by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Romans 14 shows that liberty in Christ has taken all “unclean” foods under the Law of Moses off the list of unclean. However, those who grew up under that Law had a hard time releasing their conscience into such liberties in Christ. If pork were unclean, the Jewish conscience would have a hard time adjusting. Those with a strong conscience were not to despise or tempt or pressure those with a weak conscience in such matters. It was a liberty, but not a sin if a brother did not eat pork. The chapter is all about such liberties and how to treat brethren of a weaker conscience in such liberties.<\/p>\