Romans 14:5-12 – Evaluate faithfully

In Romans 14:5-12, Paul turned his attention to the matter of observation of worship days and holy days. The principle Paul teaches here is for believers to aspire to be faithful in their judgment. Here we are told that some Christians would insist that a particular religious day should be hallowed over another. And such believers insisted that all other believers must observe it exactly the same way. However, Paul taught here that each believer should evaluate the situation personally because they were merely matters of personal conviction and preference. Nonetheless, he advocated that the choice they made must not violate their personal conscience. Each should let their heart guide their decision.

From the instruction of Paul we derive at three guiding principles. Firstly we must take note that personal convictions are matters of personal preference. Secondly, we must not be motivated merely by the desire to make others conform to our preferences. And thirdly, we must cultivate the mindset that each believer is accountable to the Lord.

However, the appeal here is for us to please the Lord. This should be the key motivation for all practices. In other words, make the decision as a matter of consecration to the Lord. All believers should live their lives for the Lord, since all believers belong to the Lord. Believers should not be busy passing judgment on others. They should instead focus on themselves, for finally everyone has to face God, and give an account to Him for his or her own life.

Making Christ the Lord is a foundation matter if we are to experience unity in the church where diversity of opinion abounds. It reminds us not to judge our fellow believers on things where there’s no specific Biblical injunction. We can be sure that an answer will be sought, for the judgmental attitude we adopt.

Let’s recapitulate from Romans 12-14 where the idea of love has been the mainstay of Paul’s exhortation. In Romans 12, he showed us the nature of God’s kind of love. In Romans 13, he explained that love would be made visible through submission. In Romans 14, he expanded further and showed us that love demonstrates itself in being patient and tolerant toward other’s points of view.

Let us pray that God will give us discernment to see what is essential and what is not. Bear in mind this - Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.