If Therefore We Live or Die, We Are the Lord’s

1Now accept one who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions. 2One man has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. 4Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand. 5One man esteems one day as more important. Another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. 6He 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. He who doesn’t eat, to the Lord he doesn’t eat, and gives God thanks. 7For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. 8For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11For it is written, “‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘to me every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess to God.’” 12So then each one of us will give account of himself to God. 13Therefore let’s not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling. 14I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. 16Then don’t let your good be slandered, 17for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19So then, let us follow after things which make for peace, and things by which we may build one another up. 20Don’t overthrow God’s work for food’s sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating. 21It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak. 22Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn’t judge himself in that which he approves. 23But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.

An angel came to Cornelius, a man who feared God, and told him to send men to Joppa at once and summon Simon, who is called Peter. Cornelius called some of his men, told them what the angel had said, and sent them to Joppa to bring Peter back to his house. Just then Peter had gone up on the housetop to pray, and a vision opened before him: a container like a great sheet was coming down from heaven. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals, creeping things, and birds of the air. As Peter stood bewildered before a sheet full of what the law forbade, a voice came from heaven: “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” Peter, who had kept the law all his life, was so shocked that he answered, “I can never eat anything common or unclean.” Then the voice said, “What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean,” and after the same thing had been shown three times, the container was taken back up into heaven. While Peter was still puzzling over what the vision meant, the men Cornelius had sent arrived. When Peter received Cornelius’s invitation and doubted his motives, the Holy Spirit told him not to doubt but to go with them, for the Spirit himself had sent them.

Peter had met Jesus and knew the freedom the truth gives, but he still held on to his old habit of keeping the law as a matter of form. Even for those who believe in Christ, breaking the habit of strict law-keeping is hard, so Peter was still sorting things into clean and unclean.

Galatians 2:11-13

11But when Peter came to Antioch, I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 13And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy; so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.

When Peter visited the church in Antioch, he sat at table with the Gentile believers there, sharing fellowship and a meal. But when circumcised Jews arrived from Jerusalem, Peter grew flustered, as though eating with Gentiles were wrong, and left the table. When he withdrew, Barnabas and the other Jews pulled away as well. Peter left out of fear of the circumcision party, which deeply disappointed the Gentile brothers still at the table, and the apostle Paul rebuked him sharply for it. In a gathering where Gentiles who had received the gospel sat alongside Jews who had come to faith, Peter’s conduct was a fault that could tear down a spiritual community, and coming from an apostle, it rightly drew Paul’s rebuke. His conduct did nothing to build others up, as an apostle’s should, yet we cannot call it a sin that hindered the gospel. Still, it is the kind of fault that can easily make someone weak in faith stumble, and small slips like this can split a church, so we must be careful.

Romans 14:3

3Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.

What Paul wants to say in chapter 14 is this: such things will all be resolved as faith grows, so do not criticize and judge one another over personal opinions. With law-keeping Jews and Gentiles who had received Christ now following the Lord side by side, minor disagreements born of their differences were inevitable. Because the Jews still carried the habits of the strict legalism they had held to, keeping sacrifices, feasts, and special days, they distinguished clean food from unclean. Accustomed to keeping the law, the Jews had the advantage of growing quickly once they let go of mere form; the Gentiles, for their part, were free but needed training in keeping the law. Though the Jews had received Christ, they clung to their former customs, because not keeping the feasts in the prescribed way felt to them like a faulty way of walking with God. But the Gentile Christians had been taught that faith in Jesus Christ brings full freedom, and that there is no reason to be bound by particular foods. Having lived until then with no connection to the law, the Gentiles took the word just as it was and were not bound by feasts or particular foods. So two groups with different habits of faith collided. The apostle Paul did not say who was right on this matter. He said that once people understand the word, such small matters make perfect sense, and since they are not matters of salvation, the church should not criticize one another but look only to Christ.

At that time, idol worship and its sacrificial system stood at the center of life in Rome. Unable to use up all the meat offered to idols, the Romans sold it in the market, and people had little choice but to buy and eat it. This gave rise to a dispute over eating meat sacrificed to idols. Having eaten only meat offered to God, the Jews recoiled from eating meat sacrificed to idols. Some of them, therefore, ate no meat at all, only vegetables. The Gentiles, however, had been taught that food laws and feasts were ordinances permitted for a time, like a shadow, before Jesus came, and that there was no need to be bound by them. Since Jesus had already come and risen again, they even criticized clinging to old customs as a sign of weak faith. Paul, who had to mediate between those who insisted on different forms, held this conviction: he wrote that Christ has made us free, and that we must therefore stand firm and not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage [Galatians 5:1]. He said this because he wanted them to know clearly who Christ is. Paul told them that they were saints whom God had accepted; they must not despise or shame one another but embrace one another in love.

