20    The Unity of Strong and  Weak Christians—part 1  Receive One Another  with Understanding (14:1-12)

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. (14:1–12)

A major theme of the New Testament is that of sin’s power to destroy the spiritual and moral health of the church as well as of the individuals who commit the sins. The epistles are filled with commands and injunctions regarding the need to continually eradicate sin in the church. That is the purpose of both church discipline and self-discipline. Regular celebration of the Lord’s Supper not only helps us remember Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf but is a time for each Christian to “examine himself” (1 Cor. 11:28), to take stock of his life and to confess, renounce, and ask forgiveness for his sin.

Jesus commanded, “If your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer” (Matt. 18:15–17).

Paul gave similar counsel to the church at Corinth regarding self-discipline: “Clean out the old leaven [of sin], that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:7–8). In his second letter to that church he pled, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).

But outright sin is not the only danger to a church’s spiritual health and unity. Although they are not sin in themselves, certain attitudes and behavior can destroy fellowship and fruitfulness and have crippled the work, the witness, and the unity of countless congregations throughout church history. These problems are caused by differences between Christians over matters that are neither commanded nor forbidden in Scripture. They are matters of personal preference and historic tradition, which, when imposed on others, inevitably cause confusion, strife, ill will, abused consciences, and disharmony.

Even in small churches, there often are considerable differences in age, education, maturity, personalities, and cultural and religious backgrounds. Some members may come from a long line of evangelicals. Some of those families may have a heritage of strict legalism, while others have one of considerable openness and freedom. Some members may have been accustomed to highly liturgical worship, others to worship that is largely unstructured and spontaneous. Some may have heard the gospel and been exposed to biblical teaching for many years, while others may have heard the true gospel only recently and understand only its bare essentials. Some may have been converted out of paganism, a cult, liberal Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Judaism, atheistic humanism, or simply religious indifference.

As mentioned in an earlier chapter of this commentary volume, contrary to what some church growth leaders maintain, such diversity can strengthen a local congregation, reminding the church itself and witnessing to the world around them of the power of Jesus Christ to bind together dissimilar people in a fellowship of genuine and profound unity. The Lord did not plan for his church to be divided into a hundred varieties, based on distinctives of personal preference and traditions that have no ground in Scripture. But for obvious reasons, diversity within a congregation can easily be used by the unredeemed flesh and by Satan to create division and discord, even hatred and animosity.

It was Paul’s abiding concern that every Christian have a deep desire for preserving “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3) and for putting “on love, which is the perfect bond of unity” (Col. 3:14). Our Lord expressed that same desire in His “new commandment … that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35). It is the concern He voiced in His high priestly prayer to His Father on behalf of those who belong to Him by faith, “that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me” (John 17:20–21).

The particular danger to unity that Paul addresses in Romans 14:1–15:13 is the conflict that easily arises between those to whom he refers as strong and weak believers, those who are mature in the faith and those who are immature, those who understand and enjoy freedom in Christ and those who still feel either shackled or threatened by certain religious and cultural taboos and practices that were deeply ingrained parts of their lives before coming to Christ.

In the early church, many Jews who came to faith in Christ could not bring themselves to discard the ceremonial laws and practices in which they had been steeped since early childhood, especially the rites and prohibitions the Lord Himself had instituted under the Old Covenant. They still felt compelled, for example, to comply with Mosaic dietary laws, to strictly observe the Sabbath, and even to offer sacrifices in the Temple because they were given by the true God.

On the other hand, many converted Gentiles had been just as strongly steeped in pagan rituals and customs from false gods, and they felt repulsed by anything remotely connected with such evils. Many Gentiles, for example, could not bring themselves to eat meat that had been offered to a pagan deity and then was sold in the marketplace.

Other believers, both Jewish and Gentile, understood and exercised their freedom in Christ. Mature Jewish believers realized that, under the New Covenant in Christ, the ceremonial requirements of the Mosaic law were no longer valid. Mature believing Gentiles understood that idolatry was a spiritual evil and had no effect on anything physical, such as meat, that may have been used in idolatrous worship.

Those who were still strongly influenced, favorably or unfavorably, by their former religious beliefs and practices were weak in the faith because they did not understand their freedom in Christ.

I once met an Amish farmer in Pennsylvania who was a recent convert to Christ. Contrary to the Amish tradition of not using modern appliances and motor-powered vehicles, this man owned a radio, which he secretly listened to, and an automobile, which he kept hidden in the barn most of the time and rarely drove in the daytime. He knew in his mind that using these things was not sinful or unbiblical, but he still had difficulty expressing this freedom openly, especially before his Amish friends and neighbors.

