Day 20

No one’s salvation depends on vegetables.

‘Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.’ (Romans 14:1-2)

In the Church in Rome, vegetarianism seemed to be a serious controversy. Some believed you could eat anything you wanted, while others only ate vegetables. Paul encourages mutual respect in ‘disputable matters,’ but projects the whole issue on to a bigger screen. God couldn’t care less whether you eat vegetables, beef or chicken because they are not moral issues. God cares about the spirit in which you do these things and whether you do it conscientiously unto the Lord. There’s room for honest different understandings of peripheral things, provided the one who eats meat does not condemn the one who eats just vegetables and vice versa. They are to do it as to the Lord.

Paul goes on to say that the real issue is, ‘whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin’ (Romans 14:23). Eating only vegetables is not the issue but rather, does everything you do in good conscience before the Lord come from a spirit of dependence on Him? What does not come from dependence on God, can only come from independence of God – that is the nature of sin. This principle permeates the whole of our lives.

What does it mean for you to honour God in your eating habits?