Christian Liberty is Not a Free-for-All Text: Romans 14:1-4
Introduction: The Fellowship of the Different
The apostle Paul, having laid the glorious, granite foundation of our justification by faith alone, now turns his attention to the interior decorating of the house. How are justified sinners, who are still very much sinners, supposed to live together? The church is not a collection of uniform, factory-produced saints. It is a motley crew, a ragtag assortment of people from every conceivable background, with all sorts of histories, scruples, and sensitivities. It is a glorious mess. And in this chapter, Paul addresses the reality that Christians will have differing opinions on what the Bible calls adiaphora, or "things indifferent." These are not matters of first-level doctrine, not the creedal affirmations that make us Christians. These are secondary issues, matters of conscience where Scripture has not laid down an explicit command.
The particular dispute in the Roman church revolved around diet and special days. Some believers, likely from a Jewish background, felt they could not eat meat (perhaps because it was not kosher or had been offered to idols) and still observed certain days from the old calendar. Others, strong in their understanding of gospel freedom, knew that an idol is nothing and that all foods are clean. The temptation here is twofold, and it cuts both ways. The "strong" brother is tempted to look down on the "weak" brother with contempt, seeing him as superstitious and tangled up in legalistic nonsense. The "weak" brother, on the other hand, is tempted to judge the "strong" brother, seeing him as worldly, licentious, and unspiritual.
Paul's solution is not to tell them all to just "get along" in some kind of squishy, relativistic truce. He does not say that truth in these matters is unknowable. In fact, he clearly sides with the strong brother, identifying the one who eats only vegetables as "weak in faith." But, and this is the crucial point, being theologically correct on the secondary issue does not give you a license to be spiritually abusive. Christian liberty is not a club to beat your brother with. The central principle that must govern all our interactions in these gray areas is love. And love receives a brother; it does not receive him in order to win an argument or to straighten out all his "doubtful disputations." God has welcomed him, and if he is good enough for God, he had better be good enough for you.
This passage is a master class in navigating church life. It teaches us that unity is not uniformity. It shows us that the goal is not to eliminate all our differences, but to love one another in the midst of them. This is how we display to a watching world what it means to be a community redeemed by grace, a community where the welcome of God overrides the judgments of men.
The Text
Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats must not view the one who does not eat with contempt, and the one who does not eat must not judge the one who eats, for God accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
(Romans 14:1-4 LSB)
Welcome, Don't Weaponize (v. 1)
We begin with the central command that governs the entire discussion:
"Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on opinions." (Romans 14:1)
The command is to "accept" or "receive" the one who is weak in faith. This is a call to active fellowship. It means you bring him into your circle, you welcome him to the potluck, you treat him like a brother in Christ, because that is what he is. The church is not an exclusive club for the spiritually robust and the theologically astute. It is a hospital for sinners, and some patients are going to be on a more restricted diet than others.
Paul is not an egalitarian. He does not pretend there is no difference between the two positions. He explicitly calls one brother "weak in faith." This weakness is not a lack of saving faith, but an unenlightened conscience. This brother's faith has not yet grasped the full implications of the gospel of grace when it comes to diet. He has attached spiritual significance to something God has declared neutral. He has put a period where God put a comma. But his weakness is not a barrier to fellowship. We are to receive him.
However, there is a crucial qualification. We are to receive him, "but not for the purpose of passing judgment on opinions." The Greek here is interesting. It's not about avoiding all discussion, but about not welcoming him into a theological cage match. You don't invite him over just so you can dismantle all his fussy little arguments. The goal is fellowship, not a forensic victory. You are not receiving a project to fix; you are receiving a brother to love. The "opinions" or "doubtful disputations" are his scrupulous thoughts, his internal debates about what is and is not permissible. The strong brother's job is not to be the Holy Spirit for the weak brother, forcing him to violate his own conscience. Your job is to love him where he is at.
