Romans
14:1-4 Accept
him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One
man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak,
eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who
does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who
does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?
Paul has in mind here the
meat of animals that were being sacrificed to pagan gods and idols. You see,
these animals were sacrificed to a god and the meat was then shared with the
priests and worshippers as food. The benefit of the sacrifice to appease the
god was made beneficial to the person when they ate the meat of the sacrifice.
In Paul’s day, the Jews followed the sacrificial laws of the Old Testament. The
pagan worshippers offered similar sacrifices to their gods.
Paul knew that this
practice, both the Jewish and pagan, was meaningless. It was meaningless for
the Jews because Jesus was the final sacrifice for sin. His sacrifice was made
beneficial to the believer by faith in Him and by sharing in the Lord’s Supper,
a sacrament we continue today. The sacrifice was meaningless for pagans because
there is no god other than Jehovah. The meat offered to these non-existent gods
meant nothing. In both cases if a Christian ate the meat there would really be
no consequence. It was merely cooked meat, unless of course the one who ate it
believed the meat still retained some special meaning.
Christianity is not about
what we eat or do not eat. It is not about what we wear or do not wear. It is
not about what we watch or do not watch on TV. Christianity is about our faith,
trust and relationship to Jesus. That relationship determines all the other
activities and prohibitions in our daily lives. Some may eat the meat and some
may not. Either way we are not to judge the other person by their activity. Nor
should we brag about the freedom we have to other brothers or sisters. We
should be silent on some matters and be settled in our opinion with God. His
acceptance should govern our actions, not other people.