Today we, too, complain when our church does not hold events like other churches or does things differently, but quarreling over what is not the truth is worthless. For twenty years I have taught nothing but the Bible, and I have sometimes worried that this left people less stirred in their emotions. Yet as I watched you hold fast in your faith through the hardships of COVID, I came to think that my approach to ministry had been right all along. What God wants from his people is not to split the church over forms, but to help a brother’s or sister’s faith grow. When Paul says to accept one who is weak in faith, he means to embrace them. Growing after receiving the gospel takes a new Christian through many stages. Rather than laugh at them or look down on them, we must embrace them in love and teach them the word. When we have this mature faith, the church can grow in beauty. Scripture says that the church is the body of Christ and that each of us is a member of it. If brothers and sisters in faith like these help one another, the church will not be shaken. If the mature and the weak alike seek to understand each other and listen to why the other thinks as they do, they will gain the strength to resist evil spirits.

Romans 14:5

5One man esteems one day as more important. Another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.

They also held different views about the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day. The Jews knew that they were saved by faith in Christ, but because they had long been in the habit of keeping the Sabbath holy, they would have felt an emptiness each time the Sabbath and the feasts came around. Worship without blood sacrifices seemed somehow lacking as a way to be forgiven and to honor God. Thinking that by not keeping the Sabbath and the feasts they were failing to serve God fully, they could find their walk of faith a struggle. To Paul, who saw salvation in its full scope, the Jews who could not let go of form and the Gentiles who worshiped freely were all treasured brothers and sisters in Christ. Seen against the whole sweep of Christ’s work of atonement, their struggles within the church were only part of faith’s growing.

In God, no particular day or month is what matters. Every day is precious, which is why Paul says each should be fully assured in their own mind; that is, each should decide by their own conscience before God. Whether a church observes the feasts with full ceremony or simply remembers their meaning and keeps them brief, if each has chosen and worshiped accordingly, that is enough. As faith grows, people come to see that such matters have nothing to do with salvation, and they gain the wisdom to decide by a good conscience rather than by criticism. Among believers there are some who insist strongly on their own way of practicing the faith, and some who complain when things differ from the forms they were taught. Measured against the word, the right and wrong of such conflicts is plain at once.

When you look at such people with Christ at the center, what do you think? Does it not strike you that they have no idea what Jesus Christ intended when he gave himself up to be nailed to the cross to atone for sin? What do you suppose is gained by clinging to opinions that have nothing to do with the word? If someone complains that the church they used to attend kept the feasts reverently and set aside a day for fasting, and asks why we do not, I would ask in return what such a form has to do with Jesus Christ. If they want to keep it, they can keep it quietly on their own, so why do they not do it themselves? They need only remember the meaning of the day and follow the Lord with a heart all the more thankful to Jesus Christ. Of course, the feasts help us recognize God’s guidance and give us an occasion to look back on the footsteps of Jesus Christ. The point is not that feasts and forms are unimportant, but that they cannot be what endangers the church: if you want to make much of form, you may, and if you want a little more freedom, that is fine too. Rather than quarrel over the Sabbath, the feasts, and eating meat from the market, we should care more about the heart with which we are serving Christ now.

Romans 14:6-8

6He 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. He who doesn’t eat, to the Lord he doesn’t eat, and gives God thanks. 7For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. 8For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

This is exactly what the apostle Paul wanted to say to the church in Rome. We must judge for the Lord and act for the Lord. Even when someone grates on us, if we love the Lord we can be patient for his sake, embrace our brothers and sisters, and lead the weak among them to God. Are you entrusting everything to the Lord, even your living and your dying? Paul is saying that to criticize, mock, and despise a brother is the kind of folly people commit when they are not living for the Lord. The apostle said that we die for the Lord and live for the Lord because we have all become Christ’s own. Who are we, then, to criticize and judge a brother who belongs to Christ? It is sin. If, as people repaying a debt, we show the patience to embrace our brothers and sisters, just as Christ was patient to the end, the church can have spiritual authority.

