Strong and Weak Believers Neither to Despise nor to Judge Each Other. Verses 1 to 12.
Perfect Liberty in this Dispensation; but Each Must Walk According to Conscience. Verses 11 to 23.
1 But him that is weak in faith, receive ye, yet not for decision, of
[his] scruples [ for him]. 2 One man hath faith to eat all things: but
he that is weak eateth herbs. 3 Let not him that eateth set at nought
him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth not judge him that
eateth: for God hath received him. 4 Who art thou that judgest the
house-servant of another? to his own Master he standeth or falleth.
Yea, he shall be made to stand; for the Lord hath power to make him
stand.
5 One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day
[alike]. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. 6 He that
regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord: and he that eateth,
eateth unto the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not,
unto the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
7 For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. 8 For
whether we live, we live unto the Lord: or whether we die, we die unto
the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For
to this end Christ died and lived again, that He [and none else] might
rule over both the dead and the living.
10 But thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or thou again, why dost
thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the
judgment-seat of God.
11 For it is written,
As I live, saith the Lord, to Me every knee shall bow.
And every tongue shall confess to God.
12 So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.
PAUL, IN THIS Fourteenth Chapter, and the following one, directs his
instruction chiefly “to the ‘strong,’ who can bear it, while indirectly
showing the state of the ‘weak’! Those weak in faith, like babes, are
not able to take much nourishment at once; while those who are strong
are often not willing to receive what seems to reflect upon their
vigor. To have faith before God, secretly, hiding it from the weaker
brother, for his sake, until he becomes stronger, is not easy: it
requires walking in love, which is always costly to the one loving!
Verse 1: But him that is weak in faith receive ye, yet not for decison
of [his] scruples [for him]—As to receiving and welcoming into our
fellowship believers less instructed or with weaker faith than
ourselves, let us note what our attitude should be, (1) toward those
less instructed or of weaker faith than ourselves; and (2) toward those
with greater knowledge, and liberty of conscience, than ourselves.
There are those who are “weak” in faith. They have true faith, they
have Christ; but, because of traditional or legal teaching; or perhaps
through Satan’s accusations on account of former sins; or through not
grasping the fact of their death with Christ and their present and
eternal union with Him; or possibly because of habits of introspection
and self-accusation, or even through unsubdued sin,—for some or all of
these reasons, they are “weak.”
Such weak ones are to be received. Of course, in these days, when that
sweet powerful fellowship of the early Christian assemblies, that
consciousness of the presence in the assembly of the Holy Spirit, and
so of the Risen Christ, is rare, there is difficulty in making clear
the meaning of the word “receive. Ecclesiastical procedure has so
usurped the place and prerogatives of the saints’ acting by the
conscious will of the Holy Spirit, as largely to obliterate the meaning
of these words, “receive ye.” People say, Was not so and so received
into the church by the pastor and officers? “Official action” has
supplanted the saints’ blessed ministry of receiving, as described here.
Nevertheless, we must go directly to Scripture in this serious,
practical matter. By “receiving” the weak brother, is not meant
allowing him to “join the church”; but acknowledging him, by the
discernment of the Spirit, to be a man of faith (even though his name
be Mr. Ready-to-halt). Thus he and we are members one of another, being
in Christ. And there is the same welcome in the assembly to this
feebler member as to the most gifted teacher of the Word among us. It
is not that he has been “officially recognized,” but that he has been
discerned generally and welcomed, in the Spirit.
He is to be received,—but not to decide for him his conscientious
scruples. No one’s conscience but his own can direct him. He may be
taught the Word, however, and God will bring him along. He must not be
forced. If he have faith, though it be but weak faith, he is among us
not by our action, but by Christ’s.
What a terrible contrast to the teaching of this Scripture is presented
by the “close communion” people, and the “exclusivists,” of all sorts.
Unless a man pronounces “shibboleth” their way, there is not the
thought of receiving him. This is the Pharisaism of the last days. And
sad to say it is most found among those most enlightened in the truth,
for “knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up.” We are profoundly
convinced that if those who now “exclude” so readily those differing
from them were filled with love, filled with the Holy Ghost, not only
would there be deliverance from the awful wickedness of
“exclusiveness,” but there would be hundreds, even thousands, of hungry
believers flocking into fellowship, where they would be lovingly
greeted just as they are! Further teaching for them can wait: but
receive them!
