Unlimited: Do Not Cause Someone Else to Stumble
Oct 25, 2023 1106
All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall (Romans 14:20b–21).
Paul was a follower of Jesus, although he would have been seen as a Jew by those outside Judaism, and as a heretical Jew from inside Judaism. What Paul says here is very radical in the Jewish cultural context. It still might be radical to a few Christians today.
The apostle Paul says that all food is clean. However, Paul is only echoing what Jesus himself had taught in Mark 7:14–15,18–19.
It is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.
Jesus (and Paul) isn’t saying that some foods aren’t healthier than others and that you don’t need to make healthy dietary choices. He is addressing the specific Jewish teaching, based on the Levitical law, that eating some food is a sin; in other words that it is a moral issue. Jesus is saying that food isn’t a moral issue at all. Sin doesn’t come from your external environment into you, it comes from within you.
The apostle Paul is encouraging his readers that they refrain from eating specific foods in the presence of their weaker brothers and sisters lest they be offended and fall into their own sins of judging, condemning, gossiping, and so on. In love for them, we are to limit our own freedom in Christ for the sake of others who are weaker in faith.
Spiritual Application
I’ve recognized that I’ve caused people to stumble in the past. Have you? What did you learn from that?
Ketch Winters
Oct 25, 2023
Hello Brothers and Sisters, The problem with this teaching is that as a follower of Jesus, we should follow what He says. When we make concessions for those who do not follow Jesus, we are rejecting our own convictions and the instructions of The One that we say we follow. Jesus was VERY clear. No food is bad. Period. Now do we follow the words of Jesus or that of those that do not follow Jesus just to make them happy ? I am a vegetarian. I do not eat meat. Not because it is bad, but because it is my choice. I was invited to a friends house for dinner. They became upset when I said I preferred not to eat meat and cancelled the meal. Apparently, my friendship was not as important as their diet. So who is causing who to stumble here ? This would be no different then going to someone's house who worships the devil and rejecting Jesus because we do not wish to offend our host. Technically we should not be interacting with these people at all as the Bible states, but then if we do that, we are not showing love to what would be considered our enemies, as the Jesus states. If we don't show those that do not believe the grace of our faith, how will they learn? It's a rough situation. Personally, I choose Jesus. It pains me to say, but there is way too much swirling of statements in The Bible. The people try to validate it by extensively convoluted "explanations" I call it Bible Babble. Their explanations are so complicated that one forgets what the question was. Scripture needs to be simplified, it was intended for simple people. The Angels came to common shepherds not kings. The whole purpose of Jesus' life was to bring God to common people not only scholars. Somewhere along the line, so called "educated" people got a hold of it and caused it to be confused so that they could TELL others what it means. It is no longer for the simple man. I believe it once was, then others got a hold of it for their own agendas. When we talk of Scripture we need to be conscious of that which so convolutes the meaning that it no longer makes sense. This is a prime cause of why so many reject The Bible today. The common man is not an uneducated shepherd. Thank you for your devotions. They are much better then the majority I have read. Ketchakah
Gabriel kaliwo
Oct 25, 2023
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