Romans 14

ECF

‹ Chapter 13 Romans — All Chapters Chapter 15 ›

Romans 14:1

Ambrosiaster: As I mentioned in my prologue to the epistle, those who led the Romans to faith had mixed it up with the law because they were Jews, which is why some of them thought that they should not eat meat. But others, who followed Christ apart from the law, thought otherwise, that it was permissible to eat meat, and for this reason there were disputes among them. The apostle tried to solve these disputes by arguing that the person who abstained from eating gained no advantage in the sight of God, nor did the one who ate lose anything thereby. He says that the person who is afraid to eat because the Jews had forbidden it is weak. He wants this person to be left to his own judgment, so as not to be hurt and depart from that love which is a mother of souls. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

Apollinaris of Laodicea: As far as matters of indifference are concerned, Paul says that it does not matter whether we do them or not, but when it comes to loving our neighbor, they cease to be matters of indifference. Any regulation concerning food is a matter of indifference, because everything has been sanctified by the power of Christ. But not everyone is so strong in his faith that he is in no danger of being corrupted by these things. Whether we injure such a person or do not injure him is not to be regarded as a matter of indifference, but we are to take great care to ensure that no one loses his soul by eating something which he thinks it might be wrong to eat. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

Augustine of Hippo: Paul says that we should receive the weak man in order that we might support his weakness by our strength. Neither should we criticize his opinions by daring to pass judgment on someone else’s heart, which we do not see. — AUGUSTINE ON Romans 78

Cyprian: But what a thing it is, to assert and contend that they who are not born in the Church can be the sons of God! For the blessed apostle sets forth and proves that baptism is that wherein the old man dies and the new man is born, saying, “He saved us by the washing of regeneration.” But if regeneration is in the washing, that is, in baptism, how can heresy, which is not the spouse of Christ, generate sons to God by Christ? For it is the Church alone which, conjoined and united with Christ, spiritually bears sons; as the same apostle again says, “Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it with the washing of water.” If, then, she is the beloved and spouse who alone is sanctified by Christ, and alone is cleansed by His washing, it is manifest that heresy, which is not the spouse of Christ, nor can be cleansed nor sanctified by His washing, cannot bear sons to God. — Epistle LXXIII

Gennadius of Constantinople: Who would be so inhumane as to lay aside any sympathy for the weak and trample on them, not even offering them the help they need in adversity? Paul makes this an absolute command and accompanies it with the teaching that the law and all the behavior it entailed has been abolished in Christ. Yet he was conscious that the ethnic heritage weighed more heavily on the Jew, who felt that he would be sinning against his brothers if he went against the law. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

John Chrysostom: I Am aware that to most what is here said is a difficulty. And therefore I must first give the subject of the whole of this passage, and what he wishes to correct in writing this. What does he wish to correct then? There were many of the Jews which believed, who adhered of conscience to the Law, and after their believing, still kept to the observance of meats, as not having courage yet to quit the service of the Law entirely. Then that they might not be observed if they kept from swine’s flesh only, they abstained in consequence from all flesh, and ate herbs only, that what they were doing might have more the appearance of a fast than of observance of the Law. Others again were farther advanced, and kept up no one thing of the kind, who became to those, who did keep them, distressing and offensive, by reproaching them, accusing them, driving them to despondency. Therefore the blessed Paul, out of fear lest, from a wish to be right about a trifle, they should overthrow the whole, and from a wish to bring them to indifferency about what they ate, should put them in a fair way for deserting the faith, and out of a zeal to put everything right at once, before the fit opportunity was come, should do mischief on vital points, so by this continual rebuking setting them adrift from their agreement in Christ, and so they should remain not righted in either respect: observe what great judgment he uses and how he concerns himself with both interests with his customary wisdom. For neither does he venture to say to those who rebuke, Ye are doing amiss, that he may not seem to be confirming the other in their observances; nor again, Ye are doing right, lest he should make them the more vehement accusers: but he makes his rebuke to square with each. And in appearance he is rebuking the stronger, but he pours forth all he has to say against the other in his address to these. For the kind of correction most likely to be less grating is, when a person addresses some one else, while he is striking a blow at a different person, since this does not permit the person rebuked to fly into a passion, and introduces the medicine of correction unperceived. See now with what judgment he does this, and how well-timed he is with it. For after saying, “make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof,” then he proceeds to the discussion of these points, that he might not seem to be speaking in defence of those who were the rebukers, and were for eating of anything. For the weaker part ever requires more forethought. Wherefore he aims his blow against the strong, immediately saying as follows, “Him that is weak in the faith.” You see one blow immediately given to him. For by calling him weak, he points out that he is not healthy. Then he adds next, “receive,” and point out again that he requires much attention. And this is a sign of extreme debility. “Not to doubtful disputations.” See, he has laid on a third stroke. For here he makes it appear that his error is of such a nature, that even those who do not transgress in the same manner, and who nevertheless admit him to their affection, and are earnestly bent upon curing him, are at doubt. You see how in appearance he is conversing with these, but is rebuking others secretly and without giving offence. Then by placing them beside each other, one he gives encomiums, the other accusations. For he goes on to say, “One believeth that he may eat all things,” commending him on the score of his faith. “Another who is weak, eateth herbs,” disparaging this one again, on the score of his weakness. — Homily on Romans 25

Origen of Alexandria: Now him that is weak in faith receive, not in disputes over thoughts. For one believes that he may eat all things; but he who is weak, let him eat vegetables. In the passages above too the Apostle made mention of weakness of faith, where he says of Abraham: When he was nearly a hundred years old, he was not weakened in faith. Concerning that weakness of faith we have set forth, in those places, such things as could occur to us. But now also he makes mention of one weak in faith, whom he calls weak in this respect, that he does not believe he may eat all things, but his faith is so slight that he reckons vegetables alone to be food suitable for him. This can indeed seem to have been said to those who believed from among the Gentiles, exalting themselves in the liberty of faith because they believed nothing to be common or unclean, over against those who believed from the circumcision, still observing according to the tradition of the law a distinction of foods: so that he may seem to restrain them and to warn them not to insult those in whom long custom in the observance of foods still stirred some discrimination and hesitation. He commands, therefore, that he who is thus weak in this faith should rather be received, and not cast off, nor judged as though unbelieving. For it is one thing to be unbelieving, another to be weak in faith. For he is called unbelieving who does not have faith; but weak in faith is he who doubts in some part of the faith. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: From here on Paul indirectly begins to upbraid those who thought they were strong and who therefore ate meat without restraint. Paul tells them not to judge others according to their opinions when the law does not judge them. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Theodoret of Cyrus: The weak were those who continued to observe the law. — INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

Romans 14:2

Ambrosiaster: The faithful reader of Scripture will not doubt that everything which is given for human use is fit to be eaten, for it says in Genesis that everything which God created is good. Therefore nothing is to be rejected, for neither Enoch, who was the first to please God, nor Noah, who alone was found righteous at the time of the flood, nor Abraham, who was the friend of God, nor Isaac nor Jacob, both righteous men and friends of God, nor even Lot, nor any other righteous men are said to have abstained from these things.If someone thinks it right to be a vegetarian he is not to be persuaded to eat meat, because if he ignores his own principles and eats with reluctance he will appear to be sinning. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

Augustine of Hippo: At that time many people who were strong in their faith and who knew the Lord’s teaching, that it is what comes out of the mouth which defiles a man, not what goes into it, were eating whatever they liked with a clear conscience. But some weaker ones abstained from meat and wine, so as to avoid unknowingly eating foods which had been sacrificed to idols. At that time the Gentiles sold all sacrificed meat in the butcher shops, poured out the first fruits of the wine as a libation to their idols and even made some offerings in the wine presses. — AUGUSTINE ON Romans 78

Clement of Alexandria: “Now the weak eateth herbs,” according to the noble apostle. — The Stromata Book 6

Pelagius: Some people have a faith so strong that it is not disturbed. Some are worn out by abstinence, or else they are elderly. Others are weak because of their youth or the lusts of the flesh. Paul is not speaking here of the Jews, as some suppose, but of those who abstain, for the Jews do not eat meats even if they are clean according to the law, but only vegetables.Another possible interpretation is this: If you become fainthearted because you know another person who has decided to eat only vegetables and you hesitate to eat meat because of his faith, do not judge the other man’s decision or ask him what has been left to individual discretion. But if you take offense and do not want to eat meat, set a limit for yourself and do the better thing—eat only vegetables—so that everyone may be stirred to abstinence by your agreeableness in this matter rather than be annoyed and offended and thereby merely strengthened in their resolve to go on eating meat. For you cannot condemn someone if he is acting in faith or does it because of his health or old age. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Theodoret of Cyrus: Those who would eat anything were obviously Gentiles. Some people say that converted Jews shamed these Gentiles not only into abstaining from meat which had been sacrificed to idols but from any kind of meat whatever. — INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

Romans 14:3

Ambrosiaster: What we eat or do not eat is a matter of personal choice and therefore it should not become a matter for argument. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

Augustine of Hippo: The apostle instructed those who ate such food with a clear conscience not to despise the weakness of those who abstained.… And he told the weak not to condemn as polluted those who consumed such meat and wine.… For the strong insisted on despising the weak, and the weak did not hesitate to condemn the strong. — AUGUSTINE ON Romans 78

Augustine of Hippo: Paul wanted to keep the balance, by which scandals are avoided, between those who fast on Saturday and those who do not, so that the one who eats would not despise the one who does not eat, and the one who fasts would not judge the one who eats. — LETTER 36

Clement of Alexandria: We are not, then, to abstain wholly from various kinds of food, but only are not to be taken up about them. We are to partake of what is set before us, as becomes a Christian, out of respect to him who has invited us, by a harmless and moderate participation in the social meeting; regarding the sumptuousness of what is put on the table as a matter of indifference, despising the dainties, as after a little destined to perish. “Let him who eateth, not despise him who eateth not; and let him who eateth not, not judge him who eateth.” — The Instructor Book 2

John Chrysostom: “Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not.”

He does not say, let him alone, nor does he say, do not blame him, nor yet, do not set him right; but do not reproach him, do not “despise” him, to show they were doing a thing perfectly ridiculous. But of this he speaks in other words. “Let not him which eateth not, judge him that eateth.” For as the more advanced made light of these, as of little faith, and falsely healed, and spurious, and still Judaizers, so they too judged these as law-breakers, or as given to gluttony. And of these it is likely that many were of the Gentiles too. Wherefore he proceeds, for God hath received him. But in the other’s case he does not say this. And yet to be despised was the eater’s share, as a glutton, but to be judged, his that did not eat, as of little faith. But he has made them change places, to show that he not only does not deserve to be despised, but that he can even despise. But do I condemn him? he means. By no means. For this is why he proceeds, “for God hath received him.” Why then speakest thou to him of the law, as to a transgressor? “For God hath received him:” that is, has shown His unspeakable grace about him, and hath freed him from all charges against him; then again he turns to the strong. — Homily on Romans 25