Where faith in Christ in the least degree is found, we should be
thankfully delighted, and should welcome such believers. All believers
have not the same knowledge, nor the same freedom from tradition, nor
the same strength of appropriating faith. We have no right to say to
believers, “Sit back, until we are satisfied about you.” This puts your
will between believers and fellowship with God’s saints.
Verse 2: One man hath faith to eat all things: but he that is weak eateth herbs.
In this verse Paul illustrates the strength and weakness of faith in a
way that not only the Jewish believers of his day, but also people in
our day, instantly understand. Faith to eat all things: “Faith” here
means knowledge and heart- persuasion that Jewish distinctions of meats
do not exist in this dispensation, which knowledge, one having, could
eat any food with thankfulness, and with no scruples. Though certain
flesh had been forbidden to an Israelite, and may be still regarded as
an improper food by many, yet the strong believer remembers how our
Lord Himself “made all meats clean” (Mark 7:19); and how Peter,
insisting on regarding “all manner of four-footed beasts and creeping
things and birds” as “common and unclean,” heard God say thrice over,
“What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.”260
To eat all things—At man’s creation, God gave him the “green herb” and
the fruits of “trees yielding seed.” After the Flood, God gave man
“every moving thing that liveth,” to be food for him (Gen. 9:3). Today,
all these foods are for us: herbs, fruits, flesh (and that of “all
manner of four-footed beasts and creeping things of the earth and birds
of the heaven”—Acts 10:12); and Paul also commands Timothy to “use a
little wine for his stomach’s sake, and his often infirmities.”
Christian freedom, then, takes no account of former restrictions of
either food or drink, except for the weak brother’s sake. “All things
are clean” must be allowed to cover all things, whether of food or
drink. The only restricting thought is of the “weak” brother who does
not see this.261
But he that is weak eateth herbs—Mark this! The “vegetarian,” if so by
conscience, is a “weak” brother. There even, are those today who esteem
themselves particularly “strong,” in abstaining from eating flesh,
although God says, meats were “created to be received with
thanksgiving, by them that believe and [also] know the truth. For every
creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be
received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified through the Word of
God and prayer” (I Tim. 4:3-5). To make distinctions of meats where God
has set aside such distinctions, is sad weakness indeed,—and sometimes
presumption. However, presumptuous people are not in view in Romans
14:2, but simply those whose faith is not strong enough to enable them
to eat the food they have been accustomed to regard as “forbidden.”
Verse 3: Let not him that eateth set at nought him that eateth not—Here
is a solemn charge to the stronger brother. He that is strong in the
liberty of faith is directed not to “set at nought” the weaker one.
This applies not to eating only, but to the matter of regarding days,
and to any other things people have “scruples” about. How a strong man
loves to walk with a little child, holding his hand gently, and not
ridiculing or scorning his weakness! Let us walk thus with weaker
brethren!
And let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth—The weaker
brother is not to “judge” the stronger. And note, in the case of the
stronger, are used the words, For God hath received him. Doubtless God
has received the weaker brother also. But do you know it is much more
difficult for us really to believe in our hearts that God approves a
man of wide Christian liberty, than to believe that God approves a man
of many conscientious scruples? Yet the man of wide, strong faith, is
honoring the work of Christ, as the man of trembling conscience has not
yet come to do!
Verse 4: Paul writes this verse directly regarding this judging,
whether secret or open, of Christ’s stronger servants by weaker ones;
and thus he encourages Christian freedom: Who art thou that judgest
another’s house-servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea,
he shall be made to stand; for the Lord hath power to make him stand—
despite the criticisms and judgings of those who have not his faith.
It is striking, and tenderly suggestive, that the word “servant” in
this verse is “household servant,” or, as we have shortened,
“house-servant.” How would we, as masters of houses, feel, if, having
invited a number of guests to dinner, we should overhear one of these
guests criticizing the servant who waited upon him! Now Christ is Head
over God’s house, and all believers are servants of Christ. Let no one
undertake to judge, therefore, a servant of Another—before whom we
shall all shortly stand!
