A Reflection on Romans 14:1-12

The epistolary passage from this past week, Romans 14:1-12, is actually part of a larger section that stretches to chapter 15:7 or 13, depending on who you read. When read as a whole, 14:1-15:13 is a unified statement about the business of judging fellow members of the church. Many believe that Paul’s initial reason for writing the letter to the Romans was to address a growing tension between Jewish and Gentile Christians over the necessity of keeping the Law, embodied in this passage by the issues of eating meat and keeping certain days as holy. The result of this growing tension is that one group of Christians was apparently judging the other, causing Paul to write the letter and put the situation to rights.

Since Paul concedes that there is a stronger Christian, and one who is “weak in faith,” I would expect him to correct the situation by declaring which side is right, and which side is wrong. What is needed is for someone with sufficient pastoral authority to enter into the dispute regarding eating meat and keeping holy days and deliver the truth on the matter. I expect Paul to do this because I am frequently concerned with determining who is right and who is wrong in any given situation; nor do I believe that I am alone in that concern. Indeed, a good doctrinal debate seems, at times, to be the very air which a congregation breathes.

Interestingly, Paul does not appear to be concerned about delivering the truth about this point of doctrine and therefore correcting someone’s supposed error. In fact, he mentions the “correct” position later on in chapter 14, though he issues no apostolic edict to the “weak” to shape up and embrace the right position. Rather, Paul’s words are shaped by his concern for the unity of the church. Put another way, eating meat and keeping one day as a holy day over another are irrelevant in the kingdom - each person must make his or her own decision about that issue. However, what is very relevant in the kingdom is how we get along in the face of our differences of opinion. It is very easy to be a coherent community of faith when everyone agrees about everything (in fact, I believe that the push some churches make toward unanimity is due to their fear about how to handle differences of opinion). What is not easy is to maintain unity in the face of diversity.

Paul handles this situation in two ways. First, he issues a blanket statement that Christians are not to judge their fellow Christians His argument works like this - If we are all servants of Christ, then who are we to sit in judgment over a fellow-servant? As far as I know, Christ has appointed no one to the position of head-servant in the kingdom, and until he does, I am going to continue assuming, with Paul, that we are all equal. But what does Paul mean that we shouldn’t judge? I think vs. 10 gets us close to a definition when Paul asks – “or why do you despise your brother or sister?” Judging does not have to be an active, in your face condemnation of someone’s beliefs or behavior. Judging is a more subtle affair. I think we are judging our fellow Christians when we quietly sit back and bask in the sure knowledge that we have got it right, got it figured out, and they have not. Judgment says “they must be stupid, ignorant, or simply don’t care about the truth if they don’t think like or hold the same positions that I do.” They don’t even have to know that we are judging them. We can sit back and quietly despise them and the only one it affects is us. Unfortunately, sitting in judgment will destroy relationships in the church, and it will tear the unity of the church apart.

In this passage, Paul also handles the situation by appealing to our relationship with Jesus. “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” Paul has been carefully building this case throughout the book of Romans. There is a fundamental identity change when we take on Christ in baptism. We take on his identity, we become clothed in Christ. Paul encourages the church to be transformed into Christ’s image. The acceptance of Christ in baptism means that we accept not only his lordship, but also his mission, ministry, and very self. So, when we judge our fellow Christians, we are not only rebelling against the image of Christ that we bear, but also denigrating the image of Christ in others.

Jesus and Paul are very concerned about the unity of the church. Church unity is not only threatened by open warfare within the congregation over differences of opinion. It is also threatened when Christians take it upon themselves to sit in the judgment seat over their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It is very easy to slip into judgment mode. I am certainly guilty of judging others. I know how good it feels to judge. But let us be vigilant to welcome all of our fellow Christians, regardless of how much we disagree with them, for when we welcome them, we welcome Christ in our midst.