Romans 14
BSASBPaul addresses disagreements among believers over food and special days, matters on which sincere Christians differed. He calls the strong and the weak to accept one another, because each belongs to the Lord and will answer to Him. The guiding principles are love, peace, and building one another up rather than winning arguments.
Romans 14:1
Paul opens with a command to welcome the believer whose faith is not yet strong on disputable matters. The welcome is not meant to start quarrels over private convictions. The church is a place where the less settled are received warmly, not put on trial.
BSA: Accept (“receive, take in”): The word means a real welcome into fellowship, as one would take someone into one’s home. opinions (“thoughts, reasonings, personal convictions”): These are matters of personal conviction, not the core of the gospel.
See also: Romans 15:7.
Romans 14:2
Paul gives the example. One believer feels free to eat anything. Another, probably worried about meat that may have been offered to idols or not prepared according to Jewish custom, eats only vegetables. Paul calls the second person weak in faith, but he does not call him wrong to be sincere.
BSA: weak (“feeble, lacking strength”): This describes limited confidence in how far Christian freedom reaches, not a lack of salvation.
Romans 14:3
Each side has its own temptation. The one who eats freely is tempted to look down on the other, and the one who abstains is tempted to condemn. Paul silences both with one reason: God has already welcomed that person, so we have no right to refuse him.
BSA: belittle (“despise, look down on”): It means treating someone as if he counts for nothing. accepted (“received, taken to Himself”): God has drawn this person to Himself, so no one else may turn him away.
Romans 14:4
Paul asks who gave us the right to judge another person’s household servant. A servant answers to his own master, not to fellow servants. The comfort is that the Lord is able to keep His people standing, even when they are weaker and less certain.
BSA: servant (“another’s domestic, a household worker”): Believers are members of Christ’s household, and He alone supervises them. stand (“be upheld, made to stand”): A believer’s standing depends on the Lord’s power to hold him up, not on our approval.
Greek: δυνατεῖ (dynatei, G1414) — “is able, is powerful.” It comes from the word for power. The Lord does not merely hope His servant stands. He has the power to hold him up.
Romans 14:5
Paul now turns to special days, probably Jewish feasts or fast days. One person treats some days as holy, another treats all days alike. Paul does not rule on the question. He asks each person to think it through honestly and be settled in conscience before God.
BSA: fully convinced (“completely assured, persuaded”): Paul wants a conviction that has been thought through and reached before God, not one borrowed from the crowd.
See also: Galatians 4:10; Colossians 2:16.
Romans 14:6
What matters is the heart’s aim. The one who keeps a day, the one who eats, and the one who abstains are all doing it for the Lord. Giving thanks to God shows that each person is sincere. Paul sees the same devotion behind opposite practices.
BSA: abstains (“refrains, fasts”): Abstaining can be an act of devotion, not mere fussiness.
Romans 14:7-8
No believer’s life is a private possession. Whether we live or die, we do so before the Lord. Our daily choices, and even our death, are His concern. This is the deep reason we should not judge one another, since we all belong to the same Master.
BSA: belong (“as His possession, servants”): Living and dying are both carried out under the Lord’s ownership, and that gives comfort as well as responsibility.
See also: 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 2:20.
Romans 14:9
Here is the purpose of Christ’s death and resurrection: to be Lord over everyone, whether alive or in the grave. He rules over all believers, so the Lord we serve is no one’s property but His own. This is why no believer may take His place as judge.
BSA: Lord (“have power over, rule”): Christ’s lordship is real authority over every life and over death itself.
See also: Acts 10:36.
Romans 14:10
Paul asks two sharp questions, one aimed at the critic and one at the scornful. Both are speaking against a brother, and both will face the same judgment. The judgment seat reminds us that God, not we, will examine every believer.
BSA: judgment seat (“the throne of judgment, tribunal of Christ”): This is the place where a ruler examines and decides; it points to Christ’s own judgment.
See also: 2 Corinthians 5:10.
Romans 14:11
Paul supports the point with Scripture, drawing on Isaiah. God has sworn by His own life that everyone will one day bow to Him and acknowledge Him. If everyone will bow to Him, then we have no need to take over His seat now.
BSA: knee (“submission”): Bowing the knee is a picture of full submission to the true King.
See also: Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2:10-11.
Romans 14:12
Judgment is personal. Each of us will answer for himself. That sets a limit on our habit of examining others, since we have our own accounting to prepare for. It also lifts a burden, because we are not responsible for deciding where everyone else stands.
BSA: account (“a reckoning, a report”): It is a full report on one’s own life, given directly to God.
Romans 14:13
Paul turns from judging to caring. The word judge is picked up again in a new sense: instead of passing judgment, decide never to place a hindrance in a brother’s path. The question changes from who is right to how my freedom affects my brother.
