How should Christians handle disagreements with other Christians over masks and vaccines? What biblical principles help us navigate this topic and other topics that are not directly addressed in Scripture? In this episode, Cliff and Derek take a look at Romans 14 to answer these important questions.
Transcript
Derek: Welcome to With All Wisdom, where we are applying biblical truth to everyday life. My name is Derek Brown, and I’m here with Clifford McManis. We both serve as elders at Creekside Bible Church in Cupertino, California, and as professors at the Cornerstone Bible College and Seminary, where we have the privilege to train other pastors. Today we want to talk about masks, vaccines, and Romans 14. But before we get to our topic, I want to encourage you to visit WithAllWisdom.org, where you will find a large and ever-growing collection of resources that will help you grow in your walk with Christ. And now on to our topic. Cliff, we’ve been in the thick of COVID for over a year and a half now. And ever since March 2020, we’ve had to deal with the issue of masks and whether or not it’s a Christian’s duty to wear a mask, and how to navigate that question among believers who disagree. Then about 10 months ago, the vaccine became available, and since that time, we’ve faced similar questions about whether or not it’s a Christian’s duty to get vaccinated and how to handle disagreements among Christians on this topic. And we’ve both seen a spectrum of opinions over these issues, which means that Christians are having a hard time not only agreeing on these specific matters, but just as importantly, how to approach these topics within a biblical framework, which is what we want to talk about today. So, Cliff, why don’t you take it away?
Cliff: Yeah, isn’t it hard to believe? Derek, we are, it’s actually 18 plus months now into this pandemic COVID thing, and going on two years, and just I remember when it all started, I thought, there’s no way it’s going to last two months, and here we are two years into this thing. I was just reading a statistic yesterday that supposedly, I don’t know who’s saying this, if it’s CDC or whatever, but more people have died from COVID in America in 2021 than in 2020.
Derek: Yeah.
Cliff: So, I found that to be surprising. So, it’s still with us, and one thing we want to talk about is how it has impacted the Church, because both you and I as pastors and shepherds, full-time, this issue and related issues have definitely divided the Church, even ravaged the Church, and it hasn’t relented because these divisive issues keep coming up. Early on, it was fighting and arguing about whether we should meet or not. Among Christians, the debate. Then that turned into, should we wear masks or not? And that went on for quite some time. And then, like you just mentioned, now it’s, should we get vaccinated or not? And there’s just as much intensity and difference of convictions and debate and arguing and divisiveness even in the Church among Christians on every one of these issues.
Derek: That’s right.
Cliff: And it just makes me wonder, what’s the next issue we’re going to be talking about in four or five months in the Church? It’s a divisive issue. But for me and you as pastors, one of the most difficult things in ministry to do that we’re commanded by God to do in the Bible as shepherds is to care for all of our people, show no partiality towards any of our people, and our people are different. Our church, we have about 200 people, and our people are so different in terms of the variety and diversity that we have. The background, the upbringing, the convictions, their education, their personalities, their maturity in terms of how long they’ve known the Lord. So you’ve got all these variables. And yet we are mandated by God to keep the peace and preserve unity in the body. That is incredibly difficult to do as a pastor and shepherd. And it’s compounded and made even more challenging when you have something unprecedented, like a pandemic that has all these unforeseen challenges that will come with it. Because we never could have seen these things. We never could have prepared for these things. A year ago, we didn’t even think about vaccinations. It would be an issue. And so that’s why I want to bring it up today. But you and I and our elders at our Church, we keep coming back, circling back to the same biblical principles and the same biblical passage with every one of these new things we’re confronted with. The people are scratching their head over, what do we do about this? And we just keep going back to Romans 14. We just need to keep hammering away on it. We’ve preached on it. We have written articles on it. We have talked about it to our people. But we still need to keep doing that again and again and again. And so that’s one of the reasons that that’s going to be a point of emphasis today in our podcast. Before we go into Romans 14, just to recount some recent events in the area where we live regarding the state of the churches. I am aware of the following scenarios at these local churches all around us, that there’s leadership, apparently at many churches, really some churches, that are still requiring their members to register ahead of time to go to church on campus. And there’s limited seating still due to distancing or whatever. There are actually members who are being turned away from coming to church because they either didn’t sign up on time or there’s not enough space. I find that alarming. And I don’t think that’s right, but that’s going on. Another thing, I tuned into a local church here and they’re not meeting in person, but they’re still doing the video thing, the digital thing. And they opened up one of the pastors on their service on a Sunday morning as they’re meeting not in person, but through Zoom and other venues. And they’re welcoming everybody and they said, what a blessing to be digitally meeting together. And they’ve just got accustomed to doing that. And for our opportunity to have digital fellowship, and that’s the terminology they’re using, which to me was startling. We can’t get comfortable using that language and it’s not even consistent with what the Bible says. There is no such thing as digital gathering, but that’s what they say. Another one, a pastor here at a local church standing from the pulpit on Sunday morning, welcoming everybody, literally looking in the congregation from the pulpit where you’re supposed to preach the Bible and saying, oh, it’s wonderful to see everybody here in a mask because they require you have to have a mask to be at church. And then he said from the pulpit, now we just all have to be vaccinated. And lo and behold, there are churches that I’m aware of that are mandating vaccination for their members, and they’re not even allowed on the campus unless they can prove that they have been vaccinated. That is recent. That’s local. If it’s happening in our neck of the woods and maybe it’s happening all over the country for all we know. And if it’s happening now, it’s just going to keep growing that whole movement. And so when I shared that with you, especially this mandatory vaccination in order for a Christian, a saint to come to their local church and be with God’s people and fellowship, you had a reaction to that. And then very quickly, you were in Romans 14. So that’s what I want to first ask you is, what are your thoughts on this? And is that acceptable? Is that okay? Should local churches be doing this? Can local church shepherds be requiring this of their people, these demands and mandates? And then also, what’s the solution, which you hinted at at Romans 14?
