Loading summary
Transcript9 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. Shout out to the gym bros and the ladies.
- [00:22]
B
Come on. It's Romans, chapter 14, 15, 16.
- [00:26]
A
If you've already done the reading, you already know why I'm saying that. Paul says that the week only eat vegetables. You know what I'm saying? Shout out to the gym bros Protein.
- [00:34]
B
Okay.
- [00:35]
A
Of course, the week only eat vegetables, you know what I'm saying? We ain't vegans over here. And obviously, you know, Romans is going to have a lot to say about women in ministry. And so we are rounding out our entire couple of days in Romans with Romans chapters 14, 15 and 16. If you haven't done today's reading, a you're not laughing at my vegan and women in ministry joke, you don't know what I'm talking about. So stop, pause, go do the reading for the day. We're In Romans chapters 14, 16, and I'mma start off with a nerdy nugget for you. Here's a nerdy nugget. This whole book, the whole book of Romans, is actually a glorified support letter. Okay? So I don't know how many believers out there have ever gotten a support letter from a missionary. This is a support letter, okay? Like, if we want to be super honest about the context, yes, there are issues in the church in Rome, but Paul has something on his mind. Paul wants to get to Rome. Paul actually would like to get to Spain and he would love for these Christians in Rome to get their act together so they could be a strong church, so they could be a generous church so they can support his missionary work. I want you to read this. We're gonna see this in Romans 1 and in Romans 15, here's what it says in Romans chapter 1. And I pray that now, at last, by God's will, the way may be opened for me to come to you. Verse 11. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong. That is that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. I do not want to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you, but. But have been prevented from doing so until now in order that I might have A harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. So Paul's saying, hey, I want to have a harvest among you, but I'd also like a harvest amongst you. Means I want you to support me so that I could come and minister to Gentiles. But I'm going to encourage the believers as well. Like this is going to be mutually beneficial and then this is going to come up again. In Romans chapter 15. In our portion of Reading for today, it says this, but now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, Paul is writing this letter from Corinth. Okay, Remember, he spends about three years in Ephesus, but he spends about 18 months in Corinth. And he's writing the letter to the Romans from Corinth. We're also gonna get a clue about that in just a little bit. And I'll give you a heads up. Phoebe is from Cenchrea. King Cray is right next to Corinth. Okay, so we get this letter to the Romans, written most likely from Corinth. It says this, Romans chapter 15. But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, that means Corinth. And since I have been longing for many years to Visit you, verse 24, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. So, hey, I'd love to stop in Rome on my way to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there. That means financial assistance, by the way, and after I have enjoyed your company for a while. So he's like, you know, I'm not. It's not going to be a short visit. Like, you know, I'll hang out with you guys for a little while, but I got to get to Spain. Okay? I really want to get to Spain now. We don't know if Paul ever got to Spain. I probably not, actually. Church history says that he ends up dying in Rome. So by the end of the Book of Acts, he's finally on his way to Rome. He gets to Rome, he's on house arrest in Rome. Not the way that he wanted to get to Rome, that's for sure. But nonetheless, he says that it has served the gospel because the entire prison guard, like, knows the reason that Paul is there. And he's been preaching the gospel as he awaits a one on one council with Caesar because he appeals to Caesar at the end of Acts and that Caesar is most likely Nero. There are a lot of historians that conjecture that Paul and Nero would have Had a one on one council with each other that's neither here nor there. But just first nerdy nugget for the day is that this is a glorified support letter. Paul is writing, obviously to help them with the division that's in the church, but he's also writing so that he can get financial support so that he can get to Rome and then get to Spain. All right, let's give some context clues. Okay, who are the weak? When you start Romans, chapter 14, immediately in verse 1, it says this, except the one whose faith is weak, okay? Without quarreling over disputable matters. And then when you get to chapter 15, it's gonna start chapter 15 by saying, we who are strong ought to bear the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. So there's two groups, okay, the strong and the weak in chapters 14 and 15. So who's the weak? Interestingly enough, Paul is in Corinth when he writes the letter to the Romans. And Corinth, or the letter of Corinthians tells us exactly who the weak are. 1 Corinthians 8, 9, 13 says this. