When cultures intersect within the context of the church—the people of God gathered together around the common gospel of Jesus Christ—it’s both understandable and expectable for cultural expressions to collide. While Christianity has room for a vast array of cultural backgrounds, Christians must still be intentional about respecting and accepting one another. The early church experienced the joining of Jews and Gentiles in a single body of believers. People from these two diverse backgrounds brought their own cultural expressions, including the food they ate and the holy days they observed. Paul warned the church at Rome to avoid judgmental attitudes regarding such debatable issues. Christian liberty allows God’s people freedom regarding neutral cultural expressions. Of course, this doesn't mean that every practice is acceptable. But those practices that don’t violate God’s revealed standard of holiness are acceptable for God’s people. We tend to raise our neutral cultural practices and preferences to a level of binding authority. By contrast, Paul describes stronger believers as those who embrace freedom in these matters. Even then, stronger believers should never look down on weaker believers, nor should weaker believers cast judgment on stronger believers. All believers should work toward unity. In Romans 14:1—15:13 Paul presents an extended emphasis on Christian unity. Romans 14:1-12 focuses on accepting one another. We’re to accept one another because God Himself has accepted us.
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