Now him that is weak in the faith receive, not to [the] determining of questions of reasoning.
Romans 14 turns from doctrine to daily life: how believers treat each other when they disagree. It opens with a command rather than a debate — welcome the one who is weak in faith, and do not drag him into arguments.
The word "weak" is often taken as an excuse for careless living. One writer rules that out:
The words "the one who is weak in faith" do not mean someone who treats sin lightly — people often apply them that way, to drunkenness and the like. They mean a believer who, because of prejudices left over from the law, was anxious about days, foods, and so on. The question is about ritual, not morals.
So what is he short of? Not love for Christ, but a full grasp of where he stands:
Those weak in the faith knew Christ and loved Him, but they did not yet fully know their position in Christ. They did not realise that keeping certain days, or avoiding certain foods and drinks, could not affect their salvation in any way. They had worries and troubled consciences, as God's people still do.
The command rests on the fact of a person's faith, not on the size of it:
"Welcome the one who is weak in faith." That is the plain, direct command of the Lord. He knows His sheep, and He will reject no one who truly comes to Him (John 6:37). We receive him as a believer, whatever the degree or measure of his faith. That measure can vary widely. There are babies who need milk, as well as grown men who eat solid food (Heb. 5:12-14).
This welcome starts in the heart:
Receiving those weak in the faith (Rom. 14:1) means nothing more than this: do not reject them in heart and spirit because they were weak about Jewish prejudices and the like. One man ate herbs, another meat. One man kept Good Friday — so to speak. Own them warmly, as you would anyone else. Only do not puzzle them with mere questions they cannot bear.
The second half of the verse blocks a common abuse: welcoming someone so you can sort out his opinions. The cure for weak faith is teaching, not debate:
We are not to receive them so that we can start arguing over points of difference. Such arguments would indeed be a "quarrel over opinions," or, in another rendering, the "determining of questions of reasoning." Those who are strong must remember something: the "weak" brother is weak in his grasp of "the faith," not in his power to reason. So what he needs is a larger understanding of the whole truth of God. Teach him that with patience, and many of these questions will settle themselves.
The command cuts both ways, and neither side may use reception as leverage:
The one received must not think that his welcome also welcomes his own views about foods or days. And those who receive a man with a conscience about such things must not use the occasion to interfere with his convictions before the Lord.
The verse guards against error on both flanks:
We may make a mistake either way. We may grow so narrow that we reject a brother who is weak in faith. Or we may turn our welcome of a fault-finding person into a settling of doubtful questions and speculative reasonings. The Holy Spirit would have us avoid both extremes with care.
So if agreement on side issues is not the test, what is?
If a soul is weak in the faith this way, that is no reason at all to dispute with him. Let us instead see where a man's heart is toward the Person of the Lord: the rest is of no real consequence. As he gains experience and learns more of the blessed Word of God, much that is unnecessary will drop off. The subject in Romans is not reception to the breaking of bread, though the truth here certainly bears on it. "Receiving" is showing fellowship as one Christian to another. Nothing looks worse than arguing over points of no importance when Christians meet face to face.
- Weak, not wayward — he is careful about ritual matters like days and foods, not loose about sin. The question is ritual, never moral.
- Weak in grasp, not in mind — his problem is a small hold on the truth of God, so teaching, not arguing, is the remedy.
- Received on faith alone — we welcome him because he believes, whatever the measure of that faith. Babies and grown men both belong.
- Welcome without conditions — welcoming him does not approve his opinions. It gives no one the right to overrule his conscience.
- Two ditches, one road — refusing him is too narrow. Cross-examining him goes too far. The road between: see where his heart stands toward Christ, and leave the rest to grow.
One man is assured that he may eat all things; but the weak eats herbs.
Paul turns to two believers at one table who hold opposite convictions about food. He calls one of them "weak," yet never tells him to change his diet — so what do believers owe each other when their consciences differ?
The word "weak" here is often misapplied to someone loose about sin.
By "him who is weak in the faith," Paul does not mean someone who would trifle with sin. People often apply the phrase that way — to drunkenness and the like. He means a believer who, from prejudices left over from the law, was strict about days, meats, and similar things. The question is about ritual, not morals.
The believers in Rome came from two very different backgrounds. Each one carried its own temptation.
It was difficult for a Jew to rid himself of the sense of difference between days and between meats. A Gentile, having abandoned his whole religious system as idolatrous, held to nothing. Here human nature can sin on both sides — a lack of conscience, an unbridled will, and a ceremonial conscience. Christianity recognises neither of these things. It delivers us from the question of days and meats by making us heavenly with Christ. But it teaches us to bear with conscientious weakness, and to be conscientious ourselves. Conscience cannot, and has no right to, prescribe some new thing to us as a duty. But through ignorance it may hold on to a traditional thing as binding.
Being right does not make you safe. Each of these two men has his own way of going wrong about the other.
