“A Christian man is a most free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian man is a most dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”[i]

Martin Luther

The story is told of a believer who became shipwrecked alone on a desert island and decided to build himself two places of worship. When help finally arrived his rescuers were puzzled and asked him why, as a lone individual, he felt the need to build two churches. “So that when I fall out at one church I have another to go to…”, was his reply. Ridiculous, I know, and completely fictional, but somewhat reflective of a problem that has, throughout the history of the Church, troubled God’s people.

In Romans 14, and the first part of 15, the Apostle Paul is dealing with a common dilemma for Christians – how to maintain unity in the face of diversity. You see, both are vitally important. Diversity within the body of Christ is important, God-ordained and to be cherished, but so is unity, and the problem is that we as Christians are not always good at it. Believers fall out over many things. I know a church in America which split over the size of their baptismal tank and another divided over whether to use “sin” or “trespass” when reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

The Weak and the Strong

The background context of this passage is that Paul is referring to two issues which were major problems in the church in Rome. The first was whether or not to eat meat. This was probably because it had been offered in a pagan sacrifice (see 1 Corinthians 8). The second was the observance of special days. The result was that Christian brothers and sisters were falling out with one another and breaking fellowship. This relation breakdown took place between two distinct groups, which Paul referred to respectively as “the weak” and “strong” (Romans 15:1)

The same two groups of people probably exist in every church. The weak were concerned about keeping rules and regulations, probably because they couldn’t shake off their Judaistic background, which was tied up with external observance. The strong, on the other hand, were assured that being saved by grace, and by grace alone, there is no longer any need to observe Old Testament regulations or conform to external standards of practice. As a result, of these differences, the weak were condemning the strong, and vice versa.

Considering Primary and Secondary Issues

But, and we can’t overstate the importance of this fact, we are talking about two groups of genuine, regenerate and converted believers. Numerous verses in this passage make it clear we are talking about differences in opinion and attitude between true believers. Paul does not describe these two groups of believers as right and wrong but as weak and strong. In fact, both groups are right in that they are acting according to their conscience. For the weak to do other than what they are doing would be wrong, because it would be acting against their conscience.

Mind you, by even using term “weak”, Paul makes it clear that he wishes the weak could come to a point where they could join the strong and be freed from their concern about these legalistic matters. The issues here come under the category of what we call secondary matters; not matters of salvation but matters of behaviour and conscience. There are certain non-negotiables in the Christian faith, about which there can be no difference between true believers, where there is a foundational unity between us.

Avoiding Discord Over Disputable Matters

Justification by faith, the uniqueness of the person and atoning work of Christ and His trinitarian identity. Issues like these have, since the dawn of the Christian Church, generated a whole range of questions over which God’s people have come to different conclusions. Paul, in Romans 14:1 defines these as “opinions” (ESV), “doubtful points” (NEB), “disputations” (AV) or “disputable matters” (NIV), on which it was not necessary for all Christians to agree. The Reformers called such things ‘matters of indifference’.

These matters included customs and ceremonies, or secondary beliefs which are not part of the gospel and areas of adherence unnecessary for salvation. They are what we might call spiritual scruples. We must not, of course, do those things the Bible clearly describes as sinful, but outside of that we are at complete liberty. There is no doubt about the relevance of this theme. Judging one another is one of the favourite indoor sports of Christians today and yet it sits outside of honourable Christian conduct.

Discord Over Theatres and Cigars

There is a whole range of everyday issues that the Bible does not pronounce a verdict upon, but leaves it up to the conscience of individual believers while giving some principles to guide them.  But Paul’s indisputable point is – people with opposing viewpoints on non-essentials can both be perfectly right with God and must accept one another. Two of the most famous Christians in 19th-century England were Charles Spurgeon and Joseph Parker. Both were powerful and faithful preachers, who fellowshipped together and even exchanged pulpits.

Then they had a disagreement and reports of this reached the newspapers. Spurgeon accused Parker of being unspiritual because he attended the theatre, while Spurgeon smoked cigars – a practice many believers would have condemned. In fact, on one occasion someone asked Spurgeon about his cigars, and he said he did not smoke to excess. When asked what he meant by excess, he mischievously answered: “No more than two at a time.”  Who was right? Perhaps neither or perhaps both! Better to realise they could disagree and both be in the will of God.

Principles For Strengthening Weaker Believers

So, Paul is teaching here about how genuine believers treat and relate to other genuine believers who may have come to different conclusions on some of these issues of conscience, these matters of indifference. In the short space available in this article, let me summarise, very briefly, three of the headline principles we should bear in mind when dealing with these secondary matters, under the headings ‘Accept Diversity’, ‘Pursue Unity’ and ‘Be Convinced and Be Quiet’.

1. Accept Diversity

• Accept one another (Romans 14:1-3): There is a proposition at the beginning of the Greek verb. In the English Standard Version (ESV), it translates as “welcome”, which means that the word could be translated as embrace. It suggests an active drawing close of oneself to another, not just toleration or putting up with but holding close. That is, says the Apostle Paul in verse three, exactly what God has done with both them and us.

