Romans 14:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"But if your brother is grieved because of food, you are no longer walking according to love." Do you notice how he first tries to draw him to himself, showing that he has such great concern for him that, in order not to grieve him, he does not dare command even what is altogether necessary? Rather, he wishes to draw him by condescension and love. Even after he has dispelled his fear, he does not draw him by force or compel him. Instead, he grants him complete freedom, because turning someone away from the use of food and causing grief are not the same thing. Do you see how much he cares for the preservation of love? He knew that love can correct everything. Therefore he asks something greater from his hearers here. You must not, he says, drive them to extremes.

"But if your brother is grieved because of food, you are no longer walking according to love." Here he directs his speech to the perfect man. Teaching him: even if foods were a thousand times not unclean by nature, you still ought to abstain from pork, so that your scandalized brother not be grieved, if only you wish to preserve love. Then he adds: "Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died." By disputing over food, he says, you destroy and corrupt a brother who is so precious in Christ's eyes that He died for him. For when that brother notices that you eat pork contrary to him, he becomes more obstinate. Then, fearing that he might fall away from Christ, he finally clings wholly to the law.

A Christian must show every possible regard for the one who is grieved because of him, at least insofar as it lies within his power.

In another epistle Paul says, "Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food, but God will destroy both this and that" (1 Cor 6:13). A man neither pleases nor displeases God by food. Therefore Paul urges us to acquire the spirit of love, by which God has counted us worthy to be made free.

"But if your brother is grieved because of food, you are no longer walking according to love." He intensifies the accusation by reminding them of love, revealing the disposition of the one who acts in this way. Then he shows still more forcefully the impropriety of the deed. "Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died." Christ the Master accepted death for him, but you are unwilling to give him life by abstaining from food. Instead, by eating you cause him death.

The Apostle has treated this matter in a wondrous way. First, he showed the trivial and base character of the pretext by the words, "because of food." Second, he addressed the one who had sinned with the words, "your brother." Third. He stated plainly that the outcome of the transgression would be "destruction." Fourth, he identified the one affected by the deed with the words, "for whom Christ died." Fifth, he showed that piety would become an object of blasphemy. Sixth, he reminded us that we came to faith in Christ not in order to eat this or that, but to become partakers of righteousness, that is, sinlessness, peace, and joy. For from sin comes offense, from offense grief, and from grief condemnation. Therefore, when sin was removed, its consequences were also removed. And when righteousness was set in its place, peace and joy naturally came together with it.

Third, in order to remove griefs and scandal for weak brethren, love requires that in matters morally indifferent one should rather adapt oneself to their views than proudly insist on one's own (Rom 14:13-21). "Let us no longer judge one another. Rather judge this, that no one put a stumbling block or cause of offense in his brother's way. If your brother is grieved because of food, you are no longer walking in love. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink," that is, it is acquired independently of what a man eats or drinks, "but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine, nor to do anything by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak."

Entering into the question of the worth of various foods, the Apostle Paul says, on the basis of the Lord's teaching, that in essence nothing is unclean. "Not what enters the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth," says Jesus Christ (Mt 15:11). Yet everything can be unclean, that is, sinful, if the eating is done with sinful thoughts. Thus, because of differences in food, there must be no division and no cessation of the feeling of love toward one's neighbor, for whom Jesus Christ suffered. If food becomes a matter of quarrel and discord, then those who do not know the essence of Christianity may form a low opinion of Christianity itself. In this way it will not be exalted, but humbled.

Whether you reproach a brother for distinguishing foods, or force him to taste what he considers unclean, or draw him to it by your example, in every case you will cause your brother sorrow. By this you will violate brotherly love. But love is chief among us, while the distinction of foods is an indifferent matter. Is it prudent to act this way? It is not only imprudent, but criminal. "You will say: why not correct the brother so that he will not regard anything as unclean? Why not use all one's authority to free him from this habit and opinion of recognizing something as defiled? I fear, the Apostle answers, lest I grieve him" (Saint Chrysostom). Of course, it is not bad to wean him from this. But the surest way to do so is to change his convictions.