3 let not him who is eating despise him who is not eating: and let not him who is not eating judge him who is eating, for God did receive him.
And he spake also unto certain who have been trusting in themselves that they were righteous, and have been despising the rest, this simile:
And thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or again, thou, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand at the tribunal of the Christ;
no longer, therefore, may we judge one another, but this judge ye rather, not to put a stumbling-stone before the brother, or an offence.
For who trampled on the day of small things, They have rejoiced, And seen the tin weight in the hand of Zerubbabel, These seven `are' the eyes of Jehovah, They are going to and fro in all the land.'
`For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a demon; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Lo, a man, a glutton, and a wine-drinker, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners, and wisdom was justified of her children.'
`Beware! -- ye may not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their messengers in the heavens do always behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens,
While Peter is yet speaking these sayings, the Holy spirit fell upon all those hearing the word,
and the heart-knowing God did bare them testimony, having given to them the Holy Spirit, even as also to us, and did put no difference also between us and them, by the faith having purified their hearts;
Right `it is' not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to `do anything' in which thy brother doth stumble, or is made to fall, or is weak.
and the brother who is infirm shall perish by thy knowledge, because of whom Christ died? and thus sinning in regard to the brethren, and smiting their weak conscience -- in regard to Christ ye sin; wherefore, if victuals cause my brother to stumble, I may eat no flesh -- to the age -- that my brother I may not cause to stumble.
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,