←Romans 14→BSB

Being weak in faith means having scruples against doing certain things that Christian liberty would allow. In Rome, most of the weak in faith were Jewish Christians whose consciences did not give them liberty from certain requirements of Jewish law.

The weak in faith apparently believed that they should eat only vegetables. Their conviction probably stemmed from a concern to maintain Jewish ritual purity in the midst of a pagan culture. These Jewish Christians were following the lead of Daniel and his friends, who refused to eat the rich food and wine that the king of Babylon offered them (Dan 1:3–16). Other Jewish sources reveal that pious Jews often restricted their diets in pagan cultures because they could never be sure that meat had been slaughtered according to Jewish requirements.

some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike: The reference is probably to Jewish festival days and to the Sabbath; cp. Col 2:16. With Christ’s provision of salvation, observance of the Sabbath in its original form is not required of Christians.

As the Lord’s servants (14:4), Christians are to look to God for guidance and seek to honor him in all things (14:8). Because we are ultimately accountable to him, our desire should always be to please him, not to live for ourselves.

• Paul refers to standard early Christian teaching on the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection (e.g., 2 Cor 5:15).
• of the living and of the dead (literally of the dead and of the living): The original word order matches the sequence of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the redemptive events that make Jesus our Lord.

we will all stand before the judgment seat of God: Paul reminds the Roman Christians that it is the Lord, not other Christians, who will ultimately judge all of us (cp. 2 Cor 5:10).

This quotation is from Isa 49:18; 45:23. In its original context, Isa 45:23 is surrounded by assertions of God’s sovereignty (Isa 45:22, 24). Only the sovereign God has the right to stand in judgment (Rom 14:10, 12).

• This verse acts as a bridge. Let’s stop condemning each other summarizes 14:1–12, while the concern about causing another believer to stumble and fall becomes the major emphasis of 14:14–23.
• stumble and fall: This phrase originally applied to obstacles that could trip people as they walked, or to traps into which a person might fall. It is used metaphorically throughout the New Testament for behavior that might bring spiritual harm to another person (see 1 Cor 8:9, 13; 1 Jn 2:10; cp. Matt 21:42–44; Luke 20:17–18; Rom 9:32–33; 1 Pet 2:8).

• no food, in and of itself, is wrong to eat (literally nothing is common in itself): The word common signals that the root concern that Paul was addressing was Jewish purity regulations. Jews described food as common if it was not clean (i.e., not kosher), thereby causing a Jew to become ritually impure (see Lev 11; cp. Mark 7:2, 5; Acts 10:14). Paul again follows the teaching of Jesus that “every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes” (Mark 7:19).
• for that person it is wrong: The truth that no food is wrong to eat was not easy for pious Jews to accept because they had been raised to honor God by avoiding certain foods. Paul urges those who are strong in faith not to force others to violate their consciences (cp. 1 Cor 8:1–13).

The word translated ruin (Greek apollumi, “destroy”) is often applied to eternal damnation (see 2:12; Matt 10:28; 18:14; Luke 9:24; 13:2–5; John 3:16; 10:10, 28; 1 Cor 1:18–19; Jas 4:12; 2 Pet 3:9). By insisting on their freedom to eat whatever they want, the strong might cause sensitive Jewish Christians for whom Christ died to turn away from the faith.

The work of God refers both to the spiritual life of other Christians (14:15) and to the Christian community itself (14:19). The strong, with their dogged insistence on doing whatever they want, create division and disrupt God’s intention to build a healthy and united community of believers.

or drink wine: Jews sometimes abstained from wine to avoid the appearance of ritual contamination, since wine was used in pagan religious celebrations (see Dan 1:3–16).

• keep it between yourself and God: Paul did not contest the freedom of the strong believers, but he instructed them to limit the expression of their freedom out of love for fellow believers so that the whole Christian community could be built up.
• Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty: Guilt could come from harming the faith of the weak believers. Christian freedom is only worthwhile when it can be lived out without bringing such guilt.

If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning: God’s word defines sin for us, yet sin also involves violating our conscience. The weak Christians in Rome did not yet believe in their own hearts that they could eat meat, drink wine, or ignore Jewish holy days; their consciences were still weak. They should not violate their consciences on these matters. Nor should the strong, by the power of their example or by their scorn, force weak Christians to do so.