7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
The emphasis of verses seven and eight is not on the relationship of Christian to Christian but on the Christian’s relationship with God. However, the fact that we have a relationship with God means we have a vital connection to one another (vv. 13, 14).
7 For
The “for” substantiates the idea of the importance of living “to the Lord” (v. 6). Christians are related to each other through the Lord, but most of all our fellowship is with the Lord. A re-centering takes place at the moment of salvation. Formerly our center was in self, but now we are Christ centered. The reason we make our doctrinal choices is because we have a clear conscience before Him.
none [weak or strong] of us lives to himself,
In Christianity the believer is not a law unto himself or to anyone else. Everything that a believer does in life affects his relationship to God.
and no one dies to himself.
Neither in life nor in death are we alone, because God is with us. It is God, not self, that is ultimately important in creation.
PRINCIPLE:
No man is an island in what he believes.
APPLICATION:
The Christian life is not autonomous oriented because everything we do touches God or someone else. None of us can escape the idea that whatever we do, we do before the Lord. In everything we do, we are accountable to God. The Christian is purpose oriented; he or she lives for Someone. Living for oneself, for self-fulfillment, for self-actualization, or for any other self-oriented purpose is outside the will of God and His purpose for us. That is why we take others into consideration when we make our decisions.
We cannot claim liberty for ourselves without allowing others their freedom. What is right for one is not necessarily right for the other. If the mature try to impose their view of liberty on the weak believer when he has not grown to that position, then it is a violation of the weaker brother’s development into maturity. This issue rests entirely with our relation to the Lord.
Every aspect of our lives belongs to the Lord. Even our living or our death is in His hands. He is the purpose for whom we live. We resign ourselves to God’s disposal.
Paul did not mean to say that we are to assume the weak believer’s position, because that would be an obviously false application of the doctrine of grace. God never commands us to keep certain days as holy. The point is simply that true faith comes from genuine grappling with what we believe about the grace principle; true faith comes from transparency before the Lord.
This implies above all that everything we do, we do to the Lord. Our life with all that it embraces and our death with all that it implies are no longer self-ward but Godward. This is the main point of verse eight.
Our decisions and conduct do not rest on what is in the best interests of ourselves but on what is to the glory of God. The all-determining significance for Christian living is how we magnify the Lord in what we do.
Christians should be grace oriented. We need to live with the understanding that what we have, we have from the Lord. Many believers do not live like this. They are like a new car without gas but they never fill the tank. They never utilize grace from God.