Origen of Alexandria: The Apostle, therefore, composing the body of the Church in peace, says: Let him who eats not despise him who does not eat; and let him who does not eat not judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you that judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands, or falls: but he shall stand; for God is able to make him stand — namely, so that through these words there should be no dissension among believers on account of foods. But Paul seems to have spoken these things with a deeper meaning. For the law had enjoined nothing about eating vegetables upon those coming from the circumcision, such that what he says would seem to fit them: But he who is weak, let him eat vegetables. Whence it is evident that he is treating these matters concerning the food of the word, and calls weak in faith the one who is not so perfect in his faculties that he can take all the food of the word of God — just as the Apostle himself says elsewhere: But solid food is for the perfect, for those who, according to their capacity for taking it, have their faculties exercised for the discernment of good and evil. And again he says to others: I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able. And shall we be so foolish as to suppose that the Apostle, who was sent to preach the word of God, carried milk about with him to give the Corinthians to drink? But it is manifest that he is speaking of these things with respect to the quality of the word, and therefore says: If anyone is weaker in his faculties, and is not of so perfect a faith as to grasp the word concerning the more hidden mysteries, disputes of thoughts must not be stirred up for him through those things which he cannot understand. For one, he says, believes that he may eat all things. Paul is not by these words exhorting the disciples to eat all things; nor is he a teacher of gluttony and the gullet: but he is doubtless speaking of those whose faith is perfect, and who are hindered by no distinctions in the word of God — those whom the same Apostle elsewhere calls spiritual, when he says: But the spiritual man examines all things. It is he, then, of whom he here says: But another believes that he may eat all things. Finally, to the apostles also, before they received the Holy Spirit, it was said by the Lord: I have yet many things to say to you; but you cannot bear them now. But the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, will come, and he himself will teach you all things. These, then, are the “all things” which he believes he may eat who, by reason of the perfection of his faith, has through the grace of the Holy Spirit become capable of the more hidden word. Yet the weak man too has something to take from the word of God, and there is a certain kind of word which the Apostle here has called “vegetables,” which does not render the hearer’s faculties so robust and strong as it sustains them and keeps them from perishing. For in many places divine Scripture speaks of the inner senses of the soul as though of the outward members of the body; and as we have often taught that the inner man is said either to see, or to hear, or to walk, so now too this same inner man is said either to be able to take in every food if he is perfect, or, if he is weak, to eat vegetables. But in order that he may compose the concord in the Church of the perfect and the imperfect — as of the less honorable and the honorable members in the body — and that there may be no dissension among them, he says: Let him who eats not despise him who does not eat; and let him who does not eat not judge him who eats. This is what he says elsewhere too: That the eye cannot say to the hand, You are not necessary to me; nor the head to the feet, I do not need your service. But much more those members of the body which seem to be less honorable are necessary. And so to those whose faith is such that they can eat all things, and grasp every kind of the word, he gives the precept that they not be proud and despise those who are inferior; and again to those who are incapable of the more perfect teaching he gives the charge that they not judge those whose faculties are more capacious and whose understanding is more eminent. For by a perverse order the unskilled are wont to judge the skilled, and the slothful the studious. Sometimes, however, even those who have grasped some beginnings of knowledge are puffed up and exalt themselves against those who seem to be less capable. Therefore Paul, restraining by the rebuke of apostolic authority the insolence of both parties, says: Who are you that judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands, or falls. When he says stands, or falls, he speaks according to the mind of the one whom he rebukes. For the more unskilled man, if he sees someone perceiving something more profoundly and in a way he himself cannot grasp, judges that this man has fallen from the standing of faith; and again those who are puffed up by knowledge, and do not act with charity as Paul admonishes, think similarly about any who are less skilled: and therefore he took away from a brother the power of judging a brother. And he says another’s servant well, because the Lord says: But you are all brothers. All — that is, the whole creation — and there is one sole Lord, Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all, rich toward all. At the same time he also makes manifest the ineffable goodness of God, when he says of him who seems to have fallen, even if he has truly fallen, that God is able to make him stand. For the Lord raises up those who have been cast down. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: These people took offense at each other. Those who did not eat judged those who ate as carnal, and those who ate ridiculed those who did not eat as fools and considered them to be superstitious. But God called the one, just as he called the other. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Philoxenus of Mabbug: And again, when the Apostle Paul is read, and he heareth from him, “Everything which was created by God is holy, and nothing is to be rejected if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer;” or another verse, “The belly for meats, and meats for the belly;” or that also which he spake, “Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth.” And in the other things like unto these which are written in the doctrine of Paul, the fool rejoiceth, and receiveth them gladly, without understanding the reason of the words.

And the glutton is not pleased to hear the other things which have been written by Paul upon fortitude and asceticism, either when he recounteth his numerous fastings, or when he crieth out to his disciples, saying, “Ye are dead unto the world,” or when he writeth, “It is good for a man not to eat flesh, and not to drink wine,” or his exhortation, “Through many tribulations it is meet for a man to enter into the kingdom of God,” or his saying, “God shall bring both the belly and the food to nought;” and the reading of these and such like passages the glutton considereth unnecessary, and he is not pleased even to hear them. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 10 – On Gluttony

Philoxenus of Mabbug: And Saint Paul, standing upon the height of this freedom, said, “Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth,” neither let him that eateth because of his freedom despise him that eateth not because of the bondage of the law, because he whom the law leadeth is yet a servant, and hath not yet arrived at the perfect freedom of Christ. See then therefore, and think not that thou standest in the freedom of Christ whilst thou still servest in bondage, and dost eat everything without being permitted so to do. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 – On Abstinence

Romans 14:4

Ambrosiaster: The servant is not guilty whether he eats or not, as long as he does what he does in a spirit of devotion. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

Augustine of Hippo: Paul says this so that, when something might be done with either good or bad motives, we should leave the judgment to God and not presume to judge the heart of someone else, which we do not see. But when it comes to things which obviously could not have been done with good and innocent intentions, it is not wrong if we pass judgment. So in the matter of food, where it is not known what the motive in eating it is, Paul does not want us to be judges, but God. But in the case of that abominable immorality where a man had taken his stepmother, Paul taught us to judge. For that man could not possibly claim that he committed such a gross act of indecency with good intentions. So we must pass judgment on things which are obviously wrong. — AUGUSTINE ON Romans 79

Augustine of Hippo: These men were of a mind to pass judgment with regard to things which may indeed be done with a bad intention but which may also be done with an upright, simple and magnanimous motive. Although they were men, they wanted to judge the secrets of the heart—secrets of which God alone is the judge. — SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.18.59

Cyprian: Moreover, we do not prejudge when the Lord is to be the judge; save that if He shall find the repentance of the sinners full and sound, He will then ratify what shall have been here determined by us. If, however, any one should delude us with the pretence of repentance, God, who is not mocked, and who looks into man’s heart, will judge of those things which we have imperfectly looked into, and the Lord will amend the sentence of His servants; while yet, dearest brother, we ought to remember that it is written, “A brother that helpeth a brother shall be exalted; " and that the apostle also has said, “Let all of you severally have regard to yourselves, lest ye also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ; " also that, rebuking the haughty, and breaking down their arrogance, he says in his epistle, “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall; " and in another place he says, “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth; yea, he shall stand, for God is able to make him stand.” John also proves that Jesus Christ the Lord is our Advocate and Intercessor for our sins, saying, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Supporter: and He is the propitiation for our sins.” And Paul also, the apostle, in his epistle, has written, “If, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; much more, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” — Epistle LI

Cyprian: That we must not rashly judge of another. In the Gospel according to Luke: “Judge not, that ye be not judged: condemn not, that ye be not condemned.” Of this same subject to the Romans: “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. But he shall stand; for God is able to make him stand.” And again: “Wherefore thou art without excuse, O every man that judgest: for in that in which thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou doest the same things which thou judgest. But dost thou hope, who judgest those who do evil, and doest the same, that thou thyself shalt escape the judgment of God” Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians.: “And let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” And again: “If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not yet in what manner he ought to know.” — Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews

Diodorus of Tarsus: A servant of Christ is anyone whom Christ has accepted. He is then no longer under the law. Who are you, therefore, to judge someone by the law when he is a stranger to it? — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

Hippolytus of Rome: The impostor Callistus, having ventured on such opinions, established a school of theology in antagonism to the Church, adopting the foregoing system of instruction. And he first invented the device of conniving with men in regard of their indulgence in sensual pleasures, saying that all had their sins forgiven by himself. For he who is in the habit of attending the congregation of any one else, and is called a Christian, should he commit any transgression; the sin, they say, is not reckoned unto him, provided only he hurries off and attaches himself to the school of Callistus. And many persons were gratified with his regulation, as being stricken in conscience, and at the same time having been rejected by numerous sects; while also some of them, in accordance with our condemnatory sentence, had been by us forcibly ejected from the Church. Now such disciples as these passed over to these followers of Callistus, and served to crowd his school. This one propounded the opinion, that, if a bishop was guilty of any sin, if even a sin unto death, he ought not to be deposed. About the time of this man, bishops, priests, and deacons, who had been twice married, and thrice married, began to be allowed to retain their place among the clergy. If also, however, any one who is in holy orders should become married, Callistus permitted such a one to continue in holy orders as if he had not sinned. And in justification, he alleges that what has been spoken by the Apostle has been declared in reference to this person: “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? " But he asserted that likewise the parable of the tares is uttered in reference to this one: “Let the tares grow along with the wheat; " or, in other words, let those who in the Church are guilty of sin remain in it. But also he affirmed that the ark of Noe was made for a symbol of the Church, in which were both dogs, and wolves, and ravens, and all things clean and unclean; and so he alleges that the case should stand in like manner with the Church. And as many parts of Scripture bearing on this view of the subject as he could collect, be so interpreted. — Hippolytus Refutation of All Heresies Book IX

John Chrysostom: “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant?”

Whence it appears that they too judged, and did not despise only. “To his own Master he standeth or falleth.” See here is another stroke. And the indignation seems to be against the strong man, and he attacks him. When he says, “Yea, he shall be holden up,” he shows that he is still wavering, and requireth so much attention as to call in God as a physician for this, “for God,” he says, “is able to make him stand.” And this we say of things we are quite in despair about. Then, that he may not despair he both gives him the name of a servant when he says, “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant?” And here again he secretly attacks him. For it is not because he does things worthy to exempt him from being judged, that I bid you not judge him, but because he is Another’s servant, that is, not thine, but God’s. Then to solace him again he does not say, “falleth,” but what? “standeth or falleth.” But whether it be the latter or the former, either of these is the Master’s concernment, since the loss also goes to Him, if he does fall, as the riches too, if he stand. And this again if we do not attend to Paul’s aim in not wishing them to be rebuked before a fitting opportunity, is very unworthy of the mutual care becoming for Christians. But (as I am always saying) we must examine the mind with which it is spoken, and the subject on which it is said and the object he would compass when he says it. But he makes them respectful by no slight motive, when he says this: for what he means is, if God, Who undergoeth the loss, hitherto doth nothing, how can you be else than ill-timed and out of all measure exact, when you seize on him and annoy him? — Homily on Romans 25

Pelagius: What authority do you have to judge someone whom the law does not judge? This is why James says: “He who judges his brother judges the Law”; in other words, he judges himself to be wiser than the law. Nevertheless, Paul himself judged those who broke the commandments and gave others the power to judge. A man either lives or dies according to his own master. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Tertullian: For to his own lord a man standeth or falleth; who art thou, to judge another's servant? ' Remit, and remission shall be made to thee. — On Modesty

Romans 14:5

Augustine of Hippo: At the moment, and without any deeper consideration, it seems to me that this is said about God and man, not about two men. He who judges on alternate days is man, who can judge one way today and another way tomorrow.… But the One whose judgment is the same every day is the Lord.… But let everyone dare to judge only insofar as is granted to human intelligence or at least to his own. — AUGUSTINE ON Romans 80

John Chrysostom: “One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike.”

