Romans 14.15a-The Strong Are Not To Upset The Weak Because Of Their Freedom With Respect To Food But Are To Conduct Their Lives According To Divine Love
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday April 1, 2010
Romans: Romans 14:15a-The Strong Are Not To Upset The Weak Because Of Their Freedom Of Conscience With Respect To Food But Conduct Their Lives According To God’s Love
Lesson # 481
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 14:13.
This evening we will begin a study of Romans 14:15, in which Paul presents the reason why his readers who are strong with respect to conviction must obey his command at the end of verse 13.
He employs a first class conditional statement to persuade the strong believers to operate according to God’s love and not exercise their freedom with respect to food when in the presence of the weak believer.
He tells them that they are no longer operating according to God’s love if because of the exercise of their freedom with respect to food they cause their fellow weak believer to go against their conviction to eat only kosher foods and thus sin in their own mind and lose fellowship with God.
He follows this up by commanding the strong that they were to continue making it their habit of not causing the weak believer on behalf of whom Christ died spiritually and physically as a substitute to suffer loss of fellowship with God because of the inconsiderate use their freedom with regards to food.
Romans 14:13, “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this -- not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way.”
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 14:15 presents the reason why Paul’s readers who are strong with respect to conviction must obey his command at the end of verse 13.
Paul solemnly charges the strong believers to make it a top priority in their lives to determine to continue making it a habit of not placing an obstacle or a temptation in the life of their weak brother which could cause them to sin in their own minds.
They are to obey the command because they are not operating according to God’s love if because of the exercise of their freedom with respect to food, they cause their fellow weak believer to go against their conviction to eat only kosher foods and thus sin in their own mind.
Therefore, Paul is teaching the strong believer in verse 15 to not abuse their freedom of conscience in Christ to eat all foods to influence their weak brother who does not hold their conviction to go against their convictions that they can only adhere to a kosher diet since it will cause the weak to sin in their own minds.
“If” is the conditional particle ei (εἰ) (ee), which introduces a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
As we noted many times in our study of the book of Romans, the idea behind the first class condition is not “since” but rather, “if-and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that, then...”
This would encourage Paul’s audience to respond and come to the conclusion of the apodosis since they already agreed with him on the protasis.
Therefore, Paul is employing the first class condition as a tool of persuasion with his audience.
Here the protasis is “if and let assume that it is true for the sake argument that because of food your brother is hurt” and the apodasis is “(then) you are no longer walking according to love.”
The basic relation that the protasis has to the apodasis is “cause-effect.”
The “cause” is the strong Christian hurting the conscience of the weak Christian by abusing his freedom of conscience with regards to food.
The “effect” is that the strong Christian is no longer walking according to God’s love by abusing his freedom.
“Because of food” is in the emphatic position of the protasis of this first class condition indicating that Paul is emphasizing with the strong that they are causing their weak brother distress in their conscience on account of something as inconsequential as food no less.
“Your brother” emphasizes with the strong Christian that his fellow believer who is weak with respect to conviction is in fact a son of God is like them (cf. Jn. 1:12-13; Gal. 3:26-28).
“Is hurt” is the third person singular present passive indicative form of the verb lupeo (λυπέω) (lee-peh-owe), which means “to get upset” in the sense that the weak believer is troubled in their conscience when they see the strong believer eating non-kosher foods.
Remember, the weak is not simply a Christian who disagrees with the convictions of the strong or is upset by their freedom to eat all things but they are weak because they are likely to imitate the strong and observe their convictions rather than their own.
When the weak imitate the strong and go against their own convictions, they are violating their own conscience and convictions as Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13.
The weak brother or sister is the one more likely to sin because he gives in to the convictions of the strong rather than living by his own.
Therefore, the verb lupeo in Romans 14:15 indicates that the weak believer will be “upset” or “deeply troubled” in their conscience as a result of sinning in their own mind because they, through peer pressure or the strong believer’s influence, attempted to live by the strong believer’s convictions with regards to food.
So the weak believer is upset because he is going against his own convictions and sinning in his own mind if he eats non-kosher food and Paul’s statement in Romans 14:20-23 supports this interpretation.
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.”
“You are no longer walking” is composed of the adverb ouketi (οὐκέτι) (oo-ket-ee), “no longer” and the second person singular present active indicative form of the verb peripateo (περιπατέω) (pe-ree-pa-teh-owe), “you are walking.”
The verb peripateo means “to conduct your life” and is used in a figurative sense with reference to the lifestyle of the strong believer.
The adverb ouketi, “no longer” expresses an absolute, direct and full negation and denotes the extension of time up to a point but not beyond and is used in both a logical and temporal sense here in Romans 14:15 and thus means “no longer.”
It implies that the strong believer was conducting their life according to God’s love but this ceases to be the case if they upset the weak believer by abusing his freedom of conscience with regards to food so that the weak believer goes against his convictions by partaking of non-kosher foods and sins in his own mind.
Therefore, Paul is saying with this verb to the strong that they are no longer conducting their lives according to God’s love if because of food they upset the weak believer.
“According to love” indicates that the strong Christian is no longer conducting his life according to the standards of God’s love if he upsets the weak believer by abusing his freedom with regards to food so that the weak believer partakes of non-kosher foods and sins in his own mind.
God’s love is self-sacrificial for others and is considerate of others.
The strong believer would be neither if he did not take into consideration the convictions of the weak believer and conduct himself accordingly.