In verse 18 Paul says, “For he who in this serves Christ as a slave is well-pleasing to God and approved by men.” By this word we can see that what is mentioned in verse 17 is for us to serve Christ. This means that to receive the believers is to serve Christ. We have to do this as in the kingdom of God and in the way of serving Christ as a slave, in the way of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, not in the way of taking care of doctrinal concepts. Surely this way will be well-pleasing to God and approved by men. And this way will never cause any division, but always keep the unity of the Spirit for the practical Body life.
Furthermore, Paul says in verse 19, “So let us pursue the things of peace, and things which build one another.” The things of peace are the things that keep the unity of the Body. The things that build up one another are the things that minister life to the members of the Body for the mutual building. We must pursue both categories of things. We have to seek after the things that keep the unity of the Body with peace and the things that minister life to others. In order to do this, we have to leave all the doctrinal concepts behind and overcome all the frustrations that originate from mental knowledge. Satan is subtle. Through all the centuries, he has used and is still using doctrinal concepts and mental knowledge to frustrate the ministry of life and to divide the Body of Christ. Therefore, we must overcome his subtlety by pursuing the things of peace for keeping unity, and the things that minister life to others for the building of the Body.
Verses 20-21 say, “Do not break down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but it is evil for a man to eat so as to be a stumbling block. It is good not to eat meat, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything by which your brother stumbles.” In all saved persons there is an amount of God’s work. God has called and saved them. God has done at least this much divine work in them. If we cause any of the believers to stumble by our doctrinal concepts, we break down, destroy, God’s work of grace in him. We should take care of God’s work, not our doctrinal concepts. All of our religious practices must be cast aside for the sake of God’s work of grace in others. We are free to eat anything and we may do anything that is not sinful, but we should not eat anything or do anything by which a brother stumbles. We must take care of the building of the brothers in life, not the keeping of our religious concepts in knowledge.
In verses 22 and 23 Paul says, “The faith which you have, have it to yourself before God. Blessed is he who does not judge himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it is not out of faith, for all which is not out of faith is sin.” If we are the strong ones in faith, we should have faith to ourselves before God. It is blessed that we do not judge what we approve of doing because we have the faith in doing it. But the weaker ones in faith, who do not have the faith as we do, are condemned if they eat anything about which they have doubts, because they do not eat by faith. All which is not by faith is sin. So, we have to take care of the ones weaker in faith, not causing them to do anything about which they do not have faith.
Paul was very wise. If we are not in the spirit as we read this portion of Romans, we will miss much of the depth of what Paul wrote. Paul began the section on receiving the saints with the matter of doctrinal concepts, concepts held mainly by religious Jews, and he concludes it with receiving the saints according to Christ. We must not receive the believers according to doctrinal concepts, but according to Christ.
Romans 15:1 says, “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those who are weak, and not to please ourselves.” In receiving the believers, we must bear the weaknesses of the weak and not please ourselves. The Lord Jesus always bears the weaknesses of His believers (2 Cor. 12:9) and does not please Himself. In receiving the believers, we have to do the same according to Him, not pleasing ourselves, but bearing others’ weaknesses.