Romans 14:17–23

The apostle insists that the kingdom of God cannot sink to the level of things that perish as they are used. It is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is the inward spirit and practical power of the Christian. "Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men." In short, it is walking in the Spirit, and that is the true guard against fulfilling any lust of the flesh.

Judaism had much to say about what people should eat and should not eat. But Christianity is not occupied with rules that command and forbid. It consists of what is moral, of what pleases God in the lives of His own. We are to show what is right in the eyes of God. Peace is to mark every step we take. Our joy is to come from the Holy Spirit, who lets us enter into what is found in Jesus.

Righteousness is, and ever must be, the only basis of peace. That is true for the individual soul and for God's government… God declared His righteousness in the blood of Christ. In it He laid the unchangeable basis of peace for ever. Then, once we have peace and enjoy it, joy in the Holy Spirit springs up. It fills the soul and overflows without end in praise and adoration.

Righteousness is not so much about my demanding what is due to me. It is about my paying to all others what is due to them. We must give God all that is His due, and give Christ the place that is His. Then we must practise everyday righteousness with all our neighbours, both saved and unsaved. Peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are then the practical outcome. Righteousness is the foundation on which they rest.

One day Christ will come as God's King over the whole earth. Then the kingdom of God will be on open display, with three great marks which everybody can recognise. (1) It will be a righteous rule, and all wrongs will be put right… (2) There will be peace. The nations will not learn war any more… (3) There will be joy. The ransomed will return with songs to Zion, everlasting joy will be upon their heads, and every sound of sorrow will fall silent… But the Holy Spirit dwelling in you sets up the rule of God in your heart, and the Christian shows these three marks now.

It is so easy to slip into outward religion and lose sight of the state of our souls. We can even grow zealous for Christian liberty while our souls dry up for lack of divine nourishment. The truth is this: if we cultivate the enjoyment of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, our hearts will overflow with love to our brothers and sisters. Then we will act by instinct, with proper regard for their weakness.

The word euarestos ('well-pleasing', from eu, 'well', and aresko, 'to please') means 'acceptable' to God in Romans 14:18, 'agreeable' to the Lord in Ephesians 5:10, and 'well-pleasing' to Him in Colossians 3:20. These passages show that the old rendering of 2 Corinthians 5:9, "we may be accepted of him", is wrong: it should be "agreeable to him".

The apostle insists that the kingdom of God cannot be lowered to things that perish as we use them. It is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the inward spirit and practical power of the Christian. "Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men." In short, it is walking in the Spirit, the true guard against fulfilling any craving of the flesh.

This is truly serving Christ. It is a poor thing to be mere slaves of our convictions. True convictions should make us bondservants of Christ. If in these things it is really Him we are serving, we shall be acceptable to God and approved of men — not of course all men, but all right-minded men.

Here is a man who is free in his inmost soul, yet a bondservant to Christ — the apostle uses the strongest term. He will not let the freedom he really has make him forget that he is bound in every way to use that freedom to glorify Christ. This man is "well pleasing to God and approved of men."

Both the "weak" and the "strong" should pursue these qualities. These things are acceptable to God and approved by men. If I force my liberty on another and it offends his weak conscience, God and man condemn it.

Verse 18 searches the individual heart, yet also comforts it. It is well for a Christian to ask himself often how and in what things he is serving Christ. Otherwise, zeal may sometimes injure rather than profit. Nothing is either pleasing to God or profitable to men, which is not done in the power of this kingdom of God.

This will lead us to do nothing, in eating meat or drinking wine, that would make a brother stumble. But it must not lead us to compromise the gospel… Suppose a group of men said: Christ alone is not enough to deliver a sinner and save him completely; you must take a pledge with us not to drink wine. To compromise the gospel like that would not be of faith, or love, or edification… If Christ has not the first place, something else soon will have. Satan always seeks to use what is good to displace Christ.

Peace is not only the absence of war, quarrels or disagreements. It is also a result of the presence of God in the life of man… Yet peace among men, and among believers, also depends on the state of our hearts and on our conduct. So we are very often urged to follow peace, or to strive after it (Rom. 14:19; 2 Tim. 2:22; Heb. 12:14; 1 Peter 3:11). In the Greek text the same word is used every time, and it means "to chase, run, follow". Ephesians 4:3 also tells us that we need diligence and zeal to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. If these exhortations were not necessary, God would not have had them written in His Word.

The word comes from a Greek verb meaning "to build, to build up". Scripture uses the same word for the building of the Temple at Jerusalem (John 2:20), and the Lord used it when He said He would build His assembly (Matt. 16:18)… A building grows and gets stronger. In the same way the Spirit builds up the body of Christ by His ministry through the word, until all come "to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13).

