Romans 14.22b-The Strong Does Possess Contentment Because He Does Not Condemn Himself By What He Approves
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday April 25, 2010
Romans: Romans 14:22b-The Strong Does Possess Contentment Because He Does Not Condemn Himself By What He Approves
Lesson # 492
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 14:22.
In the first statement that appears in Romans 14:22, the apostle Paul commands both the strong that the conviction that they hold, they are to have as their own conviction before God.
Then, in the second statement, he states that the strong possess contentment because he does not condemn himself by what he approves.
Romans 14:22, “The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.”
The statement “Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves” parallels the statement in verse 23 “But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.”
The former is a reference to the strong operating in divine love by not exercising their freedom in the presence of the weak but rather being content with keeping their personal conviction to themselves in the presence of the Father.
On the other hand, the latter is a reference to the weak going against his convictions and attempting to live by the convictions of the strong and thus sinning in his own mind.
“Happy” is the nominative masculine singular form of the adjective makarios (μακάριος) (mah-kah-dee-oce), which means “contentment” and refers to the contentment that the strong experience and enjoy as a result of conducting their lives according to their own personal convictions rather than the weak’s.
The word is in the emphatic position emphasizing with the reader that this is the case with the strong believer and is used to describe the strong having an untroubled conscience.
In other words, their conscience does not condemn them as sinning when they exercise their conviction and do not observe the dietary restrictions in the Law or do not honor the special days in Israel’s calendar that are also prescribed by the Law or partake of wine employed in pagan rituals.
They do not observe the dietary restrictions of the Law, or honor the special days prescribed by the Law and partake of wine offered in pagan rituals because they are fully convinced by the Spirit through the Lord and the apostles’ teaching that it is the Father’s will to do so.
Therefore, because they have been fully convinced by the Spirit through the teaching of the Lord and His apostles, their conscience does not condemn them when they don’t observed the ceremonial aspect of the Law or partake of wine offered in pagan sacrifices.
The conscience is the area of the soul where the norms and standards of a person reside.
Now, when the strong were fully convinced by the Spirit through the Lord and the apostles’ teaching that they don’t have to adhere to the ceremonial aspect of the Law, this conviction became a part of their norms and standards, i.e. their conscience.
They acquired this conviction because they were fully convinced by the Spirit through the Lord and the apostles’ teaching that they had died to the Law through their union and identification with Christ in His death.
Also they were fully convinced that Christ is the substance of the ceremonial aspect of the Law.
Thus, when they did not observe the dietary restrictions in the Law and did not honor the special days in Israel’s calendar such as the Sabbath or partook of wine offered in pagan rituals, their conscience did not convict them of sin.
So the adjective makarios is describing the strong believer as “content” or having their mind at ease because their conscience does not convict them of sin when they don’t observe the ceremonial aspect of the Law or partake of wine offered in pagan temples.
It describes them as “content” or having their mind at ease when they conduct their lives according to their convictions.
However, in verse 23 Paul describes the weak as being condemned by their conscience when they attempt to live by the strong’s convictions and thus go against their own convictions that they must observe the ceremonial aspect of the Law and thus sin in their own mind.
Thus, the implication is that the strong must operate in love toward the weak and be content with keeping their personal convictions to themselves in the presence of the Father and not exercising them in the presence of the weak so as to not cause the weak to sin in their own mind by going against their convictions.
Romans 14:22, “The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.”
“He who does not condemn himself” is composed of the articular nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb krino (κρίνω) (kree-no), “he who does condemn” and the negative particle me (μή) (me), “not” and the accusative third person singular form of the personal pronoun reflexive heautou (ἑαυτοῦ) (aff-too), “himself.”
The verb krino is used of the strong Christian and means, “to condemn” and its meaning is negated by the negative particle me, “not.”
Therefore, these two words indicate that the strong possess contentment because they “do not condemn” themselves as guilty before God when they don’t observe the dietary restrictions in the Law, or don’t honor the Sabbath or drink wine used in pagan temples.
Their conscience does not condemn for sinning because it is their conviction that they received from the Spirit that not observing the dietary restrictions in the Law and not observing the Sabbath and drinking wine used in pagan temples is not sin.
The reflexive personal pronoun heautou means “himself” and emphasizes the action of the strong Christian not condemning himself for not observing the dietary restrictions in the Law and not honoring the special days in the Law or drinking wine used in pagan temples.
“In what he approves” is composed of the preposition en (ἐν), “in” and the dative neuter singular form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) (oce), “what” and the third person singular present active indicative form of the verb dokimazo (δοκιμάζω) (thoe-kee-mad-zoe), “he approves.”
The verb dokimazo means “to approve” of some course of action after determining that it is according to the will of the Father, which is the result of being convinced by the Spirit through the teaching of the Word of God.
In context, it is used of the strong “approving” that not observing the dietary restrictions in the Law and not honoring the special days in the Law and drinking wine used in pagan temples is the will of the Father for them as a result of being fully convinced by the Spirit through the teaching of the Word of God.
The relative pronoun hos means “what” and does not have an explicit antecedent however, Romans 14:1-22 indicates that the word refers to the strong not observing the dietary restrictions in the Law or not honoring the special days in the Law and drinking wine used in pagan rituals.
The preposition en is a marker of means and hos is a dative instrumental of means indicating that the strong possess contentment because he does not condemn himself “by what” he approves as being the will of the Father.
To summarize, in the first statement that appears in Romans 14:22, the apostle Paul commands both the strong and the weak that the conviction that they hold, they are to have as their own conviction before God.
Then, in the second statement, he states that the strong possess contentment because he does not condemn himself by what he approves.