Romans Commentary

Ver. 13. — Let us not therefore judge one another any more; but judge this rather; that no man put a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall, in his brother’s way.

Let us not therefore judge one another any more. — This dissuasive appears to be now addressed to both the parties. The Apostle having declared what was peculiarly adapted to each, now declares what is equally applicable to both. Judging or condemning was in a peculiar sense the fault of the one; but both of them in a more extended sense of the word might be said to judge or condemn one another. The strong brother who despised the weak virtually judged him or condemned him. Paul now takes them both together, and addresses them with the same caution. He extends the exhortation to himself, and to the whole body of Christians. They are not to usurp authority over one another, nor to usurp the right to judge for one another in any matter. But judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall, in his brother’s way. — The word judge is here used in an allusive sense, and not in its proper or literal sense. Instead of judging, we ought to do another thing, which is not properly judging, but called judging, in allusion to the word immediately going before. This is similar to the expression, ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.’ The Scriptures abound with instances of this figurative way of speaking. Instead of judging one another, Christians are to avoid doing anything that will have a tendency to stumble one another, or cause any to fall into sin. This is peculiarly applicable to the strong, who, by an improper use of their liberty, might ensnare their weak brethren.

Ver. 14. — I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

I know, and am persuaded — This clearly refutes the opinion of those who argue that at the time of writing this Epistle the law was not abolished, and that it was not in this state that the different parties were to forbear with respect to one another, but that the Jew was still to keep the law till its abolition should be explicitly announced. But that it was abolished, is perfectly clear from this chapter. The Apostle knew himself, and here he teaches others, that the Mosaic dispensation was abolished, yet enjoins the strong and the weak to forbear mutually with each other. By the Lord Jesus. — That is, Paul knew this by the teaching of the Lord Jesus. Calvin is unquestionably mistaken in applying this, not to the teaching of the Lord Jesus, but to the cleansing of meats by the Lord Jesus. He says, ‘The Apostle adds, in the Lord Jesus, because His kindness and grace is the cause why all creatures are blessed to us by the Lord, which were otherwise cursed in Adam.’ This is no doubt a fact, but it is not the thing here taught. Paul is here asserting that his knowledge of the abolition of the distinction of meats was not obtained by his own searching into the nature of things, but was a revelation from the Lord Jesus. This doctrine was not a private opinion of his own, but the revealed will of his Master. Nothing unclean of itself. — This undoubtedly shows that there is nothing unclean in blood more than in anything else. The Apostle here asserts of everything that could be used for food, that there is nothing unclean in itself. When blood and other meats were prohibited by the law, it was not because there was anything in themselves that rendered them unclean. It was the will of God, because they were of a typical nature, and therefore all their uncleanness ended when Christ came. Why, then, it may be asked, was blood prohibited in Acts 15? Evidently as a law of forbearance, because of the prejudices of the Jews. This is expressed in the very passage. ‘For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach Him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day.’ It would still be a duty to avoid these things, if we were in such situations that it would give offense to the Jews. That such is the true view of the matter, is evident from this, that though the Jews were prohibited from eating things strangled, they were not prohibited to give them or sell them to strangers.

Had the thing been unlawful in itself, they would not have been permitted to give to strangers that which it was unlawful for themselves to eat. Dr.

Macknight justly remarks, ‘It is observable that in this discourse, which is intended to show that under the Gospel all sorts of food may be used without sin, there is no exception of blood and things strangled.’ But he is wrong in his inference from this fact. ‘May we not from this infer,’ he says, ‘that the prohibition of these things to the Gentile converts, mentioned Acts 15:29, is to be understood of such Gentiles only as had been proselytes?’ This is forced and unnatural. But to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it as unclean. — This is self-evident truth, which has no exception. For if a person does what he thinks God forbids, he is guilty with respect to God as really as if the thing had been actually prohibited by God. Persons in ignorance ought to be instructed, but they ought never to be encouraged to do what they themselves judge to be contrary to the will of God.