Derek: So I want to say at the very forefront that the short answer is absolutely not. Pastors cannot be making this a requirement of fellowship at the local body, namely vaccines. And the reason for that is because, biblically speaking, the only condition or requirement for fellowship among the body is belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Cliff: Amen.
Derek: And so anything beyond that is clearly defined by Scripture as legalism. And so I want to be clear that pastors cannot be doing this. They cannot be barring fellowship for believers based on a medical decision that they may or may not make that is an extra biblical requirement. It undermines the unity of the church. It undermines the gospel and what Christ has purchased for us. And it goes against the grain of the entire New Testament. So I just want to be emphatic about that. And so when you mentioned that to me a few days ago, I was just deeply grieved. It was actually hard to believe.
Cliff: When I first heard it, it was hard to believe as well. Do you think, in light of 1 Peter 5, where Peter, a fellow elder, is exhorting local shepherds and elders of their responsibilities, and he tells them a few things. Here’s what you need to do. You need to shepherd your people, the ones entrusted to you care. And he also tells them things they should not do. And one of them is you shouldn’t lord it over the people. That means exercise undue authority that you don’t have demanding things from your people that God hasn’t given you the authority to do. Do you think this is venturing into that area of pastors of lording it over their people?
Derek: Absolutely, because what you’re doing is you are, like you just mentioned, overstepping the bounds of your authority. You’re going beyond what Christ has laid down for the conditions of fellowship, namely faith in him. And so now you’re going beyond the chief shepherd in requiring something that he doesn’t require, and that would be lording it over your people, stepping over the bounds of authority that you’ve been given as a shepherd from Jesus. So I would.
Cliff: Yeah, and these are, you use the word legalistic, and I think that’s legitimate. These are legalistic tendencies. Just a definition of legalism, from a biblical point of view, I would say, is that any time you take something that is not an explicit biblical command or imperative from God in the Bible, in other words, a human opinion, a human conviction, a human tradition, and you raise it to the level of an imperative of Scripture.
Derek: I would agree with that.
Cliff: And that’s exactly what we’re looking at here, where pastors and churches are issuing these mandates as decrees from God that aren’t even in the Bible. So how would we constitute, or what category would we put these things like masks and vaccinations, those kind of things?
Derek: So I think the beauty of Scripture, the beauty of the sufficiency of Scripture is that you have everything you need there, particularly in Romans 14 to answer this issue. I believe Romans 14 is what gives you clarity on these kinds of issues as a shepherd, as a Christian. Romans 14 is where I know we’ve been for a long time since COVID hit, and it’s where I remain on a number of these issues. And I am so grateful more and more that as we deal with these issues, I am more and more grateful for Scripture and the sufficiency of Scripture, because Romans 14 has really helped me personally to think clearly about this issue. And I was recently asked about this very issue, vaccines as the issue, by one of our young adults, and I pointed them towards Romans 14, and it was helpful for them to see the Scripture does handle this issue, and that’s precisely where we need to be, is in that particular text of Scripture.
Cliff: Yeah, absolutely. Romans 14 is a wonderful, shepherding chapter of the Bible.
Derek: It is.