The Two Brothers (v. 2)
Paul now gives the concrete example that was troubling the Roman church.
"One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only." (Romans 14:2 LSB)
Here are the two sides. The first man, the strong brother, has faith that allows him to eat "all things." His conscience is free. He understands that "the earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness" (1 Cor. 10:26). He knows that Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19). He is not bound by the ceremonial dietary laws of the Old Covenant because he understands their fulfillment in Christ. His faith is robust enough to see that holiness is a matter of the heart, not the stomach.
The second man is the one who "eats vegetables only." Paul identifies him as "weak." Why? Because his conscience is unnecessarily bound. He is afraid to step on a theological landmine that isn't there. Perhaps he is a Jewish Christian who can't shake the old habits. Perhaps he is a former pagan who is terrified of accidentally eating meat sacrificed to an idol, and so he avoids all meat to be safe. His motives are likely sincere; he wants to please God. But his understanding is lacking. He has added a bylaw to God's law. He is trying to protect himself with a rule that the gospel has made obsolete. Paul is clear: this position comes from weakness, not superior piety.
The Two Temptations (v. 3)
With the two parties identified, Paul now addresses the specific sin each is tempted to commit against the other.
"The one who eats must not view the one who does not eat with contempt, and the one who does not eat must not judge the one who eats, for God accepted him." (Romans 14:3 LSB)
The temptations are symmetrical, but distinct. The strong brother, the one who eats, is tempted to "view the one who does not eat with contempt." The word means to despise, to look down upon, to treat as nothing. It's the sin of arrogance. The strong brother can easily think, "Look at this simpleton, all tied up in his little rules. When is he going to grow up and get a theological backbone? He is a spiritual child." This attitude of contempt is a gross violation of love. Being right about the meat doesn't make you right with your brother if you are a jerk about it.
The weak brother has the opposite temptation: he must not "judge the one who eats." His sin is not arrogance, but self-righteousness. He looks at the free brother and thinks, "That man is worldly. He's carnal. He plays fast and loose with holiness. He's not as serious about his faith as I am." He sets himself up as the judge, using his own conscience as the standard for another man's piety. He has to judge uphill, which always makes a man cranky.
Notice that both contempt and judgment are ways of "not receiving" your brother. They erect a wall where God has built a table. And the reason both are forbidden is given with thunderous finality: "for God accepted him." God has welcomed this person into His family. He has declared him righteous in Christ. Who are you to blackball someone whom God has invited to the feast? To refuse fellowship with a man God has accepted is to claim that your standards for table fellowship are higher than God's. This is an act of breathtaking presumption.
The Master's Prerogative (v. 4)
Paul drives the point home by asking a devastatingly simple question.
"Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand." (Romans 14:4 LSB)
This is a jurisdiction argument. When you judge your brother in these matters of conscience, you are poaching on God's territory. You are behaving like a middle-manager who starts giving performance reviews to an employee from a completely different department. He doesn't work for you. He is the servant of another, and that other is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every believer is directly accountable to his own Master. It is before Christ's judgment seat, the bema seat, that each of us will give an account (Rom. 14:10-12). He is the one who evaluates our service, not our brothers. Whether a servant "stands or falls" is the master's business alone. You are not the master. You are just another servant. Your job is to worry about your own work, not to supervise his.
But Paul doesn't leave it there. He concludes with a glorious word of assurance. "And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand." This is a beautiful promise. This brother you are so tempted to despise or judge, this weak brother with all his scruples, is not going to fall. Why? Because his stability does not depend on his own strength or the perfection of his theological understanding. It depends on the power of his Master. The Lord who bought him is the Lord who will keep him. God is not just able to make him stand; He is committed to it. This should radically reframe how we see our brothers. They are God's project, God's workmanship, and God does not fail to complete what He starts. Your job is not to fix him, but to trust the Master who is already at work in him, and to love him as a fellow servant who will one day stand, righteous and secure, before the throne of grace.