Here he seems to me to be giving a gentle hint about fasting. For it is not unlikely that some who fasted were always judging those who did not, or among the observances it is likely that there were some that on fixed days abstained, and on fixed days did not. Whence also he says, “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” And in this way he released those who kept the observances from fear, by saying that the thing was indifferent, and he removed also the quarrelsomeness of those who attacked them, by showing that it was no very desirable task to be always making a trouble about these things. Yet it was not a very desirable task, not in its own nature, but on account of the time chosen, and because they were novices in the faith. For when he is writing to the Colossians, it is with great earnestness that he forbids it, saying, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.” (Col. ii. 8.) And again, “Let no man judge you in meat or in drink” (Col. ii. 16), and, “let no man beguile you of your reward.” (Col. ii. 18.) And when writing to the Galatians with great precision, he exacts of them Christian spirit and perfectness in this matter. But here he does not use this vehemency, because the faith was lately planted in them. Let us therefore not apply the phrase, “Let every man be persuaded in his own mind,” to all subjects. For when he is speaking of doctrines, hear what he says, “If any one preacheth unto you any gospel other than that ye have received, let him be accursed” (Gal. i. 9), “even” if it be “an angel.” And again, “I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted.” (2 Cor. xi. 3.) And in writing to the Philippians, he says, “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.” (Phil. iii. 2.) But with the Romans, since it was not yet the proper time for setting things of this sort right, “Let every man,” he says, “be fully persuaded in his own mind.” For he had been speaking of fasting. — Homily on Romans 25

Oecumenius: This is not to be made an article of faith, as Paul himself says. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

Origen of Alexandria: One judges between one day and another; another judges every day. Let each one abound in his own sense. We said above, following the sequence of the apostolic letter, that these matters seem to be treated concerning abstinence from foods, or liberty in them: since indeed the calling which is in Christ places nothing common or unclean in foods, but the principle of continence persuades us to abstain even from things permitted. For, as he himself says elsewhere, because all things are lawful, it does not therefore follow that all things are expedient, or that all things edify. Yet the very principle of abstinence differs according to the vow and purpose of the one vowing. For one judges thus, and so determines in his own mind, that he should spend every day, that is, the continuous time of his life, in abstinence. But another appoints some particular time, as by a votive profession. In this matter, whether one undertakes a perpetual or a temporary continence, he grants free power to the judgment of each. Nevertheless he promises that both are made acceptable before the Lord. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: Therefore Paul is speaking here about fasting and abstinence, which are not treated under a fixed provision of the law. Each individual should do whatever he sees fit in the light of his desire to share in the reward. Thus it follows that in a matter of this kind one should simply do what he himself has judged to be better. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 14:6

Augustine of Hippo: When someone observes the day well, he keeps the day for the Lord. To judge the day well means you are not to despair over the future correction of the person whose guilt might appear now to be clean. — AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS

Clement of Alexandria: “Let him who eateth, not despise him who eateth not; and let him who eateth not, not judge him who eateth.” And a little way on he explains the reason of the command, when he says, “He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, and giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.” So that the right food is thanksgiving. And he who gives thanks does not occupy his time in pleasures. — The Instructor Book 2

John Chrysostom: “He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it.” And, “He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.”

He still keeps to the same subject. And what he means is about this. The thing is not concerned with fundamentals. For the thing requisite is, if this person and the other are acting for God’s sake, the thing requisite is, if both terminate in thanksgiving. For indeed both this one and that give thanks to God. If then both do give thanks to God, the difference is no great one. But let me draw your notice to the way in which here also he aims unawares a blow at the Judaizers. For if the thing required be this, the “giving of thanks,” it is plain enough that he which eateth it is that “giveth thanks,” and not “he which eateth not.” For how should he, while he still holds to the Law? As then he told the Galatians, “As many of you as are justified by the Law are fallen from grace” (Gal. v. 4); so here he hints it only, but does not unfold it so much. For as yet it was not time to do so. But for the present he bears with it: but by what follows he gives it a further opening. … — Homily on Romans 25

Origen of Alexandria: He who is wise concerning the day, is wise for the Lord; and he who eats, eats for the Lord: for he gives thanks to God; and he who does not eat, for the Lord does not eat, and gives thanks to God. Thanks therefore are rendered to God by both: by the one indeed for the fruit of continence; by the other for the liberty of eating. But since, as we have shown in what preceded, a deeper sense of the Apostle is found than the account of carnal foods contains, in the spiritual exposition, according to those things which we discussed above concerning those of whom one judges every day, but another judges between one day and another, we can understand this: that in the divine Scriptures each single chapter in which a doctrine of piety and faith is contained is called a day. For truly that is a day which illuminates the mind, which puts to flight the darkness of ignorance, which has in itself Christ, who is the sun of righteousness. If therefore there be anyone who so expends labor and zeal upon the divine letters that he examines and judges every day and every sense of divine Scripture, so that not one iota or one tittle of the law escapes him, this man will be seen to judge every day. But he who is not of such great capacity will grasp alternate ones, that is, a few senses out of many, which, if they do not suffice for the fullness of knowledge, are yet certainly enough for the sum of faith. Let each therefore, according to the apostolic counsel, give thanks to God: he who is wise concerning every day, and who eats all things, that is, who recognizes and understands all things; and he also who, although he does not eat all things, and does not grasp the understanding of all matters, is nevertheless saved by a brief confession of faith. And therefore even the one who does not eat all things, nor take in the knowledge of all things, is nevertheless himself also said to give thanks to God. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: The man who fasts for God’s sake and not on account of other people observes the day for the Lord. He eats for God’s sake so that he may have strength to preach the gospel, for which every convert should thank God. This man is not devoted to his own stomach but to the salvation of others.But it is also true that by the example of the one who does not eat meat many are saved and return thanks to God. For one who gives thanks with the voice gives thanks alone, but one who gives thanks in deed as well as voice gives thanks with many others. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Philoxenus of Mabbug: For freedom is above the law, and therefore it is the same to thee whether thou eatest, or whether thou eatest not, even as Paul spake concerning this freedom of the spirit, saying, “He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth it not, regardeth it not unto the Lord; and he that eateth not eateth not unto God; and he that eateth, eateth unto God, and giveth thanks unto the Lord;” so then it belongeth unto us by this freedom to eat, or not to eat. And for this reason He did not make a difference between meats severally mentioned by the law, that they might not be distinguished before us by lust or by the absence of lust, and that we should not excuse ourselves from eating that for which we lust as if through uncleanness, whether it be rare or whether it be common, or whether it be permitted to be eaten according to custom or not; so then that from the eating of which lust ariseth not in us we may eat as of that which is clean, without our conscience pricking us during the eating thereof. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 – On Abstinence

Romans 14:7

Ambrosiaster: A man would be living for himself if he did not act according to the law. But whoever is controlled by the brake of the law is not living for himself but for God, who gave the law so that it might be possible to live according to his will. Likewise, whoever dies dies to God, for he is the Judge who will either condemn or reward him. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

John Chrysostom: “For none of us liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord,” by this too he makes the same clearer. For how can he that liveth unto the Law, be living unto Christ? But this is not the only thing that he effects by this, he also holds back the person who was in so much haste for their being set right, and persuades him to be patient, by showing that it is impossible for God to despise them, but that in due time He will set them right. What is the force then of “none of us liveth to himself?” It means, We are not free, we have a Master who also would have us live, and willeth not that we die, and to whom both of these are of more interest than to us. For by what is here said he shows that he hath a greater concern for us than we have ourselves, and considereth more than we do, as well our life to be wealth, as our death to be a loss. For we do not die to ourselves alone, but to our Master also, if we do die. But by death here he means that from the faith. However, this were enough to convince us that He taketh care for us, in that it is to Him we live, and to Him we die. Still he is not satisfied with saying this, but proceeds further. For after saying, “Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s,” and passing from that death to the physical one, that he may not give an appearance of harshness to his language, he gives another very great indication of His care for us. Now of what kind is this? — Homily on Romans 25

Origen of Alexandria: For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself; whether therefore we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether therefore we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died and lived, that he might have dominion over both the dead and the living. What it is to live in Christ, and what it is to die in Christ, has often been said by us in the exposition of this Epistle, and especially in that place where we attempted to explain the saying of the Apostle in which he says: But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with him. If therefore we remember what was said in that place, from those very things the present saying of the Apostle set before us will become plainer and clearer — how none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. For each one does not give to himself, but takes from Christ the example of death — he who alone died to sin — so that he too, by imitation of him, may be able to be made a stranger to sin and dead to it. But we do not have the example of life from ourselves either; rather we receive it from the resurrection of Christ, as the same Apostle says: That as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. Therefore the newness of life by which we live in Christ through faith in his resurrection is reckoned to the Lord, because it takes its beginning not from us but from him; and therefore: Whether we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether therefore we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For he calls that death by which, buried together with Christ, as we said, and baptized into his death, we have died to sin; and that life by which, made strangers to this world, and, as he himself says, living from the dead, we live not to ourselves, that is, not to the flesh, but to God, according to what he joins in what follows. For to this end, he says, Christ died and lived, that he might have dominion over both the dead and the living. He says that Christ died, without doubt by the dispensation of the passion; but that he lived, through the mystery of the resurrection. Whence he left us also the example first of passion and mortification, and afterward also of resurrection and newness of life. But perhaps it may trouble someone that the Apostle says he died and lived for this reason, that he might have dominion over the dead and the living; as though he had given this to be understood, that unless he had died, he would not have had dominion over the dead; and unless after death he had lived again, he would not have held dominion over the living. But to these things I think we must reply as follows. Christ’s dominion over every creature is established in two ways. In one, by which, as Creator of all and wielding power over all things, he holds all things subject by the force of his majesty and the necessity of his power; and by this mode he has dominion not only over good and holy minds and spirits, but also over the wicked and the apostate, and over those whom divine Scripture has called malignant angels. For it is on this account that he is called all-holding, or almighty, according to what John designates in the Apocalypse, saying: These things says he who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. This then is one mode by which Christ has dominion over all. But there is another, by which, as one who is good and the Son of a good Father, he does not wish to bend rational spirits by violence to the obedience of his law, but waits until they come of their own accord, so that they may seek the good by will and not by necessity, and so that he may persuade by teaching rather than by commanding, by inviting rather than by extorting. From this, finally, it comes that he deigns to go even to death, that he may leave an example of obedience, and a pattern of dying, to those who are willing to die to sin and to vices. And for this reason in the present passage the Apostle writes that he died and lived for this end, that he might have dominion over both the living and the dead: over the living, assuredly those who by the example of his resurrection lead a new and heavenly life on earth; over the dead, without doubt those who carry about the mortification of Christ in their own body, and mortify their members which are upon the earth. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: No believer lives for himself or dies for himself, because “Christ has died for all, so that those who live no longer live for themselves but for him.” — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 14:8

Pelagius: Therefore, we must take care that we do not live for ourselves in eating or die on account of others in fasting. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Theodore of Mopsuestia: If we live, it is Christ’s life that we live; if we die, we die with him, under his custody. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

Romans 14:9

Ambrosiaster: The creation was made by Christ the Lord, but because of sin it has become separated from its maker and taken captive. But God the Father sent his Son from heaven to earth to teach his creation what to do in order to escape the hands of its captors, so that his work should not perish. For this reason he allowed himself to be killed by his enemies, so that by going down to hell he could condemn sin, because he was killed as an innocent man, and liberate those whom the devil held there. Therefore, since he showed the way of salvation to the living and offered himself for them and also delivered the dead from hell, he is Lord of both the living and the dead. For he has turned the lost into his servants. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

Irenaeus: As it has been clearly demonstrated that the Word, who existed in the beginning with God, by whom all things were made, who was also always present with mankind, was in these last days, according to the time appointed by the Father, united to His own workmanship, inasmuch as He became a man liable to suffering, [it follows] that every objection is set aside of those who say, “If our Lord was born at that time, Christ had therefore no previous existence.” For I have shown that the Son of God did not then begin to exist, being with the Father from the beginning; but when He became incarnate, and was made man, He commenced afresh the long line of human beings, and furnished us, in a brief, comprehensive manner, with salvation; so that what we had lost in Adam-namely, to be according to the image and likeness of God-that we might recover in Christ Jesus.

For as it was not possible that the man who had once for all been conquered, and who had been destroyed through disobedience, could reform himself, and obtain the prize of victory; and as it was also impossible that he could attain to salvation who had fallen under the power of sin,-the Son effected both these things, being the Word of God, descending from the Father, becoming incarnate, stooping low, even to death, and consummating the arranged plan of our salvation, upon whom [Paul], exhorting us unhesitatingly to believe, again says, “Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring down Christ; or who shall descend into the deep? that is, to liberate Christ again from the dead.” Then he continues, “If thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shall be saved.” And he renders the reason why the Son of God did these things, saying, “For to this end Christ both lived, and died, and revived, that He might rule over the living and the dead.” — Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 3

John Chrysostom: “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.”

