We Belong to God

The Rev. Candasu Vernon Cubbage preached this sermon on September 13, 2026 at Beechmont Presbyterian Church on Romans 14:1-12.

The book of Romans is a reminder to all of us that we are living in the freedom of God, and we are constantly reminded of death and directed toward life. (I’m sure I read that somewhere, but I can’t remember where.)

In Romans 14:1-12 we are coming to the end of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome.

In fact, chapter 14 could easily have started “and in conclusion…” because Paul is wrapping things up by summarizing what he has been teaching in the first 13 chapters.

If Paul had titled his chapters, which he did not, he might have titled this one as “So Do This Because, This is Who We Are.”

So what are we supposed to do?

First and most important, we are supposed to welcome our brothers and sisters. We are supposed to receive them with warm greetings (or at the very least polite greetings).

And we are to include them among us as one family.

That sounds nice. It even sounds easy, except that Paul means for us to welcome ALL our brothers and sisters.

Not just the brothers and sisters who think the way we think.

Not just the ones who worship the way we worship.

Not just the ones who live the way we live.

We are supposed to welcome ALL our brothers and sisters, including those who would like to exclude us.

Okay, we are all one family, but even the best of families have disagreements. Paul doesn’t deny or even try to make a case that we should never disagree.

What Paul does say is that we are supposed to talk with other people, work with other people, and spend time with other people, because they are our family.

We are not supposed to quarrel over opinions or differences.

In other words, we are supposed to engage with other members of the family, but not just to argue about what they are doing wrong.

The truth is that, then and now, the church is as polarized as any other activity or group in life.

We have divided ourselves into two, or more, extreme or opposite groups.

We believe that there is only one correct direction for us to move in.

The reality is that some of God’s children believe this, others believe that.

Some of God’s children worship this way, others worship that way.

But Paul wants us to understand that all of God’s children are trying to live and worship and believe in ways that they believe please God. We all seek the same end result, we just go about reaching that result differently.

But then Paul writes, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister?”

That verse, Romans 14:10, stopped me cold in my tracks this week. Here is Paul asking why the members of the church in Rome have been judging each other, and worse, despising each other.

Apparently, members of the church in Rome were not just disagreeing with each other, or even disapproving of each other, but feeling disdain for other Christians. Perhaps even considering their brothers and sisters not to be real Christians at all.

We have to wonder: How does life as a new creation in Christ possibly turn into brothers and sisters despising each other?

Paul has pointed out that those in the church in Rome disagreed completely, and with no doubts, about what living life as a new creation in Christ entails.

For some, to be a new creation meant to avoid doing anything that could be understood as inappropriate.

That might be eating certain foods or not eating certain foods.

It might be about the rituals they practiced.

It might be about how to keep the Sabbath holy and how to keep the Sabbath completely different from the other 6 days of the week.

For others, being a new creation in Christ meant living all day everyday with the same emphasis on God’s love and forgiveness, regardless of what they ate or in which rituals they participated.

They divided themselves into two sides. And both sides felt that they were completely right and the other side was completely wrong, and there was no middle ground.

Both sides declared: You must behave in this specific way, or you are not really a Christian.

Both sides declared: You must believe in this specific interpretation, or you are not really a Christian.

But God’s steadfast love is huge!

God’s love stretches all the way up into the heavens, it reaches all the way from the east to the west.

God’s love includes both the left and the right.

God’s love surrounds both the liberal and the conservative.

Paul refused to take one side or the other, but he did jump right into the middle and shouted, STOP!

Paul declared to them: You have missed the most important point.

We do not belong to one side or the other side.

We belong to God.

If we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord.

Do not judge one another! Judgment is up to God.

Live in love, act in love, speak in love, think in love.

Forgive each other. Reconcile with each other.

Live and work together knowing that we all belong to one God.

God is in charge.

God knows what is going on.

God has a plan for the salvation of the whole world.

It’s not our plan. We do not win or lose.

We are called to participate in the plan by loving each other, not judging each other, or changing each other, or punishing each other.

In the letter to the Romans, Paul focuses FIRST on God’s love saying: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

Paul emphasizes that we must show love toward each other, because of the love we have received from God.

This is good news.

This is good news for all of us, but it’s not necessarily easy news to hear, or easy news to understand, or easy news to live into.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to admit that I despise someone else.

I know that God does not want me to despise anyone. And it’s not how my family raised me either.

Nevertheless, sometimes I find myself worn out and ragged from watching and listening to people who believe things that before now I would have thought were unimaginable.

Sometimes I am overwhelmed with feelings of despair that we will ever find a way to disagree without being hateful, much less find a way to live together in peace.

I have heard so many people shout with disgust and anger that others are so wrong about a large variety of topics that those others don’t deserve to live.

The truth is that I wish they would not only be quiet, but that they would go away.

And I confess that sometimes I despise them. And that’s wrong.

Folks, that is not what it means to welcome others.

Not the shouting, not the hatefulness, not the condemnation.

But also not the desire for others to be put in their place, or get what they deserve, which needless to say is never something good.

If Paul were here today he would absolutely be saying the same things he said in the 14th chapter of Romans.

Why are you passing judgement on others?

Why do you despise others?

Why are you trying to cast others out?

None of this is your job.

None of this is up to you.

And every single one of us belongs to God.

Let’s be clear about this, Paul is not saying we must never disagree.

Paul is not saying we should never try to change the way groups or systems or even whole countries operate.

Paul is not saying don’t get involved in politics.

Paul is not saying don’t stand up for what you believe.

Paul IS saying don’t try to cast anyone out of the fellowship because you are different from each other.

Paul is saying don't try to cast anyone out because they believe different things, or live in different ways.

It is not up to us to judge the worthiness of others as people, or as Christians.

When Paul says we need to forgive others and reconcile, he is not saying everything they said is ok, or that everything they did is ok.

Paul is saying do not hold on to your anger, your fear, your pain, or your disgust.

Let it go. Live in fellowship.

Find a way to work and live together.

Build a way to work and live together.

Leave the judging and the punishing up to God.

We are all accountable to God.

Living a new life in Christ requires that we let go of a lot.

Let go of the old ways.

Let go of past grievances AND current grievances.

Let go of judgement.

We are called to live with minds and hearts that are transformed by God’s grace.

We are called to live in the welcoming fellowship of our brothers and sisters.

We are called to think, to speak, and to act in love as together we help to build the Kingdom of God.

Amen.