Due to the length of this lesson, we will break it up into two parts and plan to finish next week.
In Romans 14 Paul addresses a problem in the church at Rome. There is tension between two groups of people that was disrupting their unity. The tension is between those who are strong in faith and those who are weak. Or, to put it a different way, between more mature Christians and those who are not so mature. That’s not too unusual.
Now this is very important. When Paul spoke of those who were “not so mature,” he was not degrading them. Some of them had been Christians longer than others and had more knowledge (and more accurate knowledge) than others. This is normal; this is natural; and this will always be the case in about every congregation of people.
What Paul is dealing with in this chapter is nothing like what he just finished addressing at the end of chapter 13, where he discussed works of darkness (see ver. 12-14). Concerning these sorts of things, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:11 that Christians were “not even to eat with such a one.”
Now, we can’t get into all of that right now, but I want to emphasize that Romans 14 is a very different matter, and it must be treated differently. In fact, the chapter begins with Paul saying, “As for the one…” This shows that he is going on to something different or even showing a little contrast with what he has previously said. However, there is a common thread that is carried over to this chapter. The common thread is love. Notice verse 8 says, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” (And he talks more about love… see vv. 9-10.)
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Now those that Paul is addressing are NT Christians. He is writing to individuals who had obeyed the Gospel (see Rom. 6:3-4), but it would be natural for those who were steeped in Jewish traditions to have some baggage. Think about those who were Gentiles but had previously become practicing Jews. On top of that, you have those who are weak and those who are strong.
The major issue that was causing tension between the strong and the weak was food. Paul refers to the eating of meat. We know that there were certain food laws as a part of the OT law. Certain foods were not to be eaten (see Lev. 11; 1 Cor. 8). Yet, under the NT law all foods were pronounced clean (see Acts 10:9-16; Mk. 7:19; 1 Tim. 4:3).
Next time we will break this down into Paul’s divine counsel to the strong, weak and both.
Daren Schroeder
