Romans 14:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Indeed, can one who lives for the law live for Christ? Yet in these words the Apostle considers not this alone. He also restrains those firm in faith from haste in correcting the weak, and persuades them to be patient. He proves that God cannot despise the weak, but will correct them at the proper time. What then does this mean: "None of us lives to himself"? We are not free. We have over us a Master, Who wills that we live and does not desire our death. For Him our life or death matters more than it does for us ourselves. By this the Apostle shows that God cares for us more than we do. He counts our life as gain for Himself, and our death as loss. If we die, we die not only for ourselves, but also for the Lord.

We have, he says, a Lord Who cares for us and Who regards our life as His gain and our death as His loss. For we live or die not only for ourselves, but also for the Lord. By life here he means life in the faith, and by death falling away from the faith. Therefore the Lord will by no means permit us to die in faith, nor those who seem weak to fall away from it.

A man would live for himself if he did not act according to the law. But he who is governed by transgression of the law does not live for himself, but for God, Who gave the law so that men might live according to His will. And he who dies dies for God, by Whose judgment he will be crowned or condemned.

We are not masters over ourselves. We were bought with a price. While we live, we are the Lord's, and after death we are likewise the Lord's. In other words, neither are you master over him, nor is he master over you, because we all have one Lord.

Second, both groups, that is, both the weak in faith and the perfect, are guided by one and the same thought of pleasing God (Rom 14:5-12). "He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God" (Rom 14:6). Therefore it is best to leave the actions of our brethren to the judgment of the Lord, our common Master and Judge, to Whom "each of us shall give account of himself" (Rom 14:12).

If someone eats and drinks according to the demand of reason, to the glory of God, he not only does not sin. On the contrary, he fulfills the purpose of his being. For we were created by the Lord, and must live for the Lord, and likewise die for Him. This is all the more so because not only God the Father, but also His Only-begotten Son, our Savior, now has dominion over the living and the dead. He also will judge all the tribes of the earth. Therefore we have no right to judge others, but must prepare ourselves for judgment. For this reason, the Apostle counsels us to take care that, while not being scandalized by the eating of others, we do not give any scandal by our own not eating.

In verses 7-9 the general law is set forth: our whole life, without exception, must be dedicated to the Lord, and therefore eating or not eating as well. This confirms what was said above: he regards, or does not regard, the day unto the Lord. The Apostle considered it necessary to hold the thought on this point longer, in order to teach all to sanctify every detail of life by this law. He also wished to make all equal and centered in this common disposition of spirit. Only in this way can eating, not eating, and everything else be equally pleasing to God. The expression, "none of us lives to himself," or dies to himself, does not mean that all actually do this. It means that all must do this.