BSA: stumbling block (“obstacle, hindrance”): It pictures something left in a person’s path that trips him, here our own careless use of freedom.
Greek: κρίνατε (krinate, G2919) — “decide, judge.” Paul plays on the one word. Stop judging one another, but judge or decide this instead: never to trip a brother.
See also: 1 Corinthians 8:9.
Romans 14:14
Paul states his own settled view as one who is in Christ: no food is unclean in itself. This matches Jesus’ teaching. Yet a person who believes something is unclean would sin by eating it, because he would be acting against his conscience.
BSA: unclean (“common, unholy”): The word means ordinary or defiled in a ritual sense, as the old food laws described.
See also: Mark 7:18-19; Acts 10:15.
Romans 14:15
If our eating grieves a brother, love has been dropped, even if we are technically free to eat. Paul reminds us how much that brother is worth: Christ died for him. We should not put a meal ahead of someone Christ valued so highly.
BSA: destroy (“cause to perish, ruin spiritually”): It warns that careless use of freedom can wreck a weaker believer’s faith. love (“unconditional affection, charity”): Love is the standard for how we use our freedom.
See also: 1 Corinthians 8:11.
Romans 14:16
Our freedom is a good gift, but it can be spoiled in the eyes of others when it is used carelessly. Paul asks believers to guard the reputation of the good they enjoy so that it is not slandered as something evil.
BSA: evil (“in a bad light, showing disrespect”): Misused freedom can cause the church’s good to be spoken of as harmful.
Romans 14:17
God’s kingdom is not about menus. It is about righteousness, peace, and joy that the Holy Spirit gives. Paul puts first things first: when we quarrel over food, we trade the real treasures of the kingdom for trifles.
BSA: kingdom (“reign, dominion”): This is God’s rule in people’s lives, not a set of dietary rules. righteousness (“living according to God’s will, being in right standing”): It points to a right relationship with God and a life that fits it.
See also: Galatians 5:22-23.
Romans 14:18
Anyone who serves Christ through righteousness, peace, and joy pleases God. Such a life is also respected by thoughtful people around. A church marked by these qualities has a good witness, which quarreling over minor things will never give.
BSA: serves (“is a slave to”): The word calls for the life of a bond-servant who belongs entirely to Christ. approved (“tested, validated”): Such a life stands up when tested.
Romans 14:19
Paul urges believers to chase after the things that make for peace and build up others. Peace and building are the two goals. Instead of tearing down a brother’s convictions, we should strengthen him.
BSA: pursue (“follow after, eagerly try to live in a way that will cause”): It means active, determined effort, not simply drifting into peace. edification (“building up, spiritual growth, confirmation”): The picture is of building a house, adding strength to a fellow believer.
Greek: οἰκοδομῆς (oikodomēs, G3619) — “building up.” It comes from the word for house building. The church is pictured as a structure we help raise, not tear down.
See also: 1 Corinthians 14:12.
Romans 14:20
Paul says again that food is clean, but he will not let food ruin the Lord’s work in a brother. A believer is God’s work in progress. To trip him over a meal is a poor trade. Eating in a way that makes another fall is wrong.
BSA: destroy (“tear down, overthrow”): It is the opposite of building up, like pulling down a structure that God has raised. work (“task, occupation, act”): A believer is the result of God’s own labor in a life.
See also: Philippians 1:6.
Romans 14:21
Paul gives a practical rule. If eating meat or drinking wine would cause a brother to fall, the loving thing is to go without. This is not a law for everyone at all times. It describes a willing sacrifice made for the good of another.
See also: 1 Corinthians 8:13.
Romans 14:22
Convictions on disputable matters may be held privately before God, without pressing them on others. Paul adds a blessing: happy is the one whose conscience is clear about what he allows. He does not need to doubt his own choices.
BSA: Blessed (“happy, supremely fortunate”): A clear conscience brings real happiness. approves (“allows, considers right”): It means what a person decides is acceptable after testing it before God.
Romans 14:23
Paul ends with a serious principle. If someone eats while doubting, he is acting against his conscience and so is guilty. Whatever is done without faith, meaning without a settled trust that God approves, is sin. Conscience should be respected and also taught by Scripture.
BSA: faith (“trust, confidence in God”): Here faith means a confident conviction that what we do is acceptable to God. sin (“missing the mark, rebellion against God”): To act against conscience is to turn away from God’s will, even over a small matter.
Greek: διακρινόμενος (diakrinomenos, G1252) — “the one who doubts, wavers.” It describes a person divided within himself, torn between two judgments. Acting while torn is what Paul calls not from faith.
See also: James 1:6.