The Weaker Brother or Sister

The Weaker Brother or Sister in Romans 14:23.

The greatest gift God gave humans, short of spirits, is the human mind.  What you think determines much of your entire life including what you believe regarding the spiritual realm.  Believers are commanded to renew their minds by the word of God.  Perhaps the most difficult aspect of having minds set upon the word of God is the necessity to root out all false beliefs.  The traditions of men compete with the word of God for terrain in our minds.  Within the Christian ethos are manmade extrabiblical traditions harboring deeply rooted presuppositions that misinterpret God’s word.  Few things interfere more in the renewing of our minds than the presuppositions planted by manmade religious traditions. 

Our Lord Jesus considered this important enough to make it a major part of His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:27-48).  Jesus gives five examples of religious traditions of men that were plaguing the people of God in Jesus lifetime, and then He provided the truths of God that were to replace the traditions of men, which must be unrooted and discarded.  Jesus introduced the five traditions of the religious Jews by saying, “You have heard that it was said” in verse 27, “It was said” in verse 31, “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told” in verse 33, “You have heard that it was said” in verse 38 and “You have heard that it was said” in verse 43 as Jesus’ final example.  The Jewish people in the 1st Century did not have copies of the Scriptures to read.  They gathered in synagogues every Sabbath listening to a brief reading of Scripture, which was immediately followed by an interpretation of the Jewish religious leaders.  Jesus grew up in these religious meetings hearing the traditions of men on a weekly basis.  This is why He said, “You have heard that it was said” instead of “You have read”. 

Christianity is not much different today.  Entire segments of the Christian church believe and follow traditions created by manmade interpretations of God’s word.  Paul taught the believers in Rome that “Faith comes by hearing and hearing from the word of God” (Romans 10:17).  So then, we have the pure milk of God’s word, and we have manmade interpretations of the Scriptures passed along through celebrity pastors, denominations and churches.  Christians who make themselves dependent upon denominational leaders, churches and popular pastors are almost guaranteed to be doomed to a corrupt mind resulting in a corrupt faith.  For the record, it is rare to find a good celebrity pastor. 

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16), and it is among the most heavily attacked doctrines in the Bible.  Add to this our strong temptations to attend to the things that we think most please us: income production, family enrichment, entertainment galore and we are doomed to this cycle of listening to the “popular” ministers of the word of God and being worldly minded.  Popular ministers are just that because they appeal to your worldly desires and so change the word of God just enough to make room for the love of the world, which separates us from the love of God (1 John 2:15-17). 

What you think becomes how you understand the spiritual life, which in turn determines what you believe—your faith.  The epistle of James explains a useless faith, which is what we are discussing.  The modern evangelical gospel is a false gospel that says you can receive Jesus as your savior by making a willful decision.  If these ‘formal Christians’ would begin to renew their minds through the reading of the Scriptures, they would quickly recognize that such a gospel is not found in the pages of Scripture.  This gospel, that is not a gospel, does not transform these people into the image of Christ.  They are no more in Christ Jesus than atheists.  Those who listen to the man-made doctrines have a hardened conscience to the truth because the conscience is formed by one’s thoughts and beliefs, which are fashioned by the man-made doctrines religious leaders adopt to make Christianity more appealing to larger numbers of people (essentially marketing…follow the money).  Most pastors are susceptible to seeking successful “careers” like everyone else, but for most of them, the success they seek is worldly and not what Jesus commands. 

Why this discussion here?  If you are in Christ Jesus, then to marry ‘Formal Christians’, who merely follow the Christian traditions of men, will make you unequally yoked in your marriage.  This is not the will of God for His children and will make you miserable at some point in your marriage.  The most common comment we see on this blog is that their spouse is a Christian who beats them, terrorizes them and their children or cheats on them or regularly deceives them.  They describe treacherous spouses, which are called narcissistic spouses (psychology) today. Yet these doctrinally illiterate believers think their unbelieving spouses are saved because these Christians, though regenerate themselves, still believe the false gospel invented by the traditions of men.  Yes, a person can be saved and still hold false doctrines.  Being in possession of true doctrine doesn’t save anybody.  But true doctrine is what we see in the Bible and in the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation.  True doctrine is a necessary beginning to a life of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ…beginning with the gospel.  Jesus preached, “Repent and believe” as did John the Baptist.  This and this alone is the gospel of truth. Simple enough to save a child, yet pregnant with meaning, which is unexplored by those who shun pure biblical doctrine.

The Western cultures do not value growing in the knowledge of Biblical truth until a person reaches an older age, when they are forced to begin contemplating passing from this life to the next.  It is the natural order for the Western world to sow one’s wild oats when they are young, then marry (or not) and have a family (or not) and build a career, build a portfolio and travel when you retire.  Only after all that do most people begin earnestly thinking about their eternity.  Even then, they frequently turn to a proponent of the man-made doctrines to get assurances that all will be well after death.  But certainly all will not be well for the vast majority who were raised in so-called Christian homes. 

Since most marry relatively young, ignorant to Biblical doctrine, saved or not, they later find themselves in unequally yoked marriages by having become born-again after the wedding day while their spouse does not.  Others, saved prior to their marriage, yet were still under the teaching of the spiritual traditions of men.  The outcome in the Christian sphere is a pandemic of unequally yoked believers. 

The unbelieving spouse is not the weaker brother or sister. That title belongs to the believing spouse who has remained a mere babe in Christ. The unbelieving spouse in not related to Christians at all. 

The author to the Hebrews wrote:

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:12-14). 

In order to possess the discernment to recognize the children of God and the children of Satan study the Scriptures and read or listen to the men who have proven themselves to be great teachers of the word of God. Such discernment will prove to be just the tip of the iceberg in terms of being blessed by knowing all that God has revealed through His holy Scriptures. 

Great teachers readily available:

Martyn Lloyd-Jones at MLJTrust.org / Over 1,600 Sermons & great books as well. His Romans series will set you straight on doctrine. Also, R. C. Sproul with Ligonier Ministries / Sermons & Lectures & many books by Sproul. Vodie Baucham at vodiebaucham.org

Lloyd-Jones died in 1981 and is, in my opinion, simply a giant intellect under the control of the Holy Spirit. Sproul died in 2017 (hard to believe it’s been that long) and is a superb teacher of the word of God and biblical doctrines. He greatly appreciated Lloyd-Jones. Vodie Baucham is the new guy on the block but doing great so far to my knowledge.