What is the Meaning of Romans 14:5-6?
by Kelly McDonald, Jr.
“5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks” (Romans 14:5-6, KJV).
Common arguments: These verses have been misunderstood as negating the Sabbath and other commandments. Some have said that they are the basis for proclaiming every day is holy or that every day is common.
Think it through: The common arguments have obvious problems. If Paul can make any day holy or common with his pen, then any human could do this any time they wanted to. This would mean that there is no objective standard as to what days were holy or common. If Paul can change the Words of God Almighty, then who else can do that? What other subjects do we allow people to change? We cannot reduce God’s authority to lower than that of a man; God is greater than man.
Short Answer: Paul is talking about common days that men esteem higher than others, not days that God considers holy. He is referring to Roman cultural days.
Longer Answer: We will examine the example of Paul, the context of Romans 14, and some history to clarify the meaning of these verses.
One of the ways we interpret history is through primary sources. This can include people who were eyewitnesses to events as well as archaeological findings from the time. The Apostle Peter was a contemporary of Paul and thus a primary source that bears witness to him. Here is what he said about Paul:
“15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. 17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness” (2 Peter 3:15-17, KJV).
We learn some important details from Peter’s words. Apparently, Paul wrote some things that are hard to understand. Also, some people twist his words in addition to the other Scriptures, which is a reference to the Old Testament. So when people twist Paul’s words, there is a tendency to do so with the Old Testament as well. Paul was a very educated man (see also Acts 26:24), which is why some people struggled with his words.
With this background understanding from Paul’s life, let’s look further at the context of Romans 14:5-6 and the specific language used.
First of all, Paul wrote in Romans 14:1: “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.” Paul informed us that the issues in this chapter were about doubtful things. This means that the subject in question is not clearly defined by Scripture. The Scripture clearly defines moral absolutes such as the Sabbath, which has always been the seventh day.
Secondly, the Greek word Paul uses for day, hemeran, refers to any common day and one of the other six days of the week. Thus, he is addressing common days, not holy days like the Sabbath.
Third, Paul was not addressing which days God considers to be important, but what days men esteem higher than others. God is the one who set aside the Sabbath, not man.
Fourth, the Greek word for holy, hagios, is not even found in Romans 14. This re-affirms that the chapter is not about those things which God has made holy.
Fifth, the Greek word for law, nomos, does not even appear in Romans chapter 14. Paul is not addressing things from the law of God.
Sixth, the specific Greek word for Sabbath, sabbaton, is not used in the entire letter of Romans.
Lastly, one must also consider his audience. Paul wrote these words to believers in the city of Rome. In the next paragraph, we will examine some Roman and Greek primary sources from the time before, during, and after Paul. They will help us greatly with the meaning of Romans 14:5-6.
The Romans were very superstitious. They considered some days of the week to be unlucky, such as Saturday (Tibullus, Poems, 1.3,17-18; Propertius, Elegies, 4.1,81-86). They also considered certain days of the month bad for specific activities such as business or travel (Marcus Varro, On the Latin Language, 6.29-31; Plutarch, Roman Questions, 25). There were even days of certain months on which activities were discouraged, such as marriage (Ovid, Fasti, 5.470-492). On some days, common activities were encouraged, such as eating certain foods (ibid, 6.169). For instance, beans and spelt were eaten on June 1st to honor Juno.
The Romans conducted their behavior in this manner for one or more reasons. Sometimes these prohibitions were to honor a specific god or goddess (such as their activity on June 1st). At other times, the Romans were just superstitious. For instance, the Romans considered odd numbers unlucky. Certain odd days of a month were considered bad for business (Plutarch, Roman Questions, 25). The Emperor Augustus even thought the position of his shoes were an omen (Seutonius, Life of Augustus, XCII).
