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As a pastor, I am often asked what the Bible teaches about some controversial moral issue. Occasionally, if I give an answer my questioners don’t like, they follow up with another question: Who are you to judge? It’s a good question, and I think I’ve got a pretty good answer. 

The who-are-you-to-judge question is usually rhetorical. My questioners aren’t inquiring into my spiritual, moral, or intellectual credentials to state an opinion on the matter. Instead, they’re hurling an accusation. “Who are you to judge?” really means “You are in no position to judge!” 

Regardless of my questioners’ rhetorical intent, I answer the question straight. Who am I to judge? A reasonably intelligent human being who knows the difference between principles and preferences. 

When it comes to moral principles, all of us should exercise proper judgment, discerning between right and wrong and choosing to do right. Morally principled people don’t dishonor their parents, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t offer perjured testimony, and don’t covet other people’s stuff, as we learn in the second half of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20.12-17). 

When it comes to personal preferences, however, all of us should exercise restraint, recognizing that on any number of issues, people can make different but equally valid choices. Romans 12.2-4 offers an example of the Christian’s freedom in matters of personal preference. 

One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 

For Paul, and for the Bible generally, it is a moral principle that we not judge people who disagree with us on personal preferences. Such judgmentalism is out of place. People are accountable to God for their personal preferences, not you or me. If you’re a vegetarian, don’t hassle me because I eat meat. (Jonah Goldberg once quipped, “If God didn’t want us to eat cows, he wouldn’t have made them out of steak.”) And by the same token, I won’t think you’re weird because you eat tofu. As Paul points out, whether we eat meat or veggies is between God and us, not you and me. So don’t judge! 

Unfortunately, our culture tends to conflate moral principles and personal preferences, especially when it comes to sex. When Woody Allen left his longtime girlfriend Mia Farrow in order to take up with her adopted daughter Soon-yi Previn, he justified his quasi-incestuous choice by saying, “The heart wants what it wants.” If he had murdered Mia Farrow, do you think anyone would’ve taken that as a reasonable explanation? 

When it comes to moral principles, use good judgment. But when it comes to personal preferences, the best judgment is not to judge at all.

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When I was in college, I had to win every argument I started. I loved being right and hated losing a debate. Because I was a very opinionated freshman, I started a lot of arguments my first year. I paid a huge social cost for my combativeness the next year. My friends didn’t want to argue with me, and since that’s all I seemed to do, they left me alone. I eventually learned that not every debate can or needs to be won. Friends live with differences of opinion. 

In Romans 14.1-15.13, Paul outlines a Christian perspective on how church members can live with their differences. The Roman church consisted of both Jewish and Gentile believers. Given their respective cultural and religious backgrounds, Jewish and Gentile Christians disagreed about many things. Paul mentions two of those disagreements: whether Christians should eat only kosher food and whether they should observe the Sabbath. Many Jewish Christians said yes, but many Gentile Christians said no. How could the church at Rome live with this difference of opinion? 

Paul answers that question in Romans 14.1: “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.” Let’s work our way backward through this verse, starting with the phrase, “disputable matters.” The Greek word Paul uses is dialogismon, which is related to the word dialog. We might say that there are some issues in Christian faith and practice that we can legitimately dialog about. For Paul, kosher diets and Sabbath keeping were two such issues. 

But not every issue in Christian faith and practice is open for debate. In the early years of the church, some Jewish Christians taught that Gentile converts needed to be circumcised, keep kosher, and observe the Sabbath in order to be saved (see Acts 15.1 and 5). The Council of Jerusalem determined that this teaching was in error and that Gentiles did not need to become Jews in order to become Christians (Acts 15.6-35). The early chapters of Romans make the theological case for the same conclusion. That is what Paul means when he writes in Romans 3.28, “we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” About justification by faith, there can be no difference of opinion. 

