Commentary on Romans 14:1-12

Don’t sweat the small stuff, and all of it is small stuff. At least, that is how the phrase goes. I really appreciate Paul’s transition in Romans 14:1–12. After making an urgent appeal to love at the end of chapter 13, Paul moves to words of “welcome” at chapter 14. For Paul, welcome must be freely given and cannot come with conditions.

Conditional welcome is what the Roman church was extending to the returning Jewish Jesus-followers. Also, if we are truthful, conditional welcome is what many of us extend today. You are welcome if you wear the proper clothes. You are welcome if you know the proper language. You are welcome if you eat the right foods and drink the correct drinks. You are welcome if you assimilate in the proper way culturally. How many of us only extend conditional welcome to others because we “sweat the small stuff”?

Paul’s letter to the church at Rome reminds us that community behaviors drove quarrels. In the Roman church, the quarrels were between the perceived “strong” and “weak.” Scholars believe that the “weak” in Romans 14 consumed vegetables only, while the “strong” ate meat and vegetables. Additionally, the “weak” were particular about holy days, while the “strong” observed the Sabbath and paid little attention to other holy days. However, as we move to verse 13 and beyond, Paul admonishes the “strong” to bear some responsibility for the “weak.” I envision this responsibility as similar to his admonition to the Galatians to “bear one another’s burdens” in Galatians 6:2.

Instead of thinking about Romans as a theological treatise, we have to read it for what it actually is: a letter that has political and ethnoracial implications for a community that is trying to knit itself together through welcome (even as Paul asks for money on his way to Spain!). Particularly, scholars identify the “weak” as Jewish Jesus-followers and the “strong” as gentile or “ethnic” Jesus-followers. I will define those terms more extensively momentarily. At this time, what I want to iterate is that welcome is extremely difficult when people within an ecclesial setting perceive that their way of living is better than dddddddor supersedes another group’s way of living. With that said, let me move to the context of the Roman Empire.

In the context of imperial Rome, the Roman church understood the lived experience of existing under an empire where religion and politics are inseparable. Further, the Roman church also understood the lived experience of existing under an empire that constantly relocated large groups of people in its mass migration efforts. Since the emperor served as “princeps” (meaning he was first in everything: military, senate, and imperial worship), he forcibly migrated people at his will. Thus, Romans can no longer be relegated to “a confessional/ecclesiastical ghetto of doctrinal interest.”¹ Attention to its context is important for proper interpretation.

When Jesus was born, Rome was the city of Augustus, but when Paul died it was the city of Nero,² meaning that by the time Paul travels and ministers in Jesus’s name, the political climate is even more volatile. According to second-century sources, Claudius, the emperor who ruled over Rome from 41–54 CE, expelled (some?) Jews from Rome because of disturbances over someone named “Chrestus.” Chrestus was a common Greek name, but some scholars argue that the name meant Christ.³ The general consensus was that Aquila and Priscilla were a part of that group who were expelled from Rome. They knew Paul (see 1 Corinthians 16:19), and he sends them greetings (see Romans 16:3–4).

Scholars conjecture that when Claudius expelled Jewish followers of Christ from Rome, members of other “conquered nations” (traditionally translated as “gentiles”⁴) made up the majority of the Roman church, which did not contain any Jewish people. Scholars identify these members as the “strong.” After Claudius died, his Edict that removed the Jewish people lapsed and they began to return. Priscilla and Aquila would have been among the returnees. Once Jewish Jesus-followers returned to the Roman churches, there was ethnoracial friction between the Jewish Jesus-followers (the “weak”) and the Jesus-followers of the “conquered nations.”

Not only is Paul’s letter his way of introducing himself (as he has never met this church, nor did he found it), but it also serves as his way of giving them advice on how to knit themselves together, especially in Romans 14. Paul is admonishing them to welcome each other in love.

What are ways that contemporary ecclesial communities who experience diversity can begin to knit themselves together in love? What are ways that contemporary ecclesial communities who experience division can begin to welcome one another in love? Paul argues for welcome in the name and view of love. In today’s contemporary conversations, arguments against diversity and welcome include arguments for meritocracy and color-blindness. These arguments then mean that Black churches must subsume themselves under capable White churches since they are heretical.⁵ I believe that Romans 14 argues against such an ideal.

Paul’s view of love allows diversity of thought and worship within the ecclesial community. Paul’s view of love is not color-blind but recognizes that there is ethnoracial diversity within the Romans church that must be welcomed.

If only we could learn such a lesson today as we seek to welcome people from various cultural and ethnoracial backgrounds into our churches. If only we could learn such a lesson today as we welcome people from various cultural and ethnoracial backgrounds into our nation! Instead of attempting to rid ourselves of people we consider “other” (politically, sexually, racially, ethnically, differently abled, et cetera), perhaps a better way of engaging one another would be to welcome one another’s lives, stories, conversations, and experiences so we can become knit together as one body in Christ. Thinking through Romans with an ethnoracial lens from the beginning of the letter to the end provides this important interpretation. Instead of sweating the small stuff, what steps can we do to welcome people into our communities?

Notes

1. This quote comes from one of my professors at Chicago Theological Seminary. Theodore W. Jennings (may he rest in eternal power) helped me think about Paul in political and philosophical ways. See Theodore W. Jennings, Reading Derrida/Thinking Paul: On Justice (Stanford University Press, 2006), 1, 157.
2. John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed, In Search of Paul: How Jesus’ Apostle Opposed Rome’s Empire with God’s Kingdom (HarperOne, 2004), Kindle Edition.
3. While other scholars have challenged this reconstruction with valid argument (Dio Cassius explicitly contradicts Suetonius; not all Jews were expelled since demographic evidence shows that 20,000–60,000 Jews lived in Rome; and Suetonius correctly names “Christians” in Nero 16.2), I am still of the camp that believes there was some occurrence that had Jewish people leave. Empire possesses that power.
4. I consider “gentiles” a misnomer but do not have the space to discuss fully why it is a misnomer. I suggest looking at the work of Davina Lopez, Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul’s Mission, Paul in Critical Contexts (Fortress, 2009).
5. Pastor Joel Webbon argues that 90–95% of Black churches are heretical and should submit to White pastors. While racist Pastor Joel Webbon should not be the standard of White Christian pastors, his views are becoming more mainstream in Christian conversations. See https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UPBfyJM6wSY.