Do Not Judge Your Brother
14 Welcome him who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of arguing over opinions. 2 For one has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 Do not let him who eats despise him who does not eat, and do not let him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to judge another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for God is able to make him stand.
5 One man judges one day above another; another judges every day alike. Let each one be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day observes it for the Lord, and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and the one who does not eat, in honor of the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself. 8 For if we live, we live for the Lord. And if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, so that He might be Lord of both the dead and living.
10 So why do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11 For it is written:
“As I live, says the Lord,
every knee shall bow to Me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12 So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God.
Do Not Make Your Brother Stumble
13 Therefore let us no longer pass judgment on one another, but rather determine not to put a stumbling block or an obstacle in a brother’s way. 14 I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15 If your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let what is good to you be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God does not mean eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
19 Therefore let us pursue the things which produce peace and the things that build up one another. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but it is evil for the man who causes someone to fall by what he eats. 21 It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine, nor do anything whereby your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.
22 The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. 23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it is not from faith, for whatever is not from faith is sin.
Footnotes
- Romans 14:11