And yet, in the early church, many Jewish Christians continued to eat kosher and observe the Sabbath. They acknowledged the truth of justification by faith, but given their cultural and religious upbringing, they had scruples about food and calendar. Gentile Christians could have ridden roughshod over the consciences of their Jewish brothers and sisters, and forced the issue. But such is not the Christian way of doing things. Loving the weak is more important than winning an argument about disputable matters. So Paul commands us to “accept…without passing judgment.” When I teach my church’s new members’ class, I emphasize three things: On essential issues of faith and practice, unity; on non-essential issues, liberty; on all occasions, charity. That seems like an apt summary of Paul’s teaching here.

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As a minister, I officiate at numerous weddings and funerals every year. I wear the same thing for both: dark suit, white shirt, subdued tie, and black shoes. My sartorial intention is not to stand out, to keep everyone’s focus on who’s getting married or buried. But lately, I’ve stood out nonetheless. With more and more people dressing casually for milestone events—including wearing shorts, T-shirts, and flip-flops to funerals—I’m often the only suit in the room. Doesn’t anyone dress appropriately for the occasion anymore? 

In Romans 13.11-14, Paul uses the image of dressing appropriately for the occasion to describe our ethical life in Christ: 

And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 

What occasion is Paul talking about? And how do we dress appropriately? Let’s answer each question in turn. First, the occasion. Notice Paul’s time markers: “the present time,” “the hour,” “the night,” and “the day.” All these markers remind us of the second coming of Jesus Christ. The first coming happened 2000 years ago when Christ entered human history to die for our sins and rise again for our eternal life. His advent made possible an era of grace in God’s relationship to sinful humanity.

And yet, in addition to being loving, God is holy. He will not tolerate human sin and its evil effects forever. In the words of the Apostles Creed, Christ will return “to judge the living and the dead.” Every day that comes and goes, “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Consequently, now—right now!—is the time to make a decision about where we stand with God. Have we received his grace? Have we repented of our sins? Are we replacing sin with holiness? 

Those questions bring us to the issue of dressing appropriately. Paul commands us to “put on the armor of light” and to “clothe [ourselves] with the Lord Jesus Christ.” These are powerful metaphors of the kind of ethics we ought to practice. First, our ethics should be visible. People should see how we are dressed. They should note the change in our lives. Second, our ethics should be discerning. Paul speaks of “armor.” There is a spiritual war going on between good and evil, and we should arm ourselves for the battle to do good. Finally, our ethics should be imitative. We should wear Jesus Christ. His thoughts, feelings, character, speech, and actions should become our own.

What would Jesus do? That’s an appropriate question for any occasion.

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Recently, while shopping in Target for our nieces, my wife and I came across a child’s T-shirt emblazoned with “The Toddler Laws of Property”:

1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
4. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
5. If I think it's mine, it's mine.

Isn’t it sad that we all know adults who still operate by these childish rules? 

Romans 13.8-10 outlines a more mature mentality: 

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. 

Begin with that first statement: “Let no debt remain outstanding.” I am a recovering debt-a-holic. For many years, I used credit cards to purchase things I did not need and could not pay cash for. When my debt load grew so large that I could barely pay for room, board, and necessities, I got help. Why would a reasonably smart guy like me act so foolishly? Because of a toddler mentality: Whatever I wanted had to be mine, right then, and regardless of whether I could afford it.  

My debt also negatively affected my generosity. Because I was constantly behind financially, I increasingly failed to tithe to the Lord’s work. During this period, I always found enough money to buy what I wanted, but I never seemed to have enough to help my church or world missions or local charities. When I got help for my debt, I also began tithing again. I changed my money mentality from “mine” to “Thine.” 

The “mine” mentality doesn’t just show up in how we use money, however. It also shows up in how we treat people. We commit adultery because we want a sexual high. We murder because we want our way and someone else is in it. We steal because we want what we cannot pay for. We covet because we want what we do not need. All of these actions affect our relationships. In each of them, we put ourselves before others, before their marriage vows, their lives, and their property.  

Love, however, operates from a capital-T “Thine” mentality. We treat others as God has commanded us to.  But it also operates from a lower-case-t “thine” mentality. We treat people as if they matter. “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the basic rule of Christian ethics. Such a love does no harm to others. Rather, loving Christians treat others at least as well as they wish to be treated themselves. 