On the other hand, those who are strong are often faced with the temptation to push their freedom in Christ to the limits, to live on the outer edge of moral propriety, to see how far they can go without actually committing a sin. Those who are weak are tempted in the opposite way. They are so afraid of committing some religious offense that they surround themselves with self-imposed restrictions.

The liberated believer is tempted to look upon his legalistic brother as being too rigid and restricted to be of any use to the Lord. The legalist, on the other hand, is tempted to think of his liberated brother as being too free-wheeling and undisciplined to serve Christ effectively. This is the root of the disunity.

In the present passage (Rom. 14:1–12), the apostle speaks to both types of believers and both attitudes, but his first counsel is directed to strong believers, for the very reason that they are stronger in the faith. Of the two groups, they are the better equipped both to understand and to be understanding. He therefore says to them, Accept the one who is weak in faith.

Proslambanō (accept) is a compound verb, the prefix pros being a preposition that intensifies the basic verb, making it a command. In other words, Paul was not simply suggesting, but commanding, that strong believers accept weak believers.

In the New Testament, proslambanō is always used in the Greek middle voice, which gives it the connotation of personal and willing acceptance of another person. This meaning is clearly seen in Acts 28:2, where Paul uses the verb to describe the gracious hospitality of the Malta natives, who “kindled a fire and received us all” (emphasis added). This meaning is also clear in Romans 15:7, where Paul uses the verb twice, first regarding Christians’ accepting one another and then of Christ’s accepting “us [that is, all believers] to the glory of God.”

Is weak translates a Greek present participle, suggesting a temporary condition. The Greek text also has the definite article (the) before faith, indicating that Paul was not speaking of spiritual trust or faithfulness but of understanding the full truth of the gospel message. A better rendering, therefore, might be: one who is weak in the faith. That is clearly the apostle’s meaning when he admonished the Colossians to “continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast” (Col. 1:23, emphasis added; cf. Titus 1:4).

As noted above, Paul was not speaking of doctrinal or moral compromise. In that regard, he sternly warned the Galatians that “even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8). He was not speaking, for example, about Judaizers, Jews who infiltrated the church and then insisted that a Gentile could not come to Christ without being circumcised and that both Jewish and Gentile believers had to observe the Mosaic law (see Acts 15:5). He was speaking of believers, Jew or Gentile, who are weak in their understanding of and living out their true faith in Jesus Christ.

Such believers are to be fully and lovingly accepted by those who are spiritually mature. It is not that the believer’s freedom in Christ should never be discussed with Christians who are still under bondage to some type of religious compulsion or restraint, but that such discussion should never be for the purpose of passing judgment on undeveloped but sincere opinions.

One of Jesus’ most somber warnings was against anyone who “causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble.” It would be “better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!” (Matt. 18:6–7). The Lord noted that opposition (“stumbling blocks”) from the world against God’s people is inevitable and to be expected. But on that occasion, Jesus was speaking largely, if not entirely, of and to “the disciples” (v. 1), probably only the Twelve (see Mark 9:30–50; Luke 9:43–48). In verse 14 He calls His hearers sons “of your Father who is in heaven.” In the following verses (15–17), He plainly is speaking about church discipline, giving instruction for dealing with a “brother,” that is, a fellow believer, who sins. The Lord is therefore speaking both to and about genuine Christians when He says in the intervening verses,

This hyperbolic truism was meant to say that sin must be dealt with severely, in the case of an unbeliever who faced hell. But the principle still applies to a believer who has been delivered from hell. Sin is serious and calls for whatever action is necessary to stop it.

Paul warned the churches in Galatia, which had experienced considerable trouble from legalistic Judaizers, “You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another” (Gal. 5:13–15).

The apostle reminded the elders from Ephesus: “In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35). To mature believers in the churches of Galatia he gave an admonition and a caution. The admonition was, “Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual [the strong], restore such a one [the weak] in a spirit of gentleness.” The caution was, “each one [look] to yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). In other words, those who are presently strong are not invulnerable to attitudes that can make them weak. In slightly different words, he gave the same advice to believers in Corinth: “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).

Whatever spiritual strength we have, we have in and from the Lord. And when we become proud and self-satisfied, the Lord may see fit to withdraw some of His strength and blessing in order to remind us of how weak every believer is in himself.