No doubt the one who believed he could eat all things thought far more rightly than the one who made a point of eating vegetables. Still, such prejudices, or their absence, gave no ground for making little of the weak or for judging the strong. There was a double danger. The one who knew his liberty might despise the man with scruples. The man with scruples might judge the free man harshly. But such weakness is no more foolish than such strength is careless — just as God's love is always holy and always free.
The chapter never settles the menu. It works on something else instead.
Paul's main question is not "Who is right?" or even "What is right?" It is this: "How can we deal with our brothers and sisters in a Christian and Christ-honouring way?" For the strong brother, that raises a further question. Will he use his Christian liberty, and how? When would it be better to give it up? For the weak brother, it raises the question of whether he should judge others by his own conscience.
Welcoming someone does not mean you take on his convictions. It also does not give you a licence to work on him until he drops them.
So do not shun the weak in the faith; receive them. Still, no one should use that welcome as a way to settle mere questions. The one who is received must not think that this welcome takes in his particular views about meats or days. And when you receive someone who has a conscience about these things, do not use the moment to interfere with his convictions before the Lord.
Neither man earned his place by his diet. So neither may use his diet against the other.
The strong are to receive the weak in the faith, and the weak are to receive the strong. Both alike are debtors to grace. This principle shows us how very tender we should be with the scruples of a fellow believer. It also shows how very slow we should be to judge someone who allows himself more liberty than we allow ourselves.
We owe patience to a person's private conscience. We do not owe it to a rule pressed on everyone else.
A person may have faith about certain things, and perfect liberty in his own mind — about days, or foods, or many other minor things. But his faith or his liberty should not lead him to act in a way that stumbles his weak brother. This is the spirit and teaching of this whole beautiful chapter. Of course, someone might try to force a yoke on the necks of the disciples — eating only vegetables, keeping away from meats, or observing days. Then it would be our place to resist with uncompromising decision.
- Weak, not wayward. The difference here is about ritual, not morals — days and foods, never drunkenness or sin.
- Weak, and right to be careful. You cannot overrule a conscience shaped by an old background. Christianity teaches us to bear with weak consciences — and to be conscientious ourselves.
- Weak and strong both stumble. One is tempted to despise, the other to judge. Weakness is not folly, and strength is not carelessness.
- Weak, yet received. Both stand as debtors to grace. So the welcome never depends on the plate, and never comes with terms.
- Weak consciences, not weak rules. We owe patience to a brother's private scruple. But when someone forces that scruple on everyone as a yoke, we resist it.
Let not him that eats make little of him that eats not; and let not him that eats not judge him that eats for God has received him.
Paul is writing to believers who disagreed about food. One man ate freely, another kept to vegetables — and each had a distinct way of wronging the other.
The verse names two faults, not one, and each belongs to a different man:
When we judge things differently, our first natural impulse is to start interfering with one another. The one who eats will despise the one who does not eat. Such scruples look narrow-minded in the extreme to him. The one who does not eat will judge and condemn the eater. He can see that freedom only as licence taken without any right.
Paul does not settle the argument by naming a winner. One view is better informed, yet neither man may correct the other:
No doubt the man who believed he could eat anything was far more right in his thinking than the man who ate only vegetables. Still, such prejudices, or the lack of them, gave no ground for making little of the weak or for judging the strong. There was a double danger of fault. The man who knew his liberty might despise the careful man, and the careful man might judge the free. But that weakness is no more folly than that strength is looseness, just as divine love is always holy while always free. God has received the believer. This is said with emphasis about the man whom the weak judged to be taking too much licence.
Weakness here is not sin and not unbelief. It is a limited grasp of what belonging to Christ already secures:
Those weak in the faith did not have the complete knowledge of their position in Christ, though they knew Christ and loved Him. They did not realise that certain observances of days, or abstinences from meats and drinks, could not affect their salvation in any way. There were scruples and conscientious difficulties, as there still are among God's people.
The difficulty is conscience, not rebellion. One writer draws the line between a man who is mistaken and a man who is corrupt:
An ignorant conscience is a very different thing from a defiled conscience... But the case is very different for the man who holds impressions that may be quite mistaken, far from what fuller light would produce. He still walks with pure intent under those impressions, as under a yoke God has placed on his neck.
Paul ends the dispute by pointing away from both men to God. God did not receive either man because of his diet:
The Apostle instructs us that in such matters there is to be mutual forbearance. For this he gives three reasons. First, God has received both the weak and the strong. His reception of us did not depend upon our eating, or not eating, certain foods. Secondly, in such matters we stand or fall to our own Master, and we are not to judge another man's servants. Thirdly, the Lord is able to sustain us and make us stand, even if in such matters we are weak in the faith.
Reception runs both ways, and it rests on the same ground for each man:
The strong is to receive the weak in the faith, and the weak is to receive the strong, because both alike are debtors to grace. This principle shows how very tender we should be with the scruples of a fellow believer. It also shows how very slow we should be to judge someone who takes more liberty than we allow ourselves.