And so let us at least convince thee, that He is thoughtful for our salvation. For had He not had this great care for us, where were the need of the Dispensation (or Incarnation)? He then that hath shown so much anxiety about our becoming His, as to take the form of a servant, and to die, will He despise us after we have become so? This cannot be so, assuredly it cannot! Nor would He choose to waste so much pains. “For to this end” (he says) “he also died,” as if any one were to say, Such an one will not have the heart to despise his servant. For he minded his own purse. (Cf. Ex. xxi. 21.) For indeed we are not so much in love with money, as is He with our salvation. Wherefore it was not money, but His own Blood that He gave as bail for us. And for this cause He would not have the heart to give them up, for whom He had laid down so great a price. See too how he shows that His power also is unspeakable. For he says, “to this end He both died and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living.” And above he said, “for whether we live or die, we are His.” See what a wide extended Mastery! see what unconquerable might! see what exact providence over us! For tell me not, he means, of the living. Even for the departed He taketh care. But if He doth of the departed, it is quite plain that He doth of the living also. For He hath not omitted any point for this Mastery, making out for Himself more claims than men do, and especially beside all other things in order to take care of us. For a man puts down money, and for this clings strongly to his own slave. But He Himself paid down His death; and the salvation of one who was purchased at so great a price, and the Mastery over whom He had gained with so much anxiety and trouble, He is not likely to count of no value. But this he says to make the Judaizer abashed, and to persuade him to call to mind the greatness of the benefit, and how that when dead he had come to be alive, and that there was nothing that he gained from the Law, and how that it would be the last degree of unfeelingness, to leave Him Who had shown so much care toward him, and run away back to the Law. After attacking him then sufficiently, … — Homily on Romans 25

Methodius of Olympus: The saint says at the end: The words, “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living,” must be taken as referring to souls and bodies; the souls being the living, as being immortal, and the bodies being dead. — From the Discourse on the Resurrection

Pelagius: The coming of Christ will find people alive and will bring the dead back to life. It does not matter whether he brings you back to life or finds you alive, as long as you appear righteous before him. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 14:10

Gennadius of Constantinople: Once again Paul takes up his earlier theme and by adding the word brother shows how inappropriate this kind of judging is. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

John Chrysostom: “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother?”

And so he seems to be setting them upon a level, but from that he has said, he shows that the difference between them is great. First then by the appellation of “brother” he does away with disputatiousness, and then also by calling that awful day to their mind. For after saying, “Why dost thou set at nought thy brother?” he proceeds, “For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.”

And he seems indeed to be again rebuking the more advanced in saying this, but he is putting the mind of the Judaizer to confusion by not only calling for his reverence to the benefit that had been done him, but also making him afraid of the punishment to come. “For we shall all,” he says, “stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.” — Homily on Romans 25

Origen of Alexandria: But if these things are so: Why, he says, do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother, since, whether there is in you a mortification of the flesh and of the vices, it did not arise from you but was bestowed by the death of Christ; or whether you have newness of life and, walking on earth, have your conversation in heaven, you have merited this by Christ’s resurrection? And he has aptly marked the character of each fault by a homely designation, saying to the one: Why do you despise? and to the other: Why do you judge your brother? For those who seem to have advanced somewhat in knowledge are accustomed to despise and to count as nothing those who are less capable of a higher understanding; and, on the contrary, the unskilled and the untaught are accustomed to judge — that is, to accuse and condemn — those who search out things loftier and deeper than they themselves can grasp or attain. And therefore the Apostle, wishing to cut away the fault arising on either side, charges the former not to despise and look down upon their inferiors, and the latter not to judge their superiors, since they do not possess the competence to judge. Although, then, he rebukes both — both the one who despises the inferior brother and the one who judges the superior — nevertheless, in order to show that the latter sins more gravely in judging than the former in despising his brother, he passes over the fault of contempt and enlarges upon the presumption of the brother who judges; and therefore in what follows he adds: For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. And so each one of us shall render an account for himself to God. Let us therefore no longer judge one another; but judge this rather, that you place no offense or stumbling block before your brother. The Apostle, taking up the causes drawn from those matters in which those who judge their brothers do not judge rightly, introduces the form of the right and just divine judgment, and says: For we must all stand before the judgment seat of God — so that, namely, he who judges his brother may know that he incurs so great a crime of arrogance as to seem to himself to usurp the judgment seat of God and to forestall the judgment of the Only-begotten. But let us see what this very thing means that the Apostle mentions the judgment seat of God, and how it is to be understood. For not only in this passage, but also in writing to the Corinthians, he makes mention nonetheless of a judgment seat, where he says: Wherefore we strive, whether present or absent, to please him. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive through the body according to what he has done, whether good or evil. Moreover, in the prophet Daniel too we find certain such things described concerning the manner of judging. I beheld, he says, and lo, thrones were set, and the Ancient of days was seated, and his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like clean wool. His throne was a flame of fire, its wheels a blazing fire, a river of fire ran before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. He appointed judgment, and the books were opened. In the book of the twelve prophets also it is said under a mystery that in the valley of Josaphat the Lord judges his people; and that same valley of Josaphat he shortly afterward names the valley of judgment. But it seems a long task to discuss now each of these things which we have brought forward for the sake of comparison. Nevertheless, comparing those things which we said the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians with the present passage, or with the rest which we have recalled as written among the prophets, we see it declared from all of them most certainly that there will be a judgment of God; and in order that the manner of it might become better known to men, the form of judging has been taken from the things that are transacted among men — so that, namely, we might know that, just as that earthly judge ascends a certain loftier place which is called a tribunal, in order that from it he may be higher and more eminent than the rest who are to be judged, lest either the punishments of the guilty or the pleas of the innocent escape his sight; so we may understand that Christ also, the judge of all, eminent above all in nature and majesty, looks into the hearts and consciences of individuals, brings hidden things to light and reveals what is covered, so that he may both bestow praise on good deeds and that the wicked may receive the punishment they deserve. But if the future judgment of God awaits us — and such a judgment in which not only will each one receive according to his deeds, but will also render an account for every idle word, according to the Lord’s sentence — evil thoughts too will be confuted, with conscience convicting them, and in all things each one of us will render an account for himself to God. Therefore, he says, let us no longer judge one another, as he also says elsewhere: And so do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will illuminate the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of hearts; and then there will be praise for each one from God. For our heart will be laid bare, as I think, to every rational creature, and the hidden things will be revealed, or even made manifest. For there is a difference. For those things which are revealed seem to pertain to the wicked, of whom it is said: For it shall be revealed in fire; but those which are made manifest, to the good; and therefore it is said: For everything that is made manifest is light. And, like certain written books, or engraved tablets containing the letters of our deeds and thoughts, they will be read over by every rational creature, as we have said. And this is what I think is indicated through Daniel where he says: And the books were opened — those, namely, which are now folded up and covered over in the heart, containing indeed the records of what we do, and furrowed with certain marks of conscience, yet known to none but God alone. These books, then, of our soul, or these pages of our heart, will be opened in the sight of the flaming throne and of the wheels of burning fire, and of the fiery river running before the Ancient of days. The angels will see and even read these things, and those thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand thousands of ministering angels; and thus, of our crimes — in which now we are ashamed to endure even a single witness — we shall then endure innumerable throngs of heavenly powers as witnesses. But since Paul says that we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God, and since he associates himself with those who will stand before the judgment seat of God, who is there who would so deceive and delude himself as to suppose that he will not come to the judgment of Christ and to the tribunal of his examination, or suppose that he will not be made manifest in those things which he has committed, whether rightly or less rightly? But as to the fact that in the present passage he set down the judgment seat of God, while to the Corinthians the judgment seat of Christ, I for my part think there is no difference to prevent one and the same tribunal being named both the tribunal of Christ and the tribunal of God, according to what the Savior himself says in the Gospel: All things that the Father has are mine; and again: Father, all mine are yours, and yours mine. If, however, anyone thinks — since in Paul’s discourses there is not even an idle syllable in his writings — that the reasons for this variation must be sought out, he will perhaps be able to say something of this sort: The name of Christ, so far as pertains to the proper meaning of the appellation itself, is an indication of the Word set in the flesh and reconciling the world to God, as the same Paul also says, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself; but the intervals of this reconciliation are stretched out and made longer by the delay of our conversion and the negligence of our amendment; and until he brings to nothing all principalities and powers, and puts all enemies under his feet, and destroys the last enemy, death, he must so reign as to carry out the mystery of the dispensation undertaken in the flesh, and to make the good manifest, while the culpable receive each one according to his works; but when he shall have handed over the kingdom to God and the Father — that is, when he shall have offered to God all who are converted and amended, and shall have fulfilled entirely the mystery of the reconciliation of the world — then, he says, all stand before the judgment seat of God, so that this which follows may be fulfilled: As I live, says the Lord, that every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: By what authority do you condemn your brother as a voracious glutton? For what reason do you despise him, as if he were weak or his fast were pointless? The Lord will judge our consciences to see with what sort of desire and intention we did what we did. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Theodore of Mopsuestia: “Why do you pass judgment on your brother?” was said to the Jews. “Why do you despise your brother?” was said to the Gentiles. Neither of you should do either, says Paul, because you are under obligation to maintain Christ’s standards of behavior in your life. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

Theodoret of Cyrus: Paul addresses these words to the Jews. — INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

Romans 14:11

Ambrosiaster: For having been killed, the future Judge rose from the dead, and therefore he rightly said: “As I live.” … For not only do I live, but I will come to judge, and my enemies will confess my name and kneel before me, acknowledging that I am God from God. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

John Chrysostom: “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.”

See how he again puts his mind into confusion, while he seems to be rebuking the other. For he intimates some such thing, as if he had said, How does it affect you? Are you to be punished for him? But this he does not say, but hints at it by putting it in a milder form, and saying, “For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ:” and, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” And he introduces the prophet in witness of the subjection of all to Him, yea a subjection extended even to those in the Old Testament, and of all absolutely. For he does not barely say every one shall worship, but “shall confess,” that is, shall give an account of what he has done. Be in anxiety then as seeing the Master of all sitting on his judgment-seat, and do not make schisms and divisions in the Church, by breaking away from grace, and running over to the Law. For the Law also is His. And why say I so of the Law? Even those in the Law and those before the Law are His. And it is not the Law that will demand an account of thee, but Christ, of thee and of all the human race. See how he has released us from the fear of the Law. Then that he may not seem to be saying this to frighten them for the occasion, but to have come to it in the course he had proposed himself, … — Homily on Romans 25

Origen of Alexandria: Now every creature will bend the knee to God in the name of Jesus, through whom it has been reconciled to him, according to what the same Apostle says, that in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things heavenly, things earthly, and things under the earth. The bending of the knee, indeed, and every tongue confessing to God, the Apostle has taken over from the words of the prophet Isaiah. This, however, is not to be understood in a fleshly way, as though we should suppose that even the heavenly beings, which he says bend the knee, are believed to do this with fleshly limbs — for instance, that the sun, or the moon, or the stars, or even the angels, and whatever things there are that are named heavenly, should be thought to adore with bodily knees bent, or even to be thought to confess God with a fleshly tongue and with such a member as we men speak with — beings of whom it is said that they are spirit and fire, according to what the Prophet says: Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire. And what knees shall be believed to exist in spirits? Or what tongue shall be looked for in the form of fire? Rather, “to bend the knee” declares that all things are made subject and obey the worship of God. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: This shows that we must all account for our actions to the Lord alone. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 14:12

Ambrosiaster: Since we are not going to give account of each other, says Paul, let us not condemn one another over the issues mentioned above. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

Cyprian: I have replied, dearest son, to your letter, so far as my poor ability prevailed; and I have shown, as far as I could, what I think; prescribing to no one, so as to prevent any prelate from determining what he thinks right, as he shall give an account of his own doings to the Lord, according to what the blessed Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans writes and says: “Every one of us shall give account for himself: let us not therefore judge one another.” — Epistle LXXV

Desert Fathers: A brother asked Ammon, ‘Speak a word to me.’ He said to him, ‘Go and meditate like the criminals in prison. They keep asking, where is the judge, when will he come? and because they are waiting for him they dread their punishment. The monk should always be waiting for his trial, chiding his soul, saying: “Alas, how shall I stand before the judgement seat of Christ? How shall I give an account of my actions?” If you always meditate like this, you will be saved.’ — The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