Cliff: Because that’s where we field so many questions from our people who want to know, well, Pastor Derek, what does the Bible say about this? Then they bring up an issue that’s not in the Bible. Well, what does the Bible say about wearing masks to church? Well, sheep, the Bible says absolutely nothing about it. Well, I thought you said the Bible was sufficient. Well, Romans 14 allows us to have still a doctrine of sufficiency of Scripture, because it gives the principles by which to deal with issues that aren’t explicitly stated in Scripture that we call gray areas sometimes, other terms that have been historically used are disputable matters. And we’ll talk about, we’ll look at Romans 14 in just a second. So that’s very comforting. Like you said, it’s very helpful as a shepherd to be able to go to Romans 14, which reminds me of another question I wanted to ask you, because you interact with a lot of pastors in Northern California and beyond. And as you look at the Christian world over the past 18 months, have you heard a whole lot of pastors or churches talking about Romans 14 and going there frequently to deal with these problems and discussions?
Derek: No, in fact, that’s what’s been surprising to me. And my wife probably thinks I’m a broken record at this point, because I’ll come home and I will say again, I will say, love, we need to be in Romans 14 on these issues, you know, hearing these things and watching these things in the greater Christian world. We need to be in Romans 14. And it just doesn’t seem like that’s where people are at. That’s not the starting point for pastors and leaders on these issues is Romans 14. So it’s been surprising to me that there has been a lack of using this text to help us navigate these issues. I’m not sure why that is, but I think it definitely has been the case.
Cliff: Yeah, that’s good. Let me introduce, we can’t go through all of Romans 14 just because it’s 23 verses long, but I think even just the first three or four verses kind of lays out the theme that’s really helpful in Romans 14. It is interesting that 13 chapters, Paul had never been to Rome. He didn’t plant that church. He wasn’t their pastor, which is very different than when he wrote to the Corinthians, because he planted that church in Corinth and he was their pastor. He was there for at least a year and a half. And then a lot of what he’s writing in the Epistle to the Corinthians, 16 chapters, is he’s solving their personal problems that he was totally aware of. He gets very personal. He’s calling people, he’s naming names. He is calling, he’s telling them they’re divisive. They have cliques. He says three times in one chapter, you guys are arrogant. So he’s reprimanding them personally because of their divisiveness. He didn’t do that in Romans. For 13 chapters, it’s just pretty much objective Christian doctrine. And the closest he gets to being personal and pastoral is here in Romans 14. And it’s not because he had firsthand interaction with these people. He’s not calling them names. He’s not saying you’re arrogant, you’re divisive, you’re cliquey. It’s just he had heard of an issue that had arisen in the church, and it actually rises in every church, that the church, they’re gathering with all their different backgrounds, they’re saved, they’re one body in Christ, but now they’re having a hard time in light of their personal convictions. And so there’s a little potential division rising to the surface in the church. Paul wants to preserve unity as always in the body of Christ. And he knows that gray areas or matters that aren’t explicitly stated in Scripture can always pose a problem for the community of saints in terms of where they land with their sensibilities and their convictions. And so that’s why he writes Romans 14. And it’s just a beautiful thing because this transcends all cultures, times, and people. And it’s just as relevant for us today, the principles here as it was 2000 years ago, as he’s dealing with gray areas. So let me read the first four verses. So Paul transitions to this new pastoral topic of how to keep the peace in a diversity of people in the body. And he says, now, starts out with an exhortation, now, except the one who was weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. So he starts out by talking to the strong believers, the mature believers in the church. And they’re not strong in every area, but they’re strong in just one specific area. Like, here would be whether you can eat meat or not or wine. For us, it would be, okay, now you strong people in terms of your convictions about the liberty and freedom you have regarding masks and vaccines, don’t go on passing judgment on the disputable opinions of those who don’t agree with you in the church, those who don’t want to wear masks. So that’s how he starts out this chapter. And then verse 2, he says, one person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Verse 3, the one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Verse 3, I think, is key in terms of God addresses both camps, those who are weak and those who are strong in faith on a particular issue. So instead of using meat, I’ll just use masks, because it would also apply to vaccines. So you could read verse 3, the one who doesn’t want to wear a mask because he has liberty and freedom, he doesn’t have to wear a mask. The Bible doesn’t say you have to wear a mask, and it’s not in the Constitution that you have to wear a mask. The one who doesn’t wear a mask is not to regard with contempt the one who wants to wear a mask and actually absolutely thinks we should be wearing a mask. And, second part of the verse, and the one who does not eat, and he’s talking about those who demand or want to wear a mask, is not to judge the guy who doesn’t wear a mask, for God has accepted the believer who doesn’t want to wear a mask already, because he saved him in Jesus Christ. He’s not, by not wearing a mask, he’s not violating any biblical principles. He’s completely acceptable to God. So this is a gray area issue. So the key word in verse 1 in the New American Standard, it says, okay, strong Christians, don’t be bickering and fighting and judging weak Christians over matters of opinion, says the New American Standard. This word, opinion, is used 14 times in the New Testament, usually in a bad way with a negative connotation, meaning that regarding wrong thinking or mistaken notions that somebody has that they’re holding on to. That’s the usual context. As a matter of fact, Philippians 2:14 translates this same word as disputable. That’s why we call, Paul’s talking about disputable matters, and that synonymous basically with gray area issues. So Romans 14 is just a key to unlocking. Well, what are the principles of how we deal with disputable gray area matters in the congregation? And so all throughout this chapter, Paul lays that out. So any thoughts on any of that, Derek?
