Romans 14:13-23

13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother or sister for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed are those who do not condemn themselves by what they approve. 23 But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.


Dig Deeper
Constantly digging into the Bible and learning more of the depth and nuances of the Scriptures is a good thing. It can be invigorating and is constantly challenging in our spiritual lives. In fact, Jesus encouraged just such behavior among his followers when he declared, “’Consider carefully what you hear’, he continued. ‘With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Those who have will be given more; as for those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from them.’” Jesus wants his followers to dig into his word at ever increasing deeper levels, promising that we will receive back an incredible crop in our lives for doing so. Many Christians thrive on this constant influx of new and exciting biblical truths and they get energy from constantly challenging themselves and even correcting their own previously held, but somewhat incorrect views on certain aspects of Scriptures. They can learn new things, get excited about them, and want to constantly share these things with others so that they can get just as excited.

This all sounds good, and it is, when done in love but often times in zeal, those who are learning new and deeper truths of the faith can actually wind up harming their brothers and sisters in Christ. It is easy to get so excited that one forgets that they may enjoy challenging their faith and long-held assumptions in favor of a constantly growing and ever-deepening knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures, but that same process is not nearly as exciting for others. For other people, these new and deeper things can rock them, confuse them, and even frighten them that things they’ve held to so dearly for so long are suddenly no longer correct. If not done with a great deal of discernment, love, and consideration of all aspects of the Christian community, those who feed off the deeper aspects of biblical knowledge can do a great deal of damage to those who are not so inclined. What then is a good thing, when not accompanied by an equal measure of grace, can actually wind up throwing up a significant stumbling block to other believers.

This is, in essence, the problem that Paul was dealing with in Rome and that he is addressing here as he continues to work out what the resurrection life looks like within the real world context of the Christian church. The Gentile Christians in Rome, and presumably some Jewish Christians as well, had so worked out the deeper truths and meaning of being set free in Christ and their calling to reconcile everything to God in Christ that they began to look down upon those whose consciences were less well-developed. The very freedoms that they so cherished were looked at with suspicion and disdain by other Christians, a majority of whom were likely Jewish Christians that were newly returning to Rome. The problem became that the two factions were not dealing with one another in love, the very thing to which Jesus had laid out as the foundation of his new family (Jn. 13:34-35). In exercising their freedoms so exuberantly and so thoughtlessly, they were actually harming the faith of their dear brothers and sisters in Christ. They had lost perspective on what is most important in the covenant family and Paul needs to remind them quite clearly what their perspective should be before they do irrevocable harm to others.

To put the situation that Paul dealt with in living color might help us see more clearly what he is saying. Many Christians in Rome were working out the freedoms that they had and embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ which freed them from such things as Jesus declaring all foods clean (Mk. 7:19), observing special festivals and Sabbath days, and following other works of the law such as circumcision. They had wrestled with the deeper implications of being in Christ and knew that they had been freed from such restrictions. Yet there was a danger that some of them had given into, in that they were looking down on those who were still committed in their consciences to following these things as part of their sincere obedience to God. What is more, when the Jewish Christians returned to the church in Rome they very well could have been horrified by what they saw. They would have seen these new Christians running around eating any kind of meat and doing other things that they would have associated with paganism. This could have left them confused and deeply disturbed, believing that perhaps they had made a mistake in embracing Christianity after all. It would have destroyed their faith seeing other Christians engage in freedoms that they were just not ready to understand and embrace.

Paul makes clear that he tends to fall on the side of the strong, and yet he refuses to step in and declare a list of what should be done in each situation. Christianity is not a list of rules, it is a family of fallen sinners being gradually transformed into the image of Christ. Because it is a delicate and time-consuming process, each family will find itself with people in very different places in their transformation and they will also find that each person must go through very different processes in order to become like Christ. The way through all this is to put love for each other above all else. You cannot become so focused on raking the leaves out of your own yard that you carelessly throw them on your neighbors lawn.

The principle that Paul lays down requires an incredible amount of thought, discernment, and patience. What is the line between constantly learning and going deeper in God’s word while not rocking the faith of the less-secure? Where is the divide between exercising freedom in Christ and limiting freedom for the sake of others? How do we decide between acting comfortably in faith and seeking to grow in our understanding and tolerance? Where do our freedoms stop and concern for others begin? Where does showing concern for our convictions begin to become abuse and an unwillingness to grow on ourr part? What actions fall into the category of disputable matters and which ones are important doctrines of the faith that must be contended for and defended unrelentingly? These are all important and difficult questions that take wisdom, discernment, and most of all, a careful attentiveness to the unifying fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Paul does not want Christians to stress their rights or freedoms over love. That is not what the life of Christ is about at all. In exercising the freedom to do things which are perfectly fine in themselves, Christians actually open it up, due to their callousness, for things that are “good” to be “spoken of as evil” by those who can only interpret those things through their undeveloped conscience or understanding. They not only risk damaging the faith of some but actually cut them off from ever seeing the goodness of that action for themselves. Being in Christ did open up a new possibility of freedom from the law and certain restrictions but those things are benefits of the kingdom of God not the core of it. The core aspect of the kingdom of God is being part of God’s new family. It does little good to enter into the new covenant family of God that is defined by love and then immediately stress the little individual freedoms of that family over love for the members of that family. That makes little sense and will soon destroy the very family that has given us these supposed freedoms.

The overriding ethic is to make every effort that what you are doing leads to peace and the mutual building-up of the body of Christ. Freedoms can be expressed, new things that have been learned can be shared but they must be done in ways that build up and not tear down. They must be done so that the interests of others are put ahead of your own interests. And we must remember that we are all at different points of the journey and must give each other room to work that out. We must avoid the human tendency and desire to make everyone else live by where we are at on our journey with God. We must trust the work of the Spirit and maturely discern between the times when someone needs to be challenged and moved from their current position and when we need to just show them patience and respect.

A real world example of this for us might be something as simple as Halloween. I know many Christians who have no problem enjoying certain aspects of the Halloween celebration, not the least of those being the free candy. They stay away from the evil aspects of Halloween but have no problems in their conscience with going trick-or-treating or enjoying a horror walk. Others, however, are deeply bothered by the evil roots of the holiday and are sincerely pricked in their consciences by taking part in Halloween events. This is clearly a disputable matter. Those who are stronger in their faith need to be considerate of others and not look down on them or try to force them into taking part in Halloween activities. But those who are weaker, as Paul would call it, should not call those who are stronger pagans and compromisers for exercising their freedom and taking part in such things. Love and humility are the common threads here and are much more important than whether you go to a Halloween party or go trick-or-treating or not. People on both sides of the issue should love one another and do their best not to control or dictate the behavior of the other.

In the end, we must all answer to God. If we, in all good conscience before God, can do something in faith, then it is okay. I might truly believe that trick-or-treating is fine, and for me it is. Someone else might truly believe that it is not, and for them it is not. If I try to force my freedom on them, I can damage their faith, and in so doing, I sin. In the same token, they should not try to bind their faith in disputable matters on me. Everything, says Paul, that does not come from sincere faith in God is sin. When it comes down to it we need to remember the saying, “In the essentials, unity; In the non-essentials, liberty; In all things, charity.”


Devotional Thought
Have you been guilty of judging other Christians and holding grudges against them over disputable matters? Have you ever done things that might have caused other Christians to struggle in their faith because of your freedom? What would Paul have you to do to remedy either of those situations?