So, mine or thine? That’s a basic ethical question, and how you answer reveals how grown up your thinking is.

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Recently, my wife and I were on vacation in Stockholm, Sweden. Our tour guide was extolling the virtues of Sweden’s welfare state: free schooling, free healthcare, free assistance to parents of newborns, etc. Finally, my wife—who has an MBA from Pepperdine—could take it no longer. She asked what Sweden’s tax rates were, and, when told, pointed out that none of those services were free. They were bought and paid for by taxpayers. 

Taxes are a tricky subject. Some American Christians think we ought to raise taxes in order to provide more services for citizens, as they do in Sweden. Others think the government should pull its sticky paws out of American pockets so that citizens can spend their money as they wish. As a pastor, I don’t have any special wisdom about how to solve that debate (although I do have a strong personal opinion). Christians who share the same faith and live the same moral life can have an honest disagreement about such issues. 

What we cannot disagree about is our biblical responsibility to pay taxes, whether we like them or not. Romans 13.6-7 makes that quite clear: 

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. 

Notice how what Paul says here about taxes flows directly from what he says in verses 1-5 about government. Government is the divinely instituted authority to make and enforce laws. Making and enforcing laws requires a lot of work. Workers should be paid. Payment is made in the form of taxes. So, if you want the government to do its job, pay up. 

But notice that taxes aren’t the only thing we Christians owe government. Paul also speaks of “respect” and “honor.” A good friend of mine is an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department. He faces danger daily in order to keep the city’s residents safe. He earns what he’s paid. He also deserves a little courtesy. Keep that in mind whenever a traffic cop pulls you over for a moving violation! You may just be talking to my friend. So be nice! 

It has always bugged me that Paul doesn’t spend more time in Romans 13 outlining a Christian view of the boundaries of government power. For example, wouldn’t you like a divinely inspired apostle to reveal what God thinks a fair tax rate is? I certainly would. But Paul isn’t concerned with those kinds of things. Why? For a very simple reason. 

Paul didn’t live in a democratic empire. He couldn’t vote on political issues, like we can. So, instead of talking about what he couldn’t control (tax rates), he talked about what he could (our personal attitude toward government). Even in a democratic country like America, we can’t always control what our government does, but we can always control ourselves.

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Yesterday, I argued that submission—which I defined as deference to authority and obedience to law—should be the Christian’s fundamental attitude toward government. I also noted that Acts 5.29 qualifies the extent of that submission when the state makes and enforces fundamentally unjust laws. But submission describes only the responsibility of the Christian citizen. What is the responsibility of the state? What is government for? 

Once again, let’s read Romans 13.1-5: 

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 

Paul makes four statements about government in these verses: 

First, in relationship to God, government is a servant. God “established” and “instituted” it to serve certain purposes. When it acts within the boundaries of those purposes, it is a good servant. But when it oversteps the boundaries of those purposes, it becomes a bad master. The totalitarian governments of the Twentieth Century—both Nazi and Communist—are excellent illustrations of governments that overstepped their boundaries. 

Second, in relationship to us, government is an authority. God delegates government both the authority and the power to make and enforce laws. Obviously, that authority can be abused. But try to imagine a world in which there are neither laws nor law enforcement. Such a world is a hell on earth in which only the law of the jungle prevails. Governmental authority, properly exercised, creates peace. 

Third, the most obvious characteristic of government is the sword. Government exercises its authority and power by means of force. When a crime is committed, the police force swings into action against the criminal. When another country commits an atrocity against our nation, the armed forces retaliate with self-defensive moves. Again, the sword can be misused and abused. (Always remember, after all, that Pontius Pilate used his God-given power of the sword to kill God’s Beloved Son.) But sometimes, criminal force must be matched by legal counterforce. 

Finally, the purpose of government is justice. Government exists to commend what is right and punish what is wrong. Many in our day and age say that we should not legislate morality. And I agree to a certain extent. Not every sin is or should be a crime. But at the end of the day, what else is there to legislate but morality? Government exists to make and enforce laws that protect the weak from the strong, the innocent from the guilty, the gullible from the shrewd, and the victim from the victimizer. That is its fundamental responsibility, what it’s for.

