Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Romans 14
Welcome One Another Without Quarreling
Welcome the one who is weak in trust, but not for quarrels over opinions. One person trusts that they may eat anything, while the one who is weak eats only vegetables. The one who eats must not despise the one who does not, and the one who does not eat must not judge the one who does, because God has welcomed that person. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? Before their own master they stand or fall—and they will stand, because the Lord is able to make them stand.
One person judges one day to be above another; another judges every day alike. Let each person be fully convinced in their own mind. The one who observes a day observes it to the Lord. The one who eats eats to the Lord, because they give thanks to God; and the one who does not eat abstains to the Lord and gives thanks to God. None of us lives for ourselves, and none of us dies for ourselves. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this is why Christ died and lived again: so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
We Will All Give Account to God
But you—why do you judge your brother or sister? And you—why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.
For it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord,
every knee will bow to me,
and every tongue will confess to God.”
So then each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
Do Not Put a Stumbling Block in Another’s Way
Therefore let us stop judging one another. Instead, decide never to put a stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if someone considers something unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is grieved because of what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food the person for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is good for you be spoken of as evil. For God’s kingdom is not eating and drinking but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by people. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for building one another up. Do not tear down God’s work for the sake of food. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for someone to eat in a way that causes another to stumble. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything by which your brother or sister stumbles. The trust you have, keep it between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn themselves by what they approve. But the one who doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from trust. Whatever is not from trust is sin.