August 5. Romans 14. Eduardo Mardini
Receive, for God Has Received Him
The point in chapter 14 is clear, in the fellowship we will have the “weak” and the “strong,” and the way the Bible guide the interaction between these two is by saying the strong should receive the weak, the same as the weak should not judge the strong.
It seems like the most likely way to understand this chapter (according to Dr. Douglas Moo, PhD) is by identifying the weak as Christian Jews and proselytes that were still trying to keep the law of Moses, and as consequence were still holding to dietary rules and to the celebration of certain special days. The strong were Gentile Christians and “liberal” Christian Jews who wholly embraced the faith in Christ. We could consider that the commandment for the strong to receive the weak is a hint to the fact that the weak were the minority, that can be paired with the known event of the expulsion of the Jews from Rome to have a stronger case for this assumption (the number of Jews in the church should have decreased).
Many questions arise from the text, for example, what does it mean for a strong to receive a weak? I put myself in the shoes of the strong brother who decides to receive the weak brother. I imagine someone in a mostly Gentile church gathering in the suburbs of Rome asking who wants to host one of the brothers from Rome itself that was ejected by the authorities from his own house (due to the decree to expel the Jews from Rome). After some head scratching, one of these brothers accepts to take this brother alongside his family. Will the gentile brother accommodate for the needs of this new family of Jews? Will they still eat those delicious pork sausages and bacon? Will they work on the Sabbath? Will the Jewish family be judgmental when they realize the Gentiles are just being nice but not really living by the more conservative standards? How will the Gentile family react to the potential judgment?
What if the more conservative family host this young teacher/evangelist coming from the Gentile regions outside of Rome? Will they judge him? How will this young Gentile brother take that criticism?
Interesting enough, the scripture does not give us more details. A simple “receive” should be enough, since God has already received him. Why would we reject one that God has received?
Another question is, why is Paul so harsh as to call one of the groups “weak”? I would love to know how a “weak” brother will read this letter for the first time. That being said, it is clear that weak does not mean someone who hesitates about his/her faith in Christ or that is near the point of falling away. Weak simply means a person that has not yet arrived at the correct insights derived from the faith in Christ – things like the freedom to eat anything because all food is clean. It is plain that Paul has a point, the weak does not have the correct insight, in other words, they are wrong in their assumptions. This is not a matter of opinion in the sense that there is no definite truth, but what Paul explains is that the fact this group is mistaken, which does not mean they should have divisions. It does not matter to be right when the substance of the debate is not a core component of the faith in Christ, what matters is the brotherly love. To make the point stronger, Paul describes the things these groups have in common: they both want to please the Lord, and they are both thankful to God, since God has accepted both of them. God is master of both groups, and they both belong to Him. Each one will give an account of themselves to God.
From the use of the word “weak”, I think Paul was looking at a change of mindset of those who believed they were still bound by certain ritual requirements of the law of Moses. The fact they were encouraged to seek peace does not mean everyone was right. There was a right and a wrong way to live out the faith, and it is clear from several verses (vv. 14, 17, 20), according to Paul, which interpretation was the right one.
There is the temptation to use this text and directly apply it to our current situation and matters like differences of opinions regarding masks or vaccines, BLM participation, political parties and the like. I think such direct application would be a stretch: these are issues that have no direct relationship with our faith, and these issues are not derived from our insight originated from our faith in Christ. But rather, these are issues that can be, in some cases, determined by hard evidence and are imposed by the world (which is under the power of the devil). That being said, if “spiritual” issues should not be a cause of division, and we are called to receive each other and not to judge each other, how much more should a worldly issue not become a cause of division in the church?
All this being said, I can picture the so called “weak” considering themselves strong. Since they are able to live out a stricter set of rules and regulations, they would not call themselves weak. This is interesting if we think about the issues today, and the question I ask myself and my fellow brothers is: who do you consider weak? In other words, which kind of behaviors/beliefs will make you think of a brother sister as weak? Can we extend this idea to our interactions with other Christian communities whose expression of faith differs from us? How do we treat or speak of those whom we consider weak? Is our reaction in harmony with the teachings in this text?
Let’s pray for insight, and that the Holy Spirit gives us the love and the wisdom we need to act according to the sacrifice of Jesus.