Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another

¹As for mthe one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. ²nOne person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. ³Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and olet not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. ⁴pWho are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master1 that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

⁵qOne person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. rEach one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since she gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷For tnone of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. ⁸For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, uwhether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. ⁹For to this end Christ vdied and lived again, that he might be Lord both wof the dead and of the living.

¹⁰Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For wwe will all stand before xthe judgment seat of God; ¹¹for it is written,

y“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,

and every tongue shall confess2 to God.”

¹²So then zeach of us will give an account of himself to God.

Do Not Cause Another to Stumble

¹³aTherefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide bnever to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. ¹⁴I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus cthat nothing is unclean in itself, dbut it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. ¹⁵For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, eyou are no longer walking in love. fBy what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. ¹⁶gSo do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷hFor the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but iof righteousness and jpeace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸Whoever thus serves Christ is kacceptable to God and approved by men. ¹⁹So then let us lpursue what makes for peace and for mmutual upbuilding.

²⁰nDo not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. oEverything is indeed clean, but pit is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. ²¹qIt is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.3 ²²The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. rBlessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. ²³But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.4

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