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The New Covenant
deals with the issues of holy days and
dietary restrictions in Romans 14; 1 Corinthians 8-10;
Galatians 1-6; Ephesians 2; Colossians 2 and Acts 15.
The Book of Romans must be understood in light of the
rest of the New Testament teaching on the
subjects. Were the new Gentile converts
expected to keep the Law of Moses? Are the
unclean meats from Leviticus 11 still
forbidden today? What about the Sabbath and
the other holy days of the Old Covenant?
In Romans 14, Paul
is addressing whether or not Christians need to
abide by Jewish food laws or eat meat that
was sacrificed to an idol and then sold in
the marketplace. Paul clearly sides
theologically with the “strong” (who did not
feel compelled to follow those laws), but he
encourages them not to be a stumbling block for the
“weak.” He then goes on to discuss some
of the issues that can come up when Jews and
Gentiles come together for fellowship meals and
worship.
Most of Paul’s churches had
both Jewish and Gentile believers and the
two groups found it difficult to commune
when it came time to have fellowship and
eat. The Jews held certain days with special
regard and the Gentiles believed they had no
reason to set those days aside for special
use. For Gentile Christians, the issue was
whether they could eat meat that was sold in
the open marketplace but had come from
animals sacrificed in heathen temples. It
was a very real problem in the context
of their continuing social relationships
with heathen neighbors and friends.
Regarding special days Paul said in Romans 14:5,
“One person esteems one day as better than
another, while another esteems all days
alike.”
Every translation
I surveilled uses the words 'alike' or 'the same'
in the text because it is clearly implied in the
Greek text.
What Paul is saying is that some people
held a certain day higher, or with greater
esteem than another day (a Sabbath day,
Feast days, and fasting days
are all in view). The strong believers
held all days with the same regard. That's
why translators use the implied words
'alike' or 'the same'.
Some feel that this
refers primarily to the Sabbath, but it is
most likely a reference to all the special
days of the Old Covenant. All days are to be
dedicated to God through holy living and
godly service. The importance of personal
conviction in disputable matters of conduct
runs through this passage (see Romans 14:14, 16, 22, 23).
The exhortation does not mean it is wrong to
have strong convictions, but that all people
have a right to their own personal beliefs
on matters of dispute. This
principle is basic in dealing with
controversial issues.
The weak Jewish
believers felt compelled to observe the
Sabbath and other special days associated
with Judaism (Galatians 4:9-10; Ephesians 2:11-15; Colossians 2:16-17); and the weak
Gentile believers wanted to separate
themselves from the special days of
festivities associated with their former
paganism because of its idolatry and
immorality (1 Corinthians 8 and 1 Corinthians 10).
The sign of
Circumcision and observance of all the laws
of Moses were an issue in the early church.
A church council was convened in Jerusalem
around A.D. 49/50 and the Apostles debated over
which of the laws Moses had written applied
to Christians. During that council, the
members settled upon four laws for Gentile
converts.
Acts 15:1, 5 says, “But
some men came down from Judea and were
teaching the brothers, “Unless you are
circumcised according to the custom of
Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul
and Barnabas had no small dissension and
debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some
of the others were appointed to go up to
Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders
about this question. So, being sent on their
way by the church, they passed through both
Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail
the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought
great joy to all the brothers. When they
came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the
church and the apostles and the elders, and
they declared all that God had done with
them. But some believers who belonged to the
party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It
is necessary to circumcise them and to order
them to keep the law of Moses.’”
After
hearing the complaints of the Pharisees, the
Apostles made their decision.
Acts 15:10-11, “Now,
therefore, why are you putting God to the
test by placing a yoke on the neck of the
disciples that neither our fathers nor we
have been able to bear? But we believe that
we will be saved through the grace of the
Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
Acts 15:24, “Since we
have heard that some persons have gone out
from us and troubled you with words,
unsettling your minds, although we gave them
no instructions,”
Acts 15:28-29, “For it
has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us
to lay on you no greater burden than these
requirements: that you abstain from what has
been sacrificed to idols, and from blood,
and from what has been strangled, and from
sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves
from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
The Jerusalem
council of Acts 15 makes it perfectly clear
that the Apostles never commanded their
followers to keep the Law of Moses
(including the food restrictions). In this
context, the law refers to all the
ordinances and commands written by Moses in
the Torah, including the passage where the
Sabbath is described as a sign between God
and Israel alone (Exodus 31:13, 17).
