I. The Word: Romans 14:1

1Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.

 “WARNING: Please note this post was written with tongue firmly planted in cheek.”

This week I have been given the task to explain Romans 14:1. It is difficult to explain the full meaning of Romans 14:1 because it is only one verse, and the verses that follow it are needed to fully explain understand verse 1.  But not wanting to complain and offend my friend Randy, who assigned me only one verse, or offend my friend Ji by writing about verses 2-3, which have been assigned to him, I will do my best by confining myself to this one verse.

In this one verse (not taking into account the verses that follow) Paul instructs the Roman Christians to accept those who are weaker in faith and not to pass judgment on them. By those who are “weaker in faith,” Paul is referring to those whose immature conscience impose on them restrictions, which for others are not a matter of right or wrong. Paul is saying that those who are more mature should not judge these who are not as mature, quarrel with them, or try to talk them out of their narrowly drawn scruples but to accept them as they are. If I had been assigned the verses that follow I could give you a better explanation of what this means in the context in which it is written, but as I mentioned above, I was only given this one verse.

Perhaps a way to think about what Paul is saying is to imagine if you had been given the privilege of writing your church’s devotional, along with other church leaders, and you were given only one verse to write about, while the others were each given multiple verses that were more interesting, your conscience might tell you that was wrong. Your conscience might tell you that the person assigning those verses should be fair and give each writer an equal number of verses, and certainly not give a person only one verse. Maybe if you thought that, to some it would be an indication you had a weak conscience i.e. that you were “weak in faith.” Well, Paul is saying if you are on the receiving end of that complaint, the person who assigned the singular verse to this person to exegete, you should not judge but fully accept him and not try to convince him that he is mistaken in his sense of what is right or wrong.

That is the best I can do for you in explaining this one, singular, solitary verse from the 14^th Chapter of Romans.

Reflection Questions:

1. Do you think it’s fair that someone would assign only one verse to an individual to exegete while assigning each other person multiple more interesting verses to exegete?
2. Would you feel justifiably offended if you were on the receiving end of such unfair treatment?
3. Should the person who perpetrated this unspeakable injustice upon you fully accept you if you express and expose in said devotional such disparate treatment?