MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO MAKE PEACE

Romans 14:13-23 / Keywords 14:19

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.

14:13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.[c]

Footnotes

c. Romans 14:23 Some manuscripts place 16:25-27 here; others after 15:33.

 

1. Paul writes that the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. We should not make our fellow believers to be distressed because of what we eat.

 

2. After Jesus’ death on the cross for our sin, we are no longer bound by the law. There are no more laws restricting on what to eat or what not to eat. But when we eat, we are acting based on our concern for our fellow believers. If what we eat causes them to be distressed or even causes them to lose faith, we are not doing what is right.

 

3. What Jesus wants from us is to make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Whatever we eat, whatever we do must be edifying to one another.

 

4. Jesus wants us to be one church, one body. He wants us to love one another and work together to become one in Christ. Even though we may think we are doing a great thing, if it hurts and discourages our fellow believers, we need to rethink if it truly edifies our church or if it is dividing our church.

 

Prayer Father, help us to do what leads to peace and mutual edification.

One Word For mutual edification in Christ