CHAPTER 14
Romans 14:1-4
- Eum vero qui fide est imbecilla, suscipite,
non ad disceptationes quaestionum. - Him that is weak in the faith receive ye,
but not to doubtful disputations. - Qui credit, vescatur quibusvis: qui autem
infirmus est, olera edit. - For one believeth that he may eat all
things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. - Qui edit, non contemnat eum qui abstinet;
et qui abstinet, eum non condemnet qui edit:
Dominus enim illum suscepit. - Let not him that eateth despise him that
eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge
him that eateth: for God hath received him. - Tu quis es qui judicas alienum servum?
proprio Domino stat vel cadit. Stabit vero: potens
est enim Dens efficere ut stet. - Who art thou that judgest another man’s
servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.
Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to
make him stand.
1.Him indeed, etc. He passes on now to lay down a precept especially necessary for the
instruction of the Church, — that they who have made the most progress in Christian doctrine
should accommodate themselves to the more ignorant, and employ their own strength to sustain
their weakness; for among the people of God there are some weaker than others, and who, except
they are treated with great tenderness and kindness, will be discouraged, and become at length
alienated from religion. And it is very probable that this happened especially at that time; for the
Churches were formed of both Jews and Gentiles; some of whom, having been long accustomed
to the rites of the Mosaic law, having been brought up in them from childhood, were not easily
drawn away from them; and there were others who, having never learnt such things, refused a yoke
to which they had not been accustomed.^413
Now, as man’s disposition is to slide from a difference in opinion to quarrels and contentions,
the Apostle shows how they who thus vary in their opinions may live together without any discord;
and he prescribes this as the best mode, — that they who are strong should spend their labor in
assisting the weak, and that they who have made the greatest advances should bear with the more
ignorant. For God, by making us stronger than others, does not bestow strength that we may oppress
the weak; nor is it the part of Christian wisdom to be above measure insolent, and to despise others.
The import then of what he addresses to the more intelligent and the already confirmed, is this, —
that the ampler the grace which they had received from the Lord, the more bound they were to help
their neighbors.
Not for the debatings of questions.^414 This is a defective sentence, as the word which is necessary
to complete the sense is wanting. It appears, however, evident, that he meant nothing else than that
(^413) Some, as Haldane, have found fault with this classification, as there is nothing in the chapter which countenances it. But
as the Apostle’s object throughout the epistle was to reconcile the Jews and Gentiles, there is reason sufficient to regard them
as the two parties here intended: and, as Chalmers justly observes, it is more probable that the Gentiles were the despisers,
inasmuch as the Jews, who, like Paul, had got over their prejudices, were no doubt disposed to sympathize with their brethren,
who were still held fast by them. — Ed.
(^414) Non ad disceptationes quaestionum, μ μ ; “non ad altercationes disceptationum — not for the altercations
of disputings” or debatings, Beza; “not to debates about matter in doubt,” Doddridge; “not in order to the strifes of disputations,”