Romans 15:1-3

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up. For even Christ didn’t please himself. But, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

I think that it is safe to interpret this to mean that Jesus didn’t find pleasure in dying for our sin. In fact, the Bible tells us that he despised the shame of it. This may come as a bit of a shock to some, but we need to be careful here. Jesus didn’t despise saving us, but bearing our sin was the despicable requirement. It would be wrong for any perfect man to desire to be sin before God. There is nothing good about being sinful in the presence of a Holy God, especially if you love God like a father. We made Jesus do something horrible because of our sin and there is no way to glorify it. It was dirty and ugly. The only pleasure we read about regarding Jesus death in the Bible, was that God was pleased to crush Him. This is because Jesus was wearing our sin and it was good to punish it!

We may not feel good temporarily giving up some of our freedom in order to help a weaker brother, but it will never add up to the reproach that Jesus had to bear to die for us. Jesus’ example gives us no room to live selfishly. Instead, we need to “bear with the weaknesses of the weak.” We can do this in the Holy Spirit, remembering the mercy that has been given to us.

Romans 14:22-23

Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn’t judge himself in that which he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.

I don’t think that this version of the Bible brings out the intent of the passage as well as some others. I don’t think I fully understood this verse until I looked at it using the word “conviction” instead of “faith.” I like how it is put in the New Living Translation:

Romans 14:22-23 (New Living Translation – NLT)

You may believe there’s nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right. But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.

I personally experienced a breakthrough when I considered this passage recently. I realized that, although something may not be wrong before God, if I believe it to possibly be wrong, I shouldn’t do it. I believe that this is the basis for what Paul has been saying in this chapter. The world tries to encourage people to ignore their conscience or to put it down as a kind of evil. Christianity holds conscience high and says that even if it isn’t really wrong, obey your
conscience anyway.

We can actually invent new ways of sinning by taking a good thing, believe it to be wrong, and then do it anyway. That really is sin according to what we read here. This is why we absolutely must support weak believers who think that something is wrong that the Bible doesn’t say is wrong. If they think it is wrong, then to them it is! We destroy God’s work in the conscience of the new believer if we encourage them to disobey their conscience.

In my life, I have found two ways in which I have caused damage to my conscience. One way is to believe something is wrong and then attempt to do it anyway because someone else said I shouldn’t worry about it. The other is to fail to do something that I believe is right to do when others don’t think it is necessary. They may be right; it may not be a real rule in the Bible, but for them to not support me in the following of my conscience is to help cause me harm. This discovery helped me understand these verses:

Acts 24:16

Herein I also practice always having a conscience void of offense toward God and men.

1 Timothy 1:19

holding faith and a good conscience; which some having thrust away made a shipwreck concerning the faith;

It is my responsibility to follow my conscience, even if others don’t care.

Romans 14:16-21

Then don’t let your good be slandered, for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then, let us follow after things which make for peace, and things by which we may build one another up. Don’t overthrow God’s work for food’s sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating. It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak.

Notice that Paul makes it very clear here that “all things indeed are clean.” He’s saying that, “Sure, you are right that you are free to eat anything, but you are wrong when you eat something that you know will be offensive to your Christian brother.” We can use our freedom in an offensive way. Paul isn’t saying that everything that can possibly be done is Ok to do. If that were the case it would be Ok to do harm to your brother. No, Paul is still talking about things that are optional; things that the Bible doesn’t clearly say are right or wrong for everyone.

Free people should use their freedom to bring peace, not to shock others or prove to them that things are Ok. Notice that Paul brings up drinking wine here. That’s still quite an issue today. Some think it is Ok, others say it isn’t at all. Pastors that I know have made a definite choice to no longer drink. They did this freely so that they can encourage others in the church. They don’t preach that it is wrong, they just choose to deny themselves for the sake of the people they care about.

Notice that Paul makes it clear that the important things are “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” There can be no doubt that these things are good and they are the important things to focus on. External things like food choices are just not that important.

Notice that proving your freedom to people may actually “overthrow God’s work.” God doesn’t mature believers at the same rate. It may take some believers many years to understand just how free they really are in Jesus. By causing our brother to stumble, we harm the good work that God is doing in his life and that is the wrong way to use freedom.

