1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honour of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honour of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honour of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.
15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.
16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.
21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.
23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
We are nearing the end of our study of Romans, and in chapter 14 Paul continues the theme we have seen in chapters 12 and 13. He continues to address the life that Christians are to live following our conversion, and as we saw last week, love is the foundation that holds it all together.
Again, context is important, and this will help us as we work our way through chapter 14. We need to remember that the Church in Rome was made up primarily of Jewish and Gentile converts to the Christian faith, and these two groups of people came from very different cultures prior to coming to faith in Christ.
At the moment of repentance of our sin and confession of faith in Jesus, we are justified. Justification is a once-off declaration that God makes over the repentant sinner, in that our salvation is secured for all of eternity. Once your name is written in the Book of Life, it will not be removed. Jesus said in John 10:27-29, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”
It is so important that we understand this. Justification by grace is a once-off event for the elect of God, however, the process of sanctification - being transformed daily into the image of Christ - is a journey which continues for the rest of our lives. Glorification comes in eternity, but sanctification is a present reality.
When you became a Christian, there were many rough edges in your life that God had to smooth over. You may have come from a Roman Catholic upbringing, an atheistic or agnostic understanding of God, you may have been influenced by some of the cultic eastern religions or new age philosophies - the list is quite literally endless. The point is that as a new convert, you did not have a complete understanding of the essentials of Christian doctrine. In fact, none of us ever do, as we are learning all the time.
In the Church in Rome, many of the Jewish converts continued to follow the teachings of the Mosaic Law when it came to their daily rituals and their diet, while the Gentiles, who had been saved out of pagan worship, were delivered from a culture where sacrifices were offered to strange gods and then eaten by the worshippers. Because of this, many of them became vegetarians. They were so concerned about accidentally eating meat that had been sacrificed to pagan idols, that they stopped eating meat altogether. The result was that in the Church, you had some very different opinions about all kinds of issues, and this was the cause of much debate and contention. You had these different factions, each trying to convince the other as to who was right and who was wrong.
In chapter 14, Paul deals with this issue. In the NIV translation, this section is subtitled “The weak and the strong,” and the ESV has 2 sub-headings: “Do not pass judgment on one another,” and “Do not cause another to stumble.” The reality is that you will always have differing opinions on all kinds of issues in the Church, and this is what chapter 14 is all about. Paul encourages every believer to examine their own lives and live victoriously for the Lord. That is what really matters. He knew some issues were clearly addressed in Scripture and others were simply matters of opinion with no clear instruction in God’s Word.
The foundational doctrines of the Christian faith are not open to debate. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, but there are many non-essential or non-salvific practices in the Church. For instance there is the question of whether we should use wine or grape juice at a Communion service. How often should we celebrate Communion? Should we be baptising infants or adult believers only? Is it right or wrong for Christians to drink alcohol or smoke? Should ladies wear hats to Church? Some of these questions are less important than others, or even trivial and don’t really matter at all, but none of them are salvific. Your salvation does not depend on your beliefs or opinions on these matters.
Throughout the history of the Church, these and other non-essential matters have created much debate and have been the cause of some serious strife in the Church.
In verse 1 Paul sets the scene as he uses the foundation of love that he emphasised in the previous chapter. He says, “welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.” The Christian’s basic attitude toward a fellow Christian is to be one of welcome and acceptance, remembering that God has accepted us because of Jesus. He says in verse 3, “God has welcomed him,” and in 15:7 he writes, “Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”
New Christians, those who may be new or weak in their faith, often bring a lot of baggage from their lives prior to conversion, and there needs to be grace shown and practiced when there is a lack of understanding.
For example, when you hear a Christian say, “God helps those who help themselves,” do you wag a finger under their nose and challenge them to show you the verse in the Bible that says that, or do you gently, gracefully and lovingly teach them that not only does it not appear in the Bible, but that such an idea completely contradicts the Gospel itself?
In Romans 14, Paul deals specifically with questions of food, drink, and the religious observation of festival days. These may seem trivial matters to us now, but they were the hot topics of Paul’s day, but the basic principle applies to us today. Unity in the Church on matters not essential to the faith is far more important than getting our own way.
The issues Paul was dealing with did not change the truth of the Gospel, but when people insist on getting their own way, those who are new or weak in the faith, can easily become sidetracked and caught up in trivial arguments which do more harm than good to the Church and the Gospel message.
Paul’s response when the Gospel was challenged was very different. “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the Gospel of Christ.” (Galatians 1:6-7)
But on matters which caused unnecessary division in the Church, he says we are to show grace and understanding. In verses 4-6 he writes, “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honour of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honour of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honour of the Lord and gives thanks to God.”
As we grow in our faith, we begin to learn that our own conscience has been set free by the power of the Gospel. In Acts 10, Peter was given the image of a sheet being lowered from Heaven with all kinds of animals, many of which were unclean according to Old Testament laws. When God instructed him to “get up, kill and eat,” Peter was horrified at the thought, but God said to him to not call what the Lord had made unclean. This is why we can eat bacon, but in Paul’s day, many Jewish converts could not bring themselves to eat non-kosher food.
Paul though, had a different understanding of this principle. He said in verse 14: “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.” Here he displays spiritual maturity, and sensitivity and grace to those who have yet to “get it.”
