Paul had written in Romans 13 about “love” fulfilling the law. Christians should love others, not doing wrong to our neighbors (vs 10). If that commandment is true in any relationship, it is true in the Christian relationship. That will be the focus of chapters 14-15 (through verse 13).
In the church in Rome, Paul is dealing with Christians from a Jewish background and Christians from a Gentile background. They would obviously have different opinions about holy days as well as clean and unclean animals. Regardless of the fact that the law of Moses was nailed to the cross, or to use Paul’s metaphor in Romans, the first “husband” (the law) has died so that Jewish Christians are free to remarry (to Christ), in Romans 7, there were Jews who would have a difficult time completely leaving aside all those rituals that they had grown to practice on a regular basis.
So, Paul encourages strong Christians not to accept the weak in faith in order to judge their opinions (vs 1). Whether one eats only clean animals and another eats clean and unclean animals, God has accept both (vs 3) in Jesus Christ. Both are servants of the same Master (vs 4). The same thing is true when it comes to observing special days (vs 5). If we are all in Christ Jesus, then we all serve the same Master and it is Jesus Christ that draws us together, from all walks of life (vss 7-9).
We cannot judge our brother in Christ because Christ is the judge of all (vss 10-12), just as Isaiah said back in Isaiah 45:23. At the same time, we should also not become a stumbling block to our brother (vs 13). This is the theme of the last half of Romans 14. Nothing is unclean in itself (i. e., animals), but if one thinks it is unclean, then to him, it is unclean (vs 14) and the Gentile Christian should not set pork tenderloin in front of his Jewish Christian brother if the latter has scruples against it! If you do so, you are not walking in love (vs 15).
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Even though there are no “food laws” in Christ’s law, we, who are Gentiles, should not use this freedom to cause our Jewish brethren to stumble (vs 16). Because, the kingdom of Christ is not about what we eat or what we drink. It is about living right, having peace and joy that is brought about by the Spirit of God (vs 17).
Once again, all are acceptable to Christ (vs 18). So, we need to build up each other, encouraging each other, and pursuing peace with each other (vs 19). All things are clean (vs 20) but if one thinks it is unclean, then we should not force the issue. In fact, we should more likely renounce our freedom to eat pork tenderloin when we invite Christians over, if it offended the Jewish brother (vs 21) and save it for another time.
Every Christian has his or her own faith and we live by that faith on an individual basis between us and God (vs 22). Let us be persuaded in our own convictions, based on an honest and sincere study of God’s word, to walk by faith in what we do because without faith, we sin against God (vs 23).