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In even-numbered years, we Americans turn our attention to government as we cast our votes in national elections. With those elections just a month away, I’d like to take this opportunity to share a few biblical insights about government.  

Now, don’t worry! I’m not going to tell you how to vote in this fall’s elections. That’s not my job as a pastor. My job is to teach biblical principles. Your job is to apply them as best as you know how in real-world situations. 

Listen to what Paul writes about government in Romans 13.1-5: 

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 

In this passage, Paul teaches two important principles: First, submission should be the Christian’s attitude toward government. And second, the government should enforce justice. In an ideal world, there is no conflict between our attitude and the government’s actions. Submission to government is easy when it does the right thing. But we don’t live in an ideal world. Is submission a good idea in an imperfect world? 

To answer that question, we need to talk about what submission is and why it’s necessary. Submission is first of all deference to authority and then obedience to law. To borrow an example from everyday life, submission to government means obeying traffic laws and, when you don’t, being polite to the officer who writes you a ticket.  

Why is submission necessary? Paul mentions two reason: conscience and consequences. God created the authority of government. He delegated law-making and law-enforcing responsibilities to it. So, as a matter of conscience, submitting to government is submitting to God. But submitting to government is also a good idea from the standpoint of consequences. The state, as Paul puts it, bears “the sword.” It rewards good deeds and punishes bad ones. Submitting to government is, all things being equal, good for you. Imagine how awful the world would be if everyone disobeyed traffic laws. 

Must we submit to unjust governments? Yes and no. Yes, we ought to defer to authority. (Even Paul deferred to the governing authorities who imprisoned him.) But we do not necessarily owe government obedience when it legislates and enforces fundamentally unjust laws. In such cases, Acts 5.29 applies: “We must obey God rather than men!”

We’ll talk more about the government’s responsibility to do justice tomorrow.

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Have you prayed for the salvation of Osama bin Laden today? 

I ask this deliberately provocative question because I fear that American Christians are failing to act distinctively Christian during our nation’s War on Terror. Militant Islamic terrorists mean to do us Americans harm. They are our enemies. Simple justice requires that they be stopped. And according to Romans 13.4, government is God’s agent for doing precisely that. 

For he [that is, the government] is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 

But what governments do is not the same thing as what churches do. God instituted government for reciprocity, to reward good and punish evil. He instituted the church for reconciliation, to bring sinners to salvation through faith and repentance. The criminal whom the state must punish is the very same person whom the church must strive to redeem. 

And that brings me back to my fear about us American Christians. As long as our nation’s leaders and soldiers justly prosecute the War on Terror, we can legitimately pray for them. We are simply asking God to help them do their job. But if we do not also pray for the salvation of our enemies, then we are not doing the job God has given us. 

Paul outlines the church’s God-given responsibility in Romans 12.17-21: 

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary:  

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."    

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 

Notice how radically different the church’s job is from the government’s. The government reciprocates, punishment for crime, reward for well-doing. That is what Paul means when he speaks of “God’s wrath.” The government is the divine agent of judgment. But the church rises above the level of reciprocity. We do not wait for our enemies to treat us well before we begin to treat them well. We treat them well proactively and without expectation of similar treatment. We overcome evil with good. 

So back to my opening question: Have we prayed for the salvation of Osama bin Laden lately? Have we prayed that God would pour out saving grace on the Muslim world? To bring the matter much closer to home, have we prayed for the redemption of people who make our life difficult? And have we taken practical steps to follow up on our prayers? 

If we cannot answer yes, what makes us distinctively Christian?

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In Romans 12.9-16, Paul teaches us twelve imperatives of Christian community. If we put these imperatives into practice, our relationships will be healthy and our church life vibrant and strong. John Stott provides a one-word summary of each imperative, so let’s use his outline for sake of ease. 

First, sincerity: “Love must be sincere.” 