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. Verse 10. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you with all your knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? Verse 11. So this weak brother or sister for whom Christ died is destroyed by your knowledge. Verse 12. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Verse 13. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother and sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again so that it will not cause them to fall. So who are the weak? The weak are those who have a weak conscience. The weak are those who may be immature. Now, contextually, for Romans, the weak are the Jewish believers. Paul is actually going to say that it's a sign of strength that you're able to realize that there are no holy days and meat isn't sacrificed to any idols, and idols are nothing. Okay? So verse 14, chapter 14 of Romans, verse 1. Except the one whose faith is weak without quarreling over disputable matters. Who? Those words right there. Disputable matters. This is. I'm gonna steal my thunder and get into my timeless truth, but there's always gonna be disputable matters, okay? The Bible doesn't say anything about tobacco or marijuana or tinder. Like the Bible doesn't say anything about those things or HBO or Game of Thrones or whether or not you should watch it or can't watch it or shouldn't watch it. There's always going to be disputable matters in the same way that this church is going through serious, like, strife and division because there's a group who really does hold, like, Levitical laws about dietary restrictions. Seriously. Just because we can't relate to that particular disputable matter does not mean that the modern church doesn't have disputable matters. We're always going to have disputable matters. Here's what Paul says in verse 14 of chapter 14. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Okay? So Paul gives a judgment. I'm fully persuaded there's nothing that's unclean. You can eat whatever you want. So the strong are right. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person, it is unclean. This is the power of the conscience, okay? Paul says there is no such thing as clean and unclean unless someone thinks it's unclean. And if someone thinks it's unclean, then you know what? You should go with your conscience. It's funny, politically, I would line up really conservative. Like, it's just the reality. And one of the issues that a lot of Christians will use to vote is the issue of abortion. And that's not one of the issues that I use when I vote, even though I am conservative. But when I do talk to people who say, I can't in good conscience vote for any political candidate knowing that they support abortion, I respect that. That may not be my position, but I have a very. Romans, chapter 14, verse 14, outlook on that. I'm convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord that there may be Democratic candidates that don't push abortion or don't hold to that. Even if you look at presidencies over the last couple of decades, they're the lowest amount of abortions in America during Bill Clinton's presidency. So Democratic president and a lower number of abortions. So. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person, it's unclean. It's not loving for me to argue with someone who has a stance when it comes to voting for candidates who support abortion. The wisest thing actually is for me to say, yeah, you should obey your conscience. My conscience doesn't say that. Like, that's not what my conscience dictates to me. But you should definitely obey your conscience. And again, in a Western world where things are so black and white and we don't Allow room for gray. I could see how that's difficult, but Paul essentially says, hey homie, this is subjective. This is not objective. It's right if you believe it's right and it's wrong if you believe it's wrong. Now these are not for essentials. These are for non essential, disputable matters. There are indisputable matters all through the New Testament, like sexual immorality. That is not disputable. That is indisputable. Chapter 14, verse 22. So whatever you believe about these things, I love this. Keep between yourself and God. Keep between yourself and God. Whatever you think about stuff that's disputable, whatever you think about stuff that's non essential, keep that between you and God. Whatever you think about smoking cigarettes or alcohol or whatever you think about stuff that's disputable, don't post about that stuff on social media. Don't argue with other Christians in public. Keep that between you and God. Man. The world would be a better place if Christians would just obey that. Hey, there's always going to be disputable matters. We don't need to know your stance on every single disputable matter. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves, gives a warning. But be careful by what you approve, that in approving something, you don't condemn yourself.
