Question:
Please harmonize Romans 14, especially the 14th verse, with “flesh-eating.”
Answer:
Romans 14 is not in any sense a dietetic treatise or rule as to the kind of food that we should eat. If we but understand the reason for giving that passage of Scripture, we will have much less trouble with the diet of neighbors and brethren. God did not give Romans 14 to tell us what we should eat or what we should drink, nor what our neighbors should eat or what our neighbors should drink. The key of the whole chapter is found in verses 12 and 13: “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”
God has given very explicit directions to His children in the previous chapter. Any division of chapters is all man’s work. In Romans 13:12, 13, He tells us how we should live temperately. In verse 14, He tells us that we should not make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. We should not eat and drink simply because our appetites crave this or that. There is but one thing we should do, and that is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and glorify Him. But in doing that, we will meet some who are weak in the faith; we will be associated with brethren who can not do just as we do. Therefore, “Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.” (Romans 14:3-4).
These conditions were pre-eminently true in the apostle’s day among the Gentile and Jewish converts. Some of the Jews esteemed days. The Passover was kept by some for years, needlessly, of course, because Christ our Passover had been sacrificed, and yet men were not to be judged regarding this. That belonged to the Lord; still, He would have us take home to our hearts also that we should not set an example that would lead weak brethren out of the way. “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.” (Romans 14:7). Our example should therefore be right before God. The one dietetic rule God has given us above all others is 1 Corinthians 10:31: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
In Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, God has clearly shown a preference between different kinds of flesh foods. Some He has designated as clean; others as unclean, an abomination, unfit to eat. The same conditions as then would make them unsuitable now.
And yet He knew in His great wisdom that there would be thousands of believers scattered here and there throughout the world who could not follow the dietetic rules He gave to His people, and He would not place a handicap upon them in that way. But the principles upon which those laws are based, the great facts of the nature of the animals, are just as true now as they were then. More than that: there are passages in the Bible that indicate that God will bring His people back to the ideal diet, to that given to Adam in the very beginning, entirely free from flesh meats. When He called His people out of Egypt, He gave them the ideal diet in the manna, a non-flesh diet. He is setting His hand to “gather” His people “the second time” from all the various parts of the earth. (See Isaiah 11:11-12).
In this age, animal food is becoming diseased more and more. The conditions under which animals are fatted, the increasing diseased conditions among them, and how the meats are killed, kept, and stored all are tremendous arguments against a flesh diet; on the other hand, those who have adopted a non-flesh diet are better in health, clearer in the brain, more sensitive in conscience, and are helped and blessed generally. We advise our readers to adopt a plant-based diet of grains, fruits, and vegetables. We are sure they will find a blessing in it.