• Accept that these are matters of indifference (14:13-23): We have no right to call anything sin that God doesn’t call sin (14:16). We must come to our own conclusions and convictions, based not upon tradition or culture but on Scripture and conscience, and when we have done so we are to “keep between yourself and God” those conclusions (14:22) in order to avoid being contentious.

2. Pursue Unity

• Don’t Judge One Another (14:4-12): One of my students at Edinburgh Bible College recently wrote this in an exegetical paper on this very passage – “There must be no censorious attitudes in the church, and no legalistic spirit. When sitting around the meal table, no Christian family should castigate their brethren for not holding to the same principles as they do. There should be no harsh words; no disapproving glances; no rolling of the eyes.” At the end of the day, it is God to whom we are all accountable.  This what it looks like to truly “welcome” (14:1) and embrace one another in the body.

• Refuse (14:13-19): Having told us not to judge our brother or sister, Paul now tells us to make a judgement. There is a play on words in the Greek sentence, involving a double use of the verb “to judge”. The ESV translates the second occurrence as “decide”, and other translations opt for “resolve”. However, the NEB brings out the sense well: “Let us therefore cease judging one another, but rather make this simple judgment”.  In other words, we must determine not to be a witting or unwitting cause of a weaker brother’s stumbling as we exercise our freedom. We must consciously refuse to do anything that might harm the spiritual life of “weaker” brothers. We are not at liberty to exercise our God-pleasing liberty in such a way that rides roughshod over our brother or sister.

• Be Kingdom Focused (14:20-23): In these verses, Paul’s focus seems to shift from concern for the individual weaker brother or sister, to wellbeing for the whole community of believers. Our responsibility is to seek to build up the fellowship (14:19), not to tear it down (14:20). And, especially, we are not to tear down the unity of the body of Christ for a matter of spiritual indifference. Paul uses irony here to make his point. Surely for the sake of something as indifferent as food and drink you are not going to tear down the work of God? God’s kingdom is not mainly a matter of externals but of eternals, and there are more important things to be concerned about. 

There is what is probably an apocryphal story related to Spurgeon and his cigars.  According to the story, Spurgeon passed a tobacconist’s shop and saw a sign that read: “Smoke the cigar that Spurgeon smokes.” Embarrassed that his name was used to promote tobacco, he supposedly decided never to smoke another cigar because he sought not to detract from the gospel. However, the strongest historical evidence suggests that he continued smoking, at least occasionally, until near the end of his life.

But, there is also evidence that Spurgeon did at least once give up cigars for several years early in his ministry at the request of fellow ministers. Friends, some of us need to get our priorities sorted out! While we are acting as thought police, as judge and jury towards one another, unbelievers are dying and going to hell. Meanwhile, God’s kingdom is not built up. In the big scheme of things, in terms of eternity, these ‘matters of indifference’ are exactly that.

3.  Be Convinced and Be Quiet

Be Convinced (14:5, 14): These issues may be matters of indifference but they are not matters of unimportance. Each believer must come to their own conclusions and be convinced in their own mind. Although, before God, “nothing is unclean in itself…it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean” (v14). That means that each individual believer is to use his or her powers of reasoning, which have at least begun to be renewed by the gospel under the authority of God’s Word (12:2) and act accordingly.

And there is a reverse truth implicit here also in verses 22-23. If the Lord convicts you that something is wrong for you, then you had better not do it, even if other Christians are doing it! But., if your conscience is clear before the Lord, having prayed about it and weighed it up, do it and enjoy it giving thanks in your heart for the liberty of grace and give glory to God in the doing of it.

Be Quiet (14:22-23): When you have come to your personal considered conviction, the conclusion that you have come to, “the faith that you have the faith that you have keep between yourself and God”. In other words, don’t parade it, don’t go on about it, especially when, and if, you know that your brother and sister take a different view. In one of the churches I pastored, there was a woman who attended for a while, who was completely obsessed about a matter that wasn’t even secondary. It was pretty near the bottom of any list of issues of importance. But within five minutes of meeting a new attendee, she would ask them what their view was, by which she really meant, let me tell you what my view is. We had to tell her firmly she was not to speak of it again.

In All Things, Extend Charity

As long as the Church exists, there will always be matters of conscience and indifference, but the solution is not to do the easy thing – go our own way and do our own thing, setting up a church for meat-eaters and another for vegetarians, as it were. No, we are to do the hard thing. The Apostle Paul does not say, break fellowship but welcome, embrace and accept one another. Now I need to say that there are times when actually separation is the only sustainable solution, especially over some really big but secondary issues.

Take the matter of baptism, for example, who we baptise and how. You can’t realistically have a church that teaches and practices both paedo-baptism and credo-baptism, but the truth is that there are very few such issues that make such separation necessary. And even when it is necessary, fellowship must be maintained. Rupertus Meldenius was a 17th^–century German Lutheran theologian who coined a phrase that strikes the right balance. “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”

Rev. John Brand | 31/07/2026

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[i] Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian, trans. W. A. Lambert, ed. Harold J. Grimm, vol. 31 of Luther’s Works: Career of the Reformer I (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1957), 344.