And meanwhile, no matter what are our failures, or the attitude of
others toward us, the fact remains that our Lord “hath power to make us
stand,” before Him,—our only Judge. What a deep comfort these words are!
Verse 5: One man regardeth one day to be above another: another
regardeth every day [alike]. Let each man be fully assured in his own
mind. Here Paul takes up the “day question,”—a live one to this hour!
You instantly say. Is not the Lord’s Day above others? No, not in
itself, as a “holy” day, in the sense that the Sabbath was and will be
to Israel. Paul shows this plainly in his exhortation of Colossians
2:16: “Let no man judge you . . . in respect of . . . a sabbath day.”
For, says he, you died with Christ unto earthly religious things; and
must not now “observe” them. This passage shows that the first day of
the week is not the “sabbath” at all. All those days of Judaism were
“shadows.” “But the body is Christ’s.” But you say, I am not a Jew; the
day has been changed. To which I answer, you speak as might a Jew; for
the day has not been “changed.” There is but one weekly Sabbath known
in Scripture and that is the seventh day. It will even be observed
again weekly, in the land of Israel, after “the six working days,” of
every week in the coming age, the Millennium (Ezek. 46:1, 3, 4).
Because men have been wrongly taught or influenced, whether by
Judaizing believers in the early Christian centuries, or alas, by
Reformers and Puritans since the Reformation, most Christians regard
the first day of the week as “the weekly Sabbath,” a “holy day,”—which
entirely defeats its proper Scripture use. It substitutes a stern legal
must for grace’s sweet word, privilege. “The so-called Puritan teaching
here has been rightly called ‘an adulterous theology’; because it
sought to marry believers to both husbands, to the Law and to Christ”
(Scofield).
Howbeit, let us remain in the spirit of this fifth verse, which is one
of love: Another regardeth every day (alike). The weak brother, still
influenced in his conscience by legal considerations, held the first
day of the week262 as peculiar and sacred in itself. He invested it
with the restrictions of a Jewish sabbath, insead of hailing it with
fresh joy each week as an opportunity for remembering, with other
Christians, his Lord; and our place in the new creation with Him.
Now, the strong believer regarded every day alike. Each day alike was
an opportunity for him to be filled with the Spirit, and in everything
by word or deed giving thanks unto God the Father through Him. No day,
thus, was holy in itself, above another! Privilege there was on the
Lord’s Day, but no bondage. Paul’s instruction is, Let each man be
fully assured in his own mind. Moses never could have said a thing like
that! There is a sense in which these words reveal our liberty in
Christ as does no other single passage. The Law allowed no liberty of
action in such things: its very spirit and essence was bondage to a
letter. Conscience was judged beforehand by the letter of the Law;
conduct was prescribed. When a man gathered sticks on the Sabbath, he
was stoned! Not so, now! Not being under the Law, or the legal
principle, but in the Risen Christ, under God’s eternal favor, we have
entered upon what the Spirit, in Chapter Twelve, calls our “intelligent
service.” Here is an amazing sphere of holy freedom in which each of
us, learning the truth, is treated as a king in the realm of his own
mind. Instead of being told what he must or must not do, he is freely
exhorted to assure his own mind and heart fully, and walk as Christ’s
free man. Read Alford’s trenchant note below.263
6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord: and he that
eateth, eateth unto the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that
doth not eat, unto the Lord he doth not eat, and giveth thanks to God.
7 For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. 8 For
whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto
the Lord; whether therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to
this end Christ died and lived again, that He might rule over both the
dead and the living.
Verse 6: These verses, of course, contemplate true believers only, those who “give God thanks.”
Here we have some regarding the day as holy in itself, Jewish believers
especially, not fully delivered from the Law, would have tender
consciences about days. But if they knew the Lord, it would be toward
the Lord their consciences could be exercised, and they must be
considered in love on that account; love would see through their eyes!
