Romans 14:7

For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7-9) The larger principle holds good, and therefore much more the smaller. It is not only his food that the Christian consecrates to God (or rather, immediately, to Christ, and through Christ to God), but his whole life, to its very last moments.

(7) Dieth to himself.—Even in the act of death the Christian is conscious of his relation to Christ; he dies “in the Lord” (Revelation 14:13).

Benson Commentary

Romans 14:7-9. For none of us — True Christians, in the things we do, liveth to himself — Is at his own disposal, doth his own will; and no man dieth to himself — Only for his own advantage, and according to his own pleasure, when he will. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord — Spend our lives in his service, and according to his will; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord — Either by sacrificing our lives to his glory, if he demand it of us; or, if we expire in a natural way, by behaving to the last as those who have his love ruling in our hearts, and his sacred cause still in our eye. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s — In consequence of being thus truly devoted to Christ, both in life and death, we have the pleasure of knowing that living or dying we are his servants; yea, and the objects of his favour and care. For to this end — Or purpose; Christ both died — Paying thereby the price of our ransom; and rose — Receiving in consequence thereof his purchase and dominion; and revived — Or liveth, as εζησεν may be rendered, namely, ever liveth, not only to appear in the presence of God as our advocate and intercessor, but that, having subdued our enemies, he might exercise his dominion over us, and be Lord — Of all his redeemed people, both such as are yet alive, and those that are dead. “From this passage, and from Php 2:10, where those under the earth are said to bow the knee to Jesus, it may be inferred, that the souls of men at death neither sleep nor fall into a state of insensibility. For if that were the case, Christ could not, with propriety, be said to rule over them, nor they be said to bow the knee to him.” — Macknight.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:7-13 Though some are weak, and others are strong, yet all must agree not to live to themselves. No one who has given up his name to Christ, is allowedly a self-seeker; that is against true Christianity. The business of our lives is not to please ourselves, but to please God. That is true Christianity, which makes Christ all in all. Though Christians are of different strength, capacities, and practices in lesser things, yet they are all the Lord's; all are looking and serving, and approving themselves to Christ. He is Lord of those that are living, to rule them; of those that are dead, to revive them, and raise them up. Christians should not judge or despise one another, because both the one and the other must shortly give an account. A believing regard to the judgment of the great day, would silence rash judgings. Let every man search his own heart and life; he that is strict in judging and humbling himself, will not be apt to judge and despise his brother. We must take heed of saying or doing things which may cause others to stumble or to fall. The one signifies a lesser, the other a greater degree of offence; that which may be an occasion of grief or of guilt to our brother.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For none of us ... - Whether by nature Jews or Gentiles. In the great principles of religion we are now united. Where there was evidence of a sincere desire to do the will of God there should be charitable feeling, through there was difference of opinion and judgment in many smaller matters. The meaning of the expression is, that no Christian lives to gratify his own inclinations or appetites. He makes it his great aim to do the will of God; to subordinate all his desires to his Law and gospel; and though, therefore, one should eat flesh, and should feel at liberty to devote to common employments time that another deemed sacred, yet it should not be uncharitably set down as a desire to indulge his sensual appetites, or to become rich. Another motive "may be" supposed, and where there is not positive "proof" to the contrary, "should be" supposed; see the beautiful illustration of this in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. To live "to ourselves" is to make it the great object to become rich or honored, or to indulge in the ease, comfort, and pleasures of life. These are the aim of all people but Christians; and in nothing else do Christians more differ from the world than in this; see 1 Peter 4:1-2; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Matthew 10:38; Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Mark 10:21; Luke 9:23. On no point does it become Christians more to examine themselves than on this. To "live to ourselves" is an evidence that we are strangers to piety. And if it be the great motive of our lives to live at ease Amos 6:1 - to gratify the flesh, to gain property, or to be distinguished in places of fashion and amusement - it is evidence that we know nothing of the power of that gospel which teaches us "to deny ourselves, and take up our cross daily.