Romans 14:13-15

Therefore let’s not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling. I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.

Perhaps you are aware of a few Christians that think it is wrong to do things that you know are fine. It is true that you are free to do what you know is right. It is between you and Jesus, but if we really care about those in our Christian family who believe that something we enjoy is really wrong, then it isn’t worth it for us to flaunt it.

Instead, we should be doing what ever is in our power to help our brother do what they believe is right. If we flaunt our own freedom, it may make them do something that they think is wrong! That is what Paul calls a “stumbling block.” It could lead them into a lifestyle of sinful behavior that really is bad because they were willing to go against their own conscience. That is a horrible thing to be involved in even if you are free to do more.

When Jesus died He limited His freedom so that we could have time to grow up and do what is right. We should do the same for other Christians.

If you really think something is bad to do, then please don’t do it. Your relationship with God is more important and you should keep a good conscience with Him.

Romans 14:10-12

But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written,

“‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘to me every knee will bow.
Every tongue will confess to God.’”

So then each one of us will give account of himself to God.

When I read these verses I realize that God doesn’t need me to judge my brother’s motives. If we believe what God says about the future, we would keep in mind that God is already going to judge each individual Himself. God has no need of our judgments. He knows much better than we do.

Paul is not saying that we shouldn’t discern good from evil. He isn’t saying that we shouldn’t expose evil and try to turn people back to God. I believe He is saying that it isn’t our responsibility to act as a judge over our fellow Christian’s internal motives.

In context, we know that Paul has been talking about personal beliefs and that it is easy for us to judge someone’s motives by what they do or do not allow. I believe that it is this kind of judgment that is in focus here. God knows each person’s heart and He will be judging our true motives one day; but this is an individual thing. We have not been given the right to judge a fellow Christian’s motives! We have not been given the right to judge a fellow Christian’s motives! (Yes, I repeated that on purpose.) You may think that you have “the gift of criticism” but it can’t be a Spiritual gift because God wants to be doing the judging Himself.

Each of us should, instead, pay very close attention to our own motives, realizing that we will stand directly before God soon and “give account” to Him.

Romans 14:6b-9

He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. He who doesn’t eat, to the Lord he doesn’t eat, and gives God thanks. For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

When we start focusing on our own actions and convictions, it is easy to get our eyes off of the one we honor with our actions. We can become so focused on our own efforts that we start to compare our efforts with the effort of others and we miss the whole point.

The reason that we have our convictions is to honor our Lord Jesus Christ.

The reason we do them is to show Him honor and He is happy to receive what is done in His honor. You can eat in His honor or not eat in His honor. You can observe special days in His honor and you can decide to treat every day the same in His honor. The focus should be God and not ourselves or each other. Even if someone may be doing wrong, we need to remember to pray for them because Jesus died for everyone. We should be so filled with joy that we hope that they can share in our joy with us. We shouldn’t be filled with envy or boastfulness. These things don’t honor Jesus at all.

Jesus raised our lives from the dead and for that we can be thankful and have an opportunity to express it as we want to.

Romans 14:5-6a

One man esteems one day as more important. Another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.

It’s important to understand what a conviction is. It is something we hold to be right. Notice how important it is for the person who believes something is right to be
“fully assured in his own mind.” We are not to try to argue with people over these issues of personal conviction. That would actually harm the person who holds it. Our goal should be to help each other stay strong in our convictions in order to maintain a good relationship with God.

Notice that both those who observe special days and those who treat “every day alike” are both acceptable to God. This is still an issue of contention among believers and it is too bad since we have this so clearly written. We should learn to respect each other’s convictions. If someone wants to treat certain days as special, whether they be Saturday, Sunday, or Easter, we should accept that. Likewise, of some decide to not observe these special days, we should accept that too because God has accepted them. We must, however be assured in our own minds no matter what someone else does or thinks.

We see here that it is a personal relationship that God values and He doesn’t want anyone or anything to come between us and Him. Whatever we do, we need to live “to
the Lord.” If you hold Saturday as a special day to the Lord, then I suggest that you continue to do so. Make sure that whatever you do, you do unto the Lord.