Romans 14.5b-The Weak And The Strong Must Be Thoroughly Convinced By Their Own Reasoning With Regards To The Obervance of Certain Days
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday March 4, 2010
Romans: Romans 14:5b- The Weak And The Strong Must Be Thoroughly Convinced By Their Own Reasoning With Regards To The Observance Of Certain Days
Lesson # 467
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 14:1.
This evening we will note the command that appears in Romans 14:5, which requires that Paul’s readers be thoroughly convinced by their own reasoning in response to the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God as to whether or not they should observe certain days as prescribed for Israel in the Law.
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.”
Romans 14:4, “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”
Romans 14:5, “One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.”
“Each person” is the nominative masculine singular form of the adjective hekastos (e%kasto$) (ek-ah-stos), which denotes each one of a totality in a distributive sense.
Thus, it refers to “each and every” member of the body of Christ who have been declared justified through faith alone in Christ alone without exception regardless of race, gender or social status.
“Must be fully convinced” is the third person singular present passive imperative form of the verb plerophoreo (plhroforevw) (plea-owe-fra-owe), which means “to be thoroughly convinced.”
The word denotes that the each believer is “to be thoroughly convinced” by their own thinking in response to the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God as to whether or not they are to observe certain days such as the Sabbath as prescribed for the nation of Israel in the Mosaic Law.
The “customary” present imperative form of the verb plerophoreo means, “to continue or make it your habit of” being thoroughly convinced by means of your own reasoning as to whether or not you should observe certain days as prescribed in the Law.
Paul’s statements in Romans 15:14-15 indicate that the Roman believers were in fact doing this.
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, each other and their testimony among the unsaved.
The passive voice means that the subject receives the action of the verb from either an expressed or unexpressed agency.
The subject is the Roman believers as a corporate unit, both the weak and strong, Jew and Gentile and the expressed agency is the reasoning of each believer as indicated by the prepositional phrase en to idio noi (ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ νοῒ), “in his own mind.”
The ultimate agency that is not expressed is God the Holy Spirit since He is the believer’s true teacher (John. 14:16-20, 26; 15:26; 16:7-16; 1 Co. 2:10-16; 2 Co. 13:14; Ga. 5:5, 16-25; Eph. 3:16-19; 5:18; 1 Jo. 2:20-27) and convicts them of sin (Jo. 16:7-11; Rm. 8:4-14; Eph. 4:30; 1 Th. 5:18).
He leads the believer in worshipping the Father (Jo. 4:24; Phlp. 3:3; Rm. 8:4-13) and applies truth to the believer’s experience (Jo. 14:26; Rm. 8:16; Eph. 6:18).
Romans 14:5, “One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.”
“In his own mind” is composed of the preposition en (ἕν), “in” and the dative masculine singular form of the definite article ho (o() (owe), “his” which is followed by the dative masculine singular form of the adjective idios (ἴδιος) (ee-vee-oce), “own” and the articular dative masculine singular form of the noun nous (νοῦς) (noose), “mind.”
The noun nous means “reasoning” since it refers to the believer’s particular manner or way of thinking, their attitude, practical reasoning or intellect that enables them to arrive at a conclusion regarding a matter.
The word emphasizes that the believer must exercise his own thinking or intellect in response to the Holy Spirit’s teaching so at to arrive at a decision as to whether or not they should observe dietary regulations or certain days prescribed for Israel in the Law.
The adjective idios means “own” and denotes that a Christian’s convictions are a private matter between them and God and are not a legitimate matter for public scrutiny.
It emphasizes that whether or not a Christian exercises their liberty in Christ or not is a private matter and not up for public scrutiny.
The preposition en functions as a marker of means indicating the believer’s reasoning is the means that the Holy Spirit uses to thoroughly convince them as to whether or not they should observe the dietary regulations in the Law and certain days such as the Sabbath.
The command “each and every person without exception must be thoroughly convinced by means of his own reasoning” emphasizes with Paul’s readers that he does not want the weak Christian to attempt to live by the strong Christian’s convictions.
Each person is to have their own convictions as a result of being thoroughly convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God.
The danger for the weak believer if he attempts to live by the strong Christian’s convictions is that he could sin against his conscience.
This is what Paul teaches in Romans 4:22-23 and 1 Corinthians 8:1-13.
Romans 14:22-23, “The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.”
If a Christian is not thoroughly convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word that they do not have to adhere to the dietary regulations prescribed by God for the nation of Israel in the Law and do not have to observe certain days such as the Sabbath and yet they don’t observe these things, they will sin in their own minds.
The reason being is that they are not practicing that which they know for them is the will of God even though they are incorrect in their conviction that they have to observe these dietary regulations and days prescribed by God for Israel in the Law.
The strong Christian is not to impose his convictions upon the weak Christian who simply needs to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ so that they will be thoroughly convinced in their own mind that they don’t have to observe the dietary regulations or observe certain days prescribed in the Law for Israel.
The command “each and every person without exception must be thoroughly convinced by means of his own reasoning” also emphasizes that a Christian’s convictions are a private matter and are not to be subject to public scrutiny.