No man - No "one," the same Greek word οὐδείς oudeis which is used in the former part of the verse. The word is used only in reference to "Christians" here, and makes no affirmation about other people.

Dieth to himself - See Romans 14:8. This expression is used to denote the "universality" or the "totality" with which Christians belong to God. Every thing is done and suffered with reference to his will. In our conduct, in our property, in our trials, in our death, we are "his;" to be disposed of as he shall please. In the grave, and in the future world, we shall be equally his. As this is the great principle on which "all" Christians live and act, we should be kind and tender toward them, though in some respects they differ from us.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7, 8. For none of us—Christians

liveth to himself—(See 2Co 5:14, 15), to dispose of himself or shape his conduct after his own ideas and inclinations.

and no man—"and none" of us Christians "dieth to himself."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 7,8. Here he proves what he had before asserted, that Christians have regard to God and his glory in their particular actions; and that from their general end and design, which is to devote themselves, and their whole life, and death, to God. He tells them first, in the negative, that

none of us, i.e. that none of us Christians and believers, do live or die to ourselves; we are not our own lords, nor at our own disposal: and then, in the affirmative, he shows, that we live or die to the Lord; we spend our lives in his service, and part with them at his appointment. His glory is the white, at which we aim, living or dying: he is the centre, in which all the lines in the whole circumference of our lives do meet, 2 Corinthians 5:9 Philippians 1:21.

Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s: this is an inference from what he had said before: q.d. At all times, and in all estates, whether of health or sickness, abundance or poverty, life or death, we are the Lord’s property, and at his disposal; he hath an absolute dominion over us, living or dying; in this world, or in the next.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For none of us liveth to himself,.... That is, none of us believers; others may, but these do not, at least they ought not, nor do they when under the influence of the grace of God: they do not live, neither to righteous, nor to sinful self; they do not live upon their duties and services; nor do they ascribe their life, righteousness, and salvation to them; nor do they live to their own lusts, or make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof, and much less to the lusts and wills of others:

and no man dieth to himself; every man dies, and must, or undergo a change equivalent to death; believers die as well as others, not eternally, or the second death, but corporeally, or a temporal death, but not to themselves; as they do not seek their own will and pleasure, and profit in life, so neither in death; they do not die to their own advantage only; death is gain unto them, it frees thema from all their sorrows, toil, and labours, and introduces them into the presence of Christ, and the enjoyment of everlasting happiness; but this is not all their death issues in, but also in the glory of Christ: moreover, no man has the power over life or death; as his life is not from himself, he has no power to lengthen or shorten it, nor to hinder or hasten death; this belongs to another Lord and master, whom life and death are both to subserve. This is an illustration of the above reason, by which the apostle confirms his advice.

Geneva Study Bible

{10} For none of us liveth to {i} himself, and no man dieth to himself.

(10) We must not rest, he says, in the meat itself, but in the use of the meat, so that he is justly to be reprehended that lives in such a way that he does not cast his eyes upon God, for both our life and our death is dedicated to him, and for this cause Christ has properly died, and not simply that we might eat this meat or that.

(i) Has respect to himself only, which the Hebrews say in this manner, Do well to his own soul.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Romans 14:7-9. Proof for the threefold κυρίῳ, Romans 14:6, and that generally from the whole subjective direction of the life of Christians towards Christ. Paul does not mean the objective dependence on Christ (Rückert, Reiche, Ernesti, Urspr. d. Sünde, II. p. 19), because it would not prove what was said in Romans 14:6, but would only establish the obligation thereto.

ἑαυτῷ ξῇ] so that he believes that his life belongs to himself, that he lives for his own interest and aims. 2 Corinthians 5:15. Comp. the passages in Wetstein and Fritzsche. The dative is thus to be taken in the ethically telic sense, and so, too, in ἑαυτῷ ἀποθνήσκει; for also the dying of the Christian—in so ideal a manner is Paul conscious of the moral power and consecration of fellowship of life with Christ—is a moral act (Bengel: “eadem ars moriendi, quae vivendi”) in the relation of belonging to Christ, in which the Christian at death feels and knows that he has stood with his life, and is now also to stand in his dying. Such is the conscious ἐν κυρίῳ ἀποθνήσκειν, Revelation 14:13. Comp. Php 1:20; Romans 8:38.