Ver. 15. — But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died.

But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. — The weak brother would be grieved in his mind when he should see the strong eating meat which he considered unclean. Now it is not love that will prompt us to do anything to afflict another. If, then, the strong loves the weak brother, would he, for the sake of his appetite, eat anything that would grieve him? Self-denial in such matters is the result of love, and when any one will not abstain from gratifying his appetite to avoid hurting his brother, it shows that he is deficient in love. Destroy not him with thy meat. — This supposes that the weak brother may, by the example of the strong, be induced to do what he is not persuaded is lawful; and thus, though the thing be in itself lawful, it is sin in him, and consequently its tendency is to bring him into condemnation.

It is not, indeed, possible that this can ultimately be the case with any one for whom Christ died; but this is a warning to avoid doing anything that in itself tends to destroy him. For whom Christ died. — If Christ died for the weak brother, how unlike Christ is this strong believer, who will do what he knows will destroy his brother, if he follow his example without having his knowledge! The love of Christ in giving His life for this brother, and the indifference with respect to him which is manifested by the person who should thus abuse his liberty, are here set in strong contraSt. Ver. 16. — Let not then your good be evil spoken of:

Let not then your good. — Their good appears to be their liberty of disregarding the distinction of meats, and the law in general. This was a good thing to them, because the law was in itself a yoke and a grievous burden. They were doing what was good and right in itself in using this liberty, but they should be careful to use it in such a way as not to be the occasion of being represented as if in what they did they were regardless of the authority of God. This is a decisive distinction between the dispensation of Christ and that of Moses. It was an advantage to be delivered from the peculiar restraints of the ceremonial law, but it would be no advantage to be delivered from any part of the dispensation of Christ. This shows the sovereignty of God, in subjecting His people in one dispensation to burdens which He removes in another. Be evil spoken of. — Their good would be evil spoken of, when their neglect of the distinctions of the law should be ascribed to the indulgence of appetite, and when their conduct should embolden the weak to do what was contrary to their conscience. Then. — That is, since some of the brethren were so weak as to judge those who did eat certain meats to be influenced by improper motives, then, in order to avoid this, they ought to decline the use of their liberty.

Ver. 17. — For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. — This imports that the service which belongs to the kingdom of God, and which He requires from all His subjects, does not consist in abstaining from, or in using, any kind of meats. The typical dispensation of the Old Testament enjoined a distinction of meats. Men are peculiarly prone to cling to externals in religious worship. It is, then, of great importance to attend to this decision of the Holy Ghost by the Apostle Paul. The distinction of meats has nothing to do in the service of God under the New Testament. This settles the question as to blood. If the eating of blood is still prohibited, it cannot be said that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. But righteousness. — This is not the righteousness of God which is imputed to the believer, as is evident from the following verse, but the righteousness of which he is the subject. Righteousness sometimes refers especially to the duties which we owe to men, but in its most comprehensive sense it includes equally our duty to God; and there is no reason why it should not here have its most comprehensive meaning. Peace. — This is a criterion of a true servant in the kingdom of God.

Having peace with God, he endeavors to have peace with the brethren and with all men. Nothing is more unlike the spirit of genuine Christianity than a contentious disposition. Joy in the Holy Ghost. — The joy of a Christian communicated by the Holy Ghost cannot be comprehended by any other.