Second, discernment: “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” I discussed these two imperatives in a previous devotional, so I won’t repeat what I wrote there, except to say that the more we love one another, the more we embrace those things that pull us together and reject those things that push us apart.  

Third, affection: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” The Greek word Paul uses here is philadelphia, the kind of love shared by brothers and sisters. As Christians, we should relate to one another neither as strangers nor as superiors and subordinates, but as affectionate siblings of our Heavenly Father. 

Fourth, honor: “Honor one another above yourselves.” We shouldn’t grab the spotlight for ourselves. Rather, we should shine it on the good work of others. 

Fifth, enthusiasm: “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” Following Christ is a gift, not a duty. We don’t have to be Christians. We get to be Christians. We should act accordingly. 

Sixth, patience: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Life does not always go the way we want it to. When it doesn’t, we should keep God’s preferred future in mind, endure a little hardship along the way, and marinate every circumstance we face and every person we meet in prayer. 

Seventh, generosity: “Share with God's people who are in need.” We live in America. We have plenty more than we really need, so we should freely share our abundance with others, especially the materially poor. 

Eighth, hospitality: “Practice hospitality.” As the two disciples on the road to Emmaus discovered, we see Jesus when we open our homes and lives to others. (See Luke 24.13-35 for the details.) 

Ninth, good will: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” People may treat us badly, but we don’t have to reciprocate. Instead, we can treat one another proactively, according to the Golden Rule, which means doing to others as we want them to do to us. 

Tenth, sympathy: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Life has highs and lows. We should be both fair and foul weather friends to one another. 

Eleventh, harmony: “Live in harmony with one another.” A one-note song is boring. A broken chord is grating. A tune played in harmony is beautiful. So are friendships where we work with, rather than against, one another. 

Twelfth, humility: “Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” Remember, the Eternal Son of God left his throne in heaven for birth in a manger and death on a cross. He humbly served us. Let us do the same for one another.

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Love is the foundation of Christianity.  

Such love refers, first of all, to God’s love for us. According to Romans 5.8, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” But that public demonstration bears private fruit. According to Romans 5.5, “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” So intense is God’s love for us that, according to Romans 8.39, there is nothing “in all creation, [that] will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  

Second, love refers to our love for one another. In Romans 12.9-16, Paul lists twelve character qualities that ought to guide Christians in their relationships with one another. In his commentary on Romans, John Stott lists these character qualities as sincerity, discernment, affection, honor, enthusiasm, patience, generosity, hospitality, good will, sympathy, harmony, and humility. Today, I want to look at only the first two: sincerity and discernment, for Paul talks about them in a way that might be confusing to some. 

Romans 12.9 says, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” For most of us, love and hate are mutually exclusive. If you love, you do not hate. If you hate, you do not love. But Paul teaches that love and hatred are both character qualities of a Christian. How is this possible? Let me give you an example from marriage. 

Marriage is the purest demonstration of love a man and a woman can give one another. But there are many ways to pollute that love. For example, a husband could spend his best efforts at the office rather than at home. Or he could use online pornography. Or he could begin an extramarital affair. By the same token, a wife could give into bitterness about her husband’s freedom to work outside the home. Or she could resent his lack of involvement in chores and childrearing. Or she could indulge in gossip with friends about their respective husband’s failings. I admit that these examples are a bit traditional and stereotypical, but you get the point. Something pure becomes adulterated. 

You’ve no doubt heard the expression, “True love waits.” That’s correct. If you love someone, you’ll wait to engage in sexual activity with them until you’re married. But here’s an expression you’ve probably never heard: “True love hates.” It never hates another person, but it always hates the attitudes and activities that destroy a relationship. Show me a wife who doesn’t hate her husband’s adultery, and I’ll show you a wife who doesn’t love her husband. 

If love is sincere, it hates evil and embraces good. As expressions of love, then, whether in marriage or any other relationship, sincerity and discernment work together. If I love you, I will hate the things that push us apart and embrace the things that pull us together. After all, isn’t that how God expressed his sincere love for us on the Cross?