Paul knew that nothing is unclean in itself, but he appeals to stronger believers to be sensitive to the consciences of weaker believers. At the same time, he is teaching those new in the faith that nothing is unclean. It’s okay to eat pork if you are a converted Jew, and it’s okay to eat meat sacrificed to non-existent pagan gods if that is the culture you came from, but at no point does Paul insist that they must do these things. That would not be helpful at all, and by challenging the conscience of a weaker brother or sister in Christ, all he would be doing would be putting a stumbling block in their way.
That is not how we love each other.
Paul writes in verses 19-21, “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.”
As Christians, it is our duty to avoid undermining the faith of other believers by getting into needless arguments that do more harm than good. Rather, we should be helping and loving one another as we grow in grace together, while at the same time we must avoid lording it over one another, and this is another important point. How do we avoid being prideful or even arrogant towards one another?
Paul has the answer in Romans 14.
As you read through this chapter, you will notice two constant themes. Firstly, Christian love, which Paul has emphasised throughout the last few chapters, and more importantly, Jesus Christ is Lord.
This is the real focus of this chapter. When we uphold Christ as Lord, our disagreements on minor issues become even less important.
Verses 7-8. “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” And verses 17-19. “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”
The opening verses of John’s Gospel says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3)
Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” Not only does Christ own the universe He made, but He has ownership rights over those who choose to follow Him.
In our relationship with Jesus, He is the master and we are His servants. Our goal in life is to do His will, and to bring ourselves into subjection to Him. Remember, that as Romans 8:28 says, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” God has our interests in mind. He doesn’t call us to anything that would harm us. He created us for eternal fellowship with Himself. He knows who we are, He knows our needs, and He knows the purpose of our very existence.
When we recognise our need to be reconciled to God through Christ, when we submit ourselves to His Lordship over our lives, we very quickly learn our true identity, our worth, and our purpose.
Acts 17:28 says it best: “In Him we live and move and have our being.”
Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. As we submit to Him as His subjects, we find our true purpose in life. Those who deny His Lordship are living empty, pointless lives. Denying the Lordship of Christ does not change the truth that He is Lord over all, and until such time as we reach that point, our lives remain empty.
One commentator said that Jesus is not Lord because men said He is. Jesus is Lord because God declared Him as Lord. As Peter said on the Day of Pentecost, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36)
The question we each need to answer is this: What is the practical, everyday application of the Lordship of Christ to our lives? Again, as Paul says in Romans 14:8, “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
What this means is that we have a responsibility to Jesus, and that responsibility can best be summarised by a statement He made when asked what the greatest commandment is. This statement takes us full circle as it brings us back to what we have been looking at during the past weeks.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
We have a responsibility to God, and we have a responsibility to one another.
Jesus Christ came into the world and died to pay the price of our sin in order to bring us into a right relationship with God. That is our greatest need because our sins have cut us off from God, but in Christ we have been reconciled to God. This is the core message of the Gospel.
In Ephesians 2 Paul was talking about the tension between Jewish and Gentile converts, much like he was doing in Romans 14. In verse 16 he wrote that Jesus, by His death on the cross would “reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”
Don’t miss what he is saying here. Paul is reminding us that Jesus went to the cross to reconcile us to God, and those who are reconciled are His Church. Reconciliation to God without membership in His body - the Church - is contrary to the teachings of Scripture. The reconciled make up the Church, and through the Cross we are reconciled firstly to God, and one another.
This is not a place to just come to once a week. This is our home. As Jesus’ death reconciles us to God, so His death reconciles us to each other. This is about unity in the Church, but unity in the Church is only possible if we acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives, and as Lord of the Church, which has been Paul’s intention in Romans 14.
This is what he meant when he wrote in verses 13-15, “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this - not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.
I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.”
If we revere and honour Christ as Lord, we will by default, have true Christian love for one another, and that is what brings unity in the Church. And today, especially, we should be standing together, not wasting time and energy on pointless debates which only bring discord, disunity and dishonour to Christ.
We are to be part of the life, the work and the witness of the Church. Now, more than ever, we need Jesus Christ, and we need each other. This is the most depressing time in human history probably since the Second World War, and when we add to that the anti-Christ agenda of the radical human secularists which is seeking to persecute the Church, we need to be clear in our minds about what we believe, and why we believe it.
So what are we to do in the face of this growing hostility to Christ and His Gospel? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Love your neighbour as yourself. Love God, and love each other. Get connected to and stay connected to the body of Christ, which is His Church, and stay faithful to the Word of God.
Homegroup Study Notes
Read Romans 14
What is your understanding of someone who is “weak in the faith?”
What does Paul mean in verse 1 when he says we are to welcome those who are weak, but not in order to quarrel over opinions?
Why did Paul feel it necessary to go into such detail in chapter 14?
What are some of the non-essential or non-salvific issues we see in the Church today, and how do discussions and debates on these matters negatively affect the impact of the Church?
How do we avoid these things in our own congregation?
Read Matthew 22:37-40
Discuss how application of these words of Jesus will help us.
Each generation of the Church for 2000 years has faced their own unique challenges.
What is our challenge today, and how do we effectively share the Gospel in our world?