Useful Bible Studies > Romans Commentary > chapter 14
Christmas day is a very joyful occasion for those Christians who choose that day to remember Christ’s birth. However, we cannot say that the origins of that day are truly Christian. Many of its traditions in fact come from ancient false religions. That fact sometimes causes disagreements between Christians.
Not all Christians agree even about the right day for church meetings. Most churches meet on Sunday, the first day of the week (see Luke 24:1; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2 and Revelation 1:10). However, God gave to Israel the seventh day, Saturday, as its Sabbath, a special day for rest and prayer (see Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 20:8-11; Mark 2:23 to 3:5 and Acts 17:2).
God gave to Israel its sacred holidays (Leviticus chapter 23), and Paul considered them important (Acts 20:16). However, Paul had to warn the Christians in Galatia that some teachers were using those holidays as a means to control them (Galatians 4:9-11; compare Acts 20:29-31 with Galatians 5:7-10).
In Romans 14:5-6, Paul refuses to say whether he believes it right or wrong to have special sacred days. Christians give their whole lives to God, so, for them, every day is holy (Romans 13:11-14; Hebrews 4:1-11). They pray constantly (1 Thessalonians 5:17), so they need no special day for prayer.
However, many Christians still consider it helpful to have special holy days and sacred holidays. Paul refuses to argue against them. God can guide different people to do different things. Therefore different Christians, who have different opinions about these matters, may all be obeying God loyally. They do not have to agree about such things. Each person only needs to do what God has directed him to do.
Next part: Our meals and our holidays give us a reason to praise God (Romans 14:6)
Please use the links at the top of the page to find our other articles in this series. You can download all our articles if you go to the download page for our free 1000+ page course book.
© 2022, Keith Simons.