He rejoices even in the midst of trouble, and is often most happy when the world thinks him most miserable. Joy is the immediate effect of receiving the Gospel, which is glad tidings of great joy, as announced to the shepherds on the birth of our Savior. It springs from a sense of reconciliation with God. We see it exemplified in the three thousand converted on the day of Pentecost, in the eunuch, and in the jailer at Philippi, as soon as they received the truth. Joy is enjoined again and again as the duty of believers. ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.’ ‘Rejoice evermore.’ ‘These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.’ Our Lord dwells much upon it in His last discourse with His disciples, which contains everything calculated to impart joy to their minds, and in which He so often promises to send them the Comforter. ‘These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy in you might remain, and that your joy might be full.’ He had spoken to them that their joy might be full, but He makes no such addition when He refers to His joy in them, for it was already full. This joy in His people is an everlasting joy, neither capable of increase nor diminution; but their joy is variable according as they are exercising faith in Him, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Joy is one of the great blessings of His kingdom. In this passage peace is placed before joy, while joy is elsewhere put before peace, as in the following chapter, ver. 13, and especially in enumerating the fruits of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22. The first feeling on receiving the knowledge of the Gospel of salvation will be joy, and peace or tranquillity of mind will immediately succeed the agitations of the troubled conscience. However, where the one exists, there will the other be found, and in an equal proportion. Peace and righteousness are here traced up to joy in the Holy Ghost, which shows, as in other places, that it is in effect before the others.

Ver. 18. — For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.

For he that in these things serveth Christ. — Here the Christian is said to serve Christ by righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Christ, then, must be God. Is any but God to be served? Are we servants or slaves to any but God? Here we are represented as the slaves of Christ.

What is the service of God? Is it not righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost? And here this service is considered the service of Christ.

Can there be any doubt, then, that Christ is God? Acceptable to God — Every righteous man is pleasing to God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him. Then without faith it is impossible to live righteously, to live in true peace, and in the joy of the Holy Ghost.

These are the things in which God is honored. What a contrast between this account, as given by Paul, and the religion of the Church of Rome at the present time! If men abstain from meats, and observe the laws of the Church, they are acknowledged as members of that Church, though they should live unrighteously, though they should be agitators or disturbers of society, though they should have no joy in believing. How unlike, then, is the Church of Rome now to that of Rome addressed by the Apostle! Approved of men. — When Christians live as becometh the Gospel, they have a testimony from their very enemies. The conduct here recommended is eminently useful to society, and cannot but command the approbation even of the most ungodly.

Ver. 19. — Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace. — Since, then, meats have nothing to do in the religion of Christ; for ‘meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better: neither, if we eat not, are we the worse,’ 1 Corinthians 8:8; and since He is served by righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, let us pursue the things of peace. We are not only to live peaceably with all men, and especially with the brethren, but we are to pursue peace. Even should it fly from us, we should follow it. The things of peace. — That is, we should follow all things that tend to produce peace, and avoid everything, as far as our duty to God permits, of a contrary tendency. And things wherewith one may edify another, — the things of edification. — That is, such things as will have a tendency to increase the faith and establishment of each other. We are not to have an eye merely to our own growth and stability, but also to the growth and stability of the whole body. Christians in general are not sufficiently aware of this duty.

Ver. 20. — For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense.

For meat destroy not the work of God. — The believer is here called the work of God, in a like sense as believers are elsewhere called the building of God. Dr. Macknight understands it of ‘that which God is working in the heart of our brother, namely, faith and holiness.’ The other sense seems to be the true one. The reason which he gives for not applying the word to persons, is not to be sustained: ‘For if,’ says he, ‘the Apostle had been speaking of persons who, on account of their regeneration, are called the work of God, he would have used the word poi >hma , as he does Ephesians 2:10.’ Why should he be confined to this word? The other word is equally applicable. Mr. Stuart alleges that, as referring to the internal work of faith, it is a possible meaning, though he prefers the other.

His observation, however, that faith is called the work of God, John 6:29, has no weight in confirming Dr. Macknight’s opinion. Work of God in that passage signifies not the work which God works, but the work which God enjoins. The question was, ‘What shall we do that we might work the works of God?’ This surely is the work which God enjoins, not the work which God works. When, therefore, in answer to this question, Jesus replies, ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent,’ the work of God must also refer to the work which God requests. But it may be asked, How can this be, seeing faith is not a work?

