For the sake of meat do not destroy the work of God. All things indeed [are] pure; but [it is] evil to that man who eats while stumbling [in doing so].
Paul sets a meal beside the work God has done in another believer, and warns against trading the greater for the lesser. Two questions follow: what is "the work of God" here, and how far can one Christian really "destroy" another?
Food is only one example of the lesser thing.
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.
The harm does not come through the food itself. It comes through a conscience that gets pushed past what it can hold.
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.
The word is strong. Writers here are careful to say what it does and does not mean.
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.
God keeps His own for ever. Yet our conduct can still wreck a believer's daily life for years.
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.
The verse agrees that everything is clean, then takes that away as an excuse. Freedom is real, but where you use it matters.
"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.
Writers point to the relationship each believer has with the Lord, and to love as the deciding rule.
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.
The principle stretches well beyond food. One careless person can spoil a lifetime of God's work in others.
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).
- Weigh. Food, days and similar details are the lesser thing; the work of God in a person is by far the greater. Never trade the greater for the lesser.
- Wound. The damage travels through conscience. Push someone to act past their faith and you tend to destroy God's work in their soul.
- Wreck. No one can pluck a sheep of Christ from His hand. Yet the bearing of our act is destructive: we can wreck a brother's daily life and leave him under a cloud for years.
- Withhold. Everything is clean, so the question is not "may I?" but "where?" Hold your liberty before God in private. Do not parade it.
- Wield. Love, not knowledge, is the ruler for liberty; your brother belongs to the Lord, so please him for his building up.
[It is] right not to eat meat, nor drink wine, nor [do anything] in which thy brother stumbles, or is offended, or is weak.
Paul closes his argument about food and drink with a costly rule: a lawful thing can be given up for a brother's sake. Two questions follow — what makes going without "good" when the thing itself is fine, and whether this bans meat and wine for good.
Paul has already settled one fact about food. A second fact limits how a believer uses that freedom in front of others.
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.
The word "good" does double duty here.
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.
The thing risked is small. What it does to the other man is not. One writer traces the damage past the meal and into the rest of that man's life.
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.
Even when the strong believer is right, pressing the point is the wrong tool. It also delays what he wants most.
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.
Giving way is my own choice. The moment someone demands it, the case changes.
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.
Why so firm? Because a rule, once added to Christ as a condition, takes the place that belongs to Him alone.
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.
Commentators differ on how far this verse reaches into the wider argument about drink. One writer insists the weak brother of Romans 14 is not the man with a drinking problem.
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.
Another writer keeps the personal application open, while refusing any general ban.
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?
- Free — Nothing is unclean in itself; meat and wine are God's creatures, good and not to be refused.
- Weak — But whatever a believer thinks unclean is unclean to him. Eating it would give him a bad conscience before God.
- Good — So it is good to leave the lawful thing alone, rather than push him to act against his conscience. That is ordinary Christian grace, not heroism.
- Guarded — Giving way is my choice, never another's demand. If anyone lays it on me as a yoke, or adds it to Christ as a pledge, I must resist outright.
- Aim — Love wins him by leaving God room to work. Pressing convictions only provokes the will it means to change.