The apostle urged the church at Thessalonica on the one hand to “admonish the unruly,” that is, to warn believers who think they are strong and who continually take their freedom to its limits, not in order to serve and please the Lord but to serve and please themselves. In the same verse he then urges those who are genuinely strong to “encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all men” (1 Thess. 5:14), that is, to use their freedom to serve the Lord by serving His people who are in special need of help.

Spiritual maturity is a continuum of growth that is meant to progress until the Lord takes us to be with Himself. In his first letter, John commends believers at various levels of spiritual maturity, referring to them as fathers, young men, and children. He reminds all of them that their spiritual strength comes from their knowing God and from His Word abiding in them (1 John 2:13–14).

It is important to note that the interchangeable use of titles and names of God in this passage present one of the clearest teachings of the deity of Christ. In verse 3 Paul speaks of God, in verse 4 of the Lord, in verse 6 of both the Lord (three times) and God (twice), in verse 8 of the Lord (three times), and in verse 9 nine specifically of Christ as being Lord.

In Romans 14:2–12, Paul gives four reasons why all believers (both strong and weak) should receive all other believers. They should receive each other because God receives them (vv. 2–3), because the Lord sustains each believer (v. 4), because the Lord is sovereign to each believer (vv. 5–9), and because the Lord alone will judge each believer (vv. 10–12).

GOD RECEIVES THEM

One man has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. (14:1–3)

The first reason all believers should receive all other believers is that God receives them.

The one man who has faith that he may eat all things obviously refers to the stronger, more mature Christian who appreciates and exercises his freedom in Christ. The first example of freedom is that of the Christian’s right to eat all things.

The gospel of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ includes no ceremonial or dietary restrictions, Mosaic or otherwise. In his first letter to Timothy, the apostle writes, “The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth” (1 Tim. 4:1–3).

Several years after he began his apostolic ministry, Peter was still afraid to eat animals that were declared ceremonially unclean under Old Testament law. It took three repeated declarations by the Lord in a vision to convince Peter that “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy” (Acts 10:15–16). The greater teaching of the vision was that Peter “should not call any man [that is, Gentiles] unholy or unclean” (v. 28).

As noted earlier, some Gentile believers, like some Jews, were troubled by the eating of certain foods, but for different reasons. Because of the idolatry and immorality related to their former religions, they could not bring themselves to eat meat or any other food that had been used as an offering to a pagan deity. Like Peter, they were still spiritually weak in regard to such things. Consequently, some Christian Jews and Gentiles would eat vegetables only, taking no chance of eating meat they considered to be defiled by idols.

Although Paul mentions only eating in verses 2–3 and 6, his comments in verses 17 and 21 suggest that some believers had similar concerns about drinking. If so, the reference probably applied primarily to Gentiles who had participated in or were familiar with pagan festivals such as the Roman bacchanalia, which were characterized by sexual orgies and drunkenness.

In verse 3 Paul gives a double injunction. The first is to the strong, to whom he says, Let not him who eats regard with contempt him [the weak] who does not eat. Exoutheneō (regard with contempt) is a strong term that carries the idea of looking on someone as totally worthless, as being nothing or less than nothing. It does not connote simply dislike or disrespect, but utter disdain and abhorrence. Many Jews of that day regarded all Gentiles with contempt, and many Greeks and Romans had the similar regard for those they referred to as barbarians.

It seems unlikely that many genuine Christians in the early church, at Rome or elsewhere, looked down on certain other believers with contempt in its most extreme sense. But it takes only one extremist to damage an entire congregation. Throughout the ages, churches have been plagued by those who proudly consider themselves to be spiritually superior.

Paul’s next injunction is to the weak: and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats. Like regard with contempt, the term judge translates a strong Greek verb (krinō), which has the basic meaning of separating and isolating. In a legal sense it referred to finding an accused person guilty of a crime.

In this verse, regard with contempt and judge are essentially synonymous. In both cases, one type of person disdains the other, and both are wrong. The strong member contemptibly considers the weak member to be legalistic and self-righteous, and the weak member judges the strong member to be irresponsible at best and profligate at worst.

Although the phrase God has accepted him directly follows him who eats (the strong), the context makes clear that divine acceptance applies both to the strong and to the weak, to the one who eats freely and to the one who does not. Paul’s point is that, if God Himself does not make an issue of such things, what right does one of His children have to do so? If the strong and the weak have equal acceptance by and fellowship with the Lord, it is sinful arrogance for those two kinds of believers not to accept each other.

