Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
In a local church you have many different types of people with a wide variety of backgrounds. Those backgrounds inform much of the individual’s thoughts towards what is “right” and what is “wrong” in life. I grew up in a home where going to the movies and dancing were highly forbidden. They were acts of sin against God, according to my father. Others grew up doing both those things and they are still my brothers and sisters in Christ. Whereas I no longer hold to my father’s mantra, there was a time that it bother me that some did those things. If they did know that about me and ask me to go dancing or to a movie, that is what Paul is talking about in the above passage. In his day it was not movies, dancing, smoking, etc. It was meat that was purchased in the market place that could have come from an animal that was offered to a pagan idol. To some that meat was meat and was a good steak on the grill. However, to others it was a sacrifice to a false god and to eat it would be to partake, in some way, in that idol worship. This is the argument of the above teaching. Paul’s point, however, is not to referee which person in the above scenario right. Paul’s point is to teach them that the key component in these arguments of adiaphorous (amoral) things, is to trump the whole thing with sacrificial love toward your brother or sister in Christ. Paul will later write:
Romans 14:13 (ESV)
Do Not Cause Another to Stumble
Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
When we see others doing something that we think is a moral choice we are not to pass judgment on those who might partake in this thing, activity, event, etc. The key component to Paul is not the thing that is being disputed between to brothers/sisters in Christ. To Paul the thing that matters is our treatment of the other person and why we are making ourselves judges over them. There are, of course, things that are not in dispute about life. Areas that a specifically addressed in Scripture are to be handled as such. But this above scenario is not one of them. You can spend the days arguing about these things. Or, you can practice love and put the other person’s hearts in front of your own. There is much dispute about the above passage as to who is the weak person and who is the strong person in this meat offered to idol thing. The answer is actually quite simple. The one who is weak is the one who judges his/her brother/sister. The one who is strong is the one who gives up their own “rights” to make sure they don’t offend the other.
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