Fully Devoted: The ChurchSample

Romans, Part 2: The Weak and the Strong

Paul was a pastor. His heart was always for his people. This is easy to lose sight of when so much of the focus on Paul is centered on his role as an author, theologian, church planter, and missionary. All of those things were true of Paul, but we must resist the tendency to stray from a focus on the people and their struggles, because Paul never did. 

Part of the challenge of reading Romans comes from the fact that the people Paul is writing to and the problems he’s helping them solve don’t become obvious to us until we get to Romans 14:1-15:13, deep into the final movement of this letter. It’s here we’re introduced to the social tensions and the division in the Roman churches. It’s here that Paul brings to the front of the conversation the two factions that Paul is trying to bring together: the “weak” and the “strong.”

Division in the church is a big problem in the eyes of Paul—because it runs in direct opposition to the gospel. The gospel is a unifying force. It’s the announcement that because of Jesus, all have been invited into the family of God. A family where all are valued, loved, and seen because of who they really are. It’s a place where the dividing lines of race, gender, and status are torn down and in their place a new humanity is born. A new humanity where there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one in Christ Jesus. 

Put more bluntly, a divided Church is anti-gospel. While that may seem like a strong statement, especially when we look around at the condition of the Church in our world today, Paul wants us, just like the Roman Christians, to fully grasp how important unity is in the Kingdom of God. 

Jesus was unquestionably committed to bringing people together who otherwise would want nothing to do with each other. His ministry was defined by His relentless pursuit of those His culture called unclean and unwanted. Jesus was so radical in His efforts to bring people together that He was often accused of compromising holiness and being complicit with sin. But none of that got in the way of Jesus’ mission: bringing all of humanity back into right relationship with their heavenly Father. 

So when Paul is traveling throughout the Roman Empire planting churches and preaching the gospel, his aim is always to advance the countercultural kingdom that Jesus established: a kingdom where the normal divisions of status, wealth, and power are abolished and replaced by a culture that welcomes strangers, loves neighbors, and cares for those in need. 

So when a community of believers like the Christians living in Rome become infested with the same kinds of division that plague the rest of the world, then, somewhere along the way, something has gone horribly wrong.

So who are these two factions of divided Christians that Paul is trying to unite? 

The Weak: The Weak are mostly Jewish Christians who believe that salvation is gained through adherence to Torah, and because of that, think less of their non-Torah-observant Christian siblings. 

The Strong: The Strong are mostly Gentile Christians who believe in Jesus as King, but do not live according to the Jewish Law. This produces conflict and gives rise to negative attitudes toward the Weak. 

Paul’s goal with this letter is to get the Weak and the Strong to welcome each other as siblings in God’s family. He’s challenging them to look past their differences and fight for unity. Paul wants the Weak to see their privileged role as members of the Jewish people as an opportunity to build up their Gentile siblings. He’s asking the Strong to use their power and wealth as Roman citizens to serve their poorer Jewish brothers and sisters. Paul is challenging them to do whatever it takes to live at peace with one another, and to value one another more than they value their own way of doing things.

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. ... Romans 14:19-20 NIV 

Romans was written to help these divided Christians become a united Church. 

With the conflict that had taken root in Rome in mind, the rest of this letter takes on a much more pastoral meaning. Paul was deeply committed to helping the early Christians understand who they were because of Jesus, and how their identity as people of the Kingdom shaped the way they interacted with everyone, especially their fellow siblings in the family of God. 

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2 NIV

It’s in this last movement of the letter that Paul pulls together the threads of the previous three movements into a sequence of pastoral instructions. Yes, Romans contains a substantial amount of profound theological depth, but Romans is not meant to be read as disembodied theology. The truth revealed in the previous eleven chapters is meant to be embodied by loving and accepting one another the same way that Jesus has loved and accepted us. 

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. Romans 15:7 NIV

Journaling Questions 

• What verse or verses stuck out to you the most in today’s reading? Write them in your journal. 
• In your own words, explain why a divided Church is actually anti-gospel. 
• Ask God to examine your heart. How have you done at welcoming other believers as siblings in the family of God? Is there anyone you need to seek peace with that you have been thinking less of? What change do you need to make? 

Memory Verse

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2 NIV