Romans 14.18-The Strong Who Serve Christ By Means Of Love Are Extremely Pleasing To The Father And Respected By The Weak
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday April 13, 2010
Romans: Romans 14:18-The Strong Who Serve Christ By Means Of Love Are Extremely Pleasing In The Judgment Of The Father And Respected In The Judgment Of The Weak
Lesson # 485
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 14:14.
This evening we will study Romans 14:18 and in this passage Paul teaches the strong that the one who serves Christ as His slave by loving the weak believer self-sacrificially as Christ loved is extremely pleasing in the judgment of the Father and respected in the judgment of the weak.
Romans 14:14, “I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.”
Romans 14:15, “For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.”
Romans 14:16, “Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil.”
Romans 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 14:18, “For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.”
Romans 14:18 presents the reason why Paul’s readers who are strong with respect to conviction must obey his prohibitions in Romans 14:15-16.
The implications of the prohibitions in Romans 14:15-16 is that the strong are to operate in God’s love towards the weak when in their presence by not exercising their freedom in Christ with respect to the dietary regulations in the Law.
Therefore, they are to operate in divine love by not exercising their freedom with respect to the dietary regulations of the Law when in the presence of the weak so that they do not sin against their conscience and lose fellowship “because” the one who serves Christ in this manner (love) is acceptable to God and approved by men.
They are to operate in divine love by continuing to make it their habit of not causing their freedom with respect to food, which is good in character, to be spoken of a evil by their weak brother “because” the one who serves Christ in this manner (love) is acceptable to God and approved by men.
Therefore, Romans 14:17 is parenthetical since experiencing God’s righteousness, peace and joy is the direct result of obeying the Lord’s command to love one another as He loved us.
God’s righteousness is manifested between believers when they are reflecting God’s love towards each other since to do right thing toward your fellow believer demands that you must love him.
The peace of God will be manifested if the strong love their weak brother self-sacrificially like Christ by not exercising their freedom in Christ with respect to food in the presence of their weak brother since it will produce peace among themselves and the weak.
The joy of the Lord will be manifested if the strong love their weak brother self-sacrificially like Christ by not exercising their freedom in Christ with respect to food in the presence of their weak brother since it will produce joy amongst themselves and the weak.
If the strong love their weak brother self-sacrificially like Christ by not exercising their freedom in Christ with respect to food in the presence of their weak brother, they will be experiencing fellowship with the Spirit since divine love is one of the manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit and is produced by the Spirit.
Believers are experiencing fellowship with God when they obey the Lord’s command to love each other like He loved them since God’s love is the product of experiencing fellowship with the Spirit.
Romans 14:18, “For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.”
“He who serves” is the articular nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb douleuo (δουλεύω) (thoo-lev-owe), which means “to serve as a slave” and is used with the strong believer as its subject and Christ as its object.
Paul does not employ the verb douloo but rather douleuo since the former emphasizes the “act” of being made a slave whereas the latter emphasizes the “relationship” between the slave and the master.
Therefore, Paul chooses douleuo here because he wants to emphasize the servant/master “relationship” that the strong have with Christ.
Paul uses Christos, “Christ” rather than kurios, “Lord” since the former emphasizes Jesus of Nazareth’s sacrifice for the benefit of all men and he is emphasizing with the strong the need to love self-sacrificially like the Lord.
“In this way” indicates that the strong who serve Christ by loving their weak brother self-sacrificially like the Lord loves them is acceptable to the Father and approved by men.
In Romans 13:10, Paul taught that love (agape) never commits evil against his neighbor.
Therefore, if the strong love the weak they will not exercise their freedom in Christ with respect to food in the presence of the weak so that the weak don’t go against their convictions and thus sin in their own mind and lose fellowship with God.
“Acceptable to God” is composed of the nominative masculine singular form of the adjective euarestos (εὐάρεστος) (ah-vah-deh-toce), “acceptable” and the articular dative masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός) (thay-oce), “to God.”
The adjective euarestos means “extremely pleasing” to the Father and is a reference to obeying the will of the Father.
The noun theos refers here to God the Father since the articular construction of this noun in the New Testament commonly signifies the first member of the Trinity.
The noun theos functions as a “dative of opinion” indicating that when the strong love the weak self-sacrificially like the Lord and as they would themselves by not exercising their freedom in Christ with respect to food in the presence of the weak, they will be extremely pleasing “in the judgment of” the Father.
“Approved by men” is composed of the nominative masculine singular form of the adjective dokimos (δόκιμος) (thoe-kee-moce), “approved” and the articular dative masculine plural form of the noun anthropos (ἄνθρωπος) (ahn-throe-poce), “by men.”
The adjective dokimos means “respected” since the word pertains to being considered worthy of respect based upon conduct that is approved or acceptable and virtuous by men.
The noun anthropos refers to the weak since dokimos stands in contrast with the verb blasphemeo in Romans 14:16 which refers to the weak speaking evil of the freedom of the strong who inconsiderately exercise this freedom without regard for the convictions of the weak.
As an “ethical dative” anthropos, “men” indicates that when the strong love the weak self-sacrificially like the Lord and as they would themselves by not exercising their freedom in Christ with respect to food in the presence of the weak, they will be respected “in the judgment of” the weak.
To summarize, Romans 14;18 teaches the strong that when they serve Christ by loving the weak self-sacrificially as Christ loved them, they are extremely pleasing in the judgment of the Father and respected in the judgment of the weak.
It emphasizes with the strong that serving Christ is obeying the command to love one another as Christ loved and respecting the convictions of the weak by not exercising their freedom in the presence of the weak.