Peter Barnes | Romans 14:1-2
SERMON NOTES
ACCEPTING ALL WHO ARE CHRIST’S
(Romans 14:1-2)
– three issues – food (14:2), days (14:5-6), and wine (14:21)
– ‘weak’ does not mean ‘false’ but ‘mistaken in some respects but still holding to the gospel’.
– ‘weak’ may be mostly Jewish, but that does not fit completely as Jews were not vegetarians or teetotallers. Daniel 1:8, 12, 16 may or may not help.
1. Welcome the weak in faith.
– 14:1; not so with those who are false in faith (Rom.16:17-18)
2. Do not dispute over such matters.
– 14:1; a very different tone to that in Gal.4:9-11; Col.2:16-17, 20-22
– we are not to be looking for controversies and fights
3. Food as such is a non-issue.
– 14:2; Leviticus 11 would be in the background if the issue is essentially Jewish; see Mark 7:15-19; Acts 10:9-16, 44-48
– the issue is not vegetarianism as such but whether the vegetarian thinks vegetarianism is essential to salvation
– need for discernment