It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother or sister stumbles.
Parallel translations
- WEB It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak.
- KJV It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
- BSB It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything to cause your brother to stumble.
- NKJV It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.
- NLT It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it might cause another believer to stumble.
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
It is good to abstain from meat, wine, or anything that causes a brother to stumble. Voluntary self-limitation for love's sake is the mature use of liberty.
Overview
Paul commends willing restraint when our liberty would trip a fellow believer. The issue is not that meat or wine is wrong, but that love may lead us to forgo what is permitted. This mirrors Christ, who did not please Himself. Maturity is shown not in asserting every right but in gladly setting some aside for the good of others and the unity of the church.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Cor 8:13Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.
- Rom 14:13Therefore let’s not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling.
- Rom 15:1–2Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
- Matt 18:7–10“Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes!
- Mal 2:8But you have turned aside out of the way. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Luke 17:1–2He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no occasions of stumbling should come, but woe to him through whom they come!
- Matt 16:23But he turned, and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.”
- Heb 12:13and make straight paths for your feet, so that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
- Rev 2:14But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
- Phil 1:10so that you may approve the things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ;
- Rom 14:17for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 14:21 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.