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Romans 14

Paul places disagreements about food and days under Christ’s lordship, calling believers to protect one another’s faith and pursue peace.

Believers in Rome disagree about eating meat and observing certain days. Paul tells those who eat to stop despising those who abstain, and those who abstain to stop judging those who eat. Both belong to the Lord, who has authority over the living and the dead. Paul then warns against using freedom in ways that lead another believer to act against conscience. The supplied text closes with praise to God for making the gospel known among the nations.

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1Now accept one who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions.
2One man has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
3Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.
4Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand.
5One man esteems one day as more important. Another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.
6He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. He who doesn’t eat, to the Lord he doesn’t eat, and gives God thanks.
7For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself.
8For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
9For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11For it is written, “‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘to me every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess to God.’”
12So then each one of us will give account of himself to God.
13Therefore 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.
14I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
15Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
16Then don’t let your good be slandered,
17for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
19So then, let’s follow after things which make for peace, and things by which we may build one another up.
20Don’t overthrow God’s work for food’s sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating.
21It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak.
22Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn’t judge himself in that which he approves.
23But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.
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Key verses
Romans 14:17Paul shifts the dispute toward the character of God’s Kingdom and the life shaped by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:10The judgment seat of Christ places both the judging believer and the contemptuous believer under the same authority.
Romans 14:19This command turns Paul’s argument into a shared task: pursuing peace and building up fellow believers.
Where this chapter reaches

Romans 14 shares with 1 Corinthians the concern that food and the exercise of freedom can wound another believer’s conscience. Colossians also addresses judgment over food and observances, while Galatians links freedom with serving others in love through the Spirit.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

How does belonging to the Lord shape the way you read Paul’s warnings about judgment and contempt?

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Where might pursuing peace require you to limit a freedom for another believer’s good?

Write on this

Questions people ask about Romans 14

Who are the weak in faith in Romans 14?

Paul describes believers whose faith does not permit them to eat certain foods; verse 2 names those who eat vegetables. He also discusses differing convictions about days. The text does not identify every reason behind these practices. Paul commands welcome and forbids contempt toward those with these restrictions.

Does Romans 14 mean Christians should never judge anything?

Paul addresses judging or despising fellow believers over food and observance of days. He still makes moral judgments: causing someone to stumble is evil, and acting against faith is sin. His command concerns disputed practices among people God has accepted, with each person accountable to the Lord.

What does “whatever is not of faith is sin” mean in Romans 14:23?

The immediate example is someone who eats while doubting that eating is right before God. That person acts against conscience rather than from faith. Paul treats this as sin even though the food itself is clean. The statement explains why another believer’s freedom must never become pressure to violate conscience.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).