Romans 14

Wesley: judge this rather—concerning ourselves. Not to lay a stumblingblock by moving him to do as thou doest, though against his conscience; or a scandal, moving him to hate or judge thee.

Arminian: the new judgment is self-watch, not brother-watch. Love refuses to leverage liberty until the weak copies a bite he still thinks is sin.

Calvin plays on two senses of judge: he forbids us to judge, that is, to condemn; he bids us to judge, that is, to exercise judgment so as not to give offense. Malignant censors hunt faults; he bids them exercise wariness, lest by neglect they drive a brother against a stumblingblock.

Forbearance runs both ways—the strong must not lay a stone by eating; the weak must not impede the strong by condemning. The decision is never to trip a brother.

Wesley: assured by the Lord Jesus—perhaps by a particular revelation—that nothing, neither flesh nor herbs, is unclean of itself: unlawful under the gospel. Yet to him who esteemeth anything unclean, to him it is unclean.

Arminian: objective liberty plus subjective conscience. Do not force the weak to eat against his mind. What is free in Christ can still be sin to the one who thinks it bound.

Calvin: no meat is impure to a right and pure conscience; the only hindrance to a pure use is ignorance and infirmity. In the Lord Jesus, by his favor, creatures once accursed in Adam are blessed to us, and his liberty stands against the bondage of the law. Nothing so pure but may be contaminated by a corrupt conscience: faith and godliness sanctify all things.

Regard not only meats but the brethren before whom we eat. Paul frees the conscience and still binds it to love.

Wesley: if thy brother is grieved—that is, wounded, led into sin. “Destroy not him for whom Christ died—So we see, he for whom Christ died may be destroyed.” With thy meat: do not value thy meat more than Christ valued his life.

Christ’s death for this brother is historical, and so is the danger. Love will forgo a lawful bite rather than help ruin a soul Christ bought. The verse is a warning, not a slogan.

Calvin: love is violated when a brother is made to grieve by what is so trifling. Next: when the weak conscience is wounded, the price of Christ’s blood is wasted; the most abject brother has been redeemed by that blood; it is a heinous crime to destroy him by gratifying the stomach. Prefer meat to Christ and you are given up to lust.

Calvin does not here argue the extent of the atonement. He argues the blood-price of this brother. Reformed reading keeps the warning deadly serious as a means, and refuses Wesley’s inference that the redeemed finally perish.

Wesley: let not then your good and lawful liberty be evil spoken of—by being offensive to others. Liberty that tramples the weak stops looking like gospel good.

Arminian: the watching world, and the wounded brother, will name your “good” as evil if you use it to grieve. Forgo the bite rather than hand them that sentence.

Calvin’s third reason: the liberty attained for us by Christ is a blessing; take care lest it be evil spoken of by men and justly blamed, which happens when we unseasonably use God’s gifts.

Christian freedom is not a display. Unseasonable use turns a blood-bought good into a just reproach. Love times the exercise of the right.

Wesley: the kingdom of God—that is, true religion—does not consist in external observances, but in righteousness: the image of God stamped on the heart; the love of God and man, accompanied with the peace that passeth all understanding, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

The heart-image, not the menu. You can abstain without loss, because the kingdom was never plated.

Calvin: we can without loss abstain from the use of our liberty, because the kingdom of God does not consist in such things. Meat and drink are too worthless that on their account the course of the gospel should be impeded. The kingdom consists of spiritual things: well assured, we have peace with God and joy of heart through the Spirit dwelling in us.

Necessary things are not to be dropped for fear of offense; indifferent things may be. Righteousness, peace, and joy outrank the dish.

Wesley: “in these”—righteousness, peace, and joy. “Men”—wise and good men. Serving Christ in the kingdom’s interior goods, not in winning the food argument, is what God accepts.

Arminian: approval here is the fruit of a served Christ, not of a party’s diet. Wise neighbors can see the difference between a peacemaker and a meat-champion.

