■ 1. The fellowship of the saints is not to be broken for unessential matters ; in other words, we have no right to make any thing a term of Christian communion which is not inconsistent with piety. Paul evi- dently argues on the principle that if a man is a true Christian he should be recognised and treated as such. If God has received him, we should receive him, vs. 1 — 12.
2. The true criterion of a Christian character is found in the governing purpose of the life. He that lives unto the Lord, i. e. he who makes the will of God the rule of his conduct, and the glory of God his constant object is a true Christian, although from weakness or ignorance he may sometimes mistake the rule of duty, and consider certain things obliga- tory which God has never commanded, vs. 6 — 8.
3. Jesus Christ must be truly God, 1. Because he is the Lord, accord- ing to whose will and for whose glory we are to live, vs. 6 — 8. 2. Because he exercises an universal dominion over the living and the dead, v. 9. 3. Because he is the final judge of all men, v. 10. 4. Because passages of the Old Testament which are spoken of Jehovah, are by the apostle applied to Christ, v. 11. 5. Because, throughout this passage, Paul speaks of God and Christ indiscriminately, in a manner which shows that he regarded Christ as God. To live unto Christ is to live unto God ; to stand before the judgment seat of Christ is to give an account unto God ; to submit to Christ is to bow the knee to Jehovah.
4. The gospel does not make religion to consist in external observ- ances. " Meat commendeth us not to God ; for neither if we eat are we the better ; neither if we eat not are we the worse," vs. 6, 7.
5. Though a thing may be lawful, it is not always expedient. The use of the liberty which every Christian enjoys under the gospel, is to be regulated by the law of love ; hence it is often morally wrong to do what, in itself considered, may be innocent, vs. 15, 20, 21.
6. It is a great error in morals, and a great practical evil, to make that sinful which is in fact innocent. Christian love never requires this or any other sacrifice of truth. Paul would not consent, for the sake of avoiding offence, that eating all kinds of food, even what had been offered to idols, or disregarding sacred festivals of human appoint- ment, should be made a sin ; he strenuously and openly maintained the reverse. He represents those who thought differently as weak in faith, as being under an error from which more knowledge and more piety would free them. Concession to their weakness he enjoins on a principle perfectly consistent with the assertion of the truth, and with the preservation of Christian liberty, vs. 13 — 23.
7. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. It is wrong to do any thing which we think to be wrong. The converse of this proposition, however, is not true. It is not always right to do what we think to be right. Paul, before his conversion, thought it right to persecute Christians ; the Jews thought thev did God service when they cast the disciples of the Saviour out of