Chapter Fourteen
Rom. 14:1. Receive one who is weak in the faith without disputes over opinions.
Many of the Jews who had believed, even after their conversion, observed distinctions in foods, abstained from pork, and did not dare to depart entirely from the law. Then, lest they be exposed as abstaining from pork alone, they abstained from all meat in general and ate only vegetables. Others were more mature, observed nothing of the sort, and were reproached by those who did observe such things. Paul feared that the mature, by rebuking the immature untimely and improperly, might turn them away from the faith of Christ. Therefore he approaches the matter wisely, caring for the benefit of the other side as well. He did not venture to say to those who reproached: you do wrong — lest he confirm the immature in their observance of rituals. Nor did he venture to say to the rebukers: you do well — lest he make them more aggressive in their attacks. On the contrary, he offers an exhortation adapted to both sides. His rebuke is directed, it would seem, more against the stronger side, but in reality its full force falls upon the weaker. For immediately by the expression "the weak" he showed the sickness of such people. And when he says "receive," he indicates the need for great care toward them, which is itself a sign of their extreme weakness. "Without disputes over opinions." That is, do not condemn him for his weakness, do not take offense, do not be troubled by many thoughts, but by all means endeavor to heal him as one who is weak.
Rom. 14:2. For one believes he may eat all things, while the weak eats vegetables.
He makes a comparison between the perfect and the imperfect and says that the perfect, being bold in faith, eats everything without distinction, while the imperfect, being weak, eats vegetables. Therefore the latter deserves healing, not defeat.
Rom. 14:3. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat; and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.
Those who ate everything, being perfect, looked down on those who did not eat, as people of little faith still attached to Judaism. On the other hand, those who did not eat condemned those who ate everything as lacking self-control. Since among them many were from the Gentiles, he says: "God has accepted him," that is, He showed him His ineffable grace. Why then do you argue with him about the law, when Christ has justified him?
Rom. 14:4. Who are you, judging another's servant? Before his own Lord he stands or falls.
He says this to the perfect one, dissuading him both from contempt and from judgment, for the perfect ones, doing both, both despised and judged the imperfect. However, in a hidden manner the rebuke falls here also upon the imperfect. I do not forbid you to judge, he says, because the conduct of the other does not deserve judgment, but because he is another's servant, that is, not yours, but God's. For although he is weak, he has not ceased to be a servant; wherefore one must not despair concerning him. And encouraging the weak one, he did not say "falls," but "stands or falls." Whether one or the other happens to him, it belongs to the Lord to judge both concerning the loss of the one who falls and the gain of the one who stands.
Rom. 14:4. And he shall be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
By the words "he will be raised up" he shows that he is so shaken and has fallen so far that only God can raise him up. We say this about people who are utterly hopeless.
Rom. 14:5. One man esteems one day above another: another esteems every day alike.
Some exhausted themselves by not eating or abstained from pork on certain days, while others always ate food and condemned those who fasted. About these he says that one judges one way and another differently, whereas the matter here is indifferent. Therefore one must not attack the brethren on account of this. In this he makes allowance for those being rebuked, because they were still new in the faith.
Rom. 14:5. Let each one act according to the conviction of his own mind.
When it comes to dogmas, we must not act according to the assurance of our own mind, but must firmly hold to what we have received, even if an angel from heaven should preach to us something different. But here the subject is food and fasts and the like, and those who stumble over these things are still new in the faith and in need of condescension, and therefore it was necessary to grant them some relaxation with regard to a life ordered in all strictness.
Rom. 14:6. Who distinguishes days, distinguishes for the Lord; and who does not distinguish days, does not distinguish for the Lord.
He who, he says, distinguishes days, distinguishes them for the Lord, as one who is reverent; and he who does not distinguish days, does not distinguish them for the Lord, as one who is already perfect in Christ and has risen above the observances of the Law.
Rom. 14:6. He who eats, eats for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who does not eat, does not eat for the Lord, and gives thanks to God.
We ask about one thing only, he says: whether they do this for Christ's sake, and whether the one who eats and the one who does not eat give thanks to God? For what is done in this way is not subject to accusation and slander. He says this, as I said, because the Romans were still new in the faith. But in a hidden way he also strikes a blow against those who hold to Judaism. How can one who still holds to the law give thanks? Therefore, only the one who eats gives thanks.
Rom. 14:7. For no one among us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself;
Rom. 14:8. Whether we live, we live for the Lord; whether we die, we die for the Lord.
We have, he says, a Lord Who cares for us and Who considers our life a gain and our death a loss. For we live or die not for ourselves alone, but also for the Lord. By life he means here the life in faith, and by death the falling away from faith. Therefore the Lord will by no means allow us to die in faith, or those who seem weak to fall away from it.
Rom. 14:8. And therefore, whether we live or die, we are always the Lord's.
From death by faith he passes to natural death; for he now discusses this. Whether we live, he says, the natural life, we are the Lord's; whether we die a natural death, we likewise belong to the Lord.
Rom. 14:9. For Christ to this end both died, and rose, and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.