The Weaker Brother Or Sister
THE WEAKER BROTHER OR SISTER
ROMANS 14:1-6
How should we respond to other Christians who differ from us on relatively minor issues?
The sudden raising of the matter of “the one who is weak in faith” is a little puzzling. The unliberated Christian was a common problem. In Colossae, in the Lycus valley, the legalism which was a mark of the type Paul has in mind, had attached itself to strange doctrines and elaborate superstitions, and called down the apostle’s vigorous denunciation. In Galatia the deviant Christians had cluttered their faith with elements from a discarded Judaism. In Rome, as in Corinth, the group whose inadequacies Paul recognized seems not to have been coherent or powerful. They are weaker brothers and sisters, and are not addressed directly. They are mentioned because they constitute a real problem for the Christian community.
We have already quoted 1 Corinthians chapter 8. In the course of the argument of that letter, Paul saw that his own liberty was curtailed in love because its full exercise might cause misunderstanding among those who did not share his insight into the meaning of the freedom he had found in Christ. Likewise here. He tells the community at large not to argue with “the weak in faith,” but receive that person, presumably in the spirit of Christian love and understanding which has been a theme of the last two chapters. The weak, in such fellowship, could become strong.
Who were these “weaklings”? We have suggested that the Roman church was a mixed body. There would be Jews who had recognized Christ, and with them Gentile proselytes, who had first turned to Judaism from the vice and paganism of their world, and then had moved on to Christ. Thirdly, there would be Gentile converts who had come to Christ directly. It may, indeed, have been difficult for converted Jews and proselytes to grasp in full significance that it was all of faith. No prohibitions and taboos based on law and regulation now existed. It was now a matter of faith, and after that of love. It was a weakness of faith not to move to freedom.