Romans 14 - Don't judge nor stumble another

Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. (Romans 14:15)
Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. (Romans 14:20)

This instruction was repeated two times, and it really stood out for me.

The people then was having some issues over food. Probably some felt that some things cannot be eaten, while others felt that all those laws have been done away with. It must have caused quite a bit of a mess and disorder for the church then.

In fact, the Bible did not specify whether the food can be taken or is to be abstained. There is a principle though:

that we do not judge others in whatever they do, and we do not stumble others with whatever we do.

Sounds easy, but not really.

It kept me pondering, what is my food today? What is this food that I am insisting on eating today?

What is this food that I am holding so strongly to, even to the extent of destroying a soul because of it? Which is really more important - man's soul or my food? We all know what is God's answer to that. For the Bible referred to the souls of man as "the one for whom Christ died" and "the work of God", telling us how much God esteems each and every one of us.

So, what is my food today?

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Do not let your good be spoken of as evil (Romans 14:16).

This is another point that stood out for me. How can something good be deemed as evil? But the Bible clearly tells us it is possible.

Sometimes we may have a good intention to do certain things and we truly believes that it can edify others! Thus, we become stubborn to doing certain things in certain ways, but, genuinely with good intentions.

However, sometimes, others may be better able to point out to us our mistakes, or areas which we have failed to consider. Do we then still remain stubborn, refusing to think of our intentions as anything but good?

I think in this verse, God is telling us that sometimes our well-intended actions can be misunderstood by others who may not fully understand. However, it does not mean we can push all the blame to such people, thinking that as long as we have a good motive, we are doing right. In actuality, we are stumbling others!

The verse above was directed to us. Therefore, we have the responsibility ourselves to make sure that our good is not spoken of as evil by others.

What else does the Bible say?

Let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edifiy another. (Romans 14:19)

And the Bible states that one who does this is acceptable to God and approved by men. (Romans 14:18)

While we strive to meet God's standards and do the things which is pleasing in His sight, we must also seek for peace among men. We should not let anything be a stumbling block to others nor let others misunderstand our good intentions. If there is any slight chance of so,

it is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. (Romans 14:21)

May God help us to work towards this.

Romans 13 - what do we owe?

Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. (Romans 13:7)

Some questions to ask ourselves:
Do we give tithes?
Do we pay taxes willingly?
Do we download free movies or songs online?
Do we install pirated softwares?

Hopefully we have answered favourably to the questions above, but I would like to extend this instruction in Romans 13:7 a little more.

Render therefore to all their due: praises to whom praises are due.

If we know to give unto those who deserves, then how about he who deserves praise? Are we more likely to neglect this?

Blessed is he who praises!
For he sees the strengths and good of others.

Let us learn to give unto others what they deserves to get (in the positive sense, of course). In that case, we will be fulfilling what the next verse say: "Owe no one anything....."

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfulled the law (Romans 13:8).

The only IOU that we should ever write is that of love. Yet, in our day to day interactions with people around us, we have come to believe that we don't owe anybody anything as long as we don't do anything against him, isn't it?

In reality, I owe the greatest debt of love to Jesus. And what greater way to repay this debt by repaying it on His little ones?

‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

I owe my neighbour a debt of love, and so, I need to repay that debt. And the best way to repay is to share the gift of salvation with them. I ought to remember this as I mingle daily with my colleagues, my brethren, my family and friends.