Origen of Alexandria: Something further moves me out of those things which we took up from the Epistle to the Corinthians, where he says: That each one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he has done, whether good or evil — namely, whether it is because in all men it is necessary that there be something of good and something of evil, and that no one is found among the good who has not had something of evil also, or again anyone among the evil who has not had something of good also, on account of the Scripture which says: For an incorruptible spirit is in men — whether for this reason he said that each one should receive both good things for his good deeds and evil things for his evil ones; or whether he calls those good to whom nothing evil is to be ascribed, and those evil to whom nothing at all of good is owed. But if we suppose this latter, we shall seem to go against evident reason. For no one, as I have said, will be found so good that there is not something of evil implanted in him, as seems very easily to be gathered from the examples of many saints; and again there is no one among the worst — even if Judas himself be set forth, who was impious beyond all impiety — who does not seem to have had something of good even he. For, to pass over those things which he did while placed among the apostles as one of them (although even there evils were already mingled with his goods, for he was greedy of money), nevertheless this very thing, that led by repentance he carried back the thirty pieces of silver to the priests and said: I have sinned in betraying righteous blood, was something of good. From all of which it seems to me that, since one and the same person cannot simultaneously receive both good things and evil (for no one can at the same time be sent both into paradise, or into the kingdoms of the heavens, and into hell), only in those in whom evils greatly preponderate is no account taken of the good; and in those in whom good things preponderate, and in whom the repentance of conversion has abolished the traces of evils, no account is taken of the evil. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: We shall account to God for those things about which the law is silent. But if we do not rebuke someone when we see him sinning, we shall also give an account to the Lord for that. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Polycarp of Smyrna: And let the presbyters be compassionate and merciful to all, bringing back those that wander, visiting all the sick, and not neglecting the widow, the orphan, or the poor, but always “providing for that which is becoming in the sight of God and man;” abstaining from all wrath, respect of persons, and unjust judgment; keeping far off from all covetousness, not quickly crediting [an evil report] against any one, not severe in judgment, as knowing that we are all under a debt of sin. If then we entreat the Lord to forgive us, we ought also ourselves to forgive; for we are before the eyes of our Lord and God, and “we must all appear at the judgment-seat of Christ, and must every one give an account of himself.” Let us then serve Him in fear, and with all reverence, even as He Himself has commanded us, and as the apostles who preached the Gospel unto us, and the prophets who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Lord [have alike taught us]. Let us be zealous in the pursuit of that which is good, keeping ourselves from causes of offence, from false brethren, and from those who in hypocrisy bear the name of the Lord, and draw away vain men into error. — Epistle to the Philippians 6

Romans 14:13

Desert Fathers: Joseph asked Poemen, ‘Tell me how to become a monk.’ He said, ‘If you want to find rest in this life and the next, say at every moment, “Who am I?” and judge no one.’ — The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

John Chrysostom: “Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”

This does not apply to one less than the other: wherefore it may well fit with both, both the advanced man that was offended at the observance of meats, and the unadvanced that stumbled at the vehement rebuke given him. But consider, I pray you, the great punishment we shall suffer, if we give offence at all. For if in a case where the thing was against law, yet, as they rebuked unseasonably, he forbade their doing it, in order that a brother might not be made to offend and stumble; when we give an offence without having anything to set right even, what treatment shall we deserve? For if not saving others be a crime (and that it is so, he who buried the talent proves), what will be the effect of giving him offence also? But what if he gives himself the offence, you may say, by being weak? Why this is just why thou oughtest to be patient. For if he were strong, then he would not require so much attention. But now, since he is of the feebler sort, he does on this ground need considerable care. Let us then yield him this, and in all respects bear his burdens, as it is not of our own sins only that we shall have to give an account, but for those also wherein we cause others to offend. For if that account, were even by itself hard to pass, when these be added too, how are we to be saved? And let us not suppose, that if we can find accomplices in our sins, that will be an excuse; as this will prove an addition to our punishment. Since the serpent too was punished more than the woman, as was the woman likewise more than the man (1 Tim. ii. 14); and Jezebel also was punished more severely than Ahab, who had seized the vineyard; for it was she that devised the whole matter, and caused the king to offend. (1 Kings xxi. 23, 25, 29.) And therefore thou, when thou art the author of destruction to others, wilt suffer more severely than those who have been subverted by thee. For sinning is not so ruinous as leading others also into the same. Wherefore he speaks of those who “not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” (Rom. i. 32.) And so when we see any sinning, let us, so far from thrusting them on, even pull them back from the pit of iniquity, that we may not have to be punished for the ruin of others besides ourselves. — Homily on Romans 25

Origen of Alexandria: But that we may return to the end and conclusion of the chapter set before us: since, he says, so great is the truth of judgment with God and with his Christ, so great the searching out of the future examination — therefore, he says, let us no more judge one another. But judge this rather, that you place not an occasion of stumbling before a brother, or a scandal. “Judge this,” that is, determine this, that you do not by the observance of foods generate offenses or scandals for your brothers. Concerning offense or scandal we have already said above that a scandal is when in the road along which one is walking something is found placed in the way, against which the feet of those climbing or walking strike. This, then, is what those suffer who have lately entered upon the way of faith: they are offended by the contentions, or the negligences, or the contempt and arrogance of those who came before them, and, struck back by their examples, are turned away from the faith. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: From here on, Paul subtly begins to recommend abstinence and says that even though those who eat are strong, they ought to abstain in case the weak are subjected to a stumbling block by their example. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Tertullian: And thus my mind has been thrown into confusion, in the fear that, having exhorted you myself to perseverance in single husbandhood and widowhood, I may now, by the mention of precipitate marriages, put “an occasion of falling” in your way. — To His Wife Book II

Theodore of Mopsuestia: Paul is saying this to the Gentiles, even if it appears that he is speaking to the Jews.… For the Gentiles at Rome were doing many things deliberately in order to upset the Jews, partly because they were the majority in the church and partly because they were of a higher social class. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

Romans 14:14

Cyril of Alexandria: Christ had said: “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man but what comes out of the mouth—this defiles a man.” This applies to food as well. — EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

Diodorus of Tarsus: This means that nothing is common or unclean when eaten with faith in Christ. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

John Chrysostom: After first rebuking the person who judgeth his brother, and moving him to leave off this reproaching, he then explains himself further upon the doctrinal part, and instructs in a dispassionate tone the weaker sort, displaying in this case too a great deal of gentleness. For he does not say he shall be punished, nor anything of the sort, but merely disburdens him of his fears in the matter, and that with a view to his being more easily persuaded with what he tells him; and he says, “I know, and am persuaded.” And then to prevent any of those who did not trust him saying, And what is it to us if thou art persuaded? for thou art no trustworthy evidence to be set in competition with so great a law, and with oracles brought down from above, he proceeds, “in the Lord.” That is, as having learned from Him, as having my confidence from Him. The judgment then is not one of the mind of man. What is it that thou art persuaded of and knowest? Tell us. “That there is nothing unclean of itself.” By nature, he says, nothing is unclean but it becomes so by the spirit in which a man uses it. Therefore it becomes so to himself only, and not to all. “For to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.” What then? Why not correct thy brother, that he may think it not unclean? Why not with full authority call him away from this habit of mind and conception of things, that he may never make it common? My reason is, he says, I am afraid to grieve him. — Homily on Romans 26

Novatian: It is evident that all these foods enjoy again the blessings they received at their creation, now that the law has ended. We must not return to the legal prohibition of foods commanded for certain reasons and which evangelical liberty, setting us free from its bondage, has now discontinued. — JEWISH FOODS 5.6

Origen of Alexandria: I know and am confident in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is common through itself, except to him who reckons anything to be common — to him it is common. We have said elsewhere also that in the holy Scriptures, by a kind of vernacular appellation, whatever is not holy or clean is called “common”; which appellation, however, is more frequently found in the New Testament, whereas in the Old I do not recall that it is anywhere so named — as in the Gospel the Savior says, that from the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, fornications, adulteries, thefts, false testimonies: and these are the things that make a man common. But to eat with unwashed hands does not make a man common. Although in some Latin copies they have put “defile” instead of “make common,” and although the force is the same, nevertheless the proper sense of the word is “make common.” But also in the Acts of the Apostles the Lord says to Peter: What God has cleansed, do not you call common. I think, therefore, that the use of this expression was taken from this: that, for example, the vessels set apart for the ministry of the temple were without doubt called vessels of the Lord, while by distinction from these the remaining vessels were called common; so also, by distinction of foods, from those which Scripture set apart as clean and to be eaten according to the law, all the rest were called common. But the Jews, not knowing the force of the word, whence a man was called common whom they called common, held to the use of the expression without understanding of its meaning. For the foods which God created, whether taken in ignorance or in simplicity, could not make a man common and unclean; but that mind of man which is set apart for God alone is rightly called clean; whereas that which is alien from God, since it is possessed not by one unclean spirit but by many, for that reason such a man is called common, as being the slave of many vices or of many demons, according to him who, when asked, What is your name? answered, Legion: for we are many; and according to that which is said by the Savior, that when the unclean spirit has gone out from a man, he goes about dry places seeking rest, and not finding it he returns; and finding the house empty and swept with brooms, he takes with him seven other spirits worse than himself, and entering in they dwell there. And without doubt such a man is called common, having plainly been made the slave of all those malignant spirits which dwell in him. Rightly, therefore, Paul, knowing that this is the reason of this expression, says: I know and am confident in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is common through itself. For nothing among the creatures of God is unclean by its own nature (for it is established that all things created by the good God are good and clean); but, he says, to him who reckons anything to be common, to him it is common; that is, to him who with the intention of his heart thinks something unclean and admits the observance of distinctions, as he also says in what follows: But he who discerns, if he eats, is condemned; because it is not of faith. For everything that is not of faith is sin. Nor yet in these words did he exclude the distinction of the law, so as to say absolutely that nothing is common or unclean among those things which the law defined as unclean. For he set down beforehand the reason why nothing is called common through itself. I know, he says, and am confident in the Lord Jesus. In the Lord Jesus, therefore, . . . this by its own nature [ . . . ] nothing is common through itself, it is said; but to him, he says, who reckons, and who thinks something to be common, to him it is common. And do not wonder that the thought of the mind makes polluted a food which by its own nature is not common or polluted, when on the contrary simplicity of mind, with no scrupulosity of thought injected, absolves from all suspicion of contamination a food that is truly polluted (for that is truly polluted which is sacrificed to idols). And again, even if the food be clean, yet if someone suffers a suspicion that it has been sacrificed to idols, it is said to be polluted on account of the scruple of conscience. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: Paul is not saying here that there is anything which is unclean but that for someone with a tender conscience things do become unclean, for even after coming to faith in Christ he is still judging according to Jewish custom. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 14:15

Ambrosiaster: In another epistle Paul says: Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other. Since God does not care one way or the other about food, Paul tells us to maintain a spirit of charity, by which God has seen fit to deliver us from sin. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

Basil of Caesarea: The Christian must serve everyone who is upset with him in every way, at least insofar as he can. — THE MORALS 5.3

Gennadius of Constantinople: Look at how wonderfully Paul develops his argument. He starts off at the bottom, by referring to food. Then he goes on to call the person who is sinned against a “brother.” Then he calls what has been done to him “destruction.” Fourth, he says that this outrage has been committed against someone “for whom Christ died.” Fifth, he says that someone who does this causes godliness to be blasphemed, and sixth, that we have not come to faith in Christ in order to be able to enjoy this or that but in order to be able to share in righteousness, which means in sinlessness, peace and joy. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