THE LORD SUSTAINS EACH BELIEVER

Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand. (14:4)

The second reason every Christian should accept every other Christian is that the Lord sustains them all. A believer who is “strong” about matters that are not doctrinal or moral, and that are neither commanded nor forbidden in Scripture, is just as much in need of God’s strength as the one who is “weak.” We are all weak in the sense that everything good and righteous we possess is a gift of God, never the product of our own wisdom or efforts.

But the remaining influence of the flesh often tempts liberated believers to think legalists are so rigid and self-righteous that they sacrifice not only much personal joy but also limit their usefulness to the Lord. On the other hand, the same fleshly influence tempts legalists to believe that liberated believers are self-centered and loose-living and therefore cannot serve the Lord effectively.

Being well aware of those tendencies, Paul confronts both groups with the stinging rhetorical question, Who are you to judge the servant of another? What right do any of you, mature or immature, well taught or poorly taught, have to judge the servant of another, especially a fellow servant of Jesus Christ? A believer’s personal assessment of other believers does not in the least affect their standing before the Lord.

Perhaps referring to critics in the church at Corinth, Paul wrote, “To me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God” (1 Cor. 4:3–5).

It is to his own master, namely, Jesus Christ, that each believer stands or falls. And as far as matters of religious tradition and preference are concerned, every believer, strong and weak, will pass divine judgment, because the Lord does not take such things into account. Stand he will, Paul says of every believer, because the Lord is able, and obviously willing, to make him stand.

Earlier in the letter Paul posed a similar rhetorical question. “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?” He asks. “God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us” (Rom. 8:33–34). “For I am convinced,” he continues a few verses later, “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vv. 38–39).

Jesus Himself assures those who belong to Him: “I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:27–28). The closing benediction of Jude’s brief epistle reflects that promise, reminding believers of “Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy” (Jude 24).

The writer of Hebrews confirms that Christ “is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them (Heb. 7:25). Paul proclaimed his confidence “that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6), and Peter his assurance that we “are protected by the power of God through faith” (1 Pet. 1:5).

Many centuries before the coming of Christ, the Messiah, the psalmist declared with equal confidence that “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty,” that “He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark,” and that “He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways” (Ps. 91:1, 4, 11). Truly, the Lord sustains His own.

THE LORD IS SOVEREIGN TO EACH BELIEVER

One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. (14:5–9)

The third reason every Christian should accept every other Christian is that the Lord Jesus Christ is sovereign to each believer. Whether strong or weak, a sincere believer feels free or not free to do certain things out of the same motive: to please his Lord. Neither one is more or less spiritual or faithful because of his convictions about practices such as those discussed above. Being “strong” in this sense is not synonymous with being spiritual, and being “weak” is not synonymous with being carnal. The problem in the church at Rome, as in many churches since that day, was that some believers of both persuasions thought themselves to be more spiritual and the others to be more carnal. Paul’s whole purpose in these verses, and in the larger context of 14:1–15:13, was to disabuse believers of those false, divisive, and destructive notions.

His first example has to do with the religious significance and observance of certain days. He continues to address both strong and weak believers, noting that one man (the weak) regards one day above another, whereas another (the strong) regards every day alike.

For Jews, the Sabbath referred not only to the seventh day of the week, the day of rest and worship, but to a number of other days and periods that were venerated and specially observed. Some pagan religions also venerated certain days or seasons.

As with the eating of certain foods, the weak Jewish Christian remained strongly attached to the special days of Judaism and felt compelled to observe them. The weak Gentile, on the other hand, wanted to separate himself as far as possible from the special days of his former paganism because of their idolatrous and immoral character.

Paul admonished believers in Colossae: “Let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day” (Col. 2:16). He did not advise either the forsaking or the following of such customs, but rather reminded his readers of their unimportance. Those were “things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col. 2:17).

The apostle’s words to the Galatian churches in that regard was much harsher, because some believers were returning to customs and rituals from which they had once considered themselves liberated. “How is it,” he asked, “that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years” (Gal. 4:9–10).

“There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God,” Gentiles as well as Jews, the writer of Hebrews assures us (Heb. 4:9). But it is a future Sabbath, which we will enjoy and celebrate only when we are in heaven. As far as our present earthly life is concerned, Paul insists that each man be fully convinced in his own mind about observing or not observing the Sabbath or any other day.

