The Weaker Brother
“As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables” (Romans 14:1–2, ESV).
Especially in light of Dr. Thomas’ excellent Saturday morning sermon last week on the conscience, the session has asked me to address the “weaker brother,” in particular, who he is and why Paul calls him weak.
The two salient passages for understanding this issue are found in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8.
In Romans 14, Paul addresses the tensions which were dividing Jew and Gentile Christians in Rome. This had become a particular problem for this congregation after Claudius expelled all the Jews from Rome in AD 49. With the Jews out of the way, Gentiles had effectively taken over the church. Then a few years later when the Jews returned, you can imagine the sense of outrage as Jewish Christians watched their Gentile “brothers” sucking the heads of crawfish at their fellowship dinner. For the Gentiles, it was as clear as Scripture, “Look it says right there in the book of Acts: God told Peter the old distinctions separating clean food from unclean have been abolished!” The Jews don’t yet have the faith to believe their way into that kind of liberty. What were they to do?
Essentially, Paul has four things to say in response.
We must not allow our liberty to disrupt our fellowship with God. God has welcomed us into His presence (Rom. 14:3). We are no longer under threat of God’s judgment (Rom. 8:1ff). Who are we, therefore, to pass judgment on one of God’s servants? That person does not belong to us; we are not his master. God will give him grace to remain steadfast and to uphold him if he strays too far in one direction or the other (Rom. 14:4).
We must not allow our thoughts about Christian liberty to distract us from the key issue at hand, that is, to live Godward lives (Rom. 14:5-9). Too often we think of Christian liberty only terms of what we want to do. But, as Dr. Thomas so appropriately reminded us, “We are not lords of our own conscience. God alone is Lord of our conscience and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men.” While we are not free to please ourselves, we are free to please God. Herein lies the length and breadth Christian liberty. Christ died to give us this liberty. We must not abuse it.
We must not allow our thoughts on Christian liberty to blind our eyes to the judgment of God. While it is certainly true that Christians ought not to judge one another on these issues, we must not forget that we will all stand before the judgment seat of God to give account for the deeds done in the body (Rom. 14:10-12). I have no right to question your Sabbath practice or your dining habits, but God does. We make such decisions best on our faces before the Lord Christ, remembering that He is the Master, and we are His servants. God is a precise God, so He even cares about the impetuous words that we say in moments of irritation, anger, and rash forgetfulness. The ways of a man are ever before the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all of his paths.
Finally, we must not allow our thoughts on Christian liberty to hurt the people of God. Reading between the lines of Paul’s teaching, it is clear that the weaker brother (or sister) is that way because he or she doesn't have a strong enough faith to embrace the full length and breadth of Christian liberty. We have no right to judge one another (Rom.14:3), and we must take very great care not to cause the weaker brother to offend his conscience and sin (Rom.14:13, 15, 23). We have much more important fish to fry than arguing about eating and drinking, and so as we serve Christ, we should keep the main thing the main thing and focus on righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). We should take very great care lest weaker brothers or sisters follow our example but not in faith. They do what we do because we do it, not because they think that Christ allows it (even if He does). If we cannot do it in faith, trusting the word of God’s permission/command, this is one of those times that doing the right thing becomes a wrong thing if we are not confident that the doing of it pleases our heavenly Father in Christ.
Too often we Christians are theologically right (1 Cor. 8:4-6) but ecclesiastically wrong when we offend the conscience of a fellow believer and lead him to stumble against a good thing that he believes God has forgiven. Such a breach of faith wounds the conscience, causes stumbling, and greatly offends the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 8:15). When we do this kind of thing, and we all have, we are really demonstrating an overriding concern to please ourselves and not the Lord. Our attitude toward weaker brothers should be a powerful indicator of the strength of our own faith and commitment to follow Christ’s will and not our own. May God grant us the strength and resolve to please Him in all things!