21 It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak.
Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forevermore, that I don't cause my brother to stumble.
Therefore let's not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother's way, or an occasion for falling.
But he turned, and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men."
"Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes! If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna{or, Hell} of fire. See that you don't despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
He said to the disciples, "It is impossible that no occasions of stumbling should come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.
for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up.
and make straight paths for your feet, so that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Romans 14
Commentary on Romans 14 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 14
The apostle having, in the former chapter, directed our conduct one towards another in civil things, and prescribed the sacred laws of justice, peaceableness, and order, to be observed by us as members of the commonwealth, comes in this and part of the following chapter in like manner to direct our demeanour one towards another in sacred things, which pertain more immediately to conscience and religion, and which we observe as members of the church. Particularly, he gives rules how to manage our different apprehensions about indifferent things, in the management of which, it seems, there was something amiss among the Roman Christians, to whom he wrote, which he here labours to redress. But the rules are general, and of standing use in the church, for the preservation of that Christian love which he had so earnestly pressed in the foregoing chapter as the fulfilling of the law. It is certain that nothing is more threatening, nor more often fatal, to Christian societies, than the contentions and divisions of their members. By these wounds the life and soul of religion expire. Now in this chapter we are furnished with the sovereign balm of Gilead; the blessed apostle prescribes like a wise physician. "Why then is not the hurt of the daughter of my people recovered,' but because his directions are not followed? This chapter, rightly understood, made use of, and lived up to, would set things to rights, and heal us all.
Rom 14:1-23
We have in this chapter,