In this context, mind obviously includes the heart and conscience, our deepest convictions and motives. Before God, it is not a matter of observance or nonobservance but of intent. The sincere weaker brother who observes the day, observes it for the Lord. The sincere stronger brother who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God. And again, the weaker believer who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.

In matters that are not specifically commanded or forbidden in Scripture, it is always wrong to go against conscience, because our conscience represents what we actually believe to be right. To go against our conscience, therefore, is to do that which we believe is wrong. And although an act or practice in itself may not be sinful, it is treated as sinful for those who are convinced in their own minds that it is wrong, and produces guilt.

It is also sinful, however, to try to impose our personal convictions on others, because, in doing so, we are tempting them to go against their own consciences. Paul is therefore giving a two-fold command: Do not compromise your own conscience in order to conform to the conscience of another believer and do not attempt to lead another believer to compromise his conscience to conform to yours.

As already noted, the greater responsibility is on the strong believer, for the very reason that he is better informed in the Word and more mature in his understanding. Paul therefore sternly warns the strong Christian: “Take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And thus, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ” (1 Cor. 8:9–12). Speaking for himself, he continues, “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble” (1 Cor. 8:13).

Standing before the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish council in Jerusalem, Paul declared, “Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day” (Acts 23:1). In light of the passage from 1 Corinthians just cited, and of many others he had written, Paul not only was confessing that he was guiltless of compromising his own conscience but that he also was guiltless of having caused other believers to compromise their consciences.

That is the principle he emphasizes next in our present text: For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. In all of Scripture, there is no greater call for holy living and for submission to the sovereign and unconditional lordship of Jesus Christ.

Neither the strong nor the weak lives for himself or dies for himself, and for the same reason—both of them live for the Lord and both of them die for the Lord. What we do for other believers, we do not only for their sakes but for our Lord’s sake, because, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. Christ is our mutual Lord, our mutual sovereign; and therefore everything we do, even in our dying, should be to please and to glorify our sovereign Savior and Lord.

We belong wholly to Christ because we “have been bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20; cf. 7:23) that He Himself paid with His own blood for our redemption (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). Paul charged the Ephesian elders to “be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).

We are the Lord’s in the fullest possible sense, and to this end Christ died and lived again, Paul declares unequivocally, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. To deny the lordship of Jesus Christ in the life of any believer is to subvert the full work, power, and purpose of His crucifixion and resurrection.

It seems inconceivable that genuine believers who love and serve the Lord and are well taught in His Word can maintain, as some do, that it is possible for a person to receive Jesus Christ as Savior but not as Lord. He died not only to save us but to own us, not only to free us from sin but to enslave us to Himself. Although the early church fully appreciated and praised Christ for His saviorhood, their earliest and most common confession was, “Jesus is Lord.”

“Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,” Paul already has exulted in and declared in this letter, “and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. … But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life” (Rom. 6:17–18, 22, emphasis added).

Only when He returns will Christ be universally acknowledged as sovereign Lord, at which time “every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil. 2:11; cf. Rev. 17:14; 19:16). But He will not become Lord at that time. He already is “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15), and His people recognize Him as such.

THE LORD ALONE WILL JUDGE EACH BELIEVER

But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. (14:10–12)

The fourth reason Paul gives for every Christian’s accepting every other Christian is that the Lord alone will judge each believer. If each believer belongs to the Lord alone, and if “Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (vv. 8–9), Paul asks, why do you (the weak, see v. 3b) judge your brother? Or you again, why do you (the strong, see v. 3a) regard your brother with contempt?

It is a terrible thing for men “to play God,” as it is often phrased. It is particularly inexcusable for God’s own people to intimate that presumption by judging and despising each other.

The work of Christians is to serve the Lord, not to usurp His lordship by self-righteously judging fellow believers. Our concern, rather, should be for being judged ourselves by the Lord, For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.

When we, along with all other believers, stand before the Lord on His judgment seat, His divine bēma, “each man’s work will become evident, for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:13–15).

As cited earlier, the apostle said of himself,

Reinforcing his argument for believer’s judgment with a quotation from Isaiah 45:23, Paul reminds his readers that it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God” (cf. Phil. 2:10–11).

Our responsibility is not to judge, to despise, to criticize, or in any way to belittle our brothers and sisters in Christ. We will not be called on by our Lord to give an account of the sins and shortcomings of others, but rather each one of us shall give account of himself to God.