[229] Περιπατήσωμεν: perhaps the aorist suggests a new outset in the "walk."
[230] From this point to the close of the chapter the writer has used, with modifications, passages from a Sermon (No. iii.) in his volume entitled Christ is All.
CHAPTER XXIX
CHRISTIAN DUTY: MUTUAL TENDERNESS AND TOLERANCE:
THE SACREDNESS OF EXAMPLE
Romans xiv. 1-23
Ver. 1.
to
Ver. 6.
But him who is weak—we might almost render, him who suffers from weakness (τὸν ἀσθενοῦντα), in his (τῇ) faith (in the sense here not of creed, a meaning of πίστις rare in St Paul, but of reliance on his Lord; reliance not only for justification but, in this case, for holy liberty), welcome into fellowship—not for criticisms of his scruples, of his διαλογισμοί, the anxious internal debates of conscience. One man believes, has faith, issuing in a conviction of liberty, in such a mode and degree as to eat all kinds of food; but the man in weakness eats vegetables only; an extreme case, but doubtless not uncommon, where a convert, tired out by his own scruples between food and food, cut the knot by rejecting flesh-meat altogether. The eater—let him not despise the non-eater[231]; while the non-eater—let him not judge the eater; for our (ὁ) God welcomed him to fellowship, when he came to the feet of His Son for acceptance. You—who are you, thus judging Another's domestic (οἰκέτην)? To his own Lord, his own Master, he stands, in approval,—or, if that must be, falls, under displeasure; but he shall be upheld in approval; for able is that (ὁ) Lord[232] to set him so, to bid him "stand," under His sanctioning smile. One man distinguishes (κρίνει) day above day; while another distinguishes every day; a phrase paradoxical but intelligible; it describes the thought of the man who, less anxious than his neighbour about stated "holy-days," still aims not to "level down" but to "level up" his use of time; to count every day "holy," equally dedicated to the will and work of God. Let each be quite assured in his own mind; using the thinking-power (νοῦς) given him by his Master, let him reverently work the question out, and then live up to his ascertained convictions, while (this is intimated by the emphatic "his own mind") he respects the convictions of his neighbour. The man who 'minds' (ὁ φρονῶν) the day, the "holy-day" in question, in any given instance, to the Lord he 'minds' it; [and the man who 'minds' not the day, to the Lord he does not 'mind' it][233]; both parties, as Christians, in their convictions and their practice, stand related and responsible, directly and primarily, to the Lord; that fact must always govern and qualify their mutual judgments. And[234] the eater, the man who takes food indifferently without scruple, to the Lord he eats, for he gives thanks at his meal to God; and the non-eater, to the Lord he does not eat the scrupled food, and gives thanks to God for that of which his conscience allows him to partake.
The connexion of the paragraph just traversed with what went before it is suggestive and instructive. There is a close connexion between the two; it is marked expressly by the "but" (δέ) of ver. 1, a link strangely missed in the Authorized Version. The "but" indicates a difference of thought, however slight, between the two passages. And the difference, as we read it, is this. The close of the thirteenth chapter has gone all in the direction of Christian wakefulness, decision, and the battle-field of conquering faith. The Roman convert, roused by its trumpet-strain, will be eager to be up and doing, against the enemy and for his Lord, armed from head to foot with Christ. He will bend his whole purpose upon a life of open and active holiness. He will be filled with a new sense at once of the seriousness and of the liberty of the Gospel. But then—some "weak brother" will cross his path. It will be some recent convert, perhaps from Judaism itself, perhaps an ex-pagan, but influenced by the Jewish ideas so prevalent at the time in many Roman circles. This Christian, not untrustful, at least in theory, of the Lord alone for pardon and acceptance, is however quite full of scruples which, to the man fully "armed with Christ," may seem, and do seem, lamentably morbid, really serious mistakes and hindrances. The "weak brother" spends much time in studying the traditional rules of fast and feast, and the code of permitted food. He is sure that the God who has accepted him will hide His face from him if he lets the new moon pass like a common day; or if the Sabbath is not kept by the rule, not of Scripture, but of the Rabbis. Every social meal gives him painful and frequent occasion for troubling himself, and others; he takes refuge perhaps in an anxious vegetarianism, in despair of otherwise keeping undefiled. And inevitably such scruples do not terminate in themselves. They infect the man's whole tone of thinking and action. He questions and discusses everything, with himself, if not with others. He is on the way to let his view of acceptance in Christ grow fainter and more confused. He walks, he lives; but he moves like a man chained, and in a prison.
Such a case as this would be a sore temptation to the "strong" Christian. He would be greatly inclined, of himself, first to make a vigorous protest, and then, if the difficulty proved obstinate, to think hard thoughts of his narrow-minded friend; to doubt his right to the Christian name at all; to reproach him, or (worst of all) to satirize him. Meanwhile the "weak" Christian would have his harsh thoughts too. He would not, by any means for certain, shew as much meekness as "weakness." He would let his neighbour see, in one way or other, that he thought him little better than a worldling, who made Christ an excuse for personal self-indulgence.