“As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For 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, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:1–12)
If you could speak to a younger version of yourself, what would you say? What advice would you give? I wonder, would your convictions or priorities be the same?
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of the greatest preachers of the twentieth century, once wrote an essay in his twenties that he came to regret. In 1924, the young Lloyd-Jones made bold statements about his personal convictions:
“I cannot possibly understand a man who wears silk stockings or even gaudily colored socks…The modern method of installing a bath in every home is not only a tragedy but a curse to humanity…When I enter a house and find that they have a wireless apparatus (i.e. a radio) I know at once that there is something wrong.”
Imagine inviting young Lloyd-Jones to your home! Here was a man of deep conviction—though convictions that might strike us as odd or even extreme. His words raise an important question for every church:
How can a church stay unified when we differ so much in background, upbringing, and conviction? How do we hold together when one person is “strongly persuaded” one way, and another feels just as strongly in the opposite direction? Of course, I have in mind here issues about which the Bible isn’t so “black and white.” What we might call these areas “matters of the conscience” or areas of “Christian liberty.” Clear biblical commands are just that, clear. These are areas where Christians differ.
One option, of course, is to divide—create separate churches for every preference or conviction. A cowboy church, a hipster church, a traditional church, a contemporary church, a church for introverts online or end-times-Doomsday-preppers. It might be easier that way! But it wouldn’t be spiritual. In fact, I would suggest, and so would Paul, that it would run counter to the ideal picture of the church in Ephesians 2:11-21, where Christ is building his church made up of Jew and Gentile who makes the two now one in Christ. There is nothing really supernatural, compelling, or “gospel-shaped” about a kind of unity that only rests on preferences, superficial interests, with no diversity. However, the compelling community the gospel creates is a group of people—with all kinds of diversity—united together as one in the gospel of Christ.
In Romans 14, the apostle Paul gives a more powerful solution. His letter to the church at Rome was written to a diverse congregation, Jews and Gentiles, people with very different customs, cultures, and consciences. Yet Paul’s aim throughout the letter has been to show that both groups are united in the gospel of grace.
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” he writes (Romans 3:23). And yet both Jew and Gentile “are justified by his grace as a gift.” In other words, we all stand before God by grace, not by background, behavior, or bloodline.
Still, those early believers brought their differences into the church. Some Jewish Christians, with the dawning of the new covenant in Christ, couldn’t bring themselves to eat meat or abandon certain holy days. Their consciences were shaped by years of adherence to the Mosaic law. Paul calls them the “weak in faith”—not because they lacked morals or salvation, but because their conscience was still sensitive. Others, the “strong in faith,” perhaps the Gentiles among them and maybe many of their Jewish brothers and sisters as well, understood their freedom in Christ and felt free to eat anything or to treat every day alike (see also Colossians 2:16-17).
You can imagine the tension this could cause in a church! The strong looked down on the weak—“Those oversensitive Christians just don’t get it! We’re free in Christ!”—while the weak judged the strong—“How can they be true believers and still do that? Don’t they know that is wrong!”
Paul’s response is not to tell one side to win the argument. His command is simple and stunning:
“Welcome one another.” (Romans 14:1; 15:7)
This is the command that frames all of Romans 14. Don’t despise. Don’t judge. Instead, welcome.
To “welcome” means to receive someone warmly. It is also translated as “accept.” The word is a compound verb, in which the prefix adds weight to the command. As John MacArthur writes, “Paul was not simply suggesting, but commanding.” We are to welcome them; to embrace them as family. The church’s unity is not built on identical opinions, but on the shared grace of Christ. Paul adds an important qualification: “Welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.” (vs. 1) In other words, don’t make secondary matters, or tertiary opinions, the basis of our fellowship together in the church.
Yet surprisingly, Paul doesn’t say, “Just stop caring about these things.” Instead, in verse 5, he says, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” In other words—be convinced in your own mind and be kind to those who disagree. Hold firm convictions, but hold them with humility.
That balance is both mature and supernatural. It means we can be a church of people with deep, differing opinions and convictions who still love each other deeply—because what unites us is not agreement on everything, but our common faith in Christ.
Paul gives several reasons why we must welcome one another:
“We will all stand before the judgment seat of God” (vs. 10). Each of us will give an account to Him, not to one another. Let God be the judge; our task is to love and to welcome in Christ.
5. Because God will make us stand.
“The Lord is able to make him stand” (vs. 4). Every believer, weak or strong, will stand in the end—not by their perfect discernment on these “grey areas,” but solely because of Christ’s perfect righteousness.
So, church—let’s be a people marked by conviction and compassion. Let’s be firm in what we believe, but also gentle toward one another in areas where we may differ. Let’s major on the gospel and minor on our preferences.
When a watching world sees believers with strong differences still united in love, holding fast to Christ together, it sees something gloriously supernatural—something only the gospel can produce.
“Welcome one another, as Christ has welcomed you, to the glory of God.”(Romans 15:7)
