Romans 14:4

σὺ τίς εἶ ὁ κρίνων ἀλλότριον οἱκέτην; the sharpness of this rebuke (cf. Romans 9:20) shows that Paul, with all his love and consideration for the weak, was alive to the possibility of a tyranny of the weak, and repressed it in its beginnings. It is easy to lapse from scrupulousness about one's own conduct into Pharisaism about that of others. οἰκέτης is rare in the N.T. Paul has no other example, and may have used it here for the suggestion (which δοῦλος has not) that the person referred to belonged to the house. τῷ ἰδίῳ κυρίῳ στήκει ἢ πίπτει : for the verbs in the moral sense see 1 Corinthians 10:12. The dative is dat [36] comm [37] It is his own Lord who is concerned it is His interest which is involved and to Him (not to you) he must answer as he stands or falls. σταθήσεται δέ : but he shall be made to stand, i.e., shall be preserved in the integrity of his Christian character. δυνατεῖ γὰρ ὁ Κύριος στῆσαι αὐτόν : for the Lord has power to keep him upright. Paul does not contemplate the strong man falling and being set up again by Christ; but in spite of the perils which liberty brings in its train and the Apostle is as conscious of them as the most timid and scrupulous Christian could be he is confident that Christian liberty, through the grace and power of Christ, will prove a triumphant moral success.

[36] dative case.

[37] commentary, commentator.