John Chrysostom: You see how far, for the present, he goes in affection for him, showing that he makes so great account of him, that with a view not to grieve him he does not venture even to enjoin things of great urgency, but by yieldingness would rather draw him to himself, and by charity. For even when he has freed him of his fears, he does not drag him and force him, but leaves him his own master. For keeping a person from meats is no such matter as overwhelming with grief. You see how much he insists upon charity. And this is because he is aware that it can do everything. And on this ground he makes somewhat larger demand upon them. For so far he says from its being proper for them to distress you at all, they ought even, if need be, not to hesitate at condescending to you. Whence he proceeds to say, “Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.” Or dost thou not value thy brother enough even to purchase his salvation at the price of abstinence from meats? And yet Christ refused not to become a slave, nor yet to die for him; but thou dost not despise even food, that thou mayest save him. And yet with it all Christ was not to gain all, yet still He died for all; so fulfilling His own part. But art thou aware that by meat thou art overthrowing him in the more important matters, and yet makest a disputing? And him who is the object of such care unto Christ, dost thou consider so contemptible, and dishonor one whom He loveth? Yet He died not for the weak only, but even for an enemy. And wilt not thou refrain from meats even, for him that is weak? Yet Christ did what was greatest even, but thou not even the less. And He was Master, thou a brother. These words then were enough to tongue-tie him. For they show him to be of a little spirit, and after having the benefit of great things from God, not to give in return even little ones. — Homily on Romans 26

Origen of Alexandria: For if because of food your brother is grieved, you are no longer walking according to charity. Do not by your food destroy him for whom Christ died. When he had determined by apostolic teaching that through the Lord Jesus nothing is to be thought common or unclean by its own nature, and had granted to all the faithful the most complete liberty with regard to the use of foods, he again cuts back the license of that liberty for the building up of brotherly love, and says: Even if nothing is common, and the use of all foods is freely permitted, nevertheless if, because of a food which you think may lawfully be taken, you scandalize your brother, who is not yet capable of this knowledge, you are no longer walking according to charity, nor do you show in yourself the affection of brotherly love. For what harm do you suffer if, in order not to grieve your brother, you abstain even from what is lawful? For to abstain from lawful things is no crime for you; but for him, in matters where he discerns and thinks it not lawful, the use is condemnable. For he who discerns, if he eats, is condemned. But if you do this, you assuredly destroy your brother for whom Christ died, and you procure for him the causes of destruction. And more magnificently the same Paul, writing to the Colossians, says about these matters: Let no one therefore judge you in food, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or of new moons, or of a Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Let no one seduce you, willing it in humility of heart and religion of angels, exalting himself in what he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh, and not holding the head; and a little later: If therefore you are dead with Christ to the elements of the world, why, as though living in this world, do you decree: Touch not, taste not, handle not — which things are all unto corruption by the very use, according to the precepts and doctrines of men: which things have indeed a show of wisdom in the observance of religion, and in humility through the affliction of the body, not in any honor unto the satisfying of the flesh. To discuss these things one by one is not the business of the present work; for it is those things which the Apostle writes to the Romans that we are now attempting to expound. This, however, is what is asserted by the present example also: that we should not be judged by anyone in food, or in drink, or in observances of this kind, which among the Jews is thought to be as it were a religion of angels. For they exalt themselves in the things that are seen, and are puffed up about visible things. Yet this elation is not according to the wisdom of the spirit, but according to the sense of the flesh. But it was not concerning fleshly things that the precept was given: Touch not, handle not, taste not. For all these things, that is, fleshly things, have been given for this corruptible use; and what observance of purity can there be in corruption? But whereas the law prescribes these things concerning rational realities, which, if they are unclean, are truly not to be touched nor tasted, lest they make us partakers of their sin and uncleanness, they, forsaking the precepts and doctrines of men, transferred this spiritual sense to these fleshly and bodily things, which have a show of wisdom in the observance of religion and in humility of the body — yet not so that on the occasion of such observance some honor among men and the delights of the flesh should be sought after, while in place of the abstinence of a few, many and choice foods are required. But true observance is where food is so taken, and all things are so done, that it may not be said of such persons: Whose God is their belly. For it is fitting to abstain from every food which concupiscence and lust presumes upon, which delicacies prepare, which luxury devises. For we must look not only to what kind of food we use, but also to how much, and at what time, and how sparingly. For thus all things become clean to clean minds; but to the contaminated, as the Apostle says, and to unbelievers nothing is clean. In which he shows that even those things which among the Jews are named clean in the matter of foods cannot be clean to a man if he is contaminated and unbelieving. It will follow, therefore, that if the things which are clean are made unclean to the contaminated, so also the things which are called unclean become clean to the holy and the faithful. For they are sanctified through the word of God and prayer, because every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be cast away which is received with thanksgiving. And they are sanctified by the prayer not of just anyone, but of those who lift up pure hands without anger and disputing. But do you wish to be taught still more magnificently concerning clean and unclean things, that they are spoken of not concerning bodies but concerning souls and minds? Hear the judgment of the Lord and Savior himself in the Gospel, saying: Not the things which enter into the mouth make a man common, but the things which proceed out of the mouth; since from within, out of the heart, come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, and the rest. It is therefore the thought and the mind not rightly disposed that pollutes a man, not the quality of foods, which, of whatever sort it may be, will fulfill the use of corruption by one and the same outcome. And it is no wonder if a holy man sanctifies by the word of God and by prayer the food which he takes, when even the very garments with which he is clothed are holy. Paul’s handkerchiefs, in fine, and his aprons had received so much from the purity of his sanctification that, when applied to sick bodies, they put diseases to flight and restored health. For what shall I say of Peter, whose very bodily shadow carried so much sanctification that whomever, as he passed by, not he himself but his shadow alone had touched, they were straightway relieved of every sickness? But we have digressed a little too widely in discussing clean and common foods, in order that we might consider, as far as is possible, the more exalted meaning of the Apostle. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: Paul did not say that a brother is distressed because of fasting but because of food; therefore you should not incite or constrain anyone by the example of what you eat. If your neighbor eats something which is not good for him against his will, you are no longer loving him as yourself if you are not thinking of his good as much as of your own. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Pseudo-Clement: For “if for the sake of meat our brother be made sad, or shocked, or made weak, or caused to stumble, we are not walking in the love of God. For the sake of meat you cause him to perish for whose sake Christ died.” For, in “thus sinning against your brethren and wounding their sickly consciences, you sin against Christ Himself. For, if for the sake of meat my brother is made to stumble,” let us who are believers say, “Never will we eat flesh, that we may not make our brother to stumble.” [1 Corinthians 8:12-13] These things, moreover, does ever one who truly loves God, who truly takes up his cross, and puts on Christ, and loves his neighbour; the man who watches over himself that he be not a stumbling-block to any one, that no one be caused to stumble because of him and die because he is constantly with maidens and lives in the same house with them — a thing which is not right — to the overthrow of those who see and hear. Evil conduct like this is fraught with stumbling and peril, and is akin to death. But blessed is that man who is circumspect and fearful in everything for the sake of purity! — Two Epistles on Virginity

Romans 14:16

Ambrosiaster: Since God’s teaching is good and salutary, it should not be blasphemed, because of something trivial. Yet it is blasphemed when doubts are cast on the goodness of God’s creation. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

Clement of Alexandria: For the supper is made for love, but the supper is not love; only a proof of mutual and reciprocal kindly feeling. “Let not, then, your good be evil spoken of; for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink,” says the apostle, in order that the meal spoken of may not be conceived as ephemeral, “but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” He who eats of this meal, the best of all, shall possess the kingdom of God, fixing his regards here on the holy assembly of love, the heavenly Church. — The Instructor Book 2

John Chrysostom: By their “good,” he means here either their faith, or the hope of rewards hereafter, or the perfectness of their religious state. For it is not only that you fail to profit your brother, he means, but the doctrine itself, and the grace of God, and His gift, you cause to be evil spoken of. Now when thou fightest, when thou quarrellest, when thou art vexatious, when thou makest schism in the Church, and reproachest thy brother, and art distant with him, those that are without will speak evil of you. And so good is so far from coming of this, that just the opposite is the case. For your good is charity, love of the brotherhood, being united, being bound together, living at peace, living in gentleness. He again, to put an end to his fears and the other’s disputatiousness, says, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink.” Is it by these, he means, that we are to be approved? As he says in another passage too, “Neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse.” And he does not need any proof, but is content with stating it. And what he says is this, If thou eatest, does this lead thee to the Kingdom? And this was why, by way of satirizing them as mightily pleased with themselves herein, he said, not “meat” only, but “drink.” What then are the things that do bring us here? “Righteousness, and peace, and joy,” and a virtuous life, and peace with our brethren (whereto this quarrelsomeness is opposed), the joy from unanimity, which this rebuking puts an end to. But this he said not to one party only, but to both of them, it being a fit season for saying it to both. Then as he had mentioned peace and joy, but there is a peace and joy over bad actions also, he adds, “in the Holy Ghost.” Since he that ruins his brother, hath at once subverted peace, and wronged joy, more grievously than he that plunders money. And what is worse is, that Another saved him, and thou wrongest and ruinest him. Since then eating, and the supposed perfect state, does not bring in these virtues, but the things subversive of them it does bring in, how can it be else than right to make light of little things, in order to give firmness to great ones? Then since this rebuking took place in some degree out of vanity, … — Homily on Romans 26

Oecumenius: Even if you are teaching correctly, your argument may become the cause of blasphemy. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

Origen of Alexandria: Therefore let not our good be blasphemed. I ask in what way our good can be blasphemed. It is a good thing to understand the law spiritually, and to avoid, as unclean and polluted foods, the impious and foolish teachings of the heretics or of those who pursue a false philosophy. For this is what is enjoined by the spiritual law. Nevertheless, if someone from among the Jews, for example, or from those who are called Encratites, should wish to believe in Christ, yet should suppose that no small importance lies in the observance of abstinence — whether from those foods which are forbidden by the law, or from those which some think should be shunned as opposed to chastity, even on the authority of the Scriptures — if you press such a man to the foods common to all, and tell him that he cannot otherwise be saved, or attain to the faith and grace of Christ, unless he takes the foods he shrinks from, then truly the good of the spiritual understanding is blasphemed, since the man you are pressing supposes that this is the faith held among us: that we believe no one can be saved unless he feeds on the flesh of swine, or on other such common and indifferent foods. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: What is good is our freedom, which we have in the Lord, so that everything is clean to us. We should not use our freedom in such a way that we appear to be living for the stomach and for feasts. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Theodoret of Cyrus: Paul is saying that he praises their faith but does not want it to become the cause of cursing and damnation. — INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

Romans 14:17

Augustine of Hippo: By “the kingdom of God” Paul means the church, in which God reigns. — LETTER 36

Clement of Alexandria: Furthermore, the selfsame man cried aloud that “the kingdom of God does not consist in food and drink,” not indeed in abstinence from wine and meat, “but in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Which of them goes about like Elijah clad in a sheepskin and a leather girdle? Which of them goes about like Isaiah, naked except for a piece of sacking and without shoes? Or clothed merely in a linen loincloth like Jeremiah? Which of them will imitate John’s gnostic way of life? The blessed prophets also lived in this manner and were thankful to the Creator. — The Stromata Book 3

Clement of Alexandria: He who eats of this meal, the best of all, shall possess the kingdom of God, fixing his regards here on the holy assembly of love, the heavenly Church. Love, then, is something pure and worthy of God, and its work is communication. “And the care of discipline is love,” as Wisdom says; “and love is the keeping of the law.” — The Instructor Book 2

Cyprian: That too great lust of food is not to be desired. In Isaiah: “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die. This sin shall not be remitted to you even until ye die.” Also in Exodus: “And the people sate down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Paul, in the first to the Corinthians: “Meat commendeth us not to God; neither if we eat shall we abound, nor if we eat not shall we want.” . And again: “When ye come together to eat, wait one for another. If any is hungry, let him eat at home, that ye may not come together for judgment.” Also to the Romans: “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” In the Gospel according to John: “I have meat which ye know not of. My meat is, that I should do His will who sent me, and should finish His work.” — Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews

