Romans 14 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Rom 14:1-12

1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:

‘“As surely as I live,” says the Lord,
“Every knee will bow before me;
    every tongue will acknowledge God.”’

12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

A. Find Out:

1. Who are we to accept? v.1
2. How may he show this in eating? v.2
3. How are you to think of him? v.4
4. What other way do people differ? v.5
5. How are we to do what we do? v.6-8
6. What must we remember? v.12

B. Think:

1. What wrong tendency does Paul deal with here?
2. How are we to view other people, as a means to overcoming that tendency?
3. What also are we to remember in doing this?

C. Comment:

Continuing his theme of loving one another, Paul now picks up the particular failing of judging others who don’t quite see things as we do. We should be careful to note that he is NOT talking about those who preach a different Gospel (see Galatians 1:6,7), but those who differ in periphery beliefs about practice. He specifically mentions different beliefs about what food can be eaten and different beliefs about “special days”. He does acknowledge that the man limited in his eating is WEAK in his faith but, he says, that’s no reason to look down on him. Accept him as he is, just like Christ accepted us (Romans 5:8).

As always, Paul helps us come to that place of acceptance by giving some helpful guidelines. Consider other Christians as God’s servants, he first suggests, and don’t therefore judge God’s workers. Next he says, we should do whatever WE do as to God, and therefore if different people view different minor things in different ways, that is up to them as they do that as to God, and it is not for us to judge it. At the end of the day, Christ died for us all, so both here now, and in the age to come, He is Lord! Let’s be careful not to take His place!

D. Application?

1. On minor points of practice we are not to judge one another but see one another as God’s servants answerable to Him.
2. I must not try to usurp Him and judge others.

Passage: Rom 14:13-23

13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling-block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall. 22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

A. Find Out:

1. What two things are we NOT to do? v.13
2. How may we have stopped acting in love? v.15
3. What aren’t important aspects of the kingdom? v.17a
4. What are key elements of it? v.17b
5. What was Paul’s attitude towards food? v.14,20
6. But why may he not eat some food? v.21

B. Think:

1. What is Paul’s main point in this passage?
2. How is that the corrective to what he was saying in the previous passage?
3. How may we fail in this today?

C. Comment:

Yesterday we saw how Paul, in encouraging love for one another, gave guidelines about how to VIEW one another in avoiding the error of judging one another because of different practices.

In this passage he continues that guidance but goes a step further and says there is something PRACTICAL that you can do to help your weaker brother. If he has a problem with foods, not only should you not look down on him, but you should also help him by not eating that food yourself.

Look, says Paul, I’m sure within myself that no food is unclean of itself, but because I love those who may be doubtful about these things, I will abstain from eating the food or drinking the drink, that they have doubts about. These aren’t major issues, he goes on, so don’t make them so. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are more important, these are the things you want to be concentrating on!

In our day, we need to be clear that Paul is not speaking about major issues of doctrine, such as the divinity or resurrection of Christ, but about minor issues of personal practice. Don’t let this sort of thing divide you from other brothers and sisters in Christ.

D. Application?

1. Do I have real caring and loving attitudes?
2. Am I making others stumble?