“Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean. For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy, by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In the early 20th century, some philosophers and literary critics, tired of what they saw as the restrictiveness of modernity, began to explore beyond its limits. Starting from the jumping off point that the meaning of a particular text isn’t fixed, they gradually began to apply this relativistic thinking to all of life. Thus cultural relativism was born. While possessing perhaps a grain of truth, relativism’s impact on culture broadly has mostly been poisonous that at least many Christian philosophers have been working to counter ever since. So then, why does Paul seem to propose a kind of relativism here? Let’s explore what he is saying and how we can create peaceful, welcoming churches.

Over the course of our last several entries, we have been talking about judgment. That’s a bit broad, so let’s clarify things a bit more. We have been talking about not judging one another in the context of the church body. There are other passages that deal with casting judgment outside the body of Christ (mostly they say we should not do it and should instead exercise the love of Christ and leave the rest to God), but this passage is not among them. There are other passages that talk specifically about exercising judgment within the church, giving us guidelines and guardrails when we do it. And we are expected to do it when matters of sin or essential doctrine are concerned. This passage is not one of those either.

What Paul has been talking about here is how to get along with one another when a non-essential, but hotly disputed matter becomes a hot button issue in the church. In the particular case of the church in Rome, the issue was whether or not it was morally appropriate for followers of Jesus to eat meat that had previously been part of an idolatrous, pagan sacrificial offering. Some said it was fine because meat was meat. Others said it was absolutely not okay because believers should have no business supporting any kind of idolatrous practices. Paul’s conclusion on the matter was that while it was fine to eat the meat, the more important matter was that the two sides needed to learn to get along and love each other as fellow members of the body of Christ in spite of their differences.

Out of the gate we see him driving home that point again here. “Therefore, let us no longer judge one another.” Pause there for a second. Here is yet another example of why context has to be king when it comes understanding the Scriptures properly. Snipped from its context, this sentence could be used as a once-for-all statement prohibiting all sorts of different kinds of judgment. But we know that’s not what Paul is saying. He’s not saying that if your brother or sister is engaged in an obviously sinful practice, you should just let it go because “let us no longer judge one another.” He’s not saying that if your brother and sister is going weak on matters of core, essential doctrine that you should not stand in their way because “let us no longer judge one another.” He is talking about the specific situation we have already identified and reviewed above. That context is the only way this sentence should be applied.

“Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister.” Then, in v. 15, he adds this: “For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy, by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died.”

Do you see what he’s saying? When it comes to these non-essential matters, you can have your opinion. It doesn’t have to be the same opinion as someone else. You can even let your opinion be informed by the Scriptures. In fact, you should let your opinion be informed by the Scriptures. But you should not begin to treat your opinion on this non-essential matter like it is a core doctrine upon which everyone must agree…with you. You must not let your opinion on the matter become something that causes trouble for fellow members of the body of Christ. Don’t let it become a stumbling block or a pitfall.

A stumbling block in this case would be an obstacle to the free exercise of your brother or sister’s freedom in Christ. They are walking along, minding their own business, exercising their freedom in Christ on some matter, and suddenly you come along and say, “Hey! You can’t do that!” Now, instead of walking along their merry little way toward God’s kingdom, they are embroiled in a debate with you over something you don’t think they should be doing but their freedom in Christ allows for it. You have caused them to stumble.

A pitfall, on the other hand, would be something you are doing that is allowed by your freedom in Christ, but which your brother or sister is convinced is not just incorrect in practice, but sinful. The reason they considered it to be sinful to do really doesn’t matter. Your doing whatever it is around them without thought of the position of their conscience on the matter could cause them to drift into being judgmental toward you, building hatred in their heart, or it could tempt them to join you in whatever it is, thus violating their conscience and what they believe to be the sovereignty of God on the matter. Either way, they have fallen into a pit of sin.

Both of these outcomes can be avoided by exercising the love of Christ in more intentional ways with one another. We need to first have the humility to differentiate between core and non-essential matters of doctrine. That’s not so easy because we want to believe that our position on a particular matter is the correct position not merely our position. We need to know the Scriptures well enough to be able to know the difference. On the other side of this issue, though, we need to be aware of the beliefs and opinions of the people around us and not do things in ways that will needlessly cause them harm or draw them into sin of some kind. In other words, we need to love them with the love of Jesus. Churches that lose sight of this become either libertine or else pharisaical places remarkably quickly. Nothing about that advances the kingdom of God.

There’s one other thing here. How could something be a pitfall for one believer, but not for another? That seems to indicate that sin is a relative concept. Isn’t sin, sin? Well, yes and no. There are some things that are violations of the character and command of God. No one should do those things ever. Murder. Theft. Infidelity. Fornication. Dishonesty. Unbelief. Those kinds of things are always wrong for everybody. A person can violate the sovereignty of God, though, in ways that don’t involve doing something that is fundamentally and necessarily sinful. This is what Paul points to in v. 14.

“I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.” Now, again, context matters here. Paul is talking about non-essential matters of doctrine. That first sentence cannot be used, for example, to excuse sexual sins because they don’t seem to be hurting anyone else. It doesn’t make theft okay in some circumstances. The word unclean refers back to the Jewish law concept of things that rendered someone spiritually clean or unclean but which weren’t necessarily sinful.

Paul’s point is that if someone holds a firm opinion on some non-essential matter of doctrine, that it should only be approached from a single direction in order to properly bring honor to God, if that person approached it from a different direction without changing his opinion on the matter, he would be willfully doing what he believes God has said not to do. Even though God has not actually said not to do it, he is nonetheless consciously violating God’s sovereignty (or at least what he understands God’s sovereignty to be on that matter), and that’s a sin.

Let’s pour some concrete on that so it makes more sense. We’ll pick an easy target. If a believer considers consuming alcohol to be sin, but goes and has a drink anyway in order to fit in with other believers who are fine with drinking in moderation and are enjoying a drink together, then even though drinking alcohol is not in and of itself sinful, that person has nonetheless sinned by doing this thing he is convinced God has said not to do. The sin here is not in the action itself, but in the willful transgression of his understanding of God’s authority. Even though his belief about alcohol itself is in error, his belief about the sovereignty of God is not. Thus, he can violate the latter by doing the former even though doing the former is not actually wrong for believers to do.

This can get confusing quickly and lead us down all sorts of what about thises and what about thats. I’m not interested in that today. What I am interested in is the same thing Paul was interested in. As fellow followers of Jesus in community together in a church body, we need to major in loving one another and not insisting that everything happen according to our preference and opinion. Thriving communities are ones in which humility and graciousness rule the day. They are ones in which the love of Christ is practiced actively and eagerly. They are where freedom is celebrated, but in which it is never used as a weapon to keep others down or to excuse unrighteousness. They are where people can come as they are and be loved in the direction of who God made them to be.

These kinds of communities are extraordinarily attractive. They are where Gospel ministry can thrive. They are where unbelievers are drawn in ways they don’t fully understand, but go all the same. They are where children and adolescents are free to grow and love both Jesus and His church because of the patient love they constantly receive. They are where families thrive and are made whole because of the sweet, loving, inter generational fellowship they experience together. They are where needs are met and justice is served and the broken brought to wholeness. They are where God’s kingdom is present in force. These are the kinds of communities we want and can have when we take Paul’s counsel here seriously. Let’s do that.