Romans 14:8 contains the positive counterpart, proving the negative contents of Romans 14:7, and is likewise to be understood as a subjective relation.

On τὲ γὰρ … τέ, for as well … as also, see Hartung, Partikell. I. pp. 88, 115; Baeumlein, Part. p. 219.

τοῦ κυρίου ἐσμεν] the Lord’s property are we. This now derives the sum of the entire specifically Christian consciousness from its previously adduced factors.

In the threefold emphatic τῷ κυρίῳ (τοῦ κυρίου) observe the “divina Christi majestas et potestas” (Bengel), to which the Christian knows himself to be completely surrendered.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Romans 14:7 f. οὐδεὶς γὰρ ἡμῶν ἑαυτῷ ζῇ κ.τ.λ. The truth which has been affirmed in regard to the Christian’s use of food, and observance or non-observance of days, is here based on a larger truth of which it is a part. His whole life belongs not to himself, but to his Lord. “No one of us liveth to himself,” does not mean, “every man’s conduct affects others for better or worse, whether he will or not”; it means, “no Christian is his own end in life; what is always present to his mind, as the rule of his conduct, is the will and the interest of his Lord”. The same holds of his dying. He does not choose either the time or the mode of it, like a Roman Stoic, to please himself. He dies when the Lord will, as the Lord will, and even by his death glorifies God. In Romans 14:14 ff. Paul comes to speak of the influence of conduct upon others; but here there is no such thing in view; the prominence given to τῷ κυρίῳ (τοῦ κυρίου) three times in Romans 14:8 shows that the one truth present to his mind is the all-determining significance, for Christian conduct, of the relation to Christ. This (ideally) determines everything, alike in life and death; and all that is determined by it is right.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. For none of us] Us the justified, the “sons of God.”—Here (and in Romans 14:8-9,) St Paul states the great principle on which the practice in question is, or should be, based. He takes it for granted that each Christian owns, and acts upon, a sense of the Lordship of Christ, because that Lordship is a Divine fact.

liveth to himself] See last note on Romans 14:4. Here, as in 1 Corinthians 4, the argument passes from the Christian’s independence of man’s judgment to his deep dependence on the Lord’s. To “live to himself” is here, manifestly, not so much to live a “selfish” life as to live a life in which the mere dictates of conscience and will are the supreme rule, irrespective of Christ. Q. d., “none of us believers can make anything lower than Christ and His will the rule of life. Opinions, convictions, conscience itself, must be brought for light and correction to Him; for we are His.”

Strictly speaking, this is a digression, as the main purport of the passage is to insist on the lawful freedom of believers with regard to one another.

Bengel's Gnomen

Romans 14:7. Ἡμῶν, of us) believers; for all others live and die to themselves.—ἑαυτῷ, to himself) Wellerus says: No man ought to live to himself, neither formally [formaliter], so that, as one at his own disposal, he should regulate his life according to his own desires; nor materially [materialiter], because, satisfied with himself, he may wish to give way to self-indulgence; nor [finaliter] with this end in view, that he may make the scope of his life the enjoyment of pleasures.—ζῇ, ἀποθνήσκει, lives, dies) the art of dying is the same as that of living.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 7, 8. - For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. The mention of dying as well as living unto the Lord, though it does not seem needed by the context, makes complete the view of the entire devotion of redeemed Christians to him; and introduces the thought, which follows, of their union with him in his own death as well as in his life. Romans 14:7

Vincent's Word Studies

To himself

But unto Christ. See Romans 14:8. Hence the meaning "a Christian should live for others," so often drawn from these words, is not the teaching of the passage.