Rom 14:14-20, 1Ti 4:4-5 | Family | STEP | Persuaded by the Lord Jesus ; convinced by knowledge received from him. Nothing unclean of itself ; the distinction between clean and unclean meats, and different days of ceremonial observance, is now done away, and it is as lawful to eat one kind of healthy food as another. To him it is unclean ; if a man really believe it wrong for him to eat meat, for him it is wrong, because it is wrong to violate his conscience.

Romans 14:14-20

Persuaded by the Lord Jesus; convinced by knowledge received from him.

Nothing unclean of itself; the distinction between clean and unclean meats, and different days of ceremonial observance, is now done away, and it is as lawful to eat one kind of healthy food as another.

To him it is unclean; if a man really believe it wrong for him to eat meat, for him it is wrong, because it is wrong to violate his conscience. Be grieved with thy meat; if your eating meat grieves and injures a brother.

Walkest thou not charitably; provided you continue to eat it. Love to him requires you to abstain from it.

Destroy not him; by doing that which tends to ruin him or make him miserable. Christ endured the agonies of the cross to make him blessed; you, as a friend of Christ, redeemed with his blood, ought, if need be, to deny yourself for the same end. Your good; your knowledge of your Christian liberty and freedom from the ceremonial law, which is a real good.

Be evil spoken of; be an occasion of reproach and blame, by your using your liberty in such a manner as to injure others, or dishonor Christ. A course of conduct may be right in some respects and in some circumstances, and wrong in others, on account of the different effects which it will produce. In order, therefore, to justify an act, it is not enough that it is not in its nature sinful, but it must also be suited, in the circumstances, to do good. The kingdom of God; his reign in the soul, and true obedience to him, do not consist in the observance or non-observance of distinctions between meats and drinks, and other like outward things; whence it follows that on the side of both the weak and the strong there should be forbearance and kindness.

But righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; it consists rather in being just, benevolent, and merciful; at peace with God and one another, rejoicing in his government, and in hope, through grace, of dwelling with him for ever in heaven. Serveth Christ; though it is written, "Worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve," Mt 4:10, yet he that serveth Christ is acceptable to God. The reason is, Christ is God. Chap Ro 9:5; Joh 1:1; Heb 1:6-8. For meat destroy not; do not, for the sake of your own indulgence, injure the religious character of your brother, or do any thing which shall tend to destroy him.

All things indeed are pure; all kinds of wholesome food are in themselves innocent, but if your partaking of them causes your brother to sin, or injures him, it is wrong for you to do it.

1 Timothy 4:4-5

Every creature; which God hath made for food is good for food, and not to be abstained from, but to be eaten with gratitude to God the giver. Sanctified; made holy to him who partakes of it, so that the use of it cannot defile him.

By the word of God; ordaining it for man's use.

Prayer; which procures from God's blessing upon it.