What does Romans 14:5 mean?

In Romans 14, Paul deals with the issue of "disputable matters" between Christians. These are issues where the Bible does not give distinct, obvious guidance. Sexual immorality and idolatry, for instance, are clearly condemned. In contrast, however, are issues such as the example given by Paul: the freedom to eat meat, versus abstaining from it for religious reasons. Now he introduces another example, the observance of special days, as a point of disagreement between Christians.

Previously, Paul commanded people on both sides of these opinions not to judge each other. It's important to note that Paul described those who felt bound by stricter-than-Scripture religious requirements as having a "weaker" faith. They were not yet convinced that God's grace in Christ had completely freed them from following the law. Still, both groups were to fully welcome the other.

Now Paul applies that same teaching to the observance of religious holidays. Some Bible teachers suggest that Roman Christians were still following cultural religious ideas, which included a belief that some days were lucky, while others were not. It is more likely, however, that Paul is thinking about Jewish feast days and Sabbath days.

Elsewhere, Paul condemned the Christians in Galatians for continuing to observe "days and months and seasons and years" (Galatians 4:10). In that case, Paul seemed to feel the Galatians were trusting their religious rule-keeping to save them instead of trusting God's grace through faith in Christ.

With the Roman Christians, however, Paul simply tells them to be fully convinced in their own minds about whether to observe special days or not. Apparently, they were not trusting in the observance of these days to save them. As the following verse will show, some Roman believers may have been keeping these days to voluntarily honor God.