Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Fourteen
“ANOTHER MAN’S SERVANT”
Scripture Reading: verses 1-8
HIM THAT IS WEAK IN THE FAITH RECEIVE YE, BUT NOT TO DOUBTFUL DISPUTATIONS. FOR ONE BELIEVETH THAT HE MAY EAT ALL THINGS: ANOTHER, WHO IS WEAK, EATETH HERBS. LET NOT HIM THAT EATETH DESPISE HIM THAT EATETH NOT; AND LET NOT HIM WHICH EATETH NOT JUDGE HIM THAT EATETH: FOR GOD HATH RECEIVED HIM. WHO ART THOU THAT JUDGEST ANOTHER MAN’S SERVANT? TO HIS OWN MASTER HE STANDETH OR FALLETH. YEA, HE SHALL BE HOLDEN UP: FOR GOD IS ABLE TO MAKE HIM STAND. ONE MAN ESTEEMETH ONE DAY ABOVE ANOTHER: ANOTHER ESTEEMETH EVERY DAY ALIKE. LET EVERY MAN BE FULLY PERSUADED IN HIS OWN MIND. HE THAT REGARDETH THE DAY, REGARDETH IT UNTO THE LORD; AND HE THAT REGARDETH NOT THE DAY, TO THE LORD HE DOTH NOT REGARD IT. HE THAT EATETH, EATETH TO THE LORD, FOR HE GIVETH GOD THANKS; AND HE THAT EATETH NOT, TO THE LORD HE EATETH NOT, AND GIVETH GOD THANKS. FOR NONE OF US LIVETH TO HIMSELF, AND NO MAN DIETH TO HIMSELF. FOR WHETHER WE LIVE, WE LIVE UNTO THE LORD; AND WHETHER WE DIE, WE DIE UNTO THE LORD: WHETHER WE LIVE THEREFORE, OR DIE, WE ARE THE LORD’S.
In the Epistle to the Romans we have a legal document regarding settlement of the great moral issues of our relationships with God. Paul is the attorney for the defense. God is the judge to whom sinners have been reconciled through the work of the Lord Jesus on Calvary. In this part of the Epistle, Paul sets forth the conduct befiting forgiven sinners.
The great difficulty for most Christians is forgetting “the pit from whence we have been digged.” Perhaps some of us have been believers in Christ for so many years we have settled down into the attitude that the faith of the Gospel is our natural, rightful heritage. We are prone to forget that God rescued us when we were perishing.
These instructions in Romans 14 are provided to defeat the attitude of self-complacency. One almost detects a tone of irony in the words of the apostle, especially in view of the hairsplitting practices of so many Christians in this age.
Many of us are so inclined to be extremists that either we go in the direction of disregard concerning moral conduct, receiving anybody regardless of how they behave, or we go to the other extreme, examining everyone meticulously making sure they conform to our way of thinking before admitting them into the sacred precincts of what we call “our fellowship,” of if we do let them in, we seek to hold them back from their service to God. This is the subject now before us.
The crux of the situation is presented in verse 4, “Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.”
The presumption of one Christian judging another overlooks the fact that God judges all, a prerogative wisely withheld from mortal, fallible men. In things pertaining either to himself or fellow Christians, no man is capable of accurate judgment. In fact, nothing is more detrimental to Christian fellowship as a censorious and condemnatory attitude displayed within the family of the redeemed. Judging the conduct of other Christians is a subject of such universal concern within the church that the collateral Scriptures applicable to this question should be considered a little more in detail in our treatise.
Jesus said, “Judge not that ye be not judged” (Matt. 7:1); and, while on earth, not even the blessed Son of God Himself judged people, saying, “I came not to judge the world but to save the world” (John 12:47). This is not a prohibition of discerning other people’s actions, but of presuming to utter a condemnation, break the fellowship, or disturb the unity of the church. Any Christian might lawfully make a private, personal, and tentative evaluation of another person’s conduct; but in the sense of stating an opinion, announcing a conclusion or otherwise making such an appraisal known to others, he is forbidden to pass judgment. The trouble with judging is that it breeds a reciprocal adverse judgment from them that are judged, thus multiplying and proliferating all kinds of bitterness, recriminations, and vindictive hatreds. James declared that: “He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. Only one is the lawgiver and judge, even he who is able to save and to destroy: but who art thou that judgest thy neighbor?” (James 4:11, 12).
