The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.
- KJV Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
- BSB The one who eats everything must not belittle the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted him.
- NKJV Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.
- NLT Those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don’t. And those who don’t eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them.
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
The free believer must not look down on the abstainer, and the abstainer must not condemn the free believer, because God has welcomed both. God's acceptance settles the matter that human judgment cannot.
Overview
Paul names the two characteristic sins: the strong despise the weak as backward, the weak judge the strong as careless. Both attitudes are forbidden because God has already accepted each one in Christ. To reject a brother God has received is to set oneself against God. The grounding is grace: acceptance rests on Christ's work, not on dietary practice.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Rom 14:10But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
- Col 2:16–17Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,
- Luke 18:9He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others.
- 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.
- 1 Cor 10:29–30Conscience, I say, not your own, but the other’s conscience. For why is my liberty judged by another conscience?
- Acts 10:34Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God doesn’t show favoritism;
- Matt 18:10See that you don’t despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
- Acts 10:44While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word.
- 1 Cor 8:11–13And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died.
- Matt 11:18–19For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
- Rom 14:15Yet 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.
- Rom 14:21It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak.
- Matt 7:1–2“Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.
- Acts 15:8–9God, who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he did to us.
- Matt 9:14Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?”
- Zech 4:10Indeed, who despises the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These are Yahweh’s eyes, which run back and forth through the whole earth.”
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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 14:3 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
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