13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any
longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the
way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is
unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For
if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.
By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let
what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not
a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by
men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. (Romans
14:13-19 (ESV)
Another complicated passage. In this context, a brother
seeing another eating or drinking that which has been offered to idols may see
it as an excuse to worship idols and thus to lose faith. We aren’t to put a
stumbling block in the way of our brothers. We are not to destroy the one for
whom Christ died, that is destroy his faith.
On the other hand, Paul says do not all what you regard as
good to be spoken of as evil. Perhaps you regard abstaining from drink to be
good. Perhaps you regard eating and drinking to be good. No one should speak
evil of it one way or another. It is true that if your brother is grieved by
what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. It is also true that if you
grieve your brother for what he eats, you are no longer walking in love. And a
Christian might today ask himself, what gives me the right to be grieved by
what my brother eats?
I try to put myself in the context. I watch these shows on
TV, The Amazing Race, for instance. I love that show, at least I did. Part of
me really wants to apply for it. I think I would be great. I’m in decent shape,
have knowledge of several languages, geography and customs. But every season,
something comes along that just bothers the bejeebers out of me. I know at some
point in the show the participants are going to be asked to participate in a
pagan ritual, or to receive a blessing from a shaman or some such nonsense. I
can’t do it. It also bothers me when I see people who have made some sort of
Christian confession of faith participate in the rituals. This is more along
the lines of what Paul is dealing with here than anything. But even Paul would
counsel you just don’t do that.
Where Paul is speaking here is more of a gray area. Meat, if
it wasn’t kosher, was offered to idols. When you purchased it in the market
place it was meat that was offered to an idol. The butcher would use this as a
selling point. Some Christians wouldn’t buy the meat and abstain, to them
eating the meat was worshiping the idol to which it was offered. Other’s
purchased the meat and sanctified it with prayer and the word of God, as we do
all our meals when we are Christians. They were not worshiping the God by
eating the meat.
We can’t reproduce this context today. The closest thing I
can imagine is perhaps India, where you still have converts from a form of
paganism that associates eating special foods with the worship of certain deities.
Perhaps in this context a man would serve even a vegetarian meal that is
associate with a holiday in honor of that false god. This may trouble their
brothers who are recent converts and have given up the eating of this food when
they put those gods behind them. Perhaps they see their brothers who are
stronger in the faith, who eat the meal because it tastes good, and confused
they think there is nothing wrong with worshiping these other gods along with
Christ. But we can’t share the table of the Lord with the altars of demons Paul
says. So we don’t. But this is how a brother would be caused to stumble in this
situation.
This isn’t about your brother falling off the wagon either.
No one wants to see that. And falling off the wagon can be injurious to your
brother’s faith also. This is a situation that is even more complicated though.
There are Christian alcoholics. They remain Christians even in the midst of
their struggle with alcohol, even when they have fallen from the wagon. They do
not deny Christ by drinking. I know there are Baptists that would disagree. But
they ought to refrain from making the kingdom of God about eating and drinking.
In doing this, they introduce a stumbling block to the alcoholic who may think
that he has to give up the drink and overcome his addiction before he can find
forgiveness. In this they are led to works righteousness and are not helped. In
this they are led to put their faith in their ability to abstain, and when they
fall of the wagon, they fall from the faith too. But the church can’t be
indifferent to their struggle either. In that we help them, and support them as
we can in their struggle even as we constantly welcome them to the altar.
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