Because we are brothers, we are to pursue the things that make for peace and build others up. We are to be keen to build up, not to knock down. We are to aim at peace not at strife. If tempted to transgress, let us ask ourselves Moses' question, "Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?"

We are not to have political compromise. That is not the principle in the Bible at all. True peace in the Bible is always based upon righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ died to establish righteousness, and the effect of that is peace… Where there is discord among the saints of God, there is no building up and no progress — only sleepless nights and endless talking. But when there is peace and quiet… then there is building up. There is strengthening instead of scattering or tearing down.

So our attitude is not just the negative one of giving up our liberties at times, to avoid friction and discord and to avoid harming weaker believers. It is also the positive one of eagerly pursuing all that makes for peace and building up. Acting this way will call for some self-denial. There will be times, especially for the "strong" believer, when he has to hold his faith privately before God, and hold back from showing it in what he does before others, as verse 22 suggests.

This is certainly not a matter of giving up truth. Truth is not ours to sell at any price. It is a trust given to us by our Master, and we must be faithful to Him in it. But personal privileges I may, and indeed should, give up for the sake of others… If the saints of God insist on their own rights, will they be at peace? Will they build one another up?

Remember that self-will is the great enemy of peace. In a gathering of believers, one or two people insisting on their own way often causes a great deal of quarrelling and trouble. One says, "I know what should be done. I have learned it for myself. I know it is true. It must be done. I feel responsible to the Lord to see it is done, and it shall be done." This may be self-delusion, but it is certainly self-will.

So the Apostle adds, "Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God"; and surely we may say, not only for food but also for days, and for a good many other things besides. The work of God is by far the greater thing. Let us not destroy the greater thing to establish some lesser detail. Sad to say, the church's history is full of it.

To try to persuade a weak brother to do something that may give him a bad conscience tends to destroy the work of God in his soul. It also makes you a cause of stumbling to him. It is better not to eat meat and not to drink wine, if by doing so we offend and damage our brother.

It is impossible, as we all know, to "destroy" a child of God, for none can pluck even the feeblest out of His hands. On our side, however, our conduct may do its best to destroy a saint. We might even succeed, if it were not for the grace of God that guards and sustains us, the fruit of His faithful and unchanging love. So when the apostle says, "Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God," he speaks of what others have called "the bearing of the act." The tendency of our action is to make our weak brother perish — one for whom Christ died.

The case in view is a Gentile Christian, strong in spirit and free from prejudice, flaunting his liberty in front of his Jewish brother. That brother is still strong about the law, but weak in the faith of the Gospel. As a result the weak brother is tempted into doing things he later reproaches himself for. He may settle under a spiritual cloud until his dying day.

"Are we then never to exercise our undoubted liberty?" Yes, says the apostle. If you have faith to use it, have it to yourself before God. Use it in private, not in public, where it might stumble a weak brother. Even in private it must be before God, and so the apostle adds a caution. "Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves." Be sure it is Christian liberty, used before God in faith. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Even liberty can sink into licence and self-indulgence. It will, whenever we stop using our conscience and stop acting in faith under the eye of God.

No one lives to himself, and no one dies to himself; we are the Lord's… So I should seek to please my brother and build him up — he is the Lord's. And I should receive him, as I have been received, to share in the glory of God given to him… As to the energy of a man's faith, let him have it between himself and God. Love is the ruler for the use of his liberty.

Such a "sinner" can quickly and easily ruin or spoil the lifetime's labour of some devoted man of God… Oh, let me not be the "sinner" who destroys "the work of God" (Rom. 14:20).

He lays it down in the firmest way possible. He knows and is persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself... Still, "it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean." So if such a brother ate what he thought was unclean, he would have a bad conscience before God. We must keep this in mind. If the "strong" eat in front of the weak brother what he regards as unclean, they put a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall, in his way.

Such "creatures of God" are "good" in themselves, as 1 Timothy 4:4 teaches us. Yet it is also good to quietly leave them alone, rather than encourage a brother to eat against his conscience. This consideration is only the normal grace of Christianity.

Take the lightest thing imaginable: we eat only meat that he thinks is unclean. Even that may lead him into something he has no faith for. How could love do this? It is a terrible thing to lead a person to act without conscience — that is, to sin against God. If he does not judge himself, it is bound to shape the whole character of his life and ways.

Pressing our own convictions is neither the divine nor the human way to convince. It is not the human way, because will only provokes will, and it puts off the end we most desire. It is not the divine way, because it is not the way of faith — not on our part, and not on the part of those we hurry. How much better to walk in faith and leave God room to act! He can and will give power to His own grace and truth.

Of course, someone might try to force the eating of herbs, the avoiding of meats, or the keeping of days as a yoke on the necks of the disciples. Then it would be our place to resist with uncompromising decision.

