Romans
Chapter 14
Overview
Paul addresses a tense question among Jesus’ followers in Rome: What should they do when sincere people reach different conclusions about food and special days? Some feel free to eat anything, while others avoid certain foods out of devotion to God. Paul shifts the focus from winning the argument to caring for the person. Each believer answers to God, so contempt and condemnation have no place. Freedom matters, but love guides how freedom is used. The chapter moves from welcoming differences to pursuing peace—because sometimes strength shows itself by choosing restraint.
1Welcome anyone whose faith leaves them uncertain about what is permitted. Do not draw them into arguments over differing opinions.
2One person believes it is acceptable to eat anything, while another, whose faith is uncertain, eats only vegetables.
3The person who eats everything must not look down on the one who does not. The person who avoids certain foods must not condemn the one who eats them, because God has welcomed that person.
4Who are you to condemn someone else’s servant? Whether that servant stands or falls is for their own master to decide. And the servant will stand, because the Lord is able to make them stand.
5One person considers one day more important than another, while someone else considers every day alike. Each person should be fully convinced in their own mind.
6The person who observes a special day does so to honor the Lord. The person who eats all foods also eats to honor the Lord, because they thank God. The person who avoids certain foods does so to honor the Lord and also thanks God.
7None of us lives only for ourselves, and none of us dies only for ourselves.
8If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
9This is why the Messiah died and came to life: so that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living.
10So why do you condemn your fellow believer? And why do you look down on your fellow believer? We will all stand before God to be judged.
11For Scripture says, “As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bend before me, and every tongue will openly acknowledge God.”
12Therefore, each of us will give an account of ourselves.
13So let us stop condemning one another. Instead, decide never to place anything in a fellow believer’s way that could make them stumble or fall into wrongdoing.
14As one who belongs to the Lord Jesus, I know and am convinced that no food is impure in itself. But if someone considers a food impure, then for that person it is impure.
15If your fellow believer is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting with love. Do not let your food destroy someone for whom the Messiah died.
16So do not let people speak of what you consider good as though it were evil.
17God’s kingdom is not about eating and drinking. It is about doing what is right, living in peace, and experiencing the joy given by God’s Holy Spirit.
18Anyone who serves the Messiah in this way pleases God and is approved by people.
19So then, let us work hard for what brings peace and helps us strengthen one another.
20Do not tear down God’s work over food. All food is clean—that is, acceptable to eat—but it is wrong to eat in a way that causes someone else to stumble.
21It is good not to eat meat, drink wine, or do anything else that makes your fellow believer stumble, fall into wrongdoing, or become weak in faith.
22Keep the conviction you have between yourself and God. Happy is the person who does not condemn themselves for doing what they believe is right.
23But anyone who has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating does not come from conviction. Anything not done from conviction is sin.