But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
- BSB If your brother is distressed by what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother, for whom Christ died.
- NKJV Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.
- NASB For if because of food your brother or sister is hurt, you are no longer walking in accordance with love. Do not destroy with your choice of food that person for whom Christ died.
- NLT And if another believer is distressed by what you eat, you are not acting in love if you eat it. Don’t let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If your eating grieves a brother, you are no longer walking in love; do not destroy by your food someone for whom Christ died. The cross sets the value of the brother above the exercise of liberty.
Overview
Paul confronts the strong with the weight of love. To wound a brother's conscience for the sake of food is to abandon the law of love. The decisive measure is the cross: Christ died for this person, so to harm him spiritually for so trivial a thing as diet is grotesque. Christ's self-giving love becomes the pattern and limit of how we use our freedom.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- 1 Cor 8:11–12And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?
- Gal 5:13For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
- Phil 2:2–4Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
- 1 Cor 13:4–5Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
- Rom 14:20For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
- Eph 5:2And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
- 1 Cor 8:1Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
- Rom 15:2Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
- Ezek 13:22Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:
- Rom 13:10Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
- 1 Cor 13:1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
- 1 Jn 2:2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
- 2 Pet 2:1But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 14:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.