New Testament
Romans 14
Overview
Paul addresses a concrete tension dividing the Roman church: disputes between the "weak" and the "strong" over food and sacred days. Some believe they may eat anything, while the weak eat only vegetables; some esteem one day above another, while others esteem all days alike. Paul's command is to welcome the one weak in faith without quarreling over opinions, because God has welcomed each, and "who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?" Each should be fully convinced in his own mind, for whether eating or abstaining, observing days or not, each acts "to the Lord" and gives thanks to God—and we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, to whom every knee will bow. Therefore believers must stop judging and despising one another and instead resolve never to put a stumbling block in a brother's way. The kingdom of God is "not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Love restrains liberty: though all things are clean, it is wrong to make another stumble by what you eat; whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
1Now accept one who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions.
2One man has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
3Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.
4Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand.
5One man esteems one day as more important. Another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.
6He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. He who doesn’t eat, to the Lord he doesn’t eat, and gives God thanks.
7For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself.
8For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
9For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11For it is written, “‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘to me every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess to God.’”
12So then each one of us will give account of himself to God.
13Therefore let’s not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling.
14I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
15Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
16Then don’t let your good be slandered,
17for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
19So then, let’s follow after things which make for peace, and things by which we may build one another up.
20Don’t overthrow God’s work for food’s sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating.
21It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak.
22Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn’t judge himself in that which he approves.
23But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.