"But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. Let not then your good be evil spoken of: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. 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. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin."
In today's quote, Paul encouraged the Christians in Rome, and thereby us, to ignore the trivial earthly customs of their/our brothers and sisters in the church. (This does NOT include those things that believed to be essential steps to the salvation of one's eternal soul, such as ritual water baptism. One who places his/her faith in water baptism as an essential step to salvation robs Jesus of half of that one's faith, leaving one half of that person's faith in Jesus, and the other half in water baptism.)
Today, as in the days of Paul's ministry, there are Christian Groups who promote all manner of differing ritualistic behavior upon their membership believing that to do, or not to do, certain rituals, is, or is not, a sin. And also today, just as in Paul's day, there are some who adamantly refuse to accept the customary behavior of those who don't believe what they see as restrictions and demands of the gospel precisely as they do. Therefore, this lesson should encourage all of us, who have faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ to redeem our eternal souls, no matter what trivial restrictions or rules we might put upon ourselves for God's sake, to come together in our common faith and ignore the earthly rituals that have no bearing on that faith.~
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