We are currently preaching through 1 Corinthians at the moment. One of the key messages that gets repeated in that book is about limiting your freedom for the sake of others. Essentially, the line is that you are free in Christ to do whatever you want, but your freedom ought not to be exercised in such a way that it damages others. Out of love, we ought to set our freedom aside so as not to stumble other believers.

In another part of scripture, however, we get the inverse issue. In Romans 14, the dominant group in the church appear to be judging others. This is not a matter of individuals unkindly exercising their freedoms to the detriment of others, but the dominant group in the church judging fellow believers for daring to do what they are convinced they are absolutely free to do. Paul’s answer is to stop judging others and welcome them instead. They stand or fall before the Lord and they are free to do what you might not consider to be most appropriate. If they love Jesus, they are free and you must welcome them.

In Corinth, the issue was those who understood they were free refusing to limit their freedom for the sake of others with weaker consciences. In Rome, the issue was those with weaker consciences insisting that others were not, in fact, free. In fact, they were judging brothers and sisters for doing these things. Interestingly, both Corinth and Rome – although the outworking is different – suffered from the same issues. A sense of superiority that stopped them loving the brethren as they ought.

In Corinth, those who were most free thought they were superior to the dolts who hadn’t grasped it was fine to do what they were doing. They looked down on the weaker brothers as unenlightened and, as a result, failed to love them very well and refused to take account of how their behaviour might damage them. In Rome, there was a judgementalism at work that looked down on others and refused to accept them. The issue in both cases is a sense of superiority that stops us welcoming and loving other believers as we ought.

Those are the two key imperatives in both Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 13. Welcome one another and do everything in love. These are repeated refrains throughout the New Testament. Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. By this shall all mean know that you are [Jesus’] disciples, if you have love one for another. Love God and love others, these are the two greatest commands in scripture. Jesus says all the law and prophets hang on these two.

It is a great irony that it is often those churches that consider themselves most superior – either in knowledge, gifting, size or whatever other metric – who are, in fact, the least mature. The measure of our Christian maturity is love. Judgementalism, being unwelcoming and refusing to limit ourselves for the sake of others are signs that we simply don’t love people very much. And if we don’t love them, it says something about whether we are true disciples of Jesus and we are reflecting anything of the love and welcome he has extended to us.

None of this is to say we should just overlook serious sin. 1 Corinthians has plenty of examples of Paul insisting the church must deal with major problems in the camp. There are points where Paul tells the church to stop doing some stuff that it is doing. Being loving doesn’t mean just ignoring sin or doing nothing about it. Welcoming other believers does not mean, where it becomes clear through an individual’s lifestyle and general regard of the commands of Christ that they are not really a believer, we should welcome them as though they are anyway. Nor does true love mean we just ignore what the Bible says so we can welcome people regardless. We have to grasp the nettle on these things, address sin and welcome those that Jesus welcomes as brothers and sisters in Christ.

But if we are not dealing with first-order gospel issues or second-order church matters that would have implications for how – or even if – we can have fellowship, Romans 14 is clear that we are not to fall out over disputable things. Whilst we may draw our lines up differently, some of us will put our boundaries in different places and insist they are biblical, however we cut it, we have to have room for people to be welcomed who might do things that we do not think are God’s best.