Roman's 14

Roman's 14:20-21

Paul gives us a very detailed type of sin to put into consideration in Roman's 14 when he says, "Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble." (ESV)

This is such an overlooked sin. Let's break it down for complete comprehension. So, let's first use real terms. Paul uses eating meat and drinking wine in this context. This verse is not limited to just those acts. Back in that time period, eating meat and drinking wine was against Jewish morals. So when someone that was Jewish did that, they were very looked down upon and treated like a Gentile because of it. The Jews hated that back then. So in comparison to today, that would be if somebody walked around cussing in church or claimed to be a Christian and continued to drop "F Bombs" in every sentence. That's not cool. So now we have that broken down. "Do not, for the sake of food (enjoyment), destroy the work of God." That means that just because you feel like cussing is cool and you're not slandering anyone, don't do it because it will make others question the work of God. "Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats." This part means that even though you're not hurting anybody by doing so (cussing), it is still making other people look down on you and your fellow Christians are getting upset about it. "It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble." So, it's a very good idea for you to stop cussing or doing whatever you're doing that makes others or fellow Christians stumble or generate irritation. 

So what is this really saying overall? Even though something that you're doing may seem harmless to you, other believers might take offense to it because that is just something that they have a hard time with. For example, I'm a believer, but say I sagged my pants. Obviously there's nothing in God's word that says not to sag my pants. So technically that's okay. BUT, if I'm causing other Christ followers to question their views on sagging or making them question my beliefs because I'm sagging, that's a sin because I am causing someone to question what they believe. Does that make sense? If something I'm doing isn't a sin but is making my fellow Christians screw up, then I'm sinning. So all in all, watch out for what you're doing and how it is affecting the body of Christ, because we do not want other people to question God's works.