Read Romans 14 at Bible Gateway.
I believe the church by and large has misunderstood Paul’s message in Rom 14. First:
“Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.” Rom 14:1-4
The key to understanding what follows, is in vs. 1: disputes over doubtful things – that which is unclear in the rest of Scripture. That is what Paul is going to address next. These verses do not condone throwing away the clean and unclean food laws found in Torah. Here is proof.
Next,
“One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.” Rom 14:5-6
These verses do not condone throwing away the Sabbath and holiday commands found in Torah. Here is proof.
The main point is in verse 12:
“So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.” Rom 14:12
Each one of us needs to be fully convinced in his own mind (vs. 5)! Did you notice the “in his own mind” part? Just because someone said it means it is okay to throw out Torah now, that is not being fully convinced in our own minds. The person who said that might be fully convinced in his own mind, but that is not good enough for us — we need to be fully convinced ourselves. In this day and age, with Bibles plentifully available, we do not have an excuse for not knowing and being fully convinced of the Scriptures for ourselves, in our own minds!
And if someone’s practice is different from yours, in a gray area, in a doubtful thing, then let us not judge one another anymore. My personal opinion is that anything which God has previously addressed specifically in the Old Testament or through the mouth of Jesus, is NOT a gray area. That is me. 🙂 It pays for us to know just what God has said! The Word of God has been preserved as it is for a REASON! We ought not to be ignorant of it!
Leave a Reply