Romans 14:6

Romans 14:6. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. However weak his faith, ‘he who directs his carefulness to the day, exercises this carefulness in his interest for the Lord, namely, in order thereby to respond to his relation of belonging to the Lord' (Meyer). So far as the scruples lead to conduct with this Christian tone, they appeal to the kind tolerance of those who are conscious of greater freedom.

The clause: ‘and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it,' is omitted by the best authorities, and rejected by most modern editors. It was probably inserted to complete the antithetical form of the passage, though some who retain it are disposed to think it was omitted because it seemed to be against the observance of the Lord's day and Christian holidays. As regards the latter, the Apostle's principle is against compulsory observance, but the Lord's day has other claims than those of Jewish or Christian festivals. The presence of the Fourth Commandment in the Decalogue, the recognition (and explanation) of the obligation to keep the Sabbath by our Lord, as well as the relation of the law to the Christian life, suggest for the observance of the Lord's day a higher sanction than is afforded by ‘considerations of humanity and religious expediency' or by ecclesiastical enactment. The application to the Jewish Sabbath may be admitted, but ‘the observance of Sunday does not comprise anything in common with that Sabbatic observance which sunders life into two parts, one sacred, the other profane. It is this legal distinction which Paul excludes in our Romans 14:5 and Colossians 2 ' (Godet).

And he that eateth, eateth unto the Lord, for he giveth thanks unto God, etc. The Apostle now reverts to the first point of difference, and applies to both parties the Christian maxim just laid down. All Christians were in the habit of thanking God at meals (and have been ever since). This was the proof that the man who ate without scruple ate as a Christian man, ‘unto the Lord;' while on the other hand he who scrupulously abstained also regarded himself as abstaining from the same Christian motive, and hence gave thanks unto God over the meal of herbs to which he confined himself.