Again, there were those with greater knowledge and liberty who
“regarded not the day,” knowing that every day, for those risen in
Christ, is alike: the first day of the week being not a sabbath, but
rather the celebration of our Lord’s resurrection which delivered us
from legal things. Ignatius (martyred about 115 A.D.) said, “Those who
were concerned with old things have come to newness of confidence, no
longer keeping Sabbaths, but living according to the Lord’s Day, on
whom our life, as risen again, through Him, depends.” And Justin
Martyr, (martyred about 168 A.D.) when reproached by Trypho with
“giving up the Sabbath,” said, “How can we keep the Sabbath, who rest
from sin all the days of the week?”
Let those of legal tendencies mark this: that a man may regard not what
we regard, and do so “unto the Lord.” Then the man who has liberty to
eat all things, eats “unto the Lord,” and gives God thanks. And again,
(let the stronger brother consider) there are those that eat not as
“unto the Lord,” giving God thanks.
Verses 7, 8, 9: The argument of verses 7, 8 and 9 is that each one of
us is living or dying absolutely unto the Lord,—whose we are. We are
not in any sense one another’s lords! but belong to Christ alone, who
died and lived that He might rule over us all,—and not we be lords of
each other! or of the faith of others! Therefore comes the searching
question:
Verses 10-12: But thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or thou,
again, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand
before the judgment-seat of God.
For it is written:
As I live, saith the Lord, to Me every knee shall bow, [not to men].
And every tongue shall confess to God.
So then each one of us shall give account concerning himself to God—[not to men].
The best manuscripts read “the judgment-seat of God” in verse 10: thus
accommodating the words to the quotation from the Old Testament (Isa.
14:23). This word “God” is also used in Romans 14:12, as we see;
although we know from II Corinthians 5:10, it will actually be before
the judgment-seat of Christ that believers will be called. (Always
remembering that Christ is God the Son.) Also, that “the Father has
given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22).
Of course we know from our Lord’s words in John 3:18 and 5:24, that
condemnatory judgment cannot be applied to believers here, for, “He
that believeth on Him is not judged”; “Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath
eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of
death into life.” In Revelation 20, also, the saved, the “blessed and
holy,” partake of the first resurrection; and over them the second
death, the penalty of the lost, 1000 years later, has “no authority.”
Nevertheless, we must not allow this blessed fact to dull the force of
the solemn question propounded to us by our beloved apostle Paul, as to
how we dare either judge or despise our brother? seeing that such
action involves presumptuous forgetfulness both of the fact that we are
not judges; and of the other fact that we shall all, though saved,
stand before the judgment-seat of God and each “give an account of
himself” to Him. In II Corinthians 5:10, of this judgment-seat (bema)
for believers this is said: “We must all be made manifest before the
judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in
the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
In I Corinthians 3:13-15, we see that “if any man’s work shall abide .
. . he shall receive a reward.” It is a matter of reward for our
service, and not salvation, that is here in question. “If any man’s
work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be
saved; yet so as through fire”— that is, losing, as one whose house is
burned, all his goods, though himself delivered. The whole emphasis
here in Romans 14:12, is that each gives an account concerning
himself—not of others; and to God instead of to man!
The reading “judgment-seat of Christ,” Romans 14:10, would seem to
agree both with II Corinthians 5:10, and the whole spirit of the
preceding verses here, especially verse 9. We know also that the Father
has committed to the Son all judgment, both of believers and
unbelievers (John 5:22, 27; Acts 17:31). But that it is before God
(instead of a fellow-man) that all will bow, is being emphasized; and
Christ is God, and will, we believe, as Man be the Judge, even at the
Great White Throne of Revelation 20:11-15.
13 No longer, therefore, let us [Christians] be judging one another.
But do judge ye this, rather, that no man put an obstacle in his
brother’s way, or a snare. 14 I [personally] know and am persuaded in
the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself: save that to him who
reckoneth anything to be. unclean, to that one it is unclean. 15 For if
because of thy food thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in
love. Destroy not with thy food that one for whom Christ died!.
16,17 Let not then your good be evil spoken of. For the kingdom of God
is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit. 18 For the one herein serving Christ is well-pleasing to
God, and approved of men.