Notice that it
was the "Holy Spirit" that made these
requirements and the Apostles were careful
to say that "no greater burden" was to be laid upon the Gentiles
than these four requirements. In fact, The
Church leaders made it clear to all the
churches that they would never place the
burden of keeping the Mosaic Law upon the
Gentile converts.
What were the requirements
placed on the Gentile Christians?
1. that you
abstain from what has been
sacrificed to idols.
2. from blood.
3. from what has
been strangled.
4. from sexual immorality.
The decision was
made that none of the Holy
Days or dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law (including the
Sabbath) were required for
Christians to keep under the New Covenant.
"The few
requirements James suggests they impose are
representative of the handful of laws Jewish
tradition declared that God gave Noah.
According to the more lenient Jewish
position, any righteous Gentiles who kept
those basic laws would have a share in the
world to come. Because even stricter
Pharisees had to get along with the majority
of more lenient people, these teachers did
not try to invalidate other teachers’
rulings if they had majority consent."
[1]
During the time of
the Old Covenant, the “stranger” in
Jerusalem
was expected to keep the Sabbath. A person could
choose to live in Israel but just like here
in the United States, when you
are here,
you have to keep the constitutional laws of
the land. If they were out trying to buy and
sell, they would be tempting God's people to
sin (Nehemiah 13:15-21).
If they
wanted to keep the Passover and the other Jewish
Feasts they had to be circumcised and become
a Jew and keep all the legal requirements of
the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 12:43-49; Numbers 9:14).
Circumcision stood for subjection to the
Mosaic Law. Paul said, "Circumcision has
value if you observe the law" (Romans 2:25).
When a proselyte was circumcised, it was a
sign that he had accepted the entire Mosaic
Covenant and he became "obligated to obey the
whole law" (Galatians 5:3).
Acts 15 is dealing with the entire
legal code contained in the Law of Moses. The Old
Covenant, Law of Moses was one, unified
legal code made up of 613 laws covering
every aspect of Hebrew life. Under the New
Covenant, no one is required to become a Jew
and keep the Old Covenant laws!
In Romans 12-15, Paul is laying down principles for the different
groups to come together. The stronger
brother should care for the weaker brother.
As strong Christians, coming from different
backgrounds, we don't want to cause a weak
brother to stumble over our beliefs - even
though they are correct. Each Christian must
follow the dictates of his own conscience in
matters not specifically commanded or
prohibited in Scripture.
Romans 15:1 says, “We who are strong
have an obligation to bear with the failings
of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”
Paul was strong in
his faith but he willingly
placed restrictions on his conduct for the
sake of the weaker believers.
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
says, "For though I am free from all, I have
made myself a servant to all, that I might
win more of them. To the Jews I became as a
Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under
the law I became as one under the law
(though not being myself under the law) that
I might win those under the law. To those
outside the law I became as one outside the
law (not being outside the law of God but
under the law of Christ) that I might win
those outside the law. To the weak I became
weak, that I might win the weak. I have
become all things to all people, that by all
means I might save some. I do it all for the
sake of the gospel, that I may share with
them in its blessings.”
Some important
points from this passage need to be
highlighted:
1. Paul is not
under the Law of the Jews;
2. but Paul is
not without law.
3. Paul is under
a different law from the Jews;
4. Paul is under
the law of Christ.
In Romans,
as in 1 Corinthians,
Paul is discussing the proper attitude
Christians should have toward each other in
debatable areas of conduct (things that are
not clearly stated to be wrong). He says, (1) that we are not to judge one another in such
matters because God has received both the
weaker and stronger believer; (2) because we can differ in good
conscience; and (3) because we
shall all be judged by the Lord (Romans 14:1-3; 14:4-6; 14:7-12).
The following is
from: The Bible Background Commentary - New
Testament.
