Dual Panel1WELCOME a man whose faith is weak, but not with the idea of arguing over his scruples.
2One man believes that he may eat anything, another man, without this strong conviction, is a vegetarian.
3The meateater should not despise the vegetarian, nor should the vegetarian condemn the meateaterthey should reflect that God has accepted them both.
4After all, who are you to criticise the servant of somebody else? It is to his own master that he stands or falls. And he will stand for the Lord is well able to make him do so.
5Again, one man thinks one day of more importance than others. Another man considers them all alike. Let every one be definite in his own convictions.
6If a man specially observes one particular day, he does so for the Lord's sake. The man who eats, eats for the Lord's sake, for he thanks God for the food. The man who fasts also does it for the Lord's sake, for he thanks God for the benefits of fasting.
7The truth is that we neither live nor die as selfcontained units.
8At every turn life links us to the Lord and when we die we come face to face with him. In life or death we are in the hands of the Lord.
9Christ lived and died that he might be the Lord in both life and death.
10Why, then, do you criticise your brother's actions, why do you try to make him look small? We shall all be judged one day, not by each other's standards or even by our own, but by the judgment of God.
11It is written: As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, And every tongue shall confess to God.
12It is to God alone that we shall have to answer for our actions.
13Let us therefore stop turning critical eyes on one another. Let us rather be critical of our own conduct and see that we do nothing to make a brother stumble or fall.
14I am convinced, and I say this as in the presence of the Lord Jesus, that nothing is intrinsically unholy. But nonetheless it is unholy to the man who thinks it is.
15If your habit of unrestricted diet seriously upsets your brother, you are no longer living in love towards him. And surely you wouldn't let food mean ruin to a man for whom Christ died.
16You mustn't let something that is all right for you look like an evil practice to somebody else.
17After all, the kingdom of Heaven is not a matter of whether you get what you like to eat and drink, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18If you put these things first in serving Christ you will please God and are not likely to offend man.
19So let us concentrate on the things which make for harmony, and on the growth of our fellowship together.
20Surely we shouldn't wish to undo God's work for the sake of a plate of meat. I freely admit that all food is, in itself, harmless, but it can be harmful for the man who eats it and so upsets the faith of others.
21We should be willing to be both vegetarians and teetotallers or abstain from anything else if by doing otherwise we should impede a brother's progress in the faith.
22Your personal convictions are a matter of faith between yourself and God, and you are happy if you have no qualms about what you allow yourself to eat.
23Yet if a man eats meat with an uneasy conscience, you may be sure be is wrong to do so. For his action does not spring from his faith, and when we act apart from our faith we sin.