Romans 14:21 – Good For Whom?
It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.
Truth to Learn
Consider the good of others more important than your own.
Behind the Words
The word translated “good” is a form of kalos, which means “good as to quality or character.”
“Stumbles” is translated from the Greek verb proskoptō, which we have seen a couple of times recently. It means to “to stub on” or “to trip up.”
The word “offended” is translated from the verb scandalidzō, the noun form of which we have also talked about recently. This word means, “to entrap” or “to entice to sin.”
“Is made weak” is from the Greek verb astheneo, which means “to be weak or sickly.”
Meaning Explained
Now Paul summarizes what he has been saying in the past few verses. Since it is a summary of his instruction, let’s look carefully at what he does and what he doesn’t say. First of all Paul says that “It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything …” So what he is saying is that these things are not good for us to do.
Now, notice that there are qualifications to those things which are not good for us to do. The first qualification is, “by which your brother stumbles.” If your drinking wine or eating a certain kind of food causes your brother to stumble in his walk with God, then it is not a good thing for you to do.
The second qualification is, “or is offended.” We should not do anything that will lead a brother or sister to act contrary to his or her own convictions. If we know that other Christians are convicted that eating certain foods is wrong, we should not eat those types of food in their presence or try to convince them that it is OK for them. To them it is a spiritual conviction and it is up to God to convince them otherwise (if their conviction is wrong). Because of the unfortunate translation of scandalidzō as “offended,” we may be inclined to read this verse as if it said, “it is good not to eat meat, nor to drink wine, nor anything that your brother takes offense at, or disagrees with.” Just because a brother or sister considers wrong something which our own conscience allows doesn’t mean we stop doing it. But by the same token we don’t argue with them about it, we don’t force them to do it, and we don’t flaunt it in front of them.
The third qualification is, “or is made weak.” Again, we see that our actions could cause the faith of a brother or sister to be negatively affected because of his or her convictions. So, how do we know what we should do and what we shouldn’t do when it comes to spiritual convictions that we hold different from our brother or sister in Christ? Paul will answer that question in the following two verses.
Application
There is a fine line between what Paul is teaching here and situational ethics. Situational ethics says that something may be wrong to do in one situation but not wrong in another. What Paul is teaching is that it is always wrong to consider your own needs more important than a fellow Christian. The bottom line is that we should do those things that build-up other Christians and we should avoid those things which will cause other Christians harm. If we always consider the good of others more important than our own, God will be pleased with our actions.
In God’s service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2011 Will Krause. All rights reserved.
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