Romans 14:1-23
“Don’t Be Divided over Foods or Holy
Days”
“Paul’s exhortation to
unity between the Jewish and Gentile
Christians in Rome now reveals some
of the cultural divisions being
experienced there. Jewish people did
not expect most Gentiles to observe
their food laws or holy days but did
expect Gentile converts to Judaism
to do so, perhaps including Gentile
Christians. (Leviticus 11:44-45
deals with holiness as separation
and may suggest that God gave
special food laws to Israel
particularly to keep it separate
from other nations, because most
cultures had their own special
dietary practices. This approach
would no longer be productive in the
New Testament period in the light of
Paul’s missions strategy. Its
principle of moral separation could
be retained without cultural
separation.)
Gentiles,
particularly in Rome, had long
ridiculed Jewish people for their
peculiarities on especially these
two issues (plus circumcision, which
seems not to have been an issue in
the Roman church). Paul emphasizes
primarily eating practices.
(Although he addresses a different
kind of division over foods in 1 Corinthians 8, he applies similar
principles.)
Romans 14:1-4.
Most distinct cultures in the
ancient world had their own food
customs; some philosophical schools
also had their own food rules. But
few cultures were as insistent as
the Jewish people that a deity had
assigned their food laws; in the two
centuries before Paul many Jews had
died for refusing to eat pork, a
meat Greeks thought delicious.
Although we know that some
Hellenistically educated Jews in
Egypt took the food laws
symbolically, most Jews continued to
keep these laws regardless of where
in the Roman Empire they went.
Romans 14:5-6. The precise time
for festivals was such an important
issue in Judaism that different
Jewish groups broke fellowship with
each other over the issue. (Not much
later in history, different
Christian groups followed suit.)
Pagans had their own festivals, with
different nations having their own
ancestral customs and calendars. But
Gentile writers especially reviled
the Jewish sabbath. Romans reasoned
that Jews were just lazy and wanted
a day off from work. (This was not
the first time in history that
someone viewed Jewish worship in
such terms—Exodus 5:17.) Paul also
alludes to the Jewish custom of
giving thanks over food.
Romans 14:7-9. Like their separate
food laws, their sabbath regulations
forced Jews to form their own
moderately self-sufficient
communities in the Greco-Roman
world, and Gentiles often regarded
Jews as separatistic and unsociable.
This situation increased the social
distance between most Jews and
Gentiles."
[2] |
Romans 14 goes into great detail concerning
issues about food and what can be eaten.
Some commentators say that this section of
scripture is dealing primarily with fasting
days but Israel had no required days of
fasting that didn't require total abstinence
from food. Romans 14:1-2 says "the weak
person eats only vegetables." This shows
clearly that the issue facing the Roman
Church was not fasting, but food that had
been forbidden under the Old Covenant, or
meats sacrificed to an idol in the pagan
temples.
Those who were weak in the
faith were not without faith altogether,
they had trusted in Christ. Some in Rome
might not have accepted Paul's teaching
concerning certain practices, such as
accepting that all food was clean if
received with thanksgiving (see 1 Timothy 4:4-5), instead, they ate only vegetables.
The strong in the faith are told to receive
the weak brother and not to dispute over doubtful
things, which literally means “reasoning's”
or “opinions.” Paul was clear that the more
mature believers were not to pass judgment
on their weaker brother or sister and enter
into disputes over non-essential matters.
"For the kingdom of God is not a matter
of eating and drinking but of righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."
(Romans 14:17)
Romans 14; 1 Corinthians 8-10; Galatians 1-6; Ephesians 2; Colossians 2 and Acts 15 are all concerned with how
Christians from different backgrounds can
come together for fellowship and the greater
issue of what parts of the Mosaic Covenant
(if any) the New Covenant believer was
required to keep. The New Testament teaching
is clear, the Christian is not under any of the
legal requirements of the Old Covenant. We
have the New Covenant of Jesus Christ as our
guide.
"For you were called to freedom,
brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an
opportunity for the flesh, but through love
serve one another." (Galatians 5:13)
References:
1. The Bible Background
Commentary - New Testament. Acts 15:19-20.
2. The Bible Background
Commentary - New Testament. Romans 14:1-23.
See Also:
The Sabbath In
the Old and New Covenants:
The Law of God vs. The
Law of Moses:
What
was the law placed beside the ark of the
covenant?:
The Old Covenant
Law has Come to an End!
Circumcision Represented the Entire Mosaic
Covenant:
What Can the
Christian Eat Under the New Covenant?
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