Title: Last Judgment and Today
diversity of life
The text we read together today contains a large portion of content that is not directly related to us. In a way, I don't know if the whole Bible has this very characteristic. For example, the rules for the enforcement of numerous laws and the manufacturing method of the tabernacle described in Leviticus, or the various genealogy stories in Chronicles seem far from us, no matter how much God's word is. The reason the Bible contains this is because people in Bible times lived a way of life altogether with us. Among them, the magical worldview had a great influence on the Bible, either directly or indirectly.
Look at verse 2. “Some people have faith and eat anything, but those who are weak in faith only eat vegetables.” What this means is not very real to us today. A simplistic interpretation of this verse would mean that a believer is an omnivore, but an unbeliever is a vegetarian? To eat anything here means even to eat meat. According to today's text, it seems that vegetarians and meat-eaters were fighting each other in the Roman Christian community. Otherwise, Paul would not have addressed this issue in such a specific way.
It is impossible for us to accurately follow the circumstances of the Roman Church at that time, but common sense can estimate it to some extent. Who are the vegetarians Paul is talking about here? Paul referred to them as those of weak faith. However, to view those who eat meat as people of strong faith is to over-interpret the Word. To have faith or to be weak here refers to a type of belief, not really strong or weak. In any case, living only on vegetables means that you are not free from being bound by certain rules. Faith is the expansion and deepening of freedom, and since it is a limited life, you can say that the vegetarian life is a weak faith.
Why do they insist on being vegetarian? First and foremost, these people may have belonged to the Essenes before becoming Christians. They were people who lived in a kind of ascetic community near the Dead Sea in the time of Jesus. According to the opinions of scholars, John the Baptist, who ate locusts and lime in the wilderness and cried out to the Israelites to repent, came from this Essene school. Religion tends to give importance to an ascetic and ethical lifestyle in that it teaches something separate from the secular. This can be confirmed by the fact that conservative Christians in our country think that not drinking and smoking is the most typical Christian lifestyle.
What else could be the reason for their insistence on being vegetarian? Referring to the matter of meat placed before idols (1 Corinthians 8), you might think that they are showing their will to reject idols. It is said that most of the meat sold in the market at that time was placed in front of idols. Just as there are still Christians who do not eat the bread sent to them by their neighbors after performing a ritual, it seems that some early Christians did not want to eat meat sold in the market.
It is difficult for me to say definitively which interpretation is closest to the text. However, it is clear that even Christians who believe in Jesus Christ are bound to live in different ways. Diversity in life is an unavoidable phenomenon. Some people live on a vegetarian diet, and some even eat meat. Looking at verses 5 and 6, it seems that there are some people who keep a certain day, and there are others who consider it insignificant. Just as we choose a day without hands and move, there were many Jews who carefully observed not only the Sabbath, but also the festivals when they were young. These different lives are our reality.
destruction of diversity
Living in different ways is not a problem in itself. Destroying the unity between that diversity is the problem. How is it destroyed? According to verse 3, “despiring” each other is the main cause of destruction. According to verse 10, the root of the problem is to ‘despise’ the brother as ‘judgment’.
Those of you who read this text may think that the Christians in Rome are poor people both religiously and personally. I wondered what the problem was, whether I was eating a vegetarian diet, eating meat, or not observing a certain day, whether I was despising and criticizing others for that. Now we don't have a big fight over these vegetarian and meat-eating issues in the church. Of course, the problem of alcohol and tobacco is sometimes raised as a problem, but it is not so blatantly serious. Does this mean that we have better faith than Christians 2,000 years ago? Not at all. A person cannot get rid of this nature. The forces that destroy unity in diversity still dominate our lives today. We can very quickly fall into a life of contempt for each other, despising each other, and ostracizing each other.
This way of life is pervasive in our society as well. Could it not be that the minority of society or the contempt for those belonging to the lower classes is destroying our lives? One day, I heard my eldest daughter Jiye say something like this. One hot day, while walking on campus with a friend, he saw women weeding weeds in the grass. That's what my friend said then. We have to study hard in order not to live like that. As long as people who cannot study, lack competitiveness, and have some kind of handicap are treated as alien objects, the peace of God's kingdom and his rule will never come to our eyes.
time of judgment
Paul advised, “If anyone has a weak faith, do not blame him for his mistakes” (verse 1). If you follow these words, perhaps there is a problem with people who are only vegetarians because of their weak faith. Basically, they are losing the freedom that is the foundation of the Christian faith. But the point Paul is trying to say is that even if you are free from all things in Christ, do not rebuke and do not despise those who are not free. That's not to say we're only advocating vegetarians. Vegetarians were also told not to criticize meat eaters.
A story like this won't make much sense because you've heard so much. Oh yeah. Christians are supposed to accept and love each other. Don't criticize each other, be tolerant. You may already have these pictures in your mind. But the problem is that no matter how vividly you remember such a picture, in reality you still despise each other, flaunt each other, and blame each other. I try very hard not to do that, but the more I do it, the more complicated it may be. I am putting a lot of effort into protecting the image of a Christian that I want to ignore on the inside but not on the outside. This is called hypocrisy, but is such hypocrisy necessary in today's harsh times?
Listen to Paul's explanation. He makes constant the fact that Christ is 'Lord' to both the living and the dead. It is said that Jesus Christ died and rose again for this fact. What does that have to do with the teaching not to despise one another? The important aspect here is that death and resurrection are the ultimate events. The ultimate world upon which all our actions will ultimately depend. Only when these ultimate events, such worlds, and such lives are consistent with our daily lives, can we overcome our nature of contempt and condemnation. Regardless of this ultimate life, we cannot escape from the structure of our lives in which we end up despising each other only with our own personalities. They just pretend to be trying because they have to, but it's far from being able to actually do that.
The unity between God's absolute life events and our relative daily life is the spirituality of Christianity. Only by this spirituality can our life enter a new dimension. So Paul presents the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of all teaching. Even if I explain like this, to you this Christian doctrine may still sound very abstract. How on earth does the resurrection of Jesus Christ become one with our daily lives?
We can read its fundamental meaning in verse 10. “How then can we judge and despise our brother? Aren’t we all ready to stand before the judgment seat of God?” The Bible refers to the ultimate and absolute decision of life as “judgment.” To say that the Second Coming Jesus Christ judges us means that the ultimate life is complete. Now our life is not complete. I'm hungry even if I skip one meal, and I get angry when my grades drop in school. These are all evidences that life is incomplete. Of course, we don't know much empirically about what the perfection of life is right now. We only believe as a promise that it began with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and will ultimately become a reality through the judgment of Jesus Christ.
Listen more carefully to what Paul has to say. What is the reality of judgment in which life is completed? Look at verse 12. “At that time each of us will tell God the truth.” Judgment is just that. It is an event in which all things that were hidden or secrets are exposed as they are. The trial run by our current positive law never reveals this secret. Even ‘X-Files’ will not reveal all the realities. Because humans only know life superficially. The Christian faith teaches that the time will come when the secrets of life will be fully revealed. That is the time of judgment of Jesus Christ. If this final judgment is a person who lives in harmony with his life here and now, what kind of attitude should he take toward his brother who lives in a different way from us ‘today’? *