Judging fellow Christians tends to freeze them in the line of conduct judged; whereas, by the exercise of patience and forbearance their undesirable conduct might, in time, become relaxed and change, due to growth and development. Thus, all judging is premature, as indicated by Paul’s command, “Judge nothing before the time” (1 Cor. 4:5). In the warmth and fellowship of Christian service, many Christians find the grace to grow and develop strength; and it should be remembered that every Christian begins as a babe in Christ.
The admonition against judging is not unconditional: “This injunction against judging must be confined to such matters as Paul was discussing. How could anyone beware of false prophets, unless we first judge them to be false prophets? (Matt. 7:15). And we must judge a man to be an evil worker, or we could not obey the command to ‘beware of evil workers’ (Phil. 3:2). Neither could we obey Paul’s injunction (Rom. 16:17,18) without judging which men belong to the class he mentions.”1
However, despite the sad necessity of observing certain exceptions, the master strategy for dealing with weak brethren is that of containing the situation, wherever possible, in love and forbearance. Peter wrote that Christians should, above all things: “be fervent in your love among yourselves; for love covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).
In verse 4, Paul reminds us that as forgiven sinners we are all servants to another. Our tendency is to bring our fellow believers into subservience to ourselves – to our systems, traditions and views. We set up a certain standard. It may be a good standard, but at best it is imperfect and colored by prejudice. We try to have fellow believers conform to that standard. This is one of the chief reasons for the scattering of God’s people today. If someone doesn’t agree concerning some minor matter, then we want to be rid of them. Sometimes we will do everything possible to expunge them from our society, desiring, through our actions, that they move on down the street and join another faction with “more liberal or conservative ideas.” The cure for all this is to realize that our fellow Christian answers to a higher authority – responsibility to the Lord whom he serves. The Lord shall dictate to him, and in the disposition of grace He has dictated on most generous terms.
It must be remembered that when we first came to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior we were exceedingly weak in the faith. Our thoughts concerning Christian doctrine were all awry. We were wrong on so many things. Yet in spite of that the Lord received us, and then began our Christian education. The point of this passage is that we should receive one another after that order. The unfortunate belief among too many of God’s people today is that before receiving a brother or sister into our company, we need to straighten them out on all details of belief. Unfortunately we usually do not pay as much attention to their conduct as we do to their doctrines. If they agree with us or our religious customs, we receive them heartily, but if they differ from us on certain traditional and minor ideas, we are likely to reject them.
This attitude is a confession of spiritual weakness. The fact is that many Christians today are afraid to have much to do with people who disagree with them. They are often so uncertain of their own Christian tenets they prefer to amble along with agreeable people who will fall in line with their own customs, traditions and beliefs. “Who art thou that judgest another man's servant?” says the Scripture. This is an appeal to an earthly situation in which one does not meddle in the business of judging the servants of other people; and thus, how much more appropriate it is for Christians to refrain from judging the servants of the Lord? The power of the Lord to make a man stand, despite his errors, is seen in the strength of believers to remain faithful to the church, a strength which comes only from the Lord, and a strength which exists in some instances coupled with all kinds of weakness, errors, and even sins.
If we sit in judgment on one another along the line of weakness in the faith, we are doing defiance to the God who has been so gracious as to forgive us our sins. We do not believe in being tolerant of evil or evil practices on the part of any brother. These should be exposed, otherwise Satan will soon play havoc with the Christian company. The subject of this chapter is religious conduct, and Paul is pointing out that the crux of the whole situation is the authority of the Lord.
“One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike.” Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.
Many Christians of Jewish background had faithfully observed the sabbaths, festivals, and celebrations of the Jewish institutions from childhood, and therefore counted such occasions more holy than others, continuing to mark and observe them even after their acceptance of Christianity, in such a manner “esteeming one day above another.” On the other hand, Gentile Christians more easily accepted the Christian teaching that all time is holy, every day of the week being sacred to the child of God; and thus, in that way, he esteemed “every day alike.” The teaching of this verse does not relax the commandments to observe the Christian assembly, observe the Lord’s Supper, and lay by in store “on the first day of the week.” Nor does “esteeming every day alike” authorize the Lord’s Supper to be observed on just any day. Paul was jere dealing with a different question, i.e., that of the Jewish holy days, such as various sabbaths. The Galatian churches had taken up such observances and were vigorously condemned for it (Gal. 4:10, 11).
