{"id":2365,"date":"2011-03-07T22:53:11","date_gmt":"2011-03-08T04:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.com\/blog\/?p=2365"},"modified":"2011-03-07T22:53:11","modified_gmt":"2011-03-08T04:53:11","slug":"romans-143-food-or-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-143-food-or-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 14:3 – Food or Service?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h2>\n

Romans 14:3 <\/strong>– Food or Service?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Don\u2019t despise or judge fellow Christians, serve God!<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The word translated \u201cdespise<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word exouthene\u014d<\/em><\/span>, a variation of exoudeno\u014d<\/em><\/span>. This is made up of ex<\/em><\/span>, meaning \u201cout\u201d or \u201cout of,\u201d and oudeis<\/em><\/span>, which means \u201cnot even one\u201d or \u201cnothing.\u201d Thus, exouthene\u014d<\/em> <\/span>literally means \u201cto throw out as nothing, to treat as insignificant, or to despise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek verb krin\u014d<\/em><\/span>, which literally means \u201cto separate\u201d or \u201cto distinguish between good and evil,\u201d that is, \u201cto make a judgment.\u201d As it is used in this verse, it means \u201cto make a condemning judgment about someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReceived<\/span>\u201d is from proslamban\u014d<\/em><\/span>, which we looked at a couple of verses ago. In its purest form it means, \u201cto take to oneself.\u201d It is expressed here in the middle voice, indicating action done by the subject (God) to Himself. That is, He was not given the one in question, but has taken him to Himself.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

In Paul\u2019s admonition to the Roman Christians, he has pointed out that some of them believe that there are restrictions on eating certain foods based on the Law of Moses. These are primarily Christians who have been converted from Judaism. Others, Paul says, believe that all foods are permissible to be eaten. He has advised the church that it is good to admit to the fellowship those Christians who are weak in the faith but it is not good to get into arguments about minor issues like which kinds of foods are permissible.<\/p>\n

He now goes on to admonish those who are on opposite sides of this issue to be very careful about their attitudes towards each other. He tells the ones who feel no prohibitions about what foods they eat not to \u201cdespise\u201d those who think that only certain foods are acceptable. Paul also tells those who follow the Mosaic dietary restrictions not to \u201cjudge\u201d those who feel free to eat all kinds of food. These two words are aptly chosen by Paul as Gentiles have a tendency to treat Jews as insignificant or unimportant (to despise them), and Jews have a tendency to judge others because they themselves have for so many years been judged by the Law.<\/p>\n

So what we see here is Paul\u2019s discernment, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that we all have tendencies which we have learned, which are not born out of love but out of prejudice. We Christians are not to pre-judge anyone out of our selfish prejudices, rather we are to treat all people with love. (Remember the end of the previous chapter?) Instead of condemning other Christians because they practice their Christianity in ways different from our own, we should join together to learn what the Spirit of God teaches us all through His Word of Truth.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Regarding what kinds of foods Christians can eat, it doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s \u201cright.\u201d That\u2019s missing the whole point. Remember that the night is almost over and He is coming soon. Forget about what food is proper or what color the sanctuary carpet should be. Proclaim the gospel and build up the body of Christ. Serve God and serve your fellow Christians!<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2011 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 –<\/p>\n

If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, send an e-mail to:\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 14:3 – Food or Service? Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Truth to Learn Don\u2019t despise or judge fellow Christians, serve God! Behind the Words The word translated \u201cdespise\u201d is the Greek […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1581,1582,488,1583,1573,1584],"class_list":["post-2365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-despise","tag-exoutheneo","tag-judge","tag-krino","tag-proslambano","tag-received"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-C9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}