Derek: Yeah, I think your point of pointing to just the first few verses already shed incredible light on our situation. First of all, there’s the welcoming of the brother in the Lord. We’re to have arms wide open to those who are brother-sisters in the Lord, regardless of their views on masks and vaccines. That’s number one. Number two is these masks and vaccines become a contentious issue. People have very strong opinions about them, even what they would call religious opinions, one way or the other. I believe I’m honoring God by doing it, or I believe I’m honoring God by not doing whatever. And Paul tells us you’re not to look down your nose, regardless of what size. You’re not to look down on your nose at the person who wants to wear a mask and thinks others should. And if you are the one who wants to wear a mask, you’re not to look down on the one who is refraining from wearing a mask. There should be no judgmentalism on these issues. So already in the first two to three verses of this passage, we’ve eliminated so many problems in terms of the unity of the body on these issues.
Cliff: And you and I were talking, as Paul writes, this is a very specific and nuanced explanation as he’s dealing with the issue, so you’ve got to take it really carefully, because you made a statement there, and it’s correct. Paul says, don’t be judgmental, and it’s mutual. Okay, strong Christians don’t judge the weak Christians on this issue, and we Christians don’t judge the strong Christian. So some might conclude, oh, we’re not supposed to judge Christians at all, and we’re supposed to exact no judgments in the church, and that’s definitely not what…is there a time to make judgments in the church and rebuke one another?
Derek: Well, absolutely. And one of the ways I’ve referred to Romans 14, and I’d like to hear
your thoughts on this, I refer to these as disputing over non-essential matters. So they’re essential matters in the church, who Christ is, who God is, what the gospel is, what explicit sin is, what the New Testament outlines is sin. So you need to enact judgment. In fact, 1 Corinthians 5, Paul tells us that our job is to judge those within the church. So if someone’s a so-called brother, and they are living in direct sin or violation of God’s commandments, or they are clearly teaching what is wrong about God, Christ, or the gospel, then we need to make a judgment about that. But that’s an essential matter, and those are things essential to Christianity. Whereas here, Romans 14 is dealing with matters that are non-essential, that are, like you said, gray areas or disputable matters. And so, on these issues, we are not to be judgmental.
Cliff: Yeah, I like that phrase or that term, non-essential and essential matters. That really puts it in perspective. I mean, each of those three words, whether you call them gray areas, or disputable matters, or non-essential, they all add a different nuance to the reality of what that issue is. And non-essential really focuses our attention on where the priority should be. The fact that Paul calls it a disputable matter reminds us that this is not worth fighting and arguing over, and it shouldn’t be a source of division in the church, and that we really need to watch our attitude that we’re not judgmental in an illegitimate manner towards our brothers in Christ. And then also that it’s a gray area, meaning, you know, they’re difficult. They’re not black and white. It’s not a clear imperative in Scripture. And we’ve got to be circumspect as we walk very carefully with the sermon, with prayer, searching the Scripture, getting wisdom from a multitude of counselors before we render a premature verdict on the issue. So, this is a huge challenge in the church.
Derek: Well, I was going to say, given the nuance of this passage and given the fact that we just only got about three or four verses into it, why don’t we come back at another time and follow up with another episode on the rest of Romans 14 and apply it to this issue?
Cliff: Absolutely. And just to wrap it up, what might be a one-sentence exhortation that our listeners can take away from our talk on Romans 14?
Derek: I would say the only requirement for you and for me to welcome my brother or sister into fellowship is our common faith in the Lord Jesus. That’s it. Nothing should come in the way of fellowship with my true brother or sister in the Lord.
Cliff: Amen. Boy, that’s simple.
Derek: So, we just want to thank you for listening in to With All Wisdom. Again, we want to point your attention to withallwisdom.org, where you’ll find resources, even about what we talked about today. You can go on the search bar, type in Romans 14, and you’ll find articles about this issue and how to relate Romans 14 to your life. Well, we hope to see you again next time. See you soon.