Galatians 2:20

20I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

Those who live for the Lord have been crucified with Christ, so there is no flesh left in them to judge their brothers and sisters, despise them, or insist on their own opinions. With no flesh to hinder the Holy Spirit, they will live by the word in the power of the Spirit. Those who are born again can rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all things, and live lives that give glory to Christ, who rose again for them.

Romans 14:10-12

10But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11For it is written, “‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘to me every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess to God.’” 12So then each one of us will give account of himself to God.

Paul is saying something truly fearful here. He knew who God is, what heaven is like, and how we must live to enter God’s Kingdom. That is why it grieved him so to see the saints quarreling over trifles. People who will one day stand before God’s judgment seat, yet despise their brothers, refuse to yield, and quarrel over matters unrelated to the gospel, can bring God’s wrath upon themselves.

We will all stand before God’s judgment seat and give account in person for what we did and said in this world. We will have to confess, ourselves, why we failed to understand a brother and hated him instead, why we did not turn back even after being taught the word, why we did not give ourselves even after we received an answer. The judgment seat is not a place for reporting other people’s sins; it is where we face the sins that came from our own judgments and decisions over the course of our lives. There we will tell God directly why we judged and decided as we did, why we spoke and acted as we did, yet no excuse can be made there. God will probably ask what we were doing at that moment. Only if we can answer that though it was hard we showed love, though we were angry we were patient, though we resented someone we helped them, will he commend us as good servants. You must live a good life now, if only to prepare what you will say on that day. What God wants is for us to clear away anything that would make a brother stumble or fall, and to help his faith grow. So that a beloved brother or sister is not grieved, we must comfort them: in our faith in Christ, questions of food, days, and months are utterly trivial. With faith like this, the church will be free of quarrels, and those who give themselves to the word will have greater power.

Romans 14:17-18

17for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

Jesus told us not to worry about what we will eat, what we will drink, or what we will wear, because he already knows what we need. He promised that if we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, rather than the world, all these things will be ours as well. The Kingdom of God has nothing to do with eating and drinking. Eating and drinking are only the means of living in this world. You must not tear down the church with arguments like these, which have nothing to do with the gospel. When you avoid such arguments, you can keep your relationships right and hold a true faith that does not cling to the trifles of this world. Jesus gave his life to make us people who stay awake and live forever. When those who have been given a grace the world cannot give encourage one another and build one another up like this, they will become a light in this dark world.

Romans 14:20

20Don’t overthrow God’s work for food’s sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating.

All things were created by God, and therefore everything is perfect. Wicked people have clouded the true nature of this perfect creation and used it for their own gain, so what they have done has nothing to do with our faith. We can simply eat, knowing that it is something God has created. But if someone eats with misgivings, Paul says, it becomes evil for that person all the same. If eating food offered to idols feels like sin to someone, they will carry a sense of guilt and may stumble, so if your conscience is uneasy, you need not force yourself to eat. The apostle Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 8:12-13.

1 Corinthians 8:12-13

12Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.

Those who are weak in faith may not know what it means to enjoy freedom in the truth, so we must not restrict the freedom of their faith. If, like the apostle Paul, we keep teaching the word and wait, this problem can be resolved; teaching the word comes first. Paul had the faith to eat any food without distinction, yet he said that if his eating meat made a brother stumble, he would never eat meat again. If we embrace our brothers and sisters with such love for their souls, we will not quarrel over eating and drinking, nor will we fall into temptation. Even when you are right, if you wait until the other person’s faith grows, God, seeing that faith of yours, will help the faith of the weak. Unless it is a matter of salvation, we must be an example to the weak, persevering with a good conscience, the truth, and spiritual power. If we are patient with generous hearts, just as God waited for us, the church will stand firm as the church, and its members will be united as one.

Will you not grow into such maturity? If, rather than criticize and judge those who disagree with you, you show them a faith worth following and quietly fulfill your calling, you will be commended. Everyone needs time for their faith to grow. Along the way, people fall into temptation, complain, cling to their own ideas, and judge others. But if you wait for them in love, they will one day overcome their trials, embrace those who complain, and become workers who give themselves to making the church one. A church full of such people is beautiful in God’s sight. I earnestly hope that you will become saints who help one another’s faith grow in such a church, blessed people who walk the way of truth by faith.