The reply is quite obvious: it is in an allusive sense only, as has been already observed, that faith is here called a work. The word is used merely in reference to the word in the question. It is not a work, but it is the thing that God enjoins in order to salvation. The Scriptures abound with examples of this manner of speaking. Dr. Macknight observes ‘that the Apostle’s words, so interpreted, imply that the truly regenerated may be destroyed.’ But as it is contrary to the whole current of Scripture that the truly regenerated can eternally perish — for who shall separate them from the love of Christ? — it must be understood in the sense already explained, of tending in itself to his destruction. All things indeed are pure. — Every kind of meat is here declared to be pure. This at once shows that the abolition of the law had already taken place, and that blood is not in itself unclean. But it is evil for that man who eateth with offense. — Some understand the offense as referring to the man who causes another to stumble, and some to the man who stumbles through offense. Calvin appears to understand it in the former sense. But the other meaning appears to be the right one. The meaning of ‘with offense’ seems to be, that the eating by the person referred to is Occasioned by the stumbling block which was laid before him.

Ver. 21. — It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.

It is good. — The Apostle here extends the duty not only to the things that were prohibited by the Mosaic law, but to every kind of flesh, and even wine, and every other thing that might be the occasion of causing a weak brother to stumble. Nor anything. — The expression in the original is elliptical; and this elliptical translation is preferable to that of Dr.

Macknight and Mr. Stuart, who supply the phrase to do. Without doubt, the words to be supplied, as left out by ellipsis, are to eat or to drink. This is the very way in which Mr. Stuart himself, in his Commentary, supplies the ellipsis. Why, then, does he translate on another principle? The Apostle declares that it is wrong to eat or to drink anything that would be the occasion of bringing sin upon our brother. Whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. — The first of these words may refer to stumbling without falling; the second, to falling by a stumbling block; and the third, to the effect of this upon the person who is stumbling — he becomes weak.

Ver. 22. — Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. — It is of no importance whether we read this as a question, with our version, or as a declaration of a known fact. The meaning is substantially the same. Mr. Macknight does not seem justifiable in representing the word translated have as a command to hold fast this faith. The man who has faith should not disturb his weak brother with an unseasonable declaration of his faith in this matter. His belief in this point is correct; and let him rejoice before God in his privilege; but let him not wound the mind of his weak brother by an injudicious exercise of his privileges. He is accountable to God for his faith in this matter as well as in all others. But he is not to intrude it upon his weak brother. Calvin well observes, ‘This passage is evidently perverted and misunderstood when it is adduced to support the opinion that a person may observe foolish and superstitious ceremonies without danger, provided his conscience is pure and undisturbed before God. The context clearly confutes such a misconstruction.’ A Christian may forego his liberty with respect to meats and drinks, but he has no right to practice what God has not enjoined, nor to avoid practicing what God has instituted. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. — That man is happy, and he only can enjoy peace in his conscience, who acts according to the persuasion which he has of the lawfulness of his conduct. And happy is it for the Christian when his just views are not acted on in such a manner as to stumble others.

Ver. 23. — And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

And he that doubteth is damned if he eat. — That is, he that doubteth whether it be right to eat the meats forbidden by the law, is in this condemned, although the thing itself is lawful. The reason is obvious. The person does not fully believe that the thing is right, and consequently by eating he thinks he may be offending God. This shows us that in the things of God we ought not to do anything concerning which we are in doubt. To observe any ordinance of God with doubts as to its being an ordinance of God, is to commit sin. To obey God acceptably, we must have a conviction that we are doing the thing which He has enjoined. Calvin observes on this passage, ‘For if we are not allowed to take a single mouthful of bread with a doubting conscience, how much greater caution ought to be used in transactions of the highest importance?’ For whatsoever is not of faith is sin. — That is, whatsoever is not done with a conviction that it is agreeable to the will of God, is sinful in the doer, although it should be right in itself. This is the generalization of the preceding doctrine. It applies not merely to meats, but to everything. If any person be convinced that a thing is contrary to God’s law, and yet practices it, he is guilty before God, although it should be found that the thing was lawful.