Romans 14 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~AD 57-58
Location
Rome
Audience
The Christian church in Rome, composed of both Jewish and Gentile believers
Situation
Paul addresses conflicts between 'weak' and 'strong' believers over disputable matters such as dietary restrictions and observance of special days. These tensions likely reflected divisions between Jewish Christians who maintained traditional practices and Gentile Christians who felt free from such observances.
Key Background
Emperor Claudius had expelled Jews from Rome around AD 49, leaving the church predominantly Gentile for several years. When Jews returned after Claudius's death in AD 54, tensions arose as Jewish believers sought to reintegrate while maintaining practices like kosher dietary laws and Sabbath observance. Paul had not yet visited Rome when writing this letter, but planned to stop there on his way to Spain after delivering a collection to Jerusalem.
anyone whose in God is still developing, but don't drag them into arguments about
One person's trust lets them while someone whose trust is still developing eats only vegetables.
The person who eats everything shouldn't down on the one who doesn't, and the one who doesn't eat everything shouldn't on the one who does — because God has welcomed that person.
Who are you to judge someone else's It's their own who decides whether they stand or fall — and they will stand, because the has the power to keep them on their feet.
One person considers a certain more than another, while someone else considers every the same. Each person should be in their own thinking.
The person who observes a special day does it for the Master. The person who eats everything does it for the Master, since they give to God. And the person who doesn't eat certain things does it for the Master, and they also give to God.
None of us lives just for ourselves, and none of us dies just for ourselves.
If we live, we live for the Master. If we die, we die for the Master. So whether we live or die, we to the Master.
This is exactly why The died and to — so that he could be over both the dead and the living.
So why do you judge your or And why do you look down on your or We will all stand before God's
Because it's written: "As surely as I live, says the Master, every will to me, and every tongue will God."
So then, each of us will an of ourselves to God.
So let's stop judging each other. Instead, make this your judgment call: never put an or a in front of a brother or sister.
I know and am in the Master Jesus that nothing is in itself. But if someone considers something then for that person it is
If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting out of Don't let your food choices someone that The One died for.
Don't let something you consider be of as if it were
Because isn't about what you eat or drink — it's about and and that come from the of
Anyone who The One this way pleases God and earns the respect of people.
So then, let's go after the things that lead to peace and the things that each other up.
Don't tear down over food. Everything is acceptable to eat, but it's wrong to eat something if it causes another person to
The right thing to do is to not eat or drink or do anything else that causes your brother or sister to stumble.
Whatever you about these things, keep between yourself and God. is for the person who doesn't condemn themselves over what they've decided is okay.
But the person who has is self-condemned if they eat, because their eating doesn't come from And everything that doesn't come from is