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Romans 14

1Welcome the person who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions. 2One person believes he may eat everything, while the weak person eats vegetables. 3Let the one who eats not despise the one who does not eat, and let the one who does not eat not judge the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4Who are you to judge someone else's household slave? He stands or falls before his own master. And he will be made to stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

5One person judges one day above another; another judges every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6Whoever observes the day observes it for the Lord. And whoever eats eats for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and whoever does not eat abstains for the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives for himself, and none dies for himself. 8For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. 9For this is why Christ died and lived: so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. 11For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will confess to God.” 12So each of us will give an account of himself.

13Therefore let us no longer judge one another. Instead, judge this: not to put a stumbling block or a trap before a brother. 14I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is defiled in itself; but for the person who considers something defiled, for him it is defiled. 15For if your brother is grieved because of food, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. 16So do not let your good be slandered. 17For God's kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18For whoever serves Christ as a slave in this is pleasing to God and approved by people. 19So then, let us pursue what makes for peace and for building one another up. 20Do not tear down God's work for the sake of food. Everything is clean, but it is evil for the person who eats in a way that causes stumbling. 21It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything by which your brother stumbles or is ensnared or is weakened. 22The faith that you have, keep to yourself before God. Blessed is the one who does not judge himself in what he approves. 23But whoever doubts is condemned if he eats, because it is not from faith; and everything that is not from faith is sin.

Translation notes 5

14:1–4 — Welcome and weakness. “Faith” here concerns confidence about what one may eat, within the larger life of trust in God. “Weak” is Paul's description, not a word silently substituted for an ethnic group. The ownership image is explicit: another master's household slave. “Stands” and “falls” connect approval and accountability with bodily imagery.

14:5–9 — Days and belonging. “Alike” is supplied in verse 5 to express the contrast between the two practices. Verse 6's additional statement about not observing a day is absent from the base. “Died and lived” in verse 9 refers to Christ's death and renewed life; a separate “rose” occurs in another textual reading but is not inserted here.

14:10–12 — God's judgment seat. The base reads God's rather than Christ's judgment seat. It also omits the familiar “to God” at the end of verse 12; the preceding context still supplies that setting. “Brother” is community language and need not exclude a woman in the same situation.

14:13–18 — Judgment and food. “Judge” in verse 13 is repeated with a shift from condemning others to deciding one's own conduct. “Defiled” retains the distinction from “clean” later in the chapter. The warning not to destroy another person is not weakened to mere annoyance; the exact outcome is not specified. “Your good” is left broad rather than replaced by a named privilege.

14:19–23 — Building and stumbling. The construction image connects building up with tearing down. Verse 20 can describe eating that causes someone else to stumble or eating while violating one's own convictions. The longer wording “or is ensnared or is weakened” in verse 21 follows the base, though other critical texts omit it. Verse 23 concerns action that lacks the conviction of faith in this dispute; the translation does not insert a universal theory of every unbeliever's act.