19 So then let us pursue things which make for peace, and things
whereby we may edify one. another. 20 Overthrow not for food’s sake the
work of God? All things indeed are clean; howbeit it is evil for that
man who eateth with stumbling. 21 It is noble not to eat flesh, nor to
drink wine, nor [to do] anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is
offended or is made weak. 22 The faith which thou hast, have thou to
thyself before God. Blessed is he that doth not judge himself in that
which he alloweth! 23 But he that doubteth is condemned if he eat,
because he eateth not of faith; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Verse 13: No longer, therefore, let us [Christians] be judging one
another. But do judge ye this, rather, that no man put a
stumbling-block in his brother’s way, or an occasion of falling.
Here now is indeed a field for judging! And it is ourselves, not our
brother, which we are to judge! And it is ours to see to it that no one
of us is, or is doing, aught that binders or stumbles any brother. If
these comments persuade any Christian to stop judging others and begin
to judge himself, it will indeed be a fruit unto God! A stumbling-block
is something in us that grieves a weaker brother; an occasion of
falling, signifies that which we may freely do, but which another,
undertaking, may in doing act against his own conscience, and therefore
sin. Literally, the word means “snare,” or “trap.”
Verse 14: I know [personally], and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that
nothing is unclean in itself: save that to him that reckoneth anything
to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.
Paul states in verse 14 his own knowledge and liberty,— which is our
pattern. Note carefully that knowledge comes first: “I know.”
“Persuasion in the Lord Jesus,” that is, full heart liberty, or freedom
of conscience, is second. There must be both,—not only knowledge of the
Christian’s freedom, but heart and conscience persuasion, if we would
walk in the liberty that belongs to the Christian. To such a one,
nothing is unclean “of itself.” Distinction of meats (as under Judaism)
is entirely gone; distinction of days (as under Judaism) is entirely
gone. It is only to those whose lack of knowledge or weakness of
conscience “accounts” or holds a thing to be unclean,—or, as we say,
“wrong,” that it is so. What a glorious deliverance! No place is left
for “religious fussing.” Christ, and the freedom that is in Him, fills
all heaven, our whole horizon, at every moment: “To me, to live is
Christ.”
But to the conscience not yet delivered (and real freedom of conscience
is more rare than we think!) many things seem to be “unclean” in
themselves: that is, Christians feel it is “wrong” to do them. You and
I may have full light to the contrary: yea, these also may see the
written Word that “nothing is unclean in itself” in this dispensation.
But the conscience cannot be commanded. It must be persuaded, by the
blessed Spirit—in the Lord Jesus. When one is thus set free, his walk
is not forced, but happy and natural.
Verse 15: For if because of meat thy brother is grieved,264thou art no
longer walking according to love. Do not with thy meat destroy that one
for whom Christ died. “If Christ so loved as to die for him, how base
in you or me not to submit to the smallest self-denial for his
welfare!” This verse often occasions the question, How could a
“brother” be in danger of destruction? Let me quote on this passage
from Charles Hodge, one of the greatest Calvinistic writers: “Believers
(the elect) are constantly spoken of (in Scripture) as in danger of
perdition. They are saved only if they continue stedfast (in faith). If
they apostatize, they perish. If the Scriptures tell the people of God
what is the tendency of their sins as to themselves, they may tell them
what is the tendency of such sins as to others. Saints are preserved
not in spite of apostasy, but from apostasy.” To this agree Paul’s
words: “Ye are saved if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto
you” (I Cor. 15:2). “If so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded
and stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel” (Col.
1:23). Before us, in verse 15, lies the awful fact that the destruction
of one who is called a brother lies within the power of our use of our
liberty—if it causes him to “stumble.”
This does not touch the security of those born of God and ‘“sealed to
the day of redemption.” God says even of the carnal Corinthians, that
“God was faithful, through whom they were called,” “who would confirm
them unto the end” (I Cor. 1:8, 9). But we are not saved as automatons!
God gives us a gospel to be believed, and a walk to be walked,
corresponding to that gospel. That God can (and often does) rescue
those whose walk is a failure is seen in the stern, but saving dealing
with the brother of I Corinthians 5:1-5. But this same epistle records
the solemn warning quoted above: “Ye are saved if ye hold fast the
words.” Modernists, like all infidels, make light of “holding fast the
pattern of sound words” (II Tim. 1:13). But God told earnest, praying
Cornelius to send for Peter, who should “speak unto him words, by which
he should be saved” (Acts 11:13, 14). Faith begins and lives by God’s
words only!
