to which God has called the children of God, and that they are obsessed with little things and that they are always afraid of offending the Lord for something; while there are other people that Paul calls as more mature in faith and stronger in faith, who know that in Christ Jesus we have been freed from the bondage of legalism and Pharisaism, and that we can walk the Christian life with more freedom and more lightness knowing that we have a merciful God who takes pity on us and who walks the Christian life with us even though he is a holy, pure, and perfect God.

And so Paul invites the strongest believers in the Lord to have that kindness and that mercy towards those who are weaker who may be, again, people overly concerned about holiness or people who are suffering from certain ties and certain sins of who have not been able to free themselves completely and who require merciful and compassionate treatment.

And that's why Paul in verse 13 of Romans 14 says, "So let's not judge each other anymore." See there? We cannot judge each other, we cannot be condemning each other and criticizing each other for everything we do, "let's not judge each other any more, but rather decide not to stumble or fall for our brother."

I believe that this is the priority in the Christian life of not being a stumbling block in the process of sanctification of another brother or of a Congregation, or of an unbeliever who is beginning to take his first steps in the ways of faith, but rather to be resources for them. And that position of mercy and fatherhood, a pastoral position instead of the position of demand and sterility, and legalism, which the Lord advises us.

Paul continues in verse 14 saying: "I know and trust the Lord that nothing is unclean in itself, but for the one who thinks something is unclean for him it is." Obviously he is referring to those people that if they ate meat that had been dedicated to idols they already felt like: oh, I am unclean food and I am sinning against God.

But Pablo said: you know what? If you and your faith give 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 that, then there is no sin. in which you eat. But, despite us having that confidence, there are people who do not think like that, so we have to have mercy on them and walk with them step by step, right?

Sometimes churches are overly concerned not to offend the Lord and so we create neurotic churches. Sometimes parents are too demanding with our children and we are continually whipping them and demanding of them, and pointing out their defects, and many times we do not understand that the best way to produce a healthy child, be it in faith or in biological fatherhood is by affirming them. , healing them, winning them over with a benevolent, merciful, patient, sympathetic behavior and then combining that positive behavior with the call to integrity, seriousness, discipline. That is the way to be parents both in the spiritual and in the biological world, effective.

The apostle Paul says later in chapter 15 in verse 1: "So we who are strong must endure the infirmities of the weak and not please ourselves." Many times on the path of faith we will have to be compassionate precisely because we are strong and we know where we stand.

In the Christian Church, those people who have long in the faith and who are firm in the faith have to have great mercy with those who are just beginning the path of the Christian faith or those who struggle with past hurts, deformations, addictions. And instead of us pleasing ourselves precisely because we are strong, we have to postpone our own comfort and reach out to others so that they can then little by little become firm and strong as we are.

That type of Church will always have the devil neutralized and the devil will not know what to do with them because they will be churches filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, His Mercy and His goodness, and they will be protected; because he who has mercy on others receives mercy from God. May God bless you, until our next meditation.