Are Meat, Drink, Sabbath Day, Matters of Religion?

Romans 14:1-23; Two of the dead performances of the Mosaic law are here raising their ugly heads to plague the Jewish converts in Rome. These are: 1. The ancient dietary restrictions, such as the prohibitions in Leviticus 11 against eating certain animals, fowl, fish, and creeping things, some thirty-two of which happen to be prohibited by name; and 2. The strict commandment that Israel should observe an appointed weekly Sabbath as a sign and witness that they were the Lord's people. This Sabbath was in commemoration of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, and as a consequence fell on a different day each week. Sabbath Day] See Revelation 1:9-11.

Romans 14:1-23; But now Christ has come; the law is fulfilled; its performances are no longer binding. On the point of dietary restrictions, Jesus himself has said: "Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?" (Mark 7:18-19.) And as to the Sabbath Day, the apostles have now decreed that worship reserved for that day should be transferred to Sunday, the Lord's Day, and should be in commemoration of Christ's coming forth in the resurrection.

Romans 14:1-23; However, some of the Jewish converts, apparently not fully envisioning the new order of things, are still trying to live the dead law. Also there seem to be among the Roman Saints those who have other self-imposed and foolish personal rules where eating and drinking are concerned, even as there are Word of Wisdom faddists in the Church today.

Romans 14:1-23; Paul's approach to the problem follows the pattern set by the apostles in deciding the question of circumcision. (Acts 15:1-35.) Since eating and drinking, and even some matters connected with Sabbath observance, are not to be compared in importance with the great basic realities of Christianity, such as the divine Sonship of Christ, Paul wisely takes a tolerant view. Bear with the weak, he says. It is not their dietary preferences that will save them, but their faith in Christ. Granted that the faddists and extremists are still worshiping to some extent at the shrine of Moses, yet exhibit Christian charity toward them. Until they grow in faith, a severe and strict approach may drive them from the fold of fellowship and lose them to the Cause. All men are foolish to some extent, and it becometh saints to bear with each other, that all eventually may be strong and sound and stable, anchored securely on the true foundation which Christ laid. And as it was in Paul's day, so should it be in ours.

Romans 14:1; 1. Faith comes by hearing the truth from the lips of a legal administrator who speaks by the power of the Spirit and not by argument or debate. The spirit of contention is of the devil.

Romans 14:2-4; 2-4. Church members should not condemn and sit in judgment upon each other; judgment is the Lord's.

Romans 14:5-6; 5-6. It is not the day but a day that is important in Sabbath observance. Labor on the Sabbath is malum prohibitum and not malum in se; that is, it is wrong because it is prohibited and not wrong in itself, as is the case, for instance, with murder and stealing.

Romans 14:7-9; 7-9. In life and in death we are the Lord's; he has bought us with his blood. (I Cor. 6:20.)

Romans 14:10-12; 10-12. Jehovah said to Isaiah: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." (Isaiah 45:22-23.) Paul, by the spirit of revelation, quotes from this ancient declaration and applies it pointedly and specifically to Christ—thus making Jehovah and Christ the same being.

Romans 14:13-23; 13-23. Humor those who are weak in the faith; let them be Word of Wisdom fanatics until they learn better; hold up before them the great spiritual reality that the gospel is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; labor for their perfections, but do not contend, do not cast them off because they are not yet stable and sound.

Romans 14:23; 23. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin] This law applies to the saints, to those who have the light, who know that salvation is in Christ, to those who are under covenant to keep the commandments. It is not applicable to the world in general, for sin is not imputed where there is no law. Thus the saints are guilty of sin when they fall short of those high standards they are obligated to attain. In the field of the Word of Wisdom, for instance, it is a sin for a Latter-day Saint to use tea, coffee, tobacco, or liquor, but it is not a sin for a nonmember of the Church so to do.