Verse 16: Let not then your good be evil spoken of—(literally,
blasphemed): “Good” here refers to the use of Christian liberty by
those who are strong of faith, which is indeed good and delightful to
God in itself; but in the use of which one must take heed that it be
not judged and spoken evil of by the weaker brethren. We must always
have the weaker in mind. You may have very blessed liberty in Christ;
and that is good! But watch, in using your freedom, lest some one not
having your freedom calls your path wickedness! Don’t lose your
liberty, but use it carefully. (See verse 22.)
Verse 17: Now Paul writes a great verse, giving such a reason for this careful walk as ought to win all of us:
For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For the one thus serving Christ,
is well pleasing to God, and approved of men.
In saying the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, Paul at one
word sweeps the whole Christian platform clear of the rubbish of all
the traditions of men. Men bow, for example, to the Pope’s
“no-meat-on-Fridays.” But let these mark well that all such things have
nothing whatever to do with the kingdom of God! The kingdom of God is
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Man cannot even see
the kingdom of God except by a new, “down from above” (anothen) BIRTH
(John 3:3)! And, since the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, believers are
said to be in the Spirit—no longer in the flesh—to which the earthly
distinctions of meats and days pertained.
And note, that the words here are not, righteousness in Christ
—referring to our standing; but righteousness in the Holy
Spirit—referring to our walk! Also, joy in the Holy Spirit. We cannot
too strongly emphasize this fact—that “the kingdom of God,” now, is
altogether in the Spirit! This leaves forms and ceremonies, days and
seasons, unclean meats and clean meats, absolutely out! Such things are
not Christian. They are Jewish or pagan, now! Such “religious”
distinctions as these concerning eating and drinking are certainly not
at all in the Holy Ghost—where all the saints now are (Rom. 8:9), and
in whose energy all the real operations of “the kingdom of God” now are!
Verse 18: The one herein serving Christ—This word herein refers to the
state of righteousness of life, peace of heart, and joy in God which
those walking in the Spirit display. And the words serving Christ
further prove that verse 17 has reference to practical walk, not to our
standing in Christ. One thus walking, we see, is well-pleasing to God,
and approved of men. Our Lord said, “If any man serve Me, him will the
Father honor” (John 12:26). Nothing really pleases God, (since Christ
the Son has been manifested, and become obedient to the Father even
unto death), but to have men know and serve Christ—whose yoke is easy!
But such service is made possible only since the coming of the Holy
Spirit: therefore, “righteousness, peace, joy, in the Holy Spirit” is
that service of Christ which delights God. And approved of men—Men will
not always admit it, but they approve a believer who walks righteously,
in Divine peace, and joy. Mere religious professors, men despise: but,
while they may and often do persecute the one who walks in the Spirit,
they at heart approve such,—yes, and only such! Let us ask ourselves.
Does my walk please God? Is it approved in the hearts of men?
Verse 19: So then let us pursue the things that belong to peace, and things whereby we shall build up one another.
The word “pursue” is a strong word, generally used for persecute,
follow hard after, as in hunting. Compare Chapter 12:13b, “given to
(literally, pursuing) hospitality”: Philippians 3:14: “I press toward
the mark.” Peter says, “Let him seek peace and pursue it”—same word.
See also I Timothy 6:10, and II Timothy 2:22. So let us pursue the
things of peace and of helping others. There is no more direct and
effectual path away from yourself!
“Pursuing peace” is the negative side—refusing to engage in selfish
conflict. Pursuing “edifying things” is the positive side. You must
study the state and need of others, and “build up their need.” See Eph.
4:29, margin.
Verse 20: Overthrow not for food’s sake the work of God! Let us not be
as unregardful of our brother as was Esau of God Himself! The “work of
God” here refers to the operations of the Spirit of God within the
soul—“the fabric which the grace of God has begun, and which the
edification of Christians by each other may help to raise.” Or, which
the selfish refusal to walk in love may pull down! For we find more
people stumbling at the inconsistencies, and lack of love, in
professing Christians, than at all things else. Let us follow Paul:
“Though I was free from all men, I brought myself under bondage to all,
that I might gain the more . . . Let no man seek his own, but each his
neighbor’s good . . . even as I also please all men in all things, not
seeking mine own profit, but the profit of the many that they may be
saved” (I Cor. 9:19; 10:24, 33).
