Romans 14

Romans 14:1

And for the preserving of that Christian charity among all, mentioned solemnly ch. xiii. 8, 9, 10, I shall enlarge to give these rules. Great dissensions and divisions are already gotten into the church of Jewish believers (not only against the Gentiles, but) among themselves, some Jewish converts discerning their Christian liberty and freedom from the Judaical yoke, others conceiving themselves still to be under that obligation. The latter of these is zealous for the

Romans 14:2

He that is sufficiently instructed in his liberty makes no scruple of eating any thing, thinks not himself obliged to be circumcised, &c., makes use of his Christian liberty to that purpose; but the Judaizer, being not sufficiently instructed in the nature of the liberty allowed him by Christ, and remaining in that error concerning the obligingness of the Mosaical law, abstaineth from all flesh perhaps, (for so some did, saith Theophylact, that they might not be taken notice of to abstain peculiarly from swine’s flesh,) or else from some sorts of meats, as unclean and forbidden.

Romans 14:3

Now to begin with the latter first (see note [b] Matt. vii). The Jewish believer that discerns his liberty, and eateth all meats indifferently, must not despise the scrupulous erroneous, which is also a Jewish believer; and on the other side, the scrupulous Judaizer must not reject and cast out of his communion that other, who being instructed in the nature of his Christian liberty doth not think himself obliged to abstain from all those meats, from which a

³ set at nought, Hovdevelves. G 2

Romans 14:4

What commission hast thou, O Jewish Christian, to judge God’s servant, received and owned by him, ver. 3, to exclude him out of the church? (see ch. ii. 1. and note [a]:) to his own Lord he stands or falls; that is, he, by his (not thy) sentence or judgment, is either cleared (judged to have done nothing amiss) or condemned. But he certainly shall be cleared, for God is able to clear him if he please; and he certainly will, having, by receiving him into his family, given him this liberty.

Romans 14:5

The Judaizing Christian observeth some special days appointed by Moses’ law, the sabbath, or other Jewish festivals; but the other, which is no Judaizer, but knows his own liberty, makes not that difference of days that Moses requires: and in such things every man must act by his own, not by another man’s judgment or conscience (see note [a] Luke i.), what he is verily persuaded he ought to do (and therefore unity and charity ought not to be broken by you for such things).

[b] esteemeth] What κρίνειν here signifies must be resolved by the special, not vulgar use of the word among authors. It is used sometimes for approving, giving the suffrage in a competition; so ¹St. Chrysostom useth together ταύτη τίθεται τὰς ψήφους καὶ τὰς κρίσεις, “he gives his suffrage, and his sentence or judgment to this.” So in Xenophon, Κύρ. παιδ. l. 8. τοὺς μὴ ἑαυτὸν κρίνοντας ἐμίσει, “he hated them that did not adjudge the victory to him.” So Aristotle, l. 1. de An. c. 11. πάντα τὰ στοιχεῖα κριτὴν εἴληφε πλὴν τῆς γῆς, “every of the elements but the earth had some philosopher or other that gave his suffrage to it, that it was the soul or principle of all things.” So Plato in Philebo, εἴ τινα πρὸ αὐτῆς ἄλλην κρίναμεν, “if we prefer any before it.” So when of Epicurus it is said, κρίνει ἡδονὴν, “he defends or gives his vote to pleasure,” that it is the summum bonum. And in the Epigram,

Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡ ψυχὴ τὸ φαγεῖν κρίτουσα γέγγθεν,

“For the soul rejoiceth not as preferring eating before all things.” And so here, δὲ μὲν κρίνει ἡμέραν παρ’ ἡμέραν, “one prefers one day before another, but another approves every day,” that is, prefers not any before any.

Romans 14:8

For our life and death are very unconsiderable, but as by them we may serve God; and therefore much more all other things.

Romans 14:9

And all the fruit of Christ’s death and suffer-

Romans 14:10

But why dost thou that observest the law condemn thy fellow-Christian, or exclude him from thy communion, because he uses his Christian liberty, &c.? or thou that usest thy liberty, why dost thou think it a piece of senseless stupidity in the Jew to abstain, and thereupon despise, ver. 3, and vilify him, which is also a kind of judging him? whereas, indeed, neither of you is to be the judge of the other, but Christ of you both, (see note [a] James iii.) being by his Father sent and commissioned to that office. 11, 12. According to that of the prophet, Isa. xlv. 23, I have sworn by myself that unto me every knee shall bow; which being a prediction of somewhat then future, was to have a completion in Christ incarnate, (see Phil. ii. 9—11,) who is now constituted the one supreme Judge of all, to whose judicature every one must submit and give account for his own actions; and consequently it is most unreasonable that any man but he to whom Christ this supreme Judge hath delegated and committed that power, the apostles and governors of the church, endowed with the power of the keys and censures, should thus censure, and reject others from their communion.

Romans 14:12

The present dark state of persecution of the pure Christians by the unbelieving Jews and the Gnostics among you is now well over, and the more joyful lightsome state of quiet and calm is now, as the day, approaching, (see 2 Pet. i. 19. 1 John ii. 8,) which is a mighty obligation to us to perform the deeds of the day, all actions of Christian purity, casting off the doctrines and practices of the Gnostics, and all the corruptions crept in among you.

Romans 14:13

And particularly let chastity and all manner of purity, contrary to the night-works or deeds of darkness and secrecy, be most carefully preserved in all kinds; and think it not tolerable to go on (as they would have you, and tell you it may lawfully be done by you,) either in revellings and pursuits of lusts, or in sins of luxury and excess, apt to hinder your watchfulness (see Luke xxi. 34.), or in venery, men with women in unlawful embraces, or in lasciviousness against the laws and differences of sexes, (see note [d] 1 Pet. iv.) or any of those other sins so familiar among the Gnostics, or, finally, in factions, divisions, contentions, hating and persecuting your fellow-Christians, as the Gnostics and Judaizers do.

