Romans 14:14
14-15. I know, and am persuaded by--or rather, "in" the Lord Jesus--as "having the mind of Christ" (1Co 2:16). that there is nothing unclean of itself--Hence it is that he calls those "the strong" who believed in the abolition of all ritual distinctions under the Gospel. (See Ac 10:15). but--"save that" to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean--"and therefore, though you can eat of it with out sin, he cannot." Romans 14:20
20. For--"For the sake of" meat destroy not the work of God--(See on Ro 14:15). The apostle sees in whatever tends to violate a brother's conscience the incipient destruction of God's work (for every converted man is such)--on the same principle as "he that hateth his brother is a murderer" (1Jo 3:15). All things indeed are pure--"clean"; the ritual distinctions being at an end. but it is evil to that man--there is criminality in the man who eateth with offence--that is, so as to stumble a weak brother. 1 Timothy 4:4-5
4-5. Translate as Greek, "Because" (expressing a reason resting on an objective fact; or, as here, a Scripture quotation)--"For" (a reason resting on something subjective in the writer's mind). every creature ... good--(Ge 1:31; Ro 14:14, 20). A refutation by anticipation of the Gnostic opposition to creation: the seeds of which were now lurking latently in the Church. Judaism (Ac 10:11-16; 1Co 10:25, 26) was the starting-point of the error as to meats: Oriental Gnosis added new elements. The old Gnostic heresy is now almost extinct; but its remains in the celibacy of Rome's priesthood, and in its fasts from animal meats, enjoined under the penalty of mortal sin, remain. if ... with thanksgiving--Meats, though pure in themselves, become impure by being received with an unthankful mind (Ro 14:6; Tit 1:15).
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