“ In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. ⁶ Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him…” Rom. 14:5, 6, NLT. 

Footsteps # 378. It is important to consider the historical background when considering passages like the previous one. Food offered to idols was not the only issue that divided the first Judeo/Christian church. People also fought over the observance or non-observance of certain days. 

Paul doesn’t explicitly state their nature, but it was apparently not the weekly Sabbath, since the Sabbath was one of the Ten Commandments, and Paul has already spoken in Romans several times about the importance of the Decalogue in the Christian life (see Rom.13:8-10; 7:12,14,16; 3:31). The greatest argument for the fourth commandment in the NT is that there is no argument! Had Paul, or any other disciple, been advocating a change there would have been a bigger furor than that raised over circumcision and the abolition of the ceremonial law. 

The most likely candidates for the dispute were the feast days and yearly Sabbaths of which there were 7: The Passover, The Feast of Unleavened bread, The Feast of Firstfruits, The Day of Pentecost, The Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. These were the ‘shadow Sabbaths’ referred to by Paul in Colossians 2:16-17. They all pointed forward to what Jesus would do. The debate between the Jewish and gentile Christians over issues related to the Jewish ceremonial regulations had already led to the conference between Paul and the leaders of the Jewish Christians in Acts 15, ten years earlier in AD 49. On other occasions we find Paul dealing with the issue of special days and feasts in Gal.4:10, 11 and Col.2:16, 17. In that latter passage, as in the present one, Paul had to deal with church members passing judgment on fellow believers regarding food and disputed days. But there he explicitly notes that the festivals and Sabbaths (plural in the Greek) in question were “only a shadow of what is to come”. That language implies the yearly ceremonial Sabbaths were symbols pointing forward to Christ. The weekly Sabbath of the Decalogue, by way of contrast, directed attention backward to God’s work of creation (Gen.2:1, 2; Ex.20:8-11). 

With that distinction in mind, Paul tells his Roman readers that those whose faith had enabled them to immediately leave behind all ceremonial holy days should not despise others whose faith wasn’t as advanced. Nor should the latter criticise those who had given up the Jewish feasts when they came to realise that, like the Passover, they all pointed forward to Christ. 

Beyond the debate over days, Paul sets forth an important lesson for all Christians in Rom.14:5-6. Each person must live by their own convictions. God is leading each person who chooses to be led. But all don’t have the same background or move at the same speed. It is important for a Christian to have convictions, but it is equally vital that those convictions come from the Lord. In non-essentials, Paul reminds the Romans, the church cannot expect uniformity.