What Does Romans 14:5 Mean?
One judges one day above another, and another judges every day alike. Let each one be fully filled in his own mind.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.THE KEY
The Greek pictures conviction as carried to fullness inside your own mind, even while another person reads the calendar differently.
THE MEANING
You may hold one day apart while someone else sees every day alike. The verse places the judgment in each person’s own mind and names its completion as being fully persuaded.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that spiritual seriousness requires everyone to assign the same weight to every day.
THE ROOT
πληροφορείσθω
plērophoreísthō
GROWS FROM
πλήρης (plḗrēs) + φορέω (phoréō)
Full or complete + carry or bear; to carry to fullness, hence to be fully assured.
“fully persuaded” in this verse is plērophoreísthō. This word joins fullness with carrying: conviction is not merely a passing opinion but an assurance brought to its full measure. The phrase “in his own mind” locates that fullness within the person whose judgment is at stake.
ALSO GROWS
plḗrēs: Full, complete.
πλήρης
The fullness in “fully persuaded” suggests a conviction that has reached completion.
phoréō: Carry, bear.
φορέω
This component adds the image of conviction carried through to its full measure.
plērophoría: Full assurance, full conviction.
πληροφορία
This related noun makes the same family’s sense of complete assurance visible.
κρίνει
krínei
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krínō
To separate or distinguish, and hence to decide or judge.
The Greek repeats κρίνει for both people: one distinguishes one day from another, while the other judges every day alike. The difference is the judgment each arrives at, not whether one person judges and the other does not.
ALSO GROWS
krísis: Judgment, decision.
κρίσις
It names the act of deciding that is present in each person’s assessment of the days.
kríma: Judgment, verdict.
κρίμα
It makes clear that “esteemeth” includes arriving at a judgment, whether that judgment distinguishes days or treats them alike.
THE PATTERN
Conviction is personal: another person’s conscience cannot supply the measure for your practice.
Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or in the portion of a feast, or of a new moon, or of sabbaths.The shared sight, I say, not your own but the other's. For why is my freedom judged by the shared sight of another?And being filled and carried through, he was persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to do.THE THREAD
And being filled and carried through, he was persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to do.Romans 4:21 uses the same Greek verb, πληροφορέω (plērophoreō), meaning to be fully assured. Here, as in Romans 14:5, conviction reaches fullness within a person, though what each person is convinced about differs.
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