In this paragraph Paul generalizes on the principles that he has laid down in the preceding discussion regarding the persons who are weak and those who are strong.

Accept is the same verb that Paul used to introduce the discussion in 14.1. Accept one another may be rendered in some languages as “receive one another into your hearts,” “receive happily,” or “welcome with kind words.”

For the sake of clarity the Good News Translation rearranges the order of the Greek sentence. The phrase for the glory of God in Greek follows after you, but it goes with the imperative accept one another, so the Good News Bible makes this relation explicit. For a discussion of the word glory, see 3.23 and 5.2. Here it is used with the meaning of “praise” (see 4.20). The phrase for the glory of God in this context means “so that people will praise God.”

Since the phrase for the glory of God must so frequently be transformed into a clause, “in order that people will praise God,” it may be necessary to change the order of clauses in verse 7—for example, “accept one another, then, as Christ has accepted you; do this in order that people will praise God” or “accept one another in order that people will praise God; do this in the same way that Christ accepted you.”

Some manuscripts read “us” in the place of you (see King James Version), but this is not followed by any modern translations except the New English Bible. You is the more difficult reading, and the UBS text committee has adopted you and given the reading a “B” rating.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .