Not Losing What Matters over What Doesn’t (Romans 14:13-23)
Today’s Word
[Do Not Cause Anyone to Stumble] (NIV)
13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.
14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.
15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.
16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.
21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.
22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.
23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
Background
In the previous paragraph Paul said, “Do not judge.” Here he goes a step further. Stopping judgment is not enough; you must make up your mind not to lay an obstacle in someone’s path. He moves from passive restraint to active care.
In verse 14 Paul states his own position plainly: nothing is unclean in itself. In other words, he stands with the so-called “strong” in this dispute. And then he immediately adds: so do not use that freedom. He asks the person who is right to lay down his rights.
Why go that far? Verse 15 answers: “someone for whom Christ died.” Do not ruin, over a dish of food, a person the cross has already paid for. The price tags are not comparable.
Verse 17 is the center of the paragraph. The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness, peace and joy. That one sentence settles the whole Roman argument: the thing you are fighting over is not what the kingdom is made of.
Key Terms Made Simple
- Stumbling block (*skandalon*): Originally the trigger of a trap, or something that trips a person. Not merely giving offense, but causing someone to fall in their faith.
- Unclean: Religiously impure. Paul carefully distinguishes objective impurity from subjective conviction.
- Edification: A construction term. Building a person up the way you build up a house.
- Righteousness, peace and joy: The three markers of God’s kingdom. All three are relational, and all three are given in the Spirit.
- Not from faith: Acting while unconvinced, while doubting. The same action carries different weight depending on conviction.
Key Expressions to Notice
- “Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block.” (v. 13)
- Consideration does not happen by accident. It is the product of a decision.
- Ceasing to judge and clearing obstacles are two different tasks. The second is far more active.
- “Someone for whom Christ died.” (v. 15)
- Paul describes the other person not by their maturity but by the price paid for them.
- That one designation changes the temperature of the argument.
- “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking.” (v. 17)
- He first says what the kingdom is not, then what it is.
- Most of what we argue about belongs on the first list.
Main Points of the Text
- Decide not to lay obstacles (vv. 13-16) — Food is not the problem, but if someone is wounded by it, love has already stopped. Do not let what you know to be good become a matter of reproach.
- Remember what the kingdom is made of (vv. 17-19) — Not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy. Therefore pursue what makes for peace and what builds people up.
- Keep your convictions before God (vv. 20-23) — Your belief belongs between you and God; it is not a measuring stick for other people. Doing something while doubting is sin for you, even when the thing itself is fine.
Applying to My Life
- Check which list today’s argument belongs on — The most painful losses come when something unimportant costs us something important. A relationship built over years collapses over one careless sentence; work accomplished together scatters over a difference in taste. Put whatever you are currently fighting over on the scale of verse 17. Is it righteousness, peace and joy — or is it eating and drinking?
- Write out your means and your ends — Life requires certain tools: qualifications, preparatory steps, conditions to be met. Their necessity is real. But at some point a tool can climb into the seat reserved for the purpose it was meant to serve, and the purpose gets pushed back. Draw two lines on a sheet of paper. What am I actually trying to do? What are the tools for it? Then add one more line: if a tool never arrives, is there another road to the purpose? Writing that down lightens the weight considerably.
- Do not use your conviction as a ruler on other people — Verse 22 does not ask you to abandon your convictions. It asks you to keep them between yourself and God. Convictions are for building yourself; they are not for measuring others. When the person who is right sets his rightness down, the community grows.
Think About It
- Have you recently lost something valuable over something trivial?
- Is there a place in your life where a means has taken the seat of the end?
- Among the things you are convinced are right, what could you set down for a while for the sake of love?
Tags: #Romans #Romans14 #StumblingBlock #DoNotCauseToStumble #KingdomOfGod #RighteousnessPeaceJoy #ChristianFreedom #Consideration #Edification #Priorities #MeansAndEnds #Values #Devotional #DailyDevotional #BibleStudy #QuietTime #DevotionalGuide #Scripture #RomansDevotional #Faith #Paul