The problem is not the position either man holds. It is the office each one claims over the other:
The thing that is really unwarranted is not the apparent narrow vision of the one, nor the apparent wide licence of the other. It is taking up the work of a judge, which belongs to the great Master of us all alone.
Commentators warn against stretching this verse beyond food and days. It is not a permission to believe anything we like:
We must remember, of course, that the Apostle is not raising any question about doctrine here. He is not speaking of the faith. We are not free to believe what we like. A faith has been revealed and committed to us. If a question arises about truth or doctrine, revelation is the only appeal.
The freedom also collapses the moment one side tries to make its scruple binding on everyone:
Of course, someone might try to force the eating of vegetables, the avoiding of meat, or the keeping of days on the necks of the disciples as a yoke. Then it would be our place to resist without compromise.
- Received first. God received both men, and His welcome never rested on what they ate.
- Received differently. One is weak: he has not yet grasped his position in Christ. The other is strong. Yet that strength is no more a merit than that weakness is a folly.
- Received mutually. Both are debtors to grace. So the strong receives the careful man, and the careful man receives the free.
- Received by a Master. To despise or to condemn is to take a seat that belongs to the Master alone. Each servant stands or falls before Him.
- Received, not unlimited. This covers scruples, not doctrine. It ends where anyone tries to bind his scruple on another's neck.
Who art *thou* that judgest the servant of another? to his own master he stands or falls. And he shall be made to stand; for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Paul is writing to believers in Rome who disagreed over food and sacred days. Each side had begun to look down on the other. Into that quarrel he puts a question that takes the case out of human hands: the person you criticise belongs to someone else.
The word Paul uses for "servant" here comes from the life of a household:
oiketes, "household servant." Luke 16:13; Acts 10:7; Rom. 14:4; 1 Peter 2:18.
So the objection is not that either side had the wrong opinion. It is that both had taken up a role that was never theirs:
"Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?" asks the Apostle. What a fitting question! The thing that is truly out of order is neither the seeming narrowness of the one nor the seeming looseness of the other. It is taking up the judge's role, which belongs to the great Master of us all alone. To that Master we stand or fall, and we can count on His support, as the last part of the verse says, to our encouragement.
Stepping into that place is not simply rude to the brother. It reaches past him:
In the first place, conscience decides what is right and what is wrong, as far as it goes, and a man acts at his own peril. Note this too. A man may get light from God's revelation, but God is and will be the final judge, and the conscience must regard Him so. Conscience answers to God directly. No one can step in between the conscience and God so as to destroy God's right. The apostle asks, "Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls." To come in between God and the conscience is not to touch man's rights, but God's.
Read with the verse before it, this one supplies a chain of arguments:
The Apostle instructs us that, in such matters, there is to be mutual forbearance. For this he gives three reasons. First, God has received both, the weak and the strong. His reception of us did not depend upon our eating, or not eating, certain meats. Second, in such matters we stand or fall to our own Master, and we are not to judge another man's servants. Third, the Lord is able to hold us up and make us stand, even if in such matters we are weak in the faith.
The last clause is not a throwaway. Critics tend to predict where a brother's freedom will end up, and Paul answers the prediction directly:
He adds a lovely word, no doubt in answer to many a bitter guess about where their liberty would end: "And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand." For the strong have no strength of their own, but grace will hold them up. Would we want it any other way, if we could? Do we not delight that all is from Him?
Paul lived by this himself. Apollos would not fall in with his wish, and Paul let it rest:
He might have insisted that, as the apostle of the Gentiles, Apollos should bow to his wish. Instead, he accepts that Apollos had a will in the matter. Apollos was responsible to the Lord, not to Paul, for where he went in His service. Here we learn a lesson: one servant of the Lord should not try to force his will on another servant, but should leave each one to act before the Lord.
Commentators warn against stretching the verse. It covers personal scruples, not forcing them on others:
A man may have faith about certain things and perfect liberty in his own mind, whether about days or foods or many other minor things. But his faith or his liberty should not lead him to act in a way that trips up his weak brother. This is the spirit and teaching of this whole beautiful chapter, this lovely summary of Christian morals. Of course, if anyone tried to force the eating of herbs, abstinence from meats or the keeping of days on the disciples as a yoke, it would be our place to resist without compromise.
- Received — the argument starts where God started. He received both the strong and the weak, and food was never the condition.
- Owned — the word is "household servant." He belongs to another home, and his own Master settles whether he stands or falls.
- Trespass — pushing in between a conscience and God does not injure a man's rights; it injures God's.
- Upheld — the sentence ends in grace, not in warning. The strong have no strength of their own, and the Lord is able to hold up the weak.
- Limit — leave liberty free, but never turn it into a yoke. When anyone presses his scruples on others as law, resist it.