And (rather, 'But') he that doubteth is damned (see the note on the word "damnation," Romans 13:2)
If he eat, because [he eateth] not of faith (on the meaning of "faith" here, see the note at Romans 14:22):
For whatsoever is not of faith is sin - a maxim of unspeakable importance in the Christian life.
Remarks:
(1) Whatever rigid sticklers for the necessity of orthodoxy on every truth of the Bible and every point of the Christian Faith may say, nothing can be clearer from this chapter than that some points in Christianity are unessential to Christian fellowship; so that, though one may he in error upon them, he is not on that account to be excluded either from the communion of the Church or from the full confidence of those who have more light. Those, therefore, who-affecting more than ordinary zeal for the honour and truth of God-deny the validity of this distinction between essential and non-essential truths must settle the question, not with us, but with the apostle.
(2) Acceptance with God is the only proper criterion of right to Christian fellowship. Whom God receives, men cannot lawfully reject (Romans 14:3-4).
(3) As there is much self-pleasing in setting up narrow standards of Christian fellowship, so one of the best preservatives against the temptation to do this will be found in the continual remembrance that CHRIST is the one Object for whom all Christians live, and to whom all Christians die: this will be such a living and exalted bond of union between the strong and the weak as will overshadow all their lesser differences and gradually absorb them (Romans 14:7-9).
(4) From what said in Romans 14:5 about the observance of days, Alford judges it impossible that sabbatical obligation to keep any day, whether seventh or first, was recognized in apostolic times. But this is precarious. ground. Were it not as legitimate to argue that our Lord could never have said. "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath," and that "The Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath day" (Mark 2:27-28 : see the notes at Matthew 12:1-8, p. 70), if it was so speedily to vanish away, as if His lordship over it consisted only in His right to abolish it. Neither of these ways of settling the question of 'the perpetuity of a day of holy rest' will satisfy the thorough inquirer, who will think it his duty to look at all sides of the subject; and whoever considers how inadequate any considerations of mere expediency must prove-when once the belief in its essential sacredness is destroyed-to uphold that observance of the Lord's Day which all devout minds regard as essential to the best interests of religion and morality, will be slow to think that the apostle meant the Sabbath to be ranked by his readers among those vanished Jewish festival days which only weakness could imagine to be still in force-a weakness which those who had more light ought, out of love merely, to bear with.
(5) The consideration of the common Judgment seat at which the strong and the weak shall stand together will be found another preservative against the unlovely disposition to sit in judgment one on another (Romans 14:10-12).
(6) How brightly does the supreme divinity of Christ shine out in this chapter! The exposition itself supersedes further illustration here.
(7) Though forbearance is a great Christian duty, indifference to the distinction between truth and error is not thereby encouraged. The former is, by the lax, made an excuse for the latter. But our apostle, while teaching 'the strong' to bear with the "weak," repeatedly intimates in this chapter where the truth really lay on the points in question, and take, care to call those who took the wrong side the "weak,"
(8) With what holy jealousy ought the purity of the conscience to be guarded, since every deliberate violation of it is incipient perdition! (Romans 14:15; Romans 14:20.) Some who seem to be more jealous for the honour of certain doctrines than for the souls of men, enervate this terrific truth by asking how it bears upon the 'Perseverance of the saints;' the advocates of that doctrine thinking it necessary to explain away what is meant by "destroying the work of God" (Romans 14:20), and by "destroying him for whom Christ died" (Romans 14:15), for fear of the doctrinal consequences of taking it nakedly; while the opponents of that doctrine are ready to ask, How could the apostle have used such language if he had believed that such a catastrophe was impossible? The true answer to both lies in dismissing the question as impertinent. The apostle is enunciating a great and eternal principle in Christian ethics-that the willed violation of conscience contains within itself a seed of destruction; or, to express it otherwise, that the total destruction of the work of God in the renewed soul, and, consequently, the loss of that soul for eternity, needs only the carrying out to its full effect of such violation of the conscience. Whether such effects do take place, in point of fact, the apostle gives not the most distant hint here; and therefore that point must be settled elsewhere. But, beyond all doubt, as the position we have laid down is emphatically expressed by the apostle, so the interests of all who call themselves Christians require it to be proclaimed and pressed on every suitable occasion.
(9) Zeal for comparatively small points of truth in a poor substitute for the substantial and catholic and abiding realities of the Christian life (Romans 14:17-18).
(10) "Peace" among the followers of Christ is a blessing too precious to themselves, and, as a testimony to them that are without, too important to be ruptured for trifles, even though some lesser truths be involved in these (Romans 14:19-20). Nor are those truths themselves disparaged or endangered thereby, but the reverse.
(11) Many things which are lawful are not expedient. In the use of any liberty, therefore, our question should be, not simply, Is this lawful? but even if so, Can it be used with safety to a brother's conscience? How will it affect my brother's soul? (Romans 14:21.) It is permitted to no Christian to say, with Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9.)
(12) Whenever we are in doubt as to a point of duty-where abstinence is manifestly sinless, but compliance not clearly lawful-the safe course is ever to be preferred, for to do otherwise is itself sinful.
(13) How exalted and beautiful are the ethics of Christianity-by a few great principles teaching us how to steer our course amidst practical difficulties, with equal regard to Christian liberty, love, and confidence!