Romans 14:01-08 Rights of the believers
Disputable Matters – Romans 14:1-3
Paul mentions that Church has some disputable matters related to food, clothing, friendship, and cultural impacts on the believers. There are always tendencies and trends among the believers to accuse, judge, passing comments on others’ food habits, dress codes, and other habits. Different cultures have different values for dressing, food, and cultural events. Christ brought all of us into his fold but never asked us to leave everything and become identical. We are allowed to have differences in our habits but not in understanding and following Christ.
He emphasized the unity in Christy and not the uniformity. Paul emphasized that God has accepted the diversity of lifestyles and not the sinful ways and means. He enlightens us that true followers of Christ will not hurt one another on the bases of any of these things. No one has the right to condemn another because he does not follow his food habits or dress codes.
Observations of the Days – Romans 14:5-8
Each one has the right to observe and not observe the days as special or ordinary days. God has created every day. This is the day that the Lord has made and be glad in it. Every day has come from the Lord. So, every day is holy, special, and beneficial to us if we use them properly. If you read Bible, fast, and pray on any day of the week, that day brings joy peace, and blessings from the Lord. So those days become special to you. How you spend the day accordingly becomes profitable and useful.
Paul moves on to talk about food habits, especially vegetarian and non-vegetarian food habits. Eating meats was questionable in some quarters of the world, especially in the Indian Context. Eating or fasting on a day depends upon the commitment of the person to the Lord. Those who committed their life to Christ begin to live for Christ. Paul had gone to the state of expressing that whether we live or die, all for God because of our commitment to God. We all belong to God.
Discussion:
1. How do you look at others who are differing from you in their theological understanding?
2. How do justify the spiritual activities differing from one another?
(For further studies on Romans by Rev. Dr. Andrew B Natarajan, please refer to this cite)
