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1 Accept those who have concerns as they think about various matters without entering into aggressive debates and disputes. 2 On the one hand, someone thinks that they can eat everything, but on the other hand, a person who has particular concerns eats just vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything shouldn’t despise the person who doesn’t eat so freely. And the person who doesn’t eat everything shouldn’t judgmentally condemn the person who eats freely; after all, God receives him.
4 Who are you to judge someone else’s employee? It is only in the presence of his own employer that he is judged right or wrong. And he will be judged upright, for his employer—the Lord—is able to make him upright. 5 So, on the one hand, a certain person singles out days from other days as special, while, on the other hand, someone views all days as the same. Every person should be fully convinced about this in their own minds. 6 The person who thinks that a certain day is special thinks about it for the sake of the Lord. And the person who eats everything, eats for the sake of the Lord and gives thanks [for it] to God. And the person who doesn’t eat everything, holds back from eating for the sake of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 So in fact, none of us lives for themselves and none of us dies for themselves. 8 If we live we live for the sake of the Lord, and if we die we die for the sake of the Lord. Whether we live or whether we die we are the Lord’s. 9 It was for this very reason that the Messiah died and was brought to life—so that he might rule both the dead and the living. 10 So who are you to condemn your brother? (And who are you to despise your sister?) We must all present ourselves before the throne of God, 11 as it is written in Scripture: ”’As I live,’ says the ruler in heaven, ‘it will come to pass that every knee will bend to me and every tongue will admit everything to God.” 12 Each one of us is going to give an account of themselves to God. 13 So let’s not judge one another any longer—but judge rather this: that we should no longer place a tripwire or an obstacle in front of a brother or sister.
14 I know and am convinced from my new location “within” Jesus, our heavenly ruler, that nothing is polluting in and of itself except for the person who thinks that something is polluting. For that person it is polluting. 15 And so it follows that if your brother is upset when you eat [something that they think is polluting] then you are no longer walking in love. Surely you do not want by mere eating to destroy a brother or sister for whom the Messiah died. 16 Let’s not allow something that is so good for us become the object of bitter slander in this way. 17 The perfect government of God [which draws near] is not bound up with food or drink but with the liberation, peace, and joy given to us through pure spirit. 18 So the person who serves within the Messiah in the flexible way I’m detailing here is regarded by God with affection and by everyone else with respect. 19 In short, let’s strive after peaceful relations and the things that build one another up. 20 Let’s not allow the very work of God to be destroyed simply because of food. Nothing pollutes, but such things are wrong if a person stumbles as they are eaten. 21 The right thing to do is not to eat food or to drink wine that will make your brother or sister trip or fall. 22 So keep the strong conviction which you have about such things within yourself and before God alone. ‘Blessed is the person who does not end up condemning themselves by means of the things that they approve of doing.’ 23 (And meanwhile the person who doubts when they eat has condemned themselves, because this action is not “through faith.” And everything that is not “through faith” is sin.)