IS ROMANS 14 ABOUT THE SABBATH, OR FASTING?
The question:
Hi Lew. I
just spent Thanksgiving Day with family. I got into an interesting
discussion with a nephew who pointed to Romans 14 as an "indication" that the
Sabbath did not have to be observed on the seventh day.
I THINK this passage was about judging
others rather than what the Torah says. I
would like your opinion.
Lew responds concerning this "anti-Sabbath" stronghold:
This is one of many "strongholds" (misunderstandings, mental reasonings) which people have accepted from constant exposure to false teachings. Romans 14 is often misapplied in numerous ways, since those who are “weak” don’t have enough training in Torah to understand. The text is discussing the very people who are misapplying this section. Being “weak” in the “faith” means the new believer has not yet learned the details of how to “walk”. This text is warning us to not “JUDGE” one another over food. But one important thing the reader is usually unaware of that is central to this section concerns FASTING. In the first century, the Pharisees made it a man-made “law” to FAST twice each week. This is the principle the people are misapplying, transforming the meaning from these two days of fasting and thinking it refers to the weekly SABBATH. Notice the Pharisee states that he fasts twice each week in the following text:
“Two men went up to the Set-apart Place to pray – the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
“The Pharisee stood and began to pray with himself this way, ‘Elohim, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men, swindlers, unrighteous, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
‘I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess.’
“But the tax collector standing at a distance would not even raise his eyes to the heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘Elohim, show favor unto me, a sinner!’ Luke 18:10-3
Rom 14:1-23:
“And receive him who is weak in the belief, not criticising his thoughts.
One indeed believes to
eat all food, but he who is weak
eats only vegetables.
He that eats, let him not despise him who does
not eat, and he that does not eat, let
him not judge him who eats, for Elohim
received him.
Who are you that judges another’s servant? To
his own master he stands or falls. But he shall be made to stand, for Elohim is
able to make him stand.
One indeed judges one day above
another, another judges every day
alike. Let each one be completely persuaded in his own mind.
He who minds the
day (and fasts), minds it
to יהוה. And he who
does not mind the day
(and does NOT FAST), to
יהוה he does not mind it.
He who eats,
eats to יהוה,
for he gives Elohim thanks. And he who does not eat,
to יהוה he does not
eat, and gives Elohim thanks.
For not one of us lives to himself, and not one
dies to himself. (these last two sentences
reveal this discussion is about the “fast days” the Pharisees appointed).
For both, if we live, we live unto the Master,
and if we die, we die unto the Master. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are
the Master’s.
For unto this Messiah died and rose and lived
again, to rule over both the dead and the living.
But why do you judge your brother? Or why do
you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of
Messiah.
For it has been written, “As I live, says
יהוה, every knee shall bow to Me, and every
tongue shall confess to Elohim.”
Each one of us, therefore, shall give account
of himself to Elohim.
Therefore let us
not judge one another any longer, but rather judge this, not to put
an obstacle or a stumbling-block in our brother’s way.
I know and am persuaded in the Master
יהושע that none at all is common of itself.
But to him who regards whatever to be common, to him it is common.
And if your brother is grieved
because of your food, you are no longer
walking in love. Do not by your food
ruin the one for whom Messiah died.
Do not then allow your good to be spoken of as
evil.
For the reign of Elohim is not
eating and drinking, but righteousness and
peace and joy in the Set-apart Spirit.
For he who is serving Messiah in these
matters is well-pleasing to Elohim and approved by men.
So, then, let us pursue the matters of
peace and the matters for building up one another.
Do not destroy the work of Elohim for the sake
of food. All indeed are clean, but evil
to that man who eats so as to cause stumbling.
It is good not to
eat meat or drink wine, nor to do whatever by which your
brother stumbles.
Rom 14:22
Do you have belief? Have it to yourself before Elohim. Blessed is he who does
not condemn himself in what he approves.
Rom 14:23
But he who doubts, if he eats, is
condemned, because it is not of belief, and all that is not of belief is sin.”
If a person
did not choose to FAST, then that’s fine. If a person DID choose to FAST,
that’s fine too.
If Paul (Shaul)
knew that people would have interpreted this to concern the SABBATH, he’d faint
from the shock of how incredibly untaught people could be, even with
their doctorate degrees in “theology”.
brother Lew