Romans 14:1-4 – Live considerately

Love is the emphasis in Romans 12 and 13. This love ought to govern all relationships. Paul showed how believers could demonstrate love in practice. He knew that there would be people in God’s redeemed community that would be weaker in faith, so he now prescribed ways in dealing with them.

To follow the drift of Paul’s discussion, we need first to identify those who are “weak in faith.” They were not necessarily those who were weak in terms of character or will, but in terms of Christian practices and convictions. This kind of people is not only confined to Paul’s days. In every age and generation, you will find this kind of people among the redeemed of God. Such people are usually indecisive and troubled by petty issues of non-doctrinal significance. Underscoring Paul’s discussion here was his call not to try and change another brother just to make him suit one’s personal preference. He was in fact encouraging that in one’s conduct in life, one should avoid offending a brother who might be weaker in conscience.

Paul urges us believers to live our personal convictions in the Spirit of harmony. We should have unity in the essential, but in the non-essential, liberty, and in all things, charity. That is the spirit of unity and harmony. So what so we do? Here we are encouraged to exercise harmony in the face of differences in personal convictions. These issues confronting the believers then were not about doctrines but personal preferences in practices.

In Romans 14:1-4, Paul urged believers to allow room for God to deal with each individually. In his context, there were brethren with weak conscience who felt that eating meat was wrong and advocated the eating of vegetables. And there were also those who were stronger in conscience felt that it was all right to eat meat. While dietary habit was a matter of personal preference, some had made it a major issue insisting that it be made a matter of faith. Thus this personal preference had become a point of contention.

Recognizing that personal issue could divide the fellowship, Paul set a principle for harmonious living. The principle is: one needs to leave the judgment of others to God. We ought to understand that ultimately every believer is accountable to God, Who owns each one. We need to be conscious that there will always be people around us that will see things differently from us. All things being equal, not everyone will have the same standards. Therefore, we should leave God to deal with them individually. All believers should seek to exercise empathy and not be overly critical. Let’s learn to accept each other in the faith without being imposing.