Romans chapter 14

You know, for all the wonderfulness of FireFox, binding a command to ctrl+u was not a good idea, guys.

vs 13

Judgment bad. Loving and assisting brothers and sisters good. I will point out that helping a brother or sister to become stronger in the faith is in fact loving.

vs 14

This is the thing - Paul is convinced, and Paul is an Apostle. So why not listen to him? Because if he hasn't been able to persuade you about it, then he just hasn't been able to! So if you need more persuading, then keep doing what you're doing for the time being, but continue to allow yourself instruction by the Apostle.

If you read this any other way, you honestly are totally setting up the church for a major, major problem. Why? Because Paul has chosen as his example something which is clearly set out in Scripture! All food is clean. It's biblical. If you then say 'but I am not convinced about it, so I'm going to do it my way and not take biblical instruction on it', then what's to say that someone can't say 'well, I know the bible says that sleeping with prostitutes is wrong, but I'm not entirely convinced about it in my own conscience, so I'm going to keep doing it until I have received instruction'?

vs 15

Causing distress by your actions to another person is wrong. I will co-opt a principle from 1 Corinthians here, though, as Paul points out there that you can happily eat, just not in front of your brother or sister who has the problem.

vs 16

I think this verse can be far more widely applied than it is usually. Ok, so don't eat it in front of them, or whatever. That's one method. Correcting your brother or sister who is weaker in the faith (I really can't stress that enough) is another method of ensuring that what you do will not be spoken about as evil.

vs 17

Grammatical question - is it a matter of peace and righteousness on their own, but joy in the Holy Spirit, or all three in the Holy Spirit? I'm going for the latter, as it sounds more spiritual.

vs 18

Normally, Paul doesn't care two cents about human approval. But in this case he shows that it is important. Doing things out of love for people is generally approved of. I wonder, though, if you tell someone "I'm not eating meat because I don't want to stumble you as a weaker brother" if that is the loving equivalent of heaping burning coals on their head - which, I might point out, is also seen as a loving thing to do.

vs 19

So instead of focussing on these things, let's forget about them unless they raise themself as an issue, and focus on those things which create good things. That we can all agree on. Like... you know... Christ.

vs 20

It is also wrong for that person to judge the person who eats. But Paul is giving a command to those who are strong in faith, becuase the weak in faith? Well, they're weak. We don't expect them to obey commands.

vs 21

Remember, we aren't just talking about something that will upset someone, or make them tetchy of whinge. Paul says don't do things that will make them "fall". His language has been strong - don't "destroy" your brother/sister. Don't make them stumble. Don't make them fall. The word "fall" here is apparently literally the word 'proskopto', which means stumble. It's used earlier in chapter 9. The word used earlier is pretty much the same - 'Proskomma'. So with that in mind, all the different translations use different words for pretty much the same word here, just to mix things up a bit I guess.

vs 22

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this is Paul's command to not eat in front of the other person. I don't think he's going so far as to say "don't share your belief about it with the other person". As Paul says in the next verse...

vs 23

...actions are done in faith. So just as the person who can't eat should not eat, and that by faith, those that can eat should eat, again by faith, but should keep that faithful action between them and God. If we keep a practice of faith to ourselves, that's fine. But were we to keep discussions of faith from our weaker siblings, then we are surely condemned.

Oh, and remember - if you're thinking with disagreeing with me on this point, then you're actually not allowed to tell me. Keep it between you and God. :P