Letter to the Romans 14

¹ If a person’s faith is not strong enough, welcome him all the same without starting an argument.

² People range from those who believe they may eat any sort of meat to those whose faith is so weak they dare not eat anything except vegetables.

³ Meat-eaters must not despise the scrupulous. On the other hand, the scrupulous must not condemn those who feel free to eat anything they choose, since God has welcomed them.

⁴ It is not for you to condemn someone else’s servant: whether he stands or falls it is his own master’s business; he will stand, you may be sure, because the Lord has power to make him stand.

⁵ If one man keeps certain days as holier than others, and another considers all days to be equally holy, each must be left free to hold his own opinion.

⁶ The one who observes special days does so in honour of the Lord. The one who eats meat also does so in honour of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; but then the man who abstains does that too in honour of the Lord, and so he also gives God thanks.

⁷ The life and death of each of us has its influence on others;

⁸ if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord, so that alive or dead we belong to the Lord.

⁹ This explains why Christ both died and came to life, it was so that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

¹⁰ This is also why you should never pass judgement on a brother or treat him with contempt, as some of you have done. We shall all have to stand before the judgement seat of God;

¹¹ as scripture says: By my life – it is the Lord who speaks – every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall praise God.[*a]

¹² It is to God, therefore, that each of us must give an account of himself.

¹³ Far from passing judgement on each other, therefore, you should make up your mind never to be the cause of your brother tripping or falling.

¹⁴ Now I am perfectly well aware, of course, and I speak for the Lord Jesus, that no food is unclean in itself; however, if someone thinks that a particular food is unclean, then it is unclean for him.

¹⁵ And indeed if your attitude to food is upsetting your brother, then you are hardly being guided by charity. You are certainly not free to eat what you like if that means the downfall of someone for whom Christ died.

¹⁶ In short, you must not compromise your privilege,

¹⁷ because the kingdom of God does not mean eating or drinking this or that, it means righteousness and peace and joy brought by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ If you serve Christ in this way you will please God and be respected by men.

¹⁹ So let us adopt any custom that leads to peace and our mutual improvement;

²⁰ do not wreck God’s work over a question of food. Of course all food is clean, but it becomes evil if by eating it you make somebody else fall away.

²¹ In such cases the best course is to abstain from meat and wine and anything else that would make your brother trip or fall or weaken in any way.

²² Hold on to your own belief, as between yourself and God-and consider the man fortunate who can make his decision without going against his conscience.

²³ But anybody who eats in a state of doubt is condemned, because he is not in good faith; and every act done in bad faith is a sin.