Another issue raised in Romans 14:5-6 is the issue of abstaining from meat. Some people in the Roman world believed very strongly in abstaining from all animal meat (Ovid, Metamorphosis, 15.76-112, 140-142, 458-462; Seneca, Epistulae, 108.17-22; Plutarch: On the Eating of Flesh, 1.41 and On Isis and Osiris, sec. 2,4,7; Lucius Apuleis, Metamorphosis, 11.26-29). From the sources available to us, we can see that their vegetarian beliefs were rooted either in the worship of other gods or superstition. Some people thought that a deity required them to abstain from animal meat to be sanctified or set apart. Other people believed that the spirit of an animal entered a person upon eating the meat or that by eating animal meat the soul of another person could comingle with your soul.
What do we learn from Romans 14:5-6?
If we are going to consider a common day as important to perform a specific activity, then we should do so unto the Lord and not to a pagan deity or due to superstition. Paul is making sure that Christians in Rome keep their focus on the Lord and not put hope or trust in things outside of Him.
In the modern world, there are superstitions that still exist which mirror Roman ones. For instance, some people think you must eat certain foods on certain days of the year to have good fortune for the upcoming year (such as black-eyed peas on January 1). As believers, we are not bound by such superstitions. If you think a certain day is a good day to eat certain foods, make sure you are doing so unto the Lord. If you think clean animal meat must be abstained from, then do so unto the Lord and not for strange superstitions (unclean animal meat is never an option!).
Paul’s example in the Bible shows us that he continued to keep and reverence the Sabbath and feasts even after his conversion to Christianity (for a few examples: Acts 13:13-44, Acts 17:1-3, 18:1-4, Acts 20:6,16, Acts 27:9, and I Cor.16:8). The early Christians kept the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, and many believers continued to do so hundreds of years into the future.
God is the one who declared the Sabbath Holy, not man (Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 31:12-18, and Leviticus 23:1-6 to name a few). The seventh-day Sabbath persists even into the New Heavens and the New Earth (Isaiah 66:22-24). No man can ever change that. Paul never tried to change it either. Romans 14:5-6 just affirms these facts.
God Bless!
Kelly McDonald, Jr. served as Bible Sabbath Association (BSA) President from 2016-2023. He presently serves as the Pastor of David’s Tent Christian Fellowship www.davidstentjackson.com.
Bibliography
The Holy Bible. King James Version.
Lucius Apuleius. Metamorphosis, 11.26-29. Apuleius the Golden Ass. Being the Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius. Translated by W. Adlington. Revised by S. Gasellee. Harvard University Press, 1915. pp 585-593.
Marcus Varro. On the Latin Language, 6.29-31. Translated by Roland G. Kent. Vol. 1. Harvard University Press, 1938. pp 200-203.
Ovid. Fasti, 5.470-492; ibid, 6.169, Translated by Sir James George Frazer. Ovid’s Fasti. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1931. pp 295-297 331.
Ovid. Metamorphoses, 15.76-112, 140-142, 458-462. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Vol. 2. Harvard University Press, 1916. pp 371-373, 375, 397.
Plutarch. On the Eating of Flesh, 1.41. Plutarch’s Moralia. Translated by Harold Cherniss. Volume 12. Harvard University Press, 1957. pp 541-561.
Plutarch. On Isis and Osiris, sec. 2,4,7. Plutarch’s Moralia. Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. Vol. 5. Harvard University Press, 1936. pp 6-21.
Plutarch. Roman Questions, section 25. Plutarch’s Moralia. Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. vol. 4. Harvard University Press, 1936. pp 41-47.
Propertius. Elegies, 4.1.81-86. The Elegies of Propertius. Translated by H.E. Butler, H. E. Cambridge, 1912. pp 269-271.
Seneca. Epistulae, 108.17-22. Translated by Richard M. Gummere. Vol 3. William Heinemann, London, 1925. pp 241-243.
Suetonius. Life of Augustus, XCII. Translated by J.C. Rolfe. Vol. 1. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1951. pp 261-263.
Tibullus. Poems 1.3,17-18. Catullus, Tibullus, and Pervigilium Veneris. Translated by F.W. Cornish. New York, 1921. pp 206- 207.