Paul's letter to the Romans is his most systematic presentation of the gospel. In it, he explains human sinfulness and the forgiveness that we have in Christ (chapters 1 to 8). After explaining that God is saving gentiles as well as Jews, he reassures his readers that God has not given up on the Jewish people (chapters 9 to 11).
He then moves into the practical results of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In chapters 12 to 13 he urges his readers to be living sacrifices, to love one another, to be patient in trials, to behave well.
In chapter 14, he gets more specific--he discusses a problem in the first-century Roman church. The situation was created in part because both Jews and gentiles were in the Roman church. They had different customs and religious ideas. Let's see what he wrote, and consider how the principles might apply to situations today.
"Accept him whose faith is weak," Paul begins, "without passing judgment on disputable matters" (14:1).
Here, we learn several important things:
* Some Christians are weak in the faith. Some are superstitiously strict; others show weakness in sins of the flesh.
* Weak-faith Christians should be accepted--not ridiculed. People grow in faith through love and acceptance, not through condemnation.
* Christians who think they are strong are sometimes tempted to judge others, to look down on people who have different ideas and customs.
* Some matters are disputable. The beliefs and practices that some Christians think are important, other Christians do not. One side may be right, but Paul tells us to view the matter as debatable.
Paul then addressed the dispute he had in mind: "One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables" (14:2).
Paul does not tell us why some people avoided meat. Perhaps they were influenced by ascetic false religions, but it seems more likely that the concerns came from Judaism. The terms "unclean" and "clean" (14:14, 20) were important in Judaism. Some Jews avoided meat because they could not be sure that the animals had been properly killed and bled. Maybe it had been offered to an idol, or touched by a pagan.
Some Jewish Christians may not have been as "careful," and some gentiles may have been as cautious as the strictest Jews. Paul is addressing attitudes, not ethnic groups. He was writing to a church that had both Jews and gentiles. He knew that his terms would apply to Jewish concerns just as well as to ascetic ideas.
Let's see how Paul dealt with this situation: "The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him" (14:3). The strong-faith Christian should not belittle the weak Christian, and the weak one should not condemn.
What shocking advice! Imagine that you are a vegetarian in the Roman church, and you believe it is a sin to eat meat. Paul is not only calling you "weak," he is also telling you not to condemn people who you think are sinning!
Why? Because God has accepted them. God accepts people on the basis of faith, not on works, nor on a perfect understanding of what sin is. The gospel of justification by faith alone tells us that we must accept believers who have different opinions about disputable matters, because the gospel tells us that God accepts sinners on the basis of faith.
Paul did not mean that we should accept idolaters, fornicators, thieves and drunkards (1 Cor. 5:11). The New Testament clearly tells us to avoid certain sins. But it doesn't address every situation and every behavior, and because of that, there will be differences of opinion within Christianity. In this chapter, Paul gives several examples of disputable matters: meat, days, unclean foods and wine (Rom. 14:5-6, 20-21).
For example, if we are convinced that we should not drink wine, we should avoid wine. But we should not call all wine-drinkers sinners, nor should we separate from them. Wine is one of the disputable matters, and so are days and foods. These are matters for mutual tolerance, not division and hard feelings.
Paul asks: "Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls" (14:4). The Lord has called us to serve, not to judge. If he has been so gracious as to include us, we must allow him to be gracious enough to include them, too. He will make the decisions and take care of his own servants.
Paul then addresses another disputable matter that affected the Roman churches: "One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind" (14:5).
In a church composed of Jews and gentiles, what kind of days might be considered better than others? Jews and gentiles may have had different opinions on this--but Paul describes it in such as way as to cover both situations. He knew that his words applied to Sabbath days just as much as they would to superstitions about the Ides of March.
Whatever a person does, though, should be done from conviction, not from fear of what others might think. Others should not condemn, but even if they do condemn, we should not allow their attitudes to boss us around (Col. 2:16). We cannot let their sensitivities create permanent obligations for what we do.
What an astonishing thing Paul is asking! He is asking fully convinced Sabbath-keepers to be tolerant of people who ignore the Sabbath. He is asking people who are fully convinced that the Sabbath is obsolete, to be tolerant of Sabbath-keepers. One view is wrong, but the people should treat this as a disputable matter calling for tolerance, not for separation.
"He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God" (14:6). Sabbath-keepers are responding to God as best they know how. So are the Sabbath-ignorers. Meat-eaters and vegetarians are both trying to do God's will. The specifics are simply not as important as the attitude behind them. When we are trying to please God, we must be gracious toward one another.
Why must we be convinced in our own minds? Because we will all be called to account for how we have lived: "For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.... Whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord" (14:7-8).
Our lives are bought at a price; we belong to Jesus Christ, and it is for him that we live. As stewards of our bodies and stewards of our time, we bring all of life into submission to him. We need to think about what we are doing, and live to the Lord as best as we understand.
We are to be like Christ in grace and patience; we are not to usurp his role as master and judge. We are not to look down on believers who have different opinions on debatable issues (14:10). If we condemn them, we are sinning. "Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another" (14:13).
How do we deal with our differences? "Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way." Instead of focusing on our rightness, we are considerate of others' needs. If we are strong, we are willing to set aside our preferences so we can help someone else (15:1).
Paul was "fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself" (14:14). He no doubt knew how a Jewish person would understand this, and they might be offended. But he had to make the truth plain. His clear statement here helps qualify what he said in later verses.
"If anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean." Christians shouldn't violate their own consciences. If people think it wrong to drink wine, they should not drink wine. They may have studied the question thoroughly, and yet persist in the "wrong" conclusion. Nevertheless, for these disputable matters, we must all exercise patience with one another.
"If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love.... Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil" (14:15-16). Paul wrote this even though some people were distressed because of what Paul himself considered clean. What he considered good, others said was evil--and he could not prevent that, no matter how hard he tried.
A Christian must balance two needs: 1) Do not let someone else's conscience dictate what you do and 2) Do not let your behavior offend them. We live for the Lord alone, but we do not live alone. The Lord calls us to live with others, and to be considerate of their needs, without letting their needs dictate what we do.
We cannot become so afraid of offending others that we comply with every sensitivity everyone has. Just because one person in our church thinks it is a sin to drink wine, does not mean that everyone else has to abstain. Like Paul did, we can freely say that we are convinced that wine is permitted. There is a time to be quiet (to seek peace), and a time to speak (to edify) (14:19).
"Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food," Paul writes. "It is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.... So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God" (14:20-22).
But we must note that Paul did not "keep it between himself and God"--he made his own position clear: "All food is clean" (14:20). It is OK to state your conviction, but not in a deliberate attempt to offend. We are to be considerate, but we do not have to be secret.
Paul is clearly on the side of liberty, but he also sounds a warning: "Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves" (14:22). Even lawful things can be used in an inappropriate way.
Paul then warns the weak to not be pushed around by the strong: "The man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin" (14:23).
It all comes back to faith. We are saved by faith, not by observing or not observing days and foods.
Michael Morrison
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 1999