Pursue Peace
Romans 14:13-23
The biblical regulations about cleanness and uncleanness are largely concerned with ritual purity and with maintaining the sanctity of sacred space—especially the tabernacle or temple. Cleanness is associated with, but distinct from, holiness. Being in the category of “clean” is prerequisite to moving up to the category of “holy.” According to Wenham, “Everything that is not holy is common. Common things divide into two groups, the clean and the unclean” (Wenham, Leviticus, 19). Clean things can be made holy, or they can become unclean. Holy things may also be made unclean. Wenham understands cleanness to be the default or “normal condition” for most things, but it is a “state intermediate between holiness and uncleanness” (Wenham, Leviticus, 19). Holiness and uncleanness function as contagions—items that touch holy or unclean objects may become holy (e.g., Exod 29:37; Lev 6:18) or unclean (e.g., Lev 11:39–40) themselves. However, restoring cleanness requires more deliberate actions, usually involving washing, waiting, being inspected, and offering sacrifice. Many of the regulations regarding cleanness and uncleanness make sense if “clean” is understood as conceptually akin to something being “normal” and “unclean” is understood as “abnormal” (Wenham, Leviticus, 20–21).
Addressing now an individual strong believer to bring his point home (you in v 15 is singular), Paul reminds him that his eating without concern for its effect on the weaker believers is a violation of the cardinal Christian principle of love (12:9–10; 13:8–10). Moreover, by tacitly encouraging the weaker believer to eat against his or her conscience, the strong believer may destroy one for whom Christ died. The word destroy (apollymi) is a strong one, usually denoting eternal damnation (2:12; 1 Cor. 1:18; 15:18; 2 Cor. 2:15; 2 Thes. 2:10).
Paul’s reference to the kingdom of God here in 14:17 is one of the very few places where he depicts the kingdom as something experienced in the present—most other references are future related. His one other clear reference to the kingdom as a present reality also depicts it as not one thing but another: ‘For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power’ (1 Cor. 4:20). In both cases what Paul says the kingdom of God is and is not relates to the issues he is treating.
We find here the surprising fact that the formula, “the God of Peace” if not a Pauline construct, was so attractive to him that he avails himself of it more frequently than any other ancient writer
The imperative “be at peace among yourselves” occurs three times in the Pauline letters: once in Romans urging his readers to make peace with all people (12:18) and twice urging unanimity among the believers (1 Thess 5:13; 2 Cor 13:11). These imperatives, without parallel in Greek and Roman literature, have the same impact as the imperatives to “pursue the things that pertain to peace” (Rom 14:19); “send him (Timothy) on ahead in peace” (1 Cor 16:11) and “Take heed to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3). The impact is strengthened when the verb “pursue” is used as in 2 Tim 2:22; Rom 14:19; Heb 12:14 (with all people) and 1 Pet 3:11: “Seek peace and pursue it”; (quoting from Ps. 34:14). In total there are eleven imperatives “to seek” or “pursue peace” and several specify to live at peace with all people. The cumulative impression of these texts is that for the early Christian community peace had a very high priority.