Origen of Alexandria: And he adds to these things: For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit. In which again I greatly admire the wisdom of Paul, who restrains the faults of the present time by the authority of the sacrament to come, and, in order to establish the pattern of the Church, discloses the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. He says therefore: What need is there to disturb brotherly peace and charity so greatly over foods and the qualities of meats, when the kingdom of God, for the sake of which we labor and run, consists neither in foods nor in drink — but rather these things are foreign to the kingdom of God and to that future manner of life? For there, just as they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God, so neither do they take food nor drink, but are as the angels of God. Therefore it has been settled by a most absolute doctrine and a plain declaration of the Apostle that in the kingdom of God neither bodily foods nor drink have a place, but righteousness and peace in the Holy Spirit; and for that reason he exhorts us to exercise ourselves in those things, and to strive to possess those goods already here, and to own that substance which can pass over with us into the kingdoms of heaven. Peace, therefore, and righteousness, and whatever things of this kind are sought out through the Holy Spirit — these very things will be our food and our substance in the kingdom of God: and therefore by these words he teaches that we must take thought not for the accounts of bodily foods, which will be none in the world to come, but for the virtues, which remain with us both in the present life and in the future in the kingdom of God. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: We are not justified by food. But one should also note that Paul did not say that “fasting and temperance” are not the kingdom of God but rather food and drink. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are more easily maintained through abstinence, for where there is righteousness (by loving one’s neighbor as oneself) there is also peace, and where there is peace there is also spiritual joy, because distress and trouble always arise out of discord. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Tertullian: For a defiled spirit cannot be acknowledged by a holy Spirit, nor a sad by a joyful, nor a lettered by a free. — On Prayer

Tertullian: And if he has “delivered you the keys of the meat-market,” permitting the eating of “all things” with a view to establishing the exception of” things offered to idols; “still he has not included the kingdom of God in the meat-market: “For,” he says, “the kingdom of God is neither meat nor drink; " and, “Food commendeth us not to God”-not that you may think this said about dry diet, but rather about rich and carefully prepared, if, when he subjoins, “Neither, if we shall have eaten, shall we abound; nor, if we shall not have eaten, shall we be deficient,” the ring of his words suits, (as it does), you rather (than us), who think that you do “abound” if you eat, and are “deficient if you eat not; and for this reason disparage these observances. — On Fasting

Theodore of Mopsuestia: We ought to laugh at those who think that after the resurrection we shall eat and drink, when Paul’s words so clearly say the opposite. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

Romans 14:18

Ambrosiaster: The man who is acceptable to God is approved by men. Why? Because he has accepted the gift through which he appears worthy in the sight of God. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

John Chrysostom: For they will not admire thee so much for thy perfect state, as all will for peace and amity. For this is a goodly thing, that all will have the benefit of, but of that not one even will. — Homily on Romans 26

Origen of Alexandria: And therefore he says that he who in this serves Christ pleases God, and is approved by men. This is what he says elsewhere of himself: Just as I also, he says, please all men in all things, not seeking what is useful to me, but what is useful to many. For this reason, even though he was an apostle of Christ, he became a Jew to the Jews — without doubt so that by pleasing the Jews he might save them; and to those who were without the law he himself became without law, that by pleasing them he might save them. But he says that he pleases men in this way: not by indulging their vices, but by supporting their weaknesses through patience. But let us not pass over even this idly, that he says: For he who in this — that is, in the Holy Spirit — serves Christ pleases God, and is approved by men. He speaks of serving Christ in the Holy Spirit according to what he also says elsewhere: No one says “Lord Jesus” except in the Holy Spirit. Paul himself therefore serves Christ in the Spirit, who, having received the grace of the Holy Spirit, serves the Word of God, serves wisdom, serves righteousness, and all the virtues together, which Christ is recorded to be. And therefore he is said to please God in these things who fulfills the will of God, according to the word which He Himself pronounced, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him. He therefore who hears God, and serves Christ in whom God was well pleased, pleases God, and is approved by men. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: No one can doubt that a person like this is holy. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 14:19

Ambrosiaster: Since disapproval leads to discord, Paul teaches us to be peaceful and to avoid arguments over eating or not eating. Instead, he encourages us to follow the way of upbuilding. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

John Chrysostom: This applies to the other, that he may grow peaceable. But the other to the latter too, that he may not destroy his brother. Still he has made both apply to either again, by saying, “one another,” and showing that without peace it is not easy to edify. — Homily on Romans 26

Origen of Alexandria: Therefore let us pursue the things that make for peace, and the things that are for mutual edification. Do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God. Above he said: Pursuing hospitality; and here likewise he says, let us pursue the things that make for peace, and the things that are for edification one toward another: and just as we showed there in what manner hospitality is to be pursued, so here too let us understand in what manner peace is to be pursued, since David likewise says: Seek peace, and pursue it. Although in the Latin codices it stands, follow it, nevertheless “pursue” is written there also. In which this seems to me to be shown: that peace has been disturbed, he says, by many who act restlessly and insolently, and, put to flight, has as it were slipped away from among men; on the contrary, by those who have learned Christ and serve Him, it must be pursued even as it flees, and called back by every means. Now he pursues peace who guards those things by which peace can stand firm — even at his own labor, at his own loss, and even at the cost of reproach, and, if it be so necessary, even at peril of life and reputation. For these things preserve not only peace, but also mutual edification. For he is edified who sees you seeking not the things that are expedient for yourself alone, but those that are expedient for others; and thus the building of faith grows, and the temple of God rises up from living stones through the construction of charity; and therefore he adds: Do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God. For he destroys the work of God, and pulls down the building of charity, who by intemperance in foods places a stumbling block before his brothers. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: Let us not judge one another in matters of this kind. Abstinence is edification; food, on the other hand, even if it does not ruin anybody, edifies no one. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 14:20

Ambrosiaster: Man is the work of God by creation, and again by his renewal in regeneration, and food is God’s work as well. But man was not made for food; food was made for man, which is very different! — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

Clement of Alexandria: “It is good, then, neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine,” as both he and the Pythagoreans acknowledge. For this is rather characteristic of a beast; and the fumes arising from them being dense, darken the soul. If one partakes of them, he does not sin. Only let him partake temperately, not dependent on them, nor gaping after fine fare. For a voice will whisper to him, saying, “Destroy not the work of God for the sake of food.” — The Instructor Book 2

Clement of Alexandria: For it is the mark of a silly mind to be amazed and stupefied at what is presented at vulgar banquets, after the rich fare which is in the Word; and much sillier to make one’s eyes the slaves of the delicacies, so that one’s greed is, so to speak, carried round by the servants. — The Instructor Book 2

John Chrysostom: Giving this name to the salvation of a brother, and adding greatly to the fears, and showing that he is doing the opposite of that he desires. For thou, he says, art so far from building up as thou intendest, that thou dost even destroy, and that a building too not of man but of God, and not for any great end either, but for a trivial thing. For it was “for meat,” he says. Then lest so many indulgences should confirm the weaker brother in his misconception, he again becomes doctrinal, as follows, “All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.” Who does it, that is, with a bad conscience. And so if you should force him, and he should eat, there would be nothing gained. For it is not the eating that maketh unclean, but the intention with which a man eats. If then thou dost not set that aright, thou hast done all to no purpose, and hast made things worse: for thinking a thing unclean is not so bad as tasting it when one thinks it unclean. Here then you are committing two errors, one by increasing his prejudice through your quarrelsomeness, and another by getting him to taste of what is unclean. And so, as long as you do not persuade him, do not force him. — Homily on Romans 26

Oecumenius: God did his work on the cross, but now you are destroying it. — PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH

Origen of Alexandria: All things indeed are clean, but it is evil for the man who eats through offense. What he said, All things indeed are clean, but it is evil for the man who eats through offense, is like what he said above, that nothing is common of itself, except that to him who reckons something to be common, to that man it is common. Therefore according to their own nature and the principle of creation, by which all things that exist were made by God, all things are clean; and there is nothing unclean, or what is called common. Yet he laid down two causes by which either things that are clean become unclean, or things that are good become evil. For he says in the present passage: But it is evil for the man who eats through offense. That therefore which is by its own nature good is made evil out of offense, that is, in this, that your brother is offended when you make use of those foods in which he suffers a stumbling-block. But the other cause by which that becomes common or unclean which is not by its own nature unclean, is if anyone reckons it so, and holds it within himself to be common. Therefore to that man alone who so reckons it, it is made common or unclean. From which the Apostle plainly teaches that uncleanness and pollution consist not in things or in substances, but in acts and thoughts that are less than right; although the law of Moses marked out certain things as clean and certain as unclean: in which it wished to lay down certain distinctions, so that the people who were reckoned under the law might be seen to be set apart from the other nations by observances of this kind. And so long indeed as that people was held holy and separated from the other nations, the distinction concerning clean and unclean also seemed necessary, which would separate and set apart the special people of God from the nations whom ignorance of God and the worship of idols made unclean: but when the door of faith is opened to the Gentiles, and all are invited to God, there are shown to Peter all the four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and birds, set forth in a sheet which had been let down from heaven, and it is said to him: Rise, Peter, kill and eat. And when, mindful of the observance of the law, he had answered the Lord and said: Far be it, Lord, for never has anything common or unclean entered into my mouth, it is pronounced by a heavenly verdict: What God has cleansed, do not you call common. Where therefore all the nations are cleansed from defilement through the acknowledgment of faith, there also every food is purified by the word of the Lord and by prayer: and on this account the Apostle says that all things are clean, provided only that this be avoided which he sets down in what follows, lest through the offense of a brother those things which are clean become again unclean to the one eating. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: The “work of God” means “a human being, created by God.” Paul repeats what he said above [in verse 14], lest it appear that he is condemning creation. What is clean in itself becomes wrong if someone else takes offense on his account. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Tertullian: But further: when writing to the Romans, the apostle now gives you a home-thrust, detractors as you are of this observance: “Do not for the sake of food,” he says, “undo the work of God. — On Fasting

Romans 14:21

Ambrosiaster: Although the issue involves only meat, Paul adds drink here as well, in order to nurture those who abstain from both of these things, so that they will not be hurt by those who eat and drink, on the ground that it is lawful to do so. Paul gives them peace of mind by telling them to make their own decision and putting an end to the disagreement through which the dispute had arisen. No one will dispute that either option is legitimate in itself. For the creation was given for voluntary use. There is no necessity imposed on anybody, one way or the other. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

John Chrysostom: Again, he requires the greater alternative, that they should not only not force him, but even condescend to him. For he often did this himself also, as when he circumcised (Acts xvi. 3), when he was shorn (ib. xviii. 18), when he sacrificed that Jewish sacrifice. (ib. xxi. 26). And he does not say to the man “do so,” but he states it in the form of a sentiment to prevent again making the other, the weaker man, too listless. And what are his words? “It is good not to eat flesh.” And why do I say flesh? if it be wine, or any other thing of the sort besides, which gives offence, refrain. For nothing is so important as thy brother’s salvation. And this Christ shows us, since He came from Heaven, and suffered all that He went through, for our sakes. And let me beg you to observe, how he also drives it home upon the other, by the words “stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.” And do not tell me (he means) that he is so without reason but, that thou hast power to set it right. For the other has a sufficient claim to be helped in his weakness, and to thee this were no loss, not being a case of hypocrisy (Gal. ii. 13), but of edification and economy. For if thou force him, he is at once destroyed, and will condemn thee, and fortify himself the more in not eating. But if thou condescend to him, then he will love thee, and will not suspect thee as a teacher, and thou wilt afterwards gain the power of sowing imperceptibly in him the right views. But if he once hate thee, then thou hast closed the entrance for thy reasoning. Do not then compel him, but even thyself refrain for his sake, not refraining from it as unclean, but because he is offended, and he will love thee the more. So Paul also advises when he says, “It is good not to eat flesh,” not because it was unclean, but because the brother is offended and is weak. — Homily on Romans 26

