What does Romans 14:6 mean?

Should Christians who have been saved by God's grace through faith in Christ and have been freed from the requirements of the law continue to observe special days as commanded in the law? Paul has been clear in his other letters that nobody should continue to observe these days if they are doing so in the hopes of earning their salvation (Galatians 4:10). That would mean that they were not fully relying on Christ's righteousness and death for their sin to save them.

He also wrote to the Christians in Colossae that they shouldn't allow anyone to shame them into following special requirements about food and drink or about observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbath days (Colossians 2:16). To do so is to give more authority to a religious leader than to Christ Himself.

Having said that, Paul allows in this verse that Christians might continue to observe these days with right motives. They may do so in honor of the Lord, not out of fear of dishonoring Him and losing His approval. In the same way, any Christian may eat or abstain from eating to honor the Lord and give thanks to God. The same is true of other personal choices to abstain from things the Bible does not explicitly condemn. Restraint for the sake of honoring God is not the same as the "weak in faith" belief that such things are, themselves, actually sinful.

Paul's point seems to be that Christians must not follow any practices of the law, or any religious tradition, for the purpose of earning acceptance with God. That would be a rejection of God's free gift of grace and acceptance through faith in Christ. However, someone who is fully trusting in Christ may choose to engage in that same religious practice, simply because they believe it to be honoring to God.

In other words, those truly trusting Christ alone are free to participate or not participate in these disputed activities as long as they do so with thanksgiving and to honor the Lord.