“Let each man be fully persuaded [assured] in his own mind” is an appeal for conscientious conduct on the part of every Christian. Although the word “conscience” does not appear in this chapter, it is nevertheless, in a sense, the subject of it – a subject of surpassing importance to every child of God.
From Romans 2, it has already appeared that conscience, like memory, reason, and imagination, is a noble endowment of humanity, and one that sets people apart from the lower orders of creation. The function of this priceless faculty: “Not to ascertain the truthfulness of things, but to see that its owner is true to himself and follows his convictions; that, in violating his conscience, a man so destroys his moral integrity as to make moral, spiritual living impossible; and, therefore, the most deadly thing a man can do is to trifle with his conscience; for, in so doing, he is tampering with the compass of his soul.”2
The man who violates his conscience, as well as the person who might have influenced him to violate it, are both guilty of sin in such a transgression, as pointed out by an apostle, “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things” (1 John 3:20). Thinking that a thing is right cannot make it so; but thinking that a thing is wrong can make it so for him who thus thinks.
Even regarding things in which we may be mistaken, if these are done to the Lord, due credit is given to us. “He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it.”
Godet’s sharp comment on this is: “The apostle states the reason why the two lines of conduct are equally admissible. It is because, opposed as they are, they are inspired by one and the same desire, that of serving the Lord.”3
It might be added that both lines of behavior were followed in good conscience. Further, this establishes the principle that sincere and conscientious behavior on the part of Christians (in all matters indifferent) is of greater importance than correctness in all opinions held. No man should suppose that all his opinions are accurate. On the contrary, any Christian may walk before the Lord in purity of intention and conscience. One of the glorious facts regarding Christian service is that God judges Christians with more regard to their sincere purpose than with reference to the degree of perfection in their attainment. It was this fact which enabled Paul to address the Corinthian church (about as poor a specimen of Christianity as one might find anywhere) in these significant words, “I thank my God always concerning you” (1 Cor. 1:4).
Remember, Paul was living in a time of spiritual transition. In Rome many Jews and Gentiles were newcomers to the faith of Christianity and would likely bring old ideas with them. Patience must be shown. However, let us not confuse this with enlightened brethren seeking to impose such ideas as “Sabbath keeping” on others today. This is taken up and condemned in the Galatian Epistle. The observance of holy days and going back to lawkeeping is putting people under a curse and that must be rejected. “They that are of the deeds of the law are under a curse.”
“For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.” In a sense, every man is his brother’s keeper, a responsibility denied by Cain (Gen. 4:9), and by many others in all generations; but that is not the principal idea of this verse, which is explained in the verse following. Paul is saying that whatever a man does, or however he lives, it is his relationship to the Lord that determines all. Not merely such things as eating or not eating, observing days or not observing days, but life itself is sustained in a holy sense of belonging, not to one’s self, but to the Lord.
“For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” Paul had already written that “neither life nor death” could separate the true believer from the Lord (Rom. 8:38), and here again is the same thought in other words. Life has many tedious and toilsome duties, but everything the child of God does is done in service to the Lord. In New Testament times, even such a thing as slave labor was discharged with that in view (Eph. 6:6-8). What a golden glory this sheds on all life’s prosaic sands. What a silver lining this bestows upon every cloud. Even death itself here appears in a new dimension, for Christians are the Lord’s even in death. Paul himself lived in daily contemplation of death, living a life that was constantly threatened and in jeopardy every hour. Enemies without and within, perilous travels, serpents, shipwrecks, robbers, and plots of murder made danger his daily bread; but here surfaces the secret spring of his life’s overflowing optimism and the source of his granite endurance. He was the Lord’s, not merely in life, but in death as well. Every child of God may claim the same legacy. “O death where is thy victory? O death where is thy sting? ... But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:55-57).
If we are Christians, the criterion in our lives is that we belong to the Lord, and if we are seeking to walk according to our light, owning the authority of our Lord, then we are worthy of acceptance by our fellow believers. We are all imperfect in our apprehension. Christian fellowship does not subsist in intelligence, it subsists in love. “By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