And therefore let this fault be mended by you; do not any longer censure and separate from one another’s communion for such things as these; only be careful that you do not scandalize any Christian brother, that is, put in his way a stumblingblock, to hinder his coming to Christianity, or a gall-trap in his progress, to wound him, and make him go back, as the Judaizer is in danger to do, when he sees those liberties used among Christians which he deems utterly unlawful.

Romans 14:14

But set yourselves to the practice of all Christian purity, and do not entertain yourselves with carnal sensual designs, such as the divinity of the Gnostics is too full of, which tends to the advancing of lusts of all kinds, and nothing else.

CHAP. XIV. HIM that is weak in the faith 1 receive ye, but not 2 to doubtful [a]disputations.

I am confident, and make no question, but that Christ hath so removed that yoke of the Mosaical law, that to a Christian Jew no kind of meat is unlawful to be eaten; but yet, for all that, it is unlawful to him that esteems it to be still prohibited: the persuasion of its being forbidden him is, as long as he is so persuaded, sufficient to make it to him unlawful to use that liberty which otherwise were lawful. ⁶ be set, παραστησόμεθα. ⁷ a scandal, σκάνδαλον. ⁸ in, &c.

Romans 14:15

But if for a matter of this nature, his not daring to eat what thou eatest, thou despise and cast off thy fellow-Christian that knows not his liberty, and by so doing discourage or alien him from going on in Christianity, ver. 13, sure this is contrary to the rule of Christian charity, of drawing all to piety, and driving none away, Matt. xviii. 6; and it will be a great fault in thee, for so light a thing as meat is, to drive from Christianity, and consequently to destroy him, for the saving of whom Christ was content to lay down his life: see ver. 20.

[c] grieved] Λυπείσθαι here signifies to be grieved, as that notes being wounded or galled in his course, and by that means driven off from the profession of Christianity. That it signifies so, appears by the context, comparing this verse with ver. 13, where the brother’s having a scandal, that is, gall-trap (see note [c] ou Matt. xi.) put in his

¹ Lib. 3. Ep. 35. ² Lib. 1. de Abr. c. 1. 3. ³ Tom. 4. p. 435. l. 27. HAMMOND ANNOTT. VOL. II. G

Romans 14:16

Ye may use your Christian liberty, but shall not do well so to use it as that it may tend to others’ hurt; for that will be the defaming of that which is in itself indifferent or innocent.

Romans 14:17

For Christianity consists not in such external matters, eating or not eating such or such meats, but in the practice of Christian virtues; such are mercifulness and peaceableness, and delight to do good one to another, to build up and advance one another in piety, not dividing and hating, and excommunicating one another, ver. 19; or delight to do good, or that joy which results from unanimity, saith Theophylact.

[d] joy] That χαρὰ, joy, Gal. v. 22, signifies not the natural passion, but the Christian virtue, and that again most probably that which is exercised toward our brethren, appears by the ἀγάπη, charity, before, and εἰρήνη, peace, &c. after it, and therefore it must be understood in that notion which shall be agreeable thereto, either to signify the rejoicing at any good that befalls another, but especially at the virtuous actions performed by him, (which, 1 Cor. xiii. 6, is rejoicing in the truth, that is, integrity and sincerity of another, opposite to his ἀδικία, doing amiss precedent,) or else the desire or delight of doing good to others, which as a thing very pleasant to him that hath it, and as the cause of joy to them that receive benefit from it, may perhaps be called joy. And though the former of these notions is the more easy and prompt, yet that this latter is the more proper to that place may appear probable by comparing it with the like phrase here, χαρὰ ἐν Πνεύματι Ἁγίῳ, joy in the Holy Ghost, which is here also joined with righteousness and peace, (and all of them, by the matter in hand, the care of not offending the weak brother, appear to be branches of duty to the neighbour,) and seems contrary to the grieving and wounding the brother, ver. 15, that is, the betraying him to any sin, and is expounded, ver. 19, by τὰ τῆς οἰκοδομῆς τῆς εἰς ἀλλήλους διώκειν, pursuing those things that belong to edification toward one another, that is, building up in piety, bettering one another, which is here joined with pursuing τὰ τῆς εἰρήνης, the things that belong to peace, (as there the joy is with peace itself,) and ch. xv. 2, by τῷ πλησίον ἀρίσκειν εἰς τὸ ἀγαθὸν πρὸς οἰκοδομήν, pleasing the

Romans 14:18

These indeed are acts of obedience to Christ, that are sure to be accepted by God, (without Judaical performances,) and to be of good report among all men.

Romans 14:19

And therefore let us most zealously attend to those things which may thus preserve peace between all sorts of Christians, though of different persuasions, Judaizers or those that are instructed in their liberty, and which tend to the drawing men to Christianity, not aliening them from it.

Romans 14:20

Do not thou for so unconsiderable a matter as eating is, or because another will not or dares not make use of that Christian liberty which thou dost most innocently use, disturb that peace, that unity, which God hath wrought among believers of different persuasions about indifferent things. It is true a man may eat any thing simply considered; but if by eating he alien others from the gospel, by despising and avoiding them (ver. 3) that dare not do so, this is a sin in him.

Romans 14:21

It is not charitable to make use of any part of ⁹ But if because of meat, Εἰ δὲ διὰ βρῶμα. ¹⁰ dissolve, κατάλυε. ¹¹ but the evil is to, κακὸν τῷ.