Calvin: an argument from the effect. It is impossible but that when anyone is acceptable to God and approved by men, the kingdom fully prevails in him. He who with a quiet and peaceful conscience serves Christ in righteousness renders himself approved by men as well as by God. Wherever righteousness, peace, and spiritual joy are, the kingdom is complete in all its parts: it does not consist of material things.

Paul speaks of honest judgment, not the ungodly’s slanders. Serve Christ in these, and the table-war is already lost as a kingdom-test.

Wesley: peace and edification are closely joined. Practical divinity tends equally to peace and to edification. Controversial divinity less directly tends to edification, although sometimes, as they of old, we cannot build without it (Neh 4:17).

Arminian: prefer building to winning. Pursue peace—do not merely wish for it. The weak and the strong have one project: upbuilding.

Calvin recalls us from meats to greater things. We must eat that we may live; we ought to live that we may serve the Lord; and he serves the Lord who by benevolence and kindness edifies his neighbor. Concord and edification take first place.

Edification is joined to peace because some indulge one another too freely and harm by their compliances. Discretion and utility: grant what further his salvation, not whatever quiets a quarrel.

Wesley: the work of God—which he builds in the soul by faith, and in the church by concord. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil to that man who eateth with offence—so as to offend another thereby.

God’s work in a soul and in church peace is worth more than a meal. Clean food used to make a brother stumble is no longer a clean deed.

Calvin: corruptible meat is not of such consequence that for its sake the Lord’s building should be destroyed. Wherever there is even a spark of godliness, there the work of God is to be seen; which they demolish who by unfeeling conduct disturb the conscience of the weak. All things are indeed pure; it is evil for a man to eat with offense: he pollutes the use of pure meat who by it violates love.

Purity of the creature does not purify loveless use. Do not pull down what God is building for the sake of a dish.

Wesley: thy brother stumbleth—by imitating thee against his conscience, contrary to righteousness; or is offended—at what thou doest, to the loss of his peace; or made weak—hesitating between imitation and abhorrence, to the loss of that joy in the Lord which was his strength.

Arminians see the harm here unfold in three stages. Forgo wine and meat if that is what love costs. “Anything” keeps the rule from being only a first-century menu.

Calvin lists three in order: to fall, to stumble, to be weakened. To be weakened is less than to stumble, and to stumble less than to fall: the conscience that wavers with doubt; then one disturbed by greater perplexity; then one in a manner alienated from attention to religion.

It is good to abstain from all things which tend to give offense. Love measures the menu by the brother’s danger, not by the strong’s rights.

Wesley: hast thou faith—that all things are pure? Have it to thyself before God: in circumstances like these, keep it to thyself, and do not offend others by it. Happy is he that condemneth not himself by an improper use of even innocent things; and happy he who is free from a doubting conscience.

Arminian: liberty can be held quietly. A public demonstration of freedom that wounds the weak is already a self-condemnation dressed as faith.

Calvin: liberty understood, as it is that of faith, has properly a regard to God; he who is endued with this conviction ought to be satisfied with peace of conscience before God; it is not needful to show before men that he possesses it. If we offend the weak by eating, it is through a perverse opinion: no necessity constrains us.

Happy is he who, having honestly examined, is not bitten by an accusing conscience. Insensibility is not this blessing. Right judgment before God, then quiet use.

Wesley: because it is not of faith—he does not believe it lawful; and, in all these cases, whatsoever is not of faith is sin: whatever a man does without a full persuasion of its lawfulness, it is sin to him.

The doubter who eats is condemned in that eating. Conscience is not a second savior, but acting against it is still sin. Faith here is persuasion of lawfulness before God. Welcome the weak; do not dare him into a bite he cannot yet own.

Calvin: he who is undecided vacillates, held suspended by uncertainty. The main thing in a good work is the persuasion of a mind conscious of being right before God. Every work, however splendid, is counted as sin except it be founded on a right conscience: God regards not the outward display but the inward obedience of the heart.

Faith here is a fixed persuasion derived from the truth of God. Doubt vitiates the act. Do not shove the weak past his assurance; and do not yourself move until the Word has made the way sure.