A. Christian liberty (14:1–12)
7. Christian Liberty And Christian Charity (14:1–15:6)
A. Christian liberty (14:1–12)
Paul enjoyed his Christian liberty to the full. Never was a Christian more thoroughly emancipated than he from un-Christian inhibitions and taboos. So completely was he emancipated from spiritual bondage that he was not even in bondage to his emancipation. He conformed to the Jewish way of life when he was in Jewish society as cheerfully as he went along with Gentile ways when he was living with Gentiles. The interests of the gospel and the highest well-being of men and women were paramount considerations with him; to these he subordinated everything else.
But he knew very well that many other Christians were not so completely emancipated as he was, and he insisted that these must be treated gently. A Christian’s ‘faith’ in many respects might be weak, immature and uninstructed; but he must be welcomed warmly as a Christian and not challenged forthwith to a debate about those areas of life in which he is still unemancipated.
Paul mentions two areas of life in which this was liable to happen, and then enlarges on one of them. One was food; the other was the religious observance of certain days. Some Christians (like Paul himself) had no qualms of conscience about taking any kind of food; others had scruples about certain kinds. Some (again like Paul) made no distinction between more and less sacred days, regarding every day as ‘holy to the Lord’; others felt that some days were holier than others. What is to be done when Christians of such different convictions find themselves in the same fellowship? Must they start to thrash the matter out, one side determined to convert the other? No, says Paul; let each one be satisfied in his own mind and conscience. Those who enjoy greater liberty must not despise others as being spiritually immature; those who have conscientious scruples must not criticize their fellow-Christians for doing what they themselves would not do. Each Christian is the servant of Christ; it is to Christ that each is accountable, both here and hereafter. Christ died, and is Lord of the dead; Christ lives, and is Lord of the living.
It is not for one Christian to sit in judgment on another—can we hear an echo of our Lord’s ‘Judge not, that you be not judged’ (Matt. 7:1)?—for it is at God’s tribunal that all must appear to render account and receive due assessment.
With these words Paul insists uncompromisingly on the principle of Christian liberty. ‘A Christian is a most free lord of all, subject to none’ (Luther).1
1. Weak in faith. Not yet mature enough to grasp that all kinds of food are equally kosher (‘fit’), all days equally holy.
Not for disputes over opinions. ‘Without attempting to settle doubtful points’ (NEB).
2. The weak man eats only vegetables. Perhaps because of vegetarian principles, but more probably in order to avoid eating the flesh of animals that had been sacrificed to pagan deities or not properly slaughtered according to Jewish law (cf. Dan. 1:8, 12).
4. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. Cf. Matthew 7:3–5; Luke 6:37, 41–42; and especially Paul’s own words in 1 Corinthians 4:3–5, ‘with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court … It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes.’ The word rendered ‘servant’ here is oiketēs, ‘domestic servant’, not doulos, ‘slave’.
5. Another man esteems all days alike. There is no word in the Greek text corresponding to ‘alike’, although it is added here to complete the sense. It need not mean that ‘another man’ treats every day as secular; it may mean that he treats every day as equally to be dedicated to the service of God, and this was certainly Paul’s attitude.
6. He who observes the day, observes it in honour of the Lord. Therefore, ‘let no one pass judgment on you … with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath’ (Col. 2:16). Paul says no more at present about the observance of special days, presumably because this was not a live issue at the time in the Christian community of Rome, as it had been some years before in the churches of Galatia (Gal. 4:10).
He also who eats, eats in honour of the Lord. Therefore, ‘let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink’ (Col. 2:16).
He who abstains … gives thanks to God. That is to say, he says grace for the food that his conscience permits him to eat (not for what he abstains from), just as the Christian with a robust conscience says grace for the indiscriminate food that he takes. In either case the food is sanctified by the thanksgiving (cf. 1 Cor. 10:30; 1 Tim. 4:3–5).
7. None of us lives to himself. What Paul means, as verse 8 shows, is that each Christian lives out his life in Christ’s sight, and as Christ’s servant; but a corollary of this is that each Christian’s life affects his fellow-Christians and his fellow-men and women in general; therefore he should consider his responsibility to them, and not consult his own interests only.
9. Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord … By virtue of his death he is Lord of the dead; by virtue of his resurrection he is Lord of the living. Therefore in life and death alike his people are his; he is Lord of all (Phil. 2:11).
10. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? There is no sin to which Christians—especially ‘keen’ Christians—are more prone than the sin of censoriousness. The apostle’s words are seriously intended. ‘Should a man not lay his hand upon his mouth before he criticizes his brethren? When we pass swift, uninformed, unloving and ungenerous judgments, surely we have forgotten that if we speak evil of them, at the same time we speak evil of the Lord whose name they bear.’2
We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. The judgment seat is the bēma, or tribunal. There is no difference between this tribunal and the ‘judgment seat of Christ’ (2 Cor. 5:10). From the earlier part of the second century there has been a tendency to assimilate the reading of our present text to that of 2 Corinthians 5:10 (cf. AV).
11. ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.’ Quoted from Isaiah 45:23, ‘By myself I have sworn, … “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” ’ The same passage is applied in Philippians 2:10–11 to the eventual paying of universal homage to Christ. Here it is designed to emphasize that in the end each of us shall give account of himself to God (verse 12).