All things indeed are clean; howbeit it is evil for the man who eateth
with stumbling—All meats, all food, is indeed (in itself) clean, but to
him that eats with a bad conscience, everything is evil. God indeed
plainly says, concerning those who “command to abstain from meats,”
that such are “giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of
demons, because He Himself created meats to be “received with
thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth” (I Tim. 4:1-5).
But if one have not the assurance in his own conscience freely to obey
this “command” of God, let him not violate his conscience; but wait
humbly upon God, by His Word to strengthen him, and bring him into true
Christian liberty. Otherwise his eating or drinking is not “with
thanksgiving,” but in mere self-indulgence.
Verse 21: It is noble not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor [to do]
anything whereby thy brother is made to stumble, or is ensnared, or is
[made] weak—It has been remarked that in each of these three things,
the effect is less than in the preceding one,—thus greatly
strengthening and enlarging the exhortation. First, do not cause thy
brother, by thy use of thy liberty, or in any conduct of thine, to have
his fatal fall; second, do not even obstruct his Christian course by
doing what might act as a snare to your brother, inducing him to act
beyond his conscience; third, do not use your liberty, if your weaker
brother, although he sees you are right, is not yet strong enough to
follow you: and would therefore become disappointed and discouraged if
he see you do so. “Wait for me!” did not your childhood’s brother often
call out to you? So let us “wait for one another” in the spiritual
life! Be conformed to his weakness for the present, and accommodate
your walk to his, lest he remain weak.265
Verse 22: Hast thou faith? Have [it] to thyself before God. Blessed is
he that doth not judge himself in the acts which he alloweth [in his
own life].
“It is much more blessed to have a liberty before God which we do not
use on account of our brother’s weakness, than to insist on our
liberty, though it be distinctly given. The man whom Paul declares
‘happy’ is he who can eat what he pleases and drink what he pleases,
without any qualms of conscience to condemn him while he does so.”
These words (from Sanday) are true. The word translated “allows,” or
“permits,” or “approves,” is literally, “puts to the test.” The picture
is of a man having before him a question of conscience (of days, meats,
or whatever), whose decisions in the use of his liberty are such that
he does not go beyond his knowledge, and persuasion in the Lord Jesus
(verse 14). For, though he have in his mind that he is free in such or
such a matter, if his conscience check him, he “judges” himself if he
rushes ahead in an action. To the strong believer the apostle speaks
this word: “Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God.” You have
probably known people whom in this sense you did not know! They had
learned, yet were content not publicly to use, that great liberty of
faith into which God had led them. It is blessed to have faith. It is
yet more blessed to have that faith “before God”—when using the freedom
it gives might perplex another!
Verse 23: But he that doubteth is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Of course the word “damned” (for “condemned”) of the King James
Version, is not the meaning here. But what is meant is the state of
conscious condemnation into which one falls who goes beyond his faith
in the exercise of his liberty. For he who acts thus enters the realm
of self-will, the lawlessness (anomia) which God declares is sin (1John
3:4).
The apostle’s definition of sin here as “what is not of faith” is most
searching. It will drive us to our knees. It reaches everything in our
lives concerning which our conscience is not at rest, in which we do
not have faith to proceed, in which we cannot walk with God.
260
Our Lord taught with sunlight clearness, “There is nothing from without
a man, that entering into him can defile him” (Mark 7:15). The word
“nothing” is decidedly emphatic and embraces what we drink as well as
what we eat. And the weak in faith must remember this before they
condemn the saints who use the liberty here given to them.
On the other hand, Paul teaches that this liberty of the stronger
believer will limit itself by love. There has not been a time since he
wrote when it was more necessary to heed this than today. For now there
is abundant teaching, in zeal without knowledge, that contradicts and
nullifies the principle laid down by Christ. This false teaching binds,
without enlightening, the conscience.
