13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. – Romans 14:13-23 ESV
Paul bookends this section with virtually the same words. He opens with “let us not pass judgment on one another” (Romans 14:13 ESV) and ends with “blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself” (Romans 14:22 ESV). The only difference is the one on whom the judgment is assessed.
We are not to judge each other, and our actions toward one another should give us no cause to judge ourselves. In both cases, the issue is about rights, and Paul used himself as an example. He declared that he had the right to eat whatever he wanted, because nothing was unclean for him. He had probably heard the story of the vision Peter received from God before Peter was sent to the home of Cornelius, a Roman army officer.
Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon, and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat them.”
“No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.”
But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” The same vision was repeated three times. – Acts 10:9-16 NLT
While this vision was meant to convey God’s approval of Gentiles receiving the gospel, it also conveyed a not-so-subtle message regarding Jewish dietary laws. With the coming of Jesus, a radical paradigm shift had taken place. The new was replacing the old. The law of Moses was being replaced with the law of liberty. Jesus put it this way:
“No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.” – Luke 5:36-39 NLT
Gentiles were now acceptable, and once-forbidden foods were no longer off-limits. Paul would also have been familiar with Jesus' teachings about dietary laws and defilement.
“It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” – Mark 7:15 NLT
Jesus’ disciples had been confused by His words, so He provided clarification.
“Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes). – Mark 7:18-19 NLT
So Paul, even though he was a Jew, lived his life with a newfound freedom when it came to his eating habits. He no longer lived under the strict dietary restrictions associated with his Jewish heritage, but he was willing to give up his rights for the sake of a brother or sister in Christ. It all goes back to the “weaker” brother narrative in the opening verses of this chapter.
There will always be those in the church whose understanding of the life of faith is less developed. They will retain certain legalistic expectations, believing that what they do or don’t do earns them favor with God. In Paul’s day, both Jewish and Gentile believers brought their own list of restrictions to the table. There were converted Jews who still felt it necessary to maintain the dietary laws of their Jewish faith. There were also Gentile believers who felt convicted about eating meat that had been sacrificed to pagan idols.
Paul had to deal with this issue in the church in Corinth. He told them, “We all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God” (1 Corinthians 8:4 NLT). But he went on to say, “However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated” (1 Corinthians 8:7 NLT).
Then Paul dealt with the real issue. “It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do” (1 Corinthians 4:8 NLT). But for Paul, it all boiled down to the spiritual well-being of his brother or sister in Christ.
But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble. – Romans 4:9-13 NLT
While Paul understood that certain foods were perfectly fine for him to eat, he was not willing to demand his rights if doing so would cause a brother in Christ to sin against his conscience.
It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes a brother to stumble. – Romans 14:21 ESV
It is a wonderful thing to enjoy the freedom that comes with the life of faith. Our right standing with God is not based on adherence to a long list of prohibitions and restrictions. But there will always be those who don’t understand this truth and hold strong convictions about what they eat or don’t eat, what they can and can't wear, and even which activities they can participate in or abstain from.
For Paul, the final word on all of this concerned faith.
For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. – Romans 14:23 ESV
For the immature or weaker believer, conscience ends up playing a far greater role than necessary. Rather than enjoying the freedom that comes with knowing his standing before God is fully taken care of by the finished work of Christ, he ends up operating from his own inner sense of right and wrong. So if his conscience tells him that something is forbidden by God, to violate that belief would be sin. He becomes burdened with guilt for having done what he believed was against God's will.
Paul says, “Whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith” (Romans 14:23 ESV). So rather than the stronger believer wearing his or her rights like a badge of honor, they should love their weaker brother or sister in Christ, willingly setting aside their rights so that they might not cause a fellow believer to sin against their conscience.
We are always to build up, not tear down. We are to lovingly teach and instruct one another, not boastfully and arrogantly display our rights and flaunt our newfound freedoms in Christ. Peter summed it up well when he wrote, “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8 NLT).
Father, rights are a wonderful thing until they cause pain and suffering for others. I enjoy all kinds of rights and freedoms in Christ, but I am never free to flaunt them in the face of others or use them to condemn those who remain enslaved to guilt-enducing sins. Paul understood the freedoms he enjoyed as a Christ-follower, but he never allowed those freedoms to create barriers or roadblocks for the lost or less mature believers. He was willing to sacrifice his rights so that others might embrace the law of liberty, the freedom found in a relationship with God based on grace, not merit. Defending our rights and protecting our freedoms can actually make us slaves to them. We end up making them the focus of our faith, rather than Christ. If we’re not careful, we can replace righteousness with rights and holiness with the pursuit of happiness. But dying to self is a big part of living for Christ. Help me to see the difference and to never allow my rights to become a pretext for sin Amen
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22