Origen of Alexandria: It is good not to eat meat, and not to drink wine, nor anything in which your brother is offended. But now, as to what he adds, It is good not to eat meat, and not to drink wine — unless he had added, nor anything in which your brother is offended, it would perhaps seem contrary to what went before. For he taught that to eat meat and not to eat, or to drink wine or not to drink, is neither evil nor good, but is to be held as a middle thing and indifferent. For even an evil man and one estranged from the faith can refrain from eating meat and from drinking wine, as it is certain that some also often do this for the sake of idols. Sometimes too such an observance is said to be kept in the evil arts. Certainly it is the custom of not a few heretics to observe these things; and yet we do not straightway say: It is good for them that they do not eat meat, nor drink wine. But plainly in that manner which he set down in what follows, in which a brother is offended, not to eat meat and not to drink wine is no longer a middle or indifferent thing, but truly good. For it is good not to put an offense or stumbling-block before a brother. For on this account he says also in another place: Be without offense both to the Jews and to the Greeks, and to the Church of God. And therefore let them see whether they act rightly who, when men abstain from meat and wine for whatever cause, compel them by every means to taste, namely so that by this there may seem to be removed from them the suspicion by which they are thought superstitiously to cling to distinctions of foods. For let them consider that the Apostle did not say: It is good to eat and to drink wine; but, not to eat meat, and not to drink wine, if a brother is offended in it. He did not wish, therefore, that for the sake of those who judge that one ought to eat, the man should be compelled to eat who is offended in this; but rather, for the sake of him who thinks one ought not to eat, he enjoins abstinence even upon those who judge that one ought to eat. For it is to be feared lest perhaps, once the wall of continence has been broken down and license taken, one fall into the storm of gluttony and the depth of luxury, and shipwrecks of chastity follow together with it. All things therefore must be done to this end, that the work of God be not destroyed: and therefore one must eat, if in this a brother is edified; and one must not eat, if through this the work of God does not increase; and one must drink, if through this a brother advances in faith; and one must not drink, if through this a brother incurs loss of faith, or you the detriment of charity. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Philoxenus of Mabbug: And the glutton is not pleased to hear the other things which have been written by Paul upon fortitude and asceticism, either when he recounteth his numerous fastings, or when he crieth out to his disciples, saying, “Ye are dead unto the world,” or when he writeth, “It is good for a man not to eat flesh, and not to drink wine,” or his exhortation, “Through many tribulations it is meet for a man to enter into the kingdom of God,” or his saying, “God shall bring both the belly and the food to nought;” and the reading of these and such like passages the glutton considereth unnecessary, and he is not pleased even to hear them. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 10 – On Gluttony

Philoxenus of Mabbug: Now with thee He hath not done thus, but He hath purified and sanctified everything, as it is written, “Everything is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer,” that henceforth the patient endurance of thy discretion might appear, and that thou mightest not eat, not because they were impure, but because it hath been said that it is good that thou shouldst not eat flesh nor drink wine, nor anything by which our brother may stumble, and also that thou mightest overcome lust by thine own will, and not by the restriction of the uncleanness of meats. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 – On Abstinence

Romans 14:22

Ambrosiaster: This means that if you are happy to eat because you know that everything God made is good, there is no need to judge anyone else. Rather, you should be at peace with your brother, for this is what God wants. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

Augustine of Hippo: This should be read in connection with [verse 16] above.… Let us make good use of what we have, lest we sin against our brothers by creating a stumbling block for the weaker ones. For when we offend the weak we condemn ourselves by the very good by which we approve ourselves when this faith pleases us. — AUGUSTINE ON Romans 81

John Chrysostom: Here he seems to me to be giving a gentle warning to the more advanced on the score of vanity. And what he says is this, Dost thou wish to show me that thou art perfect, and fully furnished? Do not show it to me, but let thy conscience suffice. And by faith, he here means that concerned not with doctrines, but with the subject in hand. For of the former it says, “With the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. x. 10); and, “Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny.” (Luke ix. 26.) For the former by not being confessed, ruins us; and so does this by being confessed unseasonably. “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the thing which he alloweth.” Again he strikes at the weaker one, and gives him (i.e. the stronger) a sufficient crown, in that of his conscience. Even if no man see, that is, thou art able to be happy in thyself. For after saying, “Have it to thyself,” to prevent his thinking this a contemptible tribunal, he tells him this is better to thee than the world. And if all accuse thee, and thou condemn not thyself, and thy conscience lay no charge against thee, thou art happy. But this is a statement he did not make to apply to any person whatever. For there are many that condemn not themselves, and yet are great transgressors: and these are the most miserable of men. But he still keeps to the subject in hand. — Homily on Romans 26

Origen of Alexandria: After these things he says: The faith which you have, have it with yourself before God. He here calls “faith” that by which one believes that he may eat all things, just as he said above: One believes that he may eat all things — that man, without doubt, who believes that among God’s creatures nothing is common, nothing unclean. But it is enough for you, he says, to have such faith before God; yet not on that account is another to be compelled to eat all things, one who does not yet have such faith as to believe that all things are to be eaten. But in saying, which you have with yourself, he cuts away boastfulness, lest what we believe should consist rather in display than in virtue. And he added, have it before God, that he might teach that we must take pains, not that our faith be noised abroad among men, but that it be approved before God. And it is a great thing to have an approvable faith before God. For with God even the faith of the apostles is judged small, whence it is said to Peter: O you of little faith, why did you doubt? Therefore truly great is he who has before God an approvable faith. Blessed is he who does not judge himself in that which he approves. A man is called blessed not only if he does the things that are fitting, but also if he does not do the things that are unfitting: as he is called blessed who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and no less blessed is he who walks in the law of the Lord. The one, then, is blessed because he does not walk in the way of sinners; the other, because he walks in the law of the Lord. So too in the present passage the Apostle says: Blessed is he who does not judge himself in that which he approves. But let us see of what work this blessedness consists. For there are many who approve of doing some good thing — for example, those who, hearing of the rewards of chastity, approve and resolve to live chastely; but in the course of time, either through negligence creeping in or through lust overcoming them, that which they had approved as to be observed is stained and corrupted: and unhappy is that man who, conquered in the very thing he had decreed to observe, judges and condemns himself. But blessed is he who so remains fixed and stable in that which he approves and resolves, that in nothing does he judge himself, in nothing reproach himself. And he says that this is to be held also in the observance of foods, according to that rule which he wove above: so that if there is anyone who through knowledge of the spiritual law approves that all things are to be eaten and that all things are clean, he should not again judge himself and take up a doubt whether he ought to partake or not. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: If you consider yourself faithful in this matter, eat in such a way that nobody is weakened by your example. The man who, in demonstrating his own strength, does not think of himself but of the salvation of the weak, is truly blessed. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Romans 14:23

Ambrosiaster: It is true that if someone thinks it wrong to eat but does so anyway, he is condemned. For he makes himself guilty when he does what he thinks he ought not to.If someone acts against his better judgment in a matter of conscience, then Paul says that it is a sin. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

Basil of Caesarea: If “all that is not of faith is sin, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” then everything outside holy Scripture, not being of faith, is sin. — THE MORALS 80.22

Dionysius of Alexandria: As to those who are overtaken by an involuntary flux in the night-time, let such follow the testimony of their own conscience, and consider themselves as to whether they are doubtfully minded in this matter or not. And he that doubteth in the matter of meats, the apostle tells us, “is damned if he eat.” In these things, therefore, let every one who approaches God be of a good conscience, and of a proper confidence, so far as his own judgment is concerned. — Containing Various Sections of the Works - Canon IV

Gregory of Nyssa: Every word or deed or thought which does not look to Christ looks completely to the adversary of Christ. For it is not possible for what is outside of light or life not to be completely in darkness or death.… The person outside of Christ rejects him by what he thinks, does or says. — ON PERFECTION

John Chrysostom: Again, it is to exhort him to spare the weaker, that he says this. For what good is it if he eat in doubt, and condemn himself? For I approve of him, who both eateth, and doeth it not with doubting. See how he induces him not to eating only, but to eating with a good conscience too. Then he mentions likewise the reason why he is condemned continuing in these words, “Because he eateth not of faith.” Not because it is unclean, but because it is not of faith. For he did not believe that it is clean, but though unclean he touched it. But by this he shows them also what great harm they do by compelling men, and not persuading them, to touch things which had hitherto appeared unclean to them, that for this at all events they might leave rebuking. “For whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” For when a person does not feel sure, nor believe that a thing is clean, how can he do else than sin? Now all these things have been spoken by Paul of the subject in hand, not of everything. And observe what care he takes not to offend any; and he had said before, “If thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably.” But if one should not grieve him, much less ought one to give him offence. And again, “For meat destroy not the work of God.” For if it were a grievous act of iniquity to throw down a Church, much more so is it to do so to the spiritual Temple. Since a man is more dignified than a Church: for it was not for walls that Christ died, but for these temples. — Homily on Romans 26

Origen of Alexandria: But he who makes a distinction, if he eats, is condemned, because it is not of faith. And everything that is not of faith is sin. He who makes a distinction in this way — that is, who doubts whether what he takes is truly clean or unclean — that man, from the very doubt of his own mind, is condemned by his accusing conscience. He also sets forth the cause of this condemnation, saying: Because it is not taken of faith, but assuredly out of doubt. And after these things he propounds a general sentence upon all things, saying: And everything that is not of faith is sin. By this word he binds with a tighter bond the negligent and slothful souls of any believers whatever, that they should do nothing without faith, say nothing apart from faith, nor think anything apart from faith: because whether you have done something without faith, or spoken, or even thought it, you sin. This is the same as what he says elsewhere: Whether you eat or drink, or whatever else you do, do all to the glory of God. But someone may ask whether the heretics too, in what they do, since they act according to what they believe, are to be held to act out of faith; or whether, because the faith among them is evil, everything they do is to be pronounced sin, since it is not done of faith. For my part, I think that their credulity is called faith rather than is faith. For just as false prophets are sometimes by a false name called prophets; and false knowledge is called knowledge; and false wisdom is by misuse named wisdom: so also the credulity of heretics is by a false name called faith. Whence it must be considered whether perhaps even if some good work seems to be performed among them, because it is not done of faith, it is turned into sin, as was said of a certain man: Let his prayer become sin. There is sometimes also a chastity which is not of faith — that, at any rate, of those who give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry, and abstaining from foods which God created. There is, then, also a false faith of those who have made shipwreck concerning the faith; there is also a false wisdom, namely that of this world, and of the princes of this world, which shall be destroyed. For just as pirates are accustomed at sea, in shallow places and among hidden rocks, to kindle a light through the darkness of night, by which they may lure sailors — under the hope of fleeing to a harbor of safety — to the shipwrecks of destruction; so too that light of false wisdom or false faith is kindled by the princes of the world and by the spirits of this air, not that men may escape by it, but that by it the men who sail the waves of this world and the sea of life may perish. Of these pirates, I think, Job also was speaking: The arrows of his pirates have come upon me. And for this reason, doubtless, the apostle Paul himself also says that Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, sailing the waves of this life, we ought not to trust every light, that is, not every wisdom; but, as the Apostle admonishes, to test the spirits, which are of God. And therefore we ought unceasingly to pray for the help of the Lord, and to hope that he himself will snatch us from the snare of the hunters, so that we too may say: For our soul has been snatched like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters: the snare is broken, and we are set free. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Pelagius: Whatever destroys another is not of faith and is therefore sin. — PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

Early Church Fathers Commentary

A comprehensive collection of verse-keyed commentary from the church fathers of the first thousand years, including Augustine, John Chrysostom, Bede, Jerome, Origen, and over 250 others spanning from the 1st to the 10th centuries. Each verse entry gathers quotes from multiple fathers, providing a …

View all chapters →

Old Testament

GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUT 1SA 2SA 1KI 2KI 1CH 2CH EZR NEH EST JOB PSA PRO ECC SOS ISA JER LAM EZK DAN HOS JOL AMO OBA JON MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL

New Testament

MAT MRK LUK JHN ACT ROM 1CO 2CO GAL EPH PHP COL 1TH 2TH 1TI 2TI TIT PHM HEB JAS 1PE 2PE 1JN 2JN 3JN JUD REV

‹ Chapter 13 Romans — All Chapters Chapter 15 ›