What is Not in Romans 14

We have spent some time before speaking about Romans 14 and the responsibilities of the Christian pertaining to his liberties. Unfortunately, there are many good brethren in the church today who have, wittingly or unwittingly, added many doctrines to the text of Romans 14 that are simply not there. Let us examine these doctrines and the difficulties with them.

1. The "weak" brother is wrong.

In Romans 14, we are introduced to two separate groups of Christians, those that Paul deems "strong" and the other "weak." Many desire that these "strong" and "weak" are classified by the nature of their faith in Jesus-- they are either "weak in THE faith" or "strong in THE faith." This type of scenario is discussed specifically in 1 Corinthians 8 under the topic of eating meats sacrificed to idols; it is not present in Romans 14. The definite article is simply not present in the text save in verse 1. Therefore, the "weak" brother is simply "weak in faith" about the particular practice under discussion: this is not necessarily a referendum on his faith in God.

Regardless, must the one who does not have faith in the practice automatically be wrong? First of all, even though Paul does agree that the issue under discussion in Romans 14 (eating of meat) is a liberty, he does say the following in Romans 14:14b:

save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

Therefore, is the "weak" brother "wrong?" Since God has accepted him along with the one who is "strong," is either more "right" than the other? We are not speaking of issues in Romans 14 over right and wrong-- this is made evident in verse 17:

for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

In this context, eating and drinking has nothing to do with righteousness. One is righteous if he eats meat or if he does not eat meat.

Further, this position does not take into account the very significant message in verse 22:

The faith which thou hast, have thou to thyself before God. Happy is he that judgeth not himself in that which he approveth.