Suppose a group of men said: Christ alone is not enough to deliver a sinner and save him completely, so you must take a pledge with us not to drink wine. That would not be of faith, or love, or edification. It would compromise the gospel. Like the teachers who added law-keeping, it would soon draw people away from Christ. If Christ does not have first place, something else soon will.

At Rome, the dispute did not grow out of Gentile idolatry. It grew out of the religious scruples of the Jewish converts, who on certain days would not share in meats and drinks... 1 Corinthians 5 proves beyond dispute that a drunkard is a wicked person for the Church to put away, not a weak brother to bear with. Romans 14 describes a completely different group — not false believers with a loose, unholy walk, but real Christians who had only weakly grasped their deliverance from questions about clean and unclean food.

The warning is against the "abuse." And if it is a snare to any of us, we clearly ought to avoid it. "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." What greater safeguard can there be than this?

Verse 22 gives us a decisive test. It always tells genuine spiritual liberty apart from its counterfeit, the self-will of the flesh. "Have you faith? Have it to yourself before God." Some people carelessly assume a privilege because they know the doctrine of liberty. That is quite a different thing from faith. The faith spoken of here is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). It is not the faith in Christ that justifies. It is a fruit that grows in practice out of the justified believer's personal communion with the Lord. This faith is a home joy of the soul. It stays within, choosing the privacy of the presence it loves best. Faith like this seeks no audience and makes no boast of privilege. You find it in its effects. Those effects are always according to God, and so they bring blessing to others.

"Are we then never to use our undoubted liberty?" Yes, says the apostle. If you have faith, faith to use it, keep it to yourself before God. Use it in private, but not in public, when using it might stumble a weak brother.

"Have you faith? Have it to yourself before God." Faith must be an intensely personal thing. To press my faith on another would in effect do away with his exercise of faith. If I am before God, then let each individual saint be also before God.

The presence of God is the only place where faith can really act. But God is light. In that light we must weigh everything before allowing it under the claim of liberty. Conscience becomes, as it were, the regulator of faith. Otherwise mere self-will might easily take the place of genuine faith toward God. And so it is added: "Happy is he who does not condemn himself in the thing that he allows." That is a weighty sentence, full of needed caution. It tempers and steadies Christian liberty, so that liberty stays within the limits of godly fear and never sinks into mere self-pleasing and the natural licence of the fleshly will.

If you have faith, instead of doubts, so much the better, but keep it to yourself before God. Blessed is he who does not judge himself in what he allows, or approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it is not from faith. And whatever is not from faith is sin — that is, whatever is not done in the liberty of faith.

Romans 14:22, with the whole context, teaches us that we must walk tenderly toward the consciences of our brothers. A man may have faith about certain things. He may have perfect liberty in his own mind, whether about days or foods or many other minor matters. But his faith or his liberty should not lead him to act in a way that stumbles his weak brother. Of course, if anyone tried to force the eating of herbs, abstinence from meats, or the keeping of days as a yoke on the necks of the disciples, it would be our place to resist without compromise.

Through lack of faith, I may choose to put myself under law. So let me be very careful not to condemn my brother for what he allows. It may in fact be perfectly clean in the sight of God.

Having settled in the Master's presence what we believe He would have us do, let us do it in the simplicity of faith. Only it must be faith, and not self-will. And we must not go beyond or lag behind our faith. To do this is to bring condemnation (not damnation) into our consciences, as the last two verses of the chapter tell us.

If you have faith, instead of doubts, so much the better. But have it to yourself before God. Blessed is he who does not judge himself in what he allows. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it is not from faith. And whatever is not from faith is sin. That is, whatever is not done in liberty of faith.

A believer's conscience suffers defilement not only when he commits deliberate sin. He also defiles it by allowing anything that in any way dishonours the name or truth of God… Doubt, present or absent in a believer's mind, makes the whole difference between bad and good when we weigh actions of this kind.

Doubting in this way, they were condemned when they ate. Satan took advantage of them through guilty fears… Scripture describes an act by where it tends. It does not soften the description by the grace that steps in to stop the outcome.

Who can measure the results of forcing or persuading someone to act against, or beyond, the light he has from God? The Spirit grieved. The heart unsettled, if not soon hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. How many other things will surely combine with these, if there is no repentance, to drag the soul downward — "sin"! When will we honestly, fully, and in practice accept the apostle's definition: "whatever does not proceed from faith IS SIN"?

"For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." It is a solemn, sweeping statement. Sin is not only in the outward acts of men. It is in everything that faith has no part in. Shall we dare, in effect, to make our brother sin?

The common use of "whatever does not proceed from faith is sin" is a mere abuse of the text. The apostle is showing that a person may eat what would be clean to stronger faith. To the man who does not have this faith, that same act is sin. It defiles his conscience.