- [12:07]
B
What if I told you that what you're learning in this video was just the tip of the iceberg? The Bible department is actually powered by arma. What is arma? I'm so glad you asked. ARMA is an online subscription based platform that we designed to help people, everyday people, learn the Bible for themselves. We started ARMA so that anybody, anywhere could have access to trustworthy and entertaining Bible and theology content. In addition to this podcast, we have over 60 courses on individual books of the Bible, on theology topics, and on some hot topics like homosexuality, tithing and women in ministry. But really, ARMA is a community. A community of people that I've gotten to know. A community where thousands of people are currently finding family, asking questions and nerding out on the Bible together. If you want a community to read the Bible with you this year, or if you want to dive into some deeper theological content, or if you want more exclusive access to me and the entire armor team, how about you go to the bibledepartment.com I'll be sure to post the link in the description of this video. Let's make this your year to become a Bible nerd.
- [13:28]
A
We're going to now get into chapter 16 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon. Hold up. So we got female deacons in the Bible, okay? There's a lot of versions, like the esv, which I'm not a big fan of. Not a big fan of the esv. I like the nrsv. I like the niv. There's tons of versions, translations of the Bible that I like. Not a big fan of the ESV because it leans so Baptist. Like, I mean, it leans unashamedly like Baptist, okay? And of course, our Baptist brothers and sisters don't believe in women in ministry, but deacon here in the ESV is gonna be translated. Servant here is gonna be translated as deacon. And I think deacon is a more accurate translation. Phoebe, Also, here's a context clue. Would have not just delivered the letter like a mailman, but she would have read this letter to the churches, and she would have been equipped to answer questions that they had. And it wouldn't have just been reading, but it would have been performing the letter like a sermon. So put that in your theological pipe and smoke it for everybody who believes that women can't preach. Second Romans, chapter 16, verse 7. Greet Andronicus and Junia. Now, throughout church history, manuscripts have just straight up been, like, defaced, vandalized, changed to change this name Junia to Junius, to make this person a male people with an agenda for women not being in ministry. But it says Junia. My fellow Jews who have been in prison with me, they are outstanding among the apostles, okay? Not known among the apostles. Outstanding among the apostles, which means they are apostles, and they were in Christ before I was Andronicus and Junior. So we got a woman who's a deacon and a woman who is an apostle. And half the names In Romans, chapter 16 are women's names. And they are clearly co workers with Paul leading churches. And I know that Paul's gonna say things throughout the rest of the New Testament that may seem like he's opposed to women in ministry, but I think we need to take what Paul's saying into context. And if that's interesting to you, then guess what? We have an entire women in ministry course on the arma platform. It's about three hours long. You should dive into that course whether you're an armor subscriber or not. If you're not an armor subscriber, you should subscribe so that you can get access to the course. If you are already an armor subscriber, how about you watch that course? If this content about Junia and Priscilla and Aquilla And Andronicus and Phoebe. All that content is, like, interesting to you and piquing your curiosity and how about you dig a little bit deeper? All right, what's our timeless truth? Timeless truth is this. There's always gonna be disputable matters, but I always have to act in love towards people that I do not agree with. And if I believe I'm strong, then that means that I put up with the failings of the weak. Anytime I'm in a disputable matter, I assume, all right, I'm the strong one, okay? And being the strong one, that doesn't mean that I strong arm the other person or debate them or argue with them in public. If I'm really the strong one, the way I prove that is not by which theological stance I have, but by whether or not I'm going to prefer them, defer to them. Okay? Serve the person that has a different stance than me. There will always be disputable matters. This is what it is. But I never have licensed to not love a fellow Christian who Jesus shed his blood for. That's the timeless truth for the day. And yeah, that's the timeless truth for the day. All right, we are wrapping up Romans. That's it. That's the end of Romans, y'all. The most important writing of Paul as it relates to modern theology and any denomination under the sun. Okay. Romans is going to be huge. And so I hope that this journey through Romans on our Bible reading plan has been helpful. I love you guys. We're digging into Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians next because they were written at the same time. And we're going to put Paul's letters into chronological order. So we got Philippians, Colossians and Philemon up next. Love you guys. See you right here tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on.
- [18:03]
B
The Bible Department podcast.
- [18:05]
A
You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.