Romans 14.3a-The Strong Believers In Rome Must Continue Not Regarding And Treating With Contempt Weak Believers Who Don't Eat Meat
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday February 25, 2010
Romans: Romans 14:3a- The Strong Believers Must Continue Not Regarding And Treating With Contempt Weak Believers Who Do Not Eat Meat
Lesson # 463
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 14:1.
This evening we will continue with our study of Romans chapter fourteen by noting verse 3.
In Romans 14:3, Paul first addresses those Christians who are strong with respect to conviction, which is manifested by the fact that they are fully convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God that the dietary regulations prescribed for Israel in the Mosaic Law no longer apply.
He commands them to continue making it their habit of not regarding and treating with contempt the believers who are weak with respect to conviction in that they continue to observe these dietary regulations.
Then in the adversative clause he addresses those Christians who are weak with respect to conviction, which is manifested by the fact that they are not fully convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God that the dietary regulations prescribed for Israel in the Mosaic law no longer apply.
Paul commands these weak Jewish believers and Gentile Christians influenced by Jewish tradition who observe these dietary restrictions that they are to continue making it their habit of not condemning the stronger believers.
The reason why they were to continue doing this is that God the Father has accepted the stronger believer just as He accepted the weak believer, namely, based upon the merits of the object of their faith, Jesus Christ.
Romans 14:1, “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.”
Romans 14:2, “One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.”
Romans 14:3, “The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.”
The apostle Paul employs the figure of “asyndeton” in Romans 14:3 because he wants his readers to carefully meditate upon the two commands that appear in Romans 14:3 so as to protect their fellowship with God, each other and their testimony before the unsaved.
“The one who eats” refers to a Jewish or Gentile Christian who is fully convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God that the dietary regulations prescribed for Israel in the Mosaic Law no longer apply thus they can eat meat that is not considered by the Jews as “kosher.”
“Is not to regard with contempt” is composed of the negative particle me (μή) (me), “not” and the third person singular present active imperative form of the verb exoutheneo (ἐξουθενέω) (ex-oo-the-na-owe), “is to regard with contempt.”
The verb exoutheneo means “to despise, to regard and treat with contempt” a person in the sense of demonstrating to the person through one’s conduct that you consider them or their convictions as having no merit or worth with the implication that you are being condescending towards that person.
The verb’s meaning is negated by the negative particle me, “not.”
Therefore, the strong Christians are not to regard and treat with contempt the weak Christian who is weak with respect to the conviction by the Holy Spirit as manifested by the fact that they are not fully convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God that these restrictions in the Law no longer apply.
The strong Christians are not to regard and treat with contempt the weak believers since God has accepted them when He declared them justified as a result of exercising faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
The weak and strong believer were not to criticize each other with regards to the observance of the dietary regulations in the Law or lack thereof since both groups were both accepted on the basis of the merits of the object of their faith.
We can make an application of this principle taught by Paul in Romans 14:3 for the church in the twenty first century.
For example, Christians who drink alcohol should not regard or treat with contempt those Christians who abstain from alcohol since both groups were accepted by God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ and not on the basis of abstaining from wine.
Paul employs me and not ouk since the latter is much stronger than the former and would indicate that the believers who were strong and did not observe the dietary restrictions prescribed in the Law for Israel were in fact regarding and treating with contempt those weak believers who continued to observe these laws.
Thus, by employing me instead of ouk, he does not believe that his readers were doing this, which ouk would indicate.
Therefore, the particle me indicates that this has not taken place but is used with the verb exoutheneo to prohibit in the future the strong believers in Rome from regarding and treating with contempt the weak Jewish believers who still clung to the ritual requirements of the Law.
The present imperative form of the verb is a “customary present imperative” whose force is for Paul’s Christian readers in Rome who did not observe to the dietary restrictions prescribed in the Mosaic Law for Israel to simply continue not regarding and treating with contempt the weak believers who did.
Paul’s statements in Romans 1:8 and 15:14-15 indicate that the Roman believers who did not observe these restrictions were in fact not treating with contempt those who did.
Therefore, the present imperative form of the verb indicates that Paul’s command is simply giving his readers a reminder to continue doing what they were doing and was designed to protect their fellowship with God and their testimony among the unsaved.
Romans 14:3, “The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.”
“The one who does not eat” refers to those Jewish Christians who are not fully convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God that the dietary regulations prescribed for Israel in the Mosaic Law no longer apply and thus will only eat meat that is considered by the Jews to be “kosher.”
To summarize, in Romans 14:3a, Paul first addresses those Christians who are strong with respect to conviction, which is manifested by the fact that they are fully convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God that the dietary regulations prescribed for Israel in the Mosaic Law no longer apply.
He commands them to continue making it their habit of not regarding and treating with contempt the believers who are weak with respect to conviction in that they continue to observe these dietary regulations.