261
There is, of course, to be temperance in the use of all things. “The
bishop must be temperate,” even as the deacon must not be “given to
much wine” (I Tim. 3:2, 8).
Nor is the man who has intelligent faith deceived by the wily pretenses
of these. last days, whether of the “vegetarians,” or of the
don’t-eat-starch-and-protein-together people. He remembers that God
sent the ravens with bread and. flesh twice a day to Elijah!
262
Paul is evidently not speaking here of “various Jewish feasts and
festivals,” as some claim. Paul has nothing but the severest reprimands
for those who turn to “observing days, and months, and seasons and
years” (Gal. 4:10), and calls Judaism “weak and beggarly rudiments,”
now,—like the old idolatry (vv. 8, 9); and in Colossians 2:14: “The
bond which was contrary to us” having been nailed to the cross, he
classes feast days and new moons along with “a sabbath day”; and asks
believers not to let themselves be “judged” about them.
With such observances, the Christian had nothing to do. But as to the
first day of the week, marked out by the resurrection of our Lord, and
His appearings to the disciples, as also by the breaking of bread (Acts
20:7, 8), and the Christian’s systematic giving (I Cor. 16:2), the
matter was different. The Christians gathered on the first day, they
remembered the Lord at His table on that evening, weekly. (I say,
“evening,” for it was so at the beginning— John 20:19, Acts 20:7). God
has indeed graciously so ordered things now, that we have the whole
day. Yet look at Russia! And the same godlessness is spreading over the
whole earth. Living faith in Christ,—not any kind of bondage, can
sustain us.
263
“The Apostle decides nothing; leaving every man’s own mind to guide him
in the point. He classes the observance or non-observance of particular
days, with the eating or abstaining from particular meats. In both
cases, he is concerned with things which he evidently treats as of
absolute indifference in themselves. Now the question is, supposing the
Divine obligation of one day in seven to have been recognized by him in
any form, could he have thus spoken? The obvious inference from his
strain or arguing is, that he knew of no such obligation, but believed
all times and days to be, to the Christian strong in faith, ALIKE. I do
not see how the passage can be otherwise understood. If any one day ill
the week were invested with the sacred character of the Sabbath, it
would have been wholly impossible for the Apostle to commend or uphold
the man who judged all days worthy of equal honour,—who, as in verse 6,
paid no regard to the (any) day. He must have visited him with his
strongest disapprobation, as violating a command of God. I therefore
infer, that sabbatical obligation to keep any day, whether seventh or
first, was not recognised in apostolic times. It must be carefully
remembered, that this inference does not concern the question of the
observance of the Lord’s Day as an institution of the Christian Church,
analogous to the ancient Sabbath, but not in any way inheriting the
Divinely-appointed obligation of the other, or the strict prohibitions
by which its sanctity was defended. The reply commonly furnished to
these considerations, viz., that the Apostle was speaking here only of
JEWISH festivals, and therefore cannot refer to Christian ones, is a
quibble of the poorest kind: its assertors themselves distinctly
maintaining the obligation of one such Jewish festival on Christians.
What I maintain is, that had the Apostle believed as they do, he could
not by any possibility have written thus. Besides, in the face of
‘every day’ the assertion is altogether unfounded.” (Alford: New Test.,
in loc.)
264
Two stages are noted in the words ‘grieved’ and ‘destroy.’ When one man
sees another do that which his own conscience condemns, it causes him
pain (he is grieved); but when he is further led on from this to do
himself what his conscience condemns, he is in danger of a worse fate;
he is morally ruined and undone (destroyed). The work of redemption
that Christ has wrought for him is cancelled, and all that great and
beneficent scheme is hindered of its operation by an act of
thoughtlessness or want of consideration on the part of a fellow
Christian”—Sanday.
265
Brown (in Jamleson, Fausset & Brown) well says, “This injunction to
abstain from flesh and wine and whatsoever may hurt the conscience of a
brother, must be properly understood. Manifestly the apostle is
treating of the regulation of the Christian’s conduct with reference
simply to the prejudices of the weak in faith; and his directions are
not to be considered as principles for one’s entire lifetime, but
simply as caution against too free use of Christian liberty in matters
where other Christians, through weakness, are not persuaded that such
liberty is Divinely allowed.”