I, the Weaker Brother

By D. Douglas Hoffman

[Page 89]

     As a babe in Christ, I have found it very difficult to incorporate a sense of tolerance into the many facets of my new life. As a Christian, I see disunity, bigotry, prejudice, conceit, and bias as an integral part of the "Christian" ethic. My brethren bicker and argue over seemingly unimportant points of technical difference while they reject the very essence of the love they profess.

     If I had felt, upon acceptance of Christ, that my spiritual destiny was predicated

[Page 90]

upon a working knowledge of Barnes' Notes or Vine's Expository Dictionary, I would have thrown in the towel in the first round. I am convinced that the gospel which saved men in the days of the apostles will save men in our day. It was not a gospel clouded with the objects of men's inductive reasoning, nor was it one which required complete understanding in order to acceptance by either God or the brethren.

     Instead, it simply implored men to surrender to a new leader, the unique and powerful Christ, who could save in spite of sin and could accept in spite of misunderstanding. And, is this not in fact, what makes it good news? That we have a Savior who is able to mend the barrier between God and men, between sin and perfection, between the finite and infinite, between the ignorant and omniscient, by rending the veil so that all can become priests before God?

     I have studied many of the favorite "issues" of the church, and have yet to see a great deal of importance in whether we use one cup or many, or whether the "treasury" (a word I have yet to find in my Bible) is to be spent one way or another, or when the Lord's Supper must or must not be taken. Yet I have seen the importance of a correct attitude when dealing with such problems. Paul said, "If it causes my brother to stumble for me to eat meat, I will never eat meat again." Did Paul condemn men who ate meat as being ignorant or "afraid of the truth." He wrote, "One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment upon him who eats" (Romans 14:2, 3).

     It appears to me that Paul was talking to brethren who were honestly mistaken about some point of their new-found religion. These brethren had not rejected God or the Christ that had saved them. They were merely misled or misinformed!

     There are many matters in which I have yet to reach a decision. I am not convinced there will ever come a time when I can say that I have the whole "truth" on every matter concerning Christianity. To say that I do have the whole truth would insult the intelligence of a majority of Bible scholars, show my complete ignorance of the basic principles which Christ taught, and place me in danger of drawing lines of fellowship where God has been silent. What a hypocrite I would be if I say I understand everything that God has revealed.

     So what am I to do? How am I to treat those who are in the same predicament as myself? Knowing that every child of God reads the same Bible as myself, what should I do when I disagree on a "point of law?" The only thing I can do is to expect to be accepted by others upon the same basis that I accept them. I must judge as I expect to be judged (Matthew 7:1, 2).

     I do not want my brethren to withdraw themselves from me because I have not the knowledge to delineate the difference between the organized church and the organized home. I do not want my brethren to count me unrighteous because I cannot understand whether wearing a veil was a custom or not. I do not want them to tell me I have rejected Christ because I believe I must go to jail rather than kill another human being under the guise of protecting our "Christian" nation. You see, I have not rejected Christ any more than those brethren in the first century who thought it was right to abstain from meats sacrificed to idols. I have not turned my back on the authority or finality of Christ's rule because I have not understood everything as you have understood it.

     There are just a great many more Christians who are weak and unknowing than there are "pillars of the faith." There are many more babes than there are full-grown and mature Christians! There are far more who are confused than there are who have decided.

     May God allow us to be tolerant of those 
     Who have yet to reach the maturity of others
     And who are groping, yet honestly seeking for
     The perfect love that casts out fear.

     And may He allow us to reach deep into our
     Hearts and share some of the love we have for
     Christ with those who are less fortunate
     Than we. And may God grant us the humility
     To recognize ourselves as the
     Weaker Brother!

     "But if someone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to lose his faith, it would be better for that man if a huge millstone were tied around his neck and he were thrown into the sea" (Mark 9.42. LNT).

     (D. Douglas Hoffman can be addressed at 3407 El Prado Blvd., Tampa, Florida 33609).