A stumbling block is a right used so that a brother falls.
Decide never to put a stumbling block
or hindrance in the way of a brother.
If your brother is grieved by what you eat,
you are no longer walking in love.
Do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.
Paul is speaking to the strong. Food is clean. The idol is nothing. The brother with a weak conscience can still be destroyed by the strong man’s meal. Decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. Christian liberty is not the right to ignore that. Jesus died for that brother. A right that destroys him is no longer walking in love.
- The weak and the strong are the two consciences. The strong know. The weak are wounded by the knowing used in front of them.
- Balaam put a stumbling block before Israel so they would eat idol food and practice immorality. That is the dark use of the same word. Do not borrow it.
- The church is told to pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Decide never. The food is not the issue. The brother is. Christ died for him.
Decide never to put a stumbling block in the way of a brother.
You are no longer walking in love.
Do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.
- A stumbling block here is a liberty that trips a brother.
- The decision is never. Not rarely.
- Grief over food means the strong are no longer walking in love.
- Destroy is the verb. Christ died for that one.
- Peace and upbuilding replace the right.
- Balaam’s stumbling block is a different evil. Do not confuse them.
- The Decision – Never put one in a brother’s way.
- The Food – Clean, and still able to grieve.
- The Love – Walking in love limits the right.
- The Price – Christ died for him.
- The Aim – Peace and mutual upbuilding.
- The Other Block – Balaam’s, which led to idol food and immorality.
- Romans 14:13-15 – “Decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother… If your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.”
- Romans 14:19-21 – “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God… It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:9-11 – “Take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak… And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.”
Decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
If your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.
Do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.
The right is real. The brother is Christ’s. Do not trip him with your freedom.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.