Bible Commentaries

Ro 14:1-23.

SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED--CHRISTIAN FORBEARANCE.

The subject here, and on to

Ro 15:13,

is the consideration due from stronger Christians to their weaker brethren; which is but the great law of love (treated of in the thirteenth chapter) in one particular form.

1. Him that is weak in the faith--rather, "in faith"; that is, not "him that is weak in the truth believed" [CALVIN, BEZA, ALFORD, &c.], but (as most interpreters agree), "him whose faith wants that firmness and breadth which would raise him above small scruples." (See on

Ro 14:22, 23).

receive ye--to cordial Christian fellowship.

but not to doubtful disputations--rather, perhaps, "not to the deciding of doubts," or "scruples;" that is, not for the purpose of arguing him out of them: which indeed usually does the reverse; whereas to receive him to full brotherly confidence and cordial interchange of Christian affection is the most effectual way of drawing them off. Two examples of such scruples are here specified, touching Jewish meats and days. "The strong," it will be observed, are those who knew these to be abolished under the Gospel; "the weak" are those who had scruples on this point.

2. one believeth that he may eat all things--See

Ac 10:16.

another, who is weak, eateth herbs--restricting himself probably to a vegetable diet, for fear of eating what might have been offered to idols, and so would be unclean. (See

1Co 8:1-13).

3. Let not him that eateth despise--look down superciliously upon "him that eateth not."

and let not him that eateth not judge--sit in judgment censoriously upon "him that eateth."

for God hath received him--as one of His dear children, who in this matter acts not from laxity, but religious principle.

4. Who art thou that judges another man's--rather, "another's"

servant?--that is, CHRIST'S, as the whole context shows, especially

Ro 14:8, 9.

Yea, &c.--"But he shall be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand"; that is, to make good his standing, not at the day of judgment, of which the apostle treats in

Ro 14:10,

but in the true fellowship of the Church here, in spite of thy censures.

5. One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day--The supplement "alike" should be omitted, as injuring the sense.

Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind--be guided in such matters by conscientious conviction.

6. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it to the Lord--the Lord CHRIST, as before.

and he . . . not, to the Lord he doth not--each doing what he believes to be the Lord's will.

He that earth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks--The one gave thanks to God for the flesh which the other scrupled to use; the other did the same for the herbs to which, for conscience' sake, he restricted himself. From this passage about the observance of days, ALFORD unhappily infers that such language could not have been used if the sabbath law had been in force under the Gospel in any form. Certainly it could not, if the sabbath were merely one of the Jewish festival days; but it will not do to take this for granted merely because it was observed under the Mosaic economy. And certainly, if the sabbath was more ancient than Judaism; if, even under Judaism, it was enshrined among the eternal sanctities of the Decalogue, uttered, as no other parts of Judaism were, amidst the terrors of Sinai; and if the Lawgiver Himself said of it when on earth, "The Son of man is LORD EVEN OF THE SABBATH DAY" (see

Mr 2:28)

--it will be hard to show that the apostle must have meant it to be ranked by his readers among those vanished Jewish festival days, which only "weakness" could imagine to be still in force--a weakness which those who had more light ought, out of love, merely to bear with.

7, 8. For none of us--Christians

liveth to himself--(See

2Co 5:14, 15),

to dispose of himself or shape his conduct after his own ideas and inclinations.

and no man--"and none" of us Christians "dieth to himself."

8. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord--the Lord CHRIST; see

Ro 14:9.

and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's--Nothing but the most vivid explanation of these remarkable words could make them endurable to any Christian ear, if Christ were a mere creature. For Christ is here--in the most emphatic terms, and yet in the most unimpassioned tone--held up as the supreme Object of the Christian's life, and of his death too; and that by the man whose horror of creature worship was such, that when the poor Lycaonians would have worshipped him, he rushed forth to arrest the deed, directing them to "the living God," as the only legitimate Object of worship

(Ac 14:15).

Nor does Paul teach this here, but rather appeals to it as a known and recognized fact, of which he had only to remind his readers. And since the apostle, when he wrote these words, had never been at Rome, he could only know that the Roman Christians would assent to this view of Christ, because it was the common teaching of all the accredited preachers of Christianity, and the common faith of all Christians.