As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.”
So then each of us will give an account of himself to God (Rom. 14:1-12).
Now Paul takes up a special question that was burning in many congregations. This is also handled at length in First Corinthians (chapters 8 and 10). It dealt with what a Christian could eat and drink in good conscience, if he was able to work on the Sabbath, and so on. It was the same sort of question that we encounter today: Can a Christian drink wine, smoke, dance?
There were those who held that a restrictive and restrained line was the safest. In the early church, they were called “the weak.” “The strong” were those who had sufficient faith to use their freedom without abusing it. Apparently, Paul felt closer in relation to “the strong.” But he does not consider them right unconditionally. He doesn’t make their line the acknowledged true one that every Christian should follow.
The thought of death puts everything in proper perspective.
Apparently, “the strong” were the majority. There was even a question of whether one could “receive” one who was weaker in faith. To “receive” meant to take him into their communion and welcome him to the Lord’s Table. Here Paul gives a direct order: he shall be received as a Christian brother. And one shall not receive him in order to discuss this with him and show him that he is wrong. One shall let him follow his own path. One may not look down on him and think that he is narrow-minded and scrupulous. And “the weak” may not judge those who eat, which they apparently had a tendency to do. Paul obviously assumes that this concerns convinced Christians who all believe in Christ. He also assumes in all seriousness that “the weak” are not making their abstinence a law for all or a requirement for salvation. We can see in Galatians how inexorably Paul responded when someone tried to make the law a condition of salvation. He who does this has backslidden; he has fallen from Christ, Paul says.
But if for his own reasons, on the ground of conviction of conscience, one refrains from such that others with good conscience use, then his conviction should be respected. The decisive thing is whether the man does this “for the Lord,” even for the sake of Christ to preserve an uncloudy and sincerely honest relationship with Him. This means to both live and die for him. Nothing may come between them. It may seem surprising that Paul mentions “dying for the Lord” here. Perhaps this is because immediately before this, there was the utmost distress and death in Ephesus, and in many other places, they were being brought together for persecution. The thought of death puts everything in proper perspective. The judgment seat of God does not delay long. And then it is for us ourselves, whom we shall give account, and not for others.
