Romans 14:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food." By the work of God he means the salvation of the brother, and he intensifies fear by showing that the man who scandalizes his brother acts against what God cares for. You not only fail to build up, as you think, says the Apostle, but you destroy. Moreover, you destroy not a human work, but God's work, and not for anything important, but for a trivial thing, "for the sake of food." Then, lest by such condescension he confirm the brother in an evil disposition. He again states the general principle, saying, "All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with stumbling," that is, with an evil conscience. Thus, if you compel him and he eats, there will be no benefit in it.

"Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food." By the work of God he means the salvation of the brother. Therefore, do not destroy what God has acquired for him, and that for the sake of food, that is, because you do not wish to abstain from pork in order to gain benefit for yourself. "All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense." Having given a strict prohibition to the perfect man, he feared lest the weak man be confirmed in evil thoughts. Therefore he again turns to the dogma and says that all things are pure. Yet it is evil for the one who eats with a bad conscience after he has been scandalized. For the imperfect man, who considers pork unclean, suffers greater harm if he eats it under compulsion. Therefore you must first instruct him that all things are pure.

Although it is possible both to eat meat and to drink wine, freedom in this is not altogether harmless. Yet abstinence too is useful, lest we fatten the flesh with foods and thereby stir up in it the fierceness of the passions against ourselves. Therefore, if we abstain from them for our own sake, we should do so much more for our brother's sake, so as not to give scandal, in view of what has been said: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Rom 13:9 = Lev 19:18; Mt 22:39).

All things are clean, as I have said, but it is evil for the man who eats against conscience and through the scandal of others.

Man is God's work by creation, and again God's work by restoration in renewal. Food too is God's work. Yet man is not for food, but food for man. There is a great difference in this.

"Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food." The Lord called faith in Him the work of God. For He says, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent" (Jn 6:29). Since, as seems likely, some of the Jews even fell away from the faith, unable to endure the reproaches made against them by believers from among the Gentiles, the Apostle rightly said. "Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food." But lest believers from among the Jews also use this pretext to support the keeping of the law, the Apostle tries to forestall this and says, "For all things are pure." None of these foods is unclean by nature. "But it is evil for the man who eats with stumbling." Eating brings harm to you because you neglect your neighbor's benefit. Seeing that he suffers harm, you disregard it.

After enjoying the Word, it is unreasonable to be greatly amazed and disturbed over what is offered at public banquets.

God raised up your neighbor by the Cross, so you are overthrowing the building of God.

Some, boasting of their freedom and making use of the absence of Church regulations concerning fasting, ate everything. They even ate what others considered forbidden and unclean, and by this they repelled them from themselves and even from the Church. The Apostle instructs such people not to grieve their brethren (v. 15), not to give occasion for their faith to be blasphemed (v. 16), not to destroy the work of God, that is, the unity of the Church (v. 20), not to eat to the scandal of others (ibid.), and not to scandalize the brethren (v. 21). In all this there is a direct rebuke of the Stundists. It is all the more severe because the fasts they reject and openly violate are now not a remnant of Judaism, but an age-old institution of the Church of God.

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."

Having said that food is not an essential matter, the Apostle indicates wherein the essential matters of Christian life consist: holiness, mutual concord, and spiritual joy. All the care of Christians must be directed toward these chief matters of Christian life, since in them the Kingdom of God is found. It gradually takes up its dwelling in the hearts of Christians as they advance in attaining the blessings indicated. Therefore, if anything at all, including difference over food, becomes a cause of violating someone's holiness or peace, and instead of joy implants division, grief, and the heaviness of enmity, it must in every way be set aside. By such difference the inward establishment of the Kingdom of God within us is destroyed.

The work of God is this: that He wills all to be saved (cf. 1 Tim 2:4). But by an unreasonable use of freedom concerning foods, you destroy this work. You compel or entice him to eat what his conscience does not approve, and thereby destroy him. For offense against conscience is a destructive evil. It is true that all things are pure, as you believe. Yet by eating everything to your brother's stumbling and scandal, you do evil. You do evil to yourself, for "woe to that man by whom the offense comes" (cf. Mt 18:7). Saint Chrysostom says, "By the work of God the Apostle means the salvation of the brother. He increases fear by showing that the man who scandalizes his brother acts against what God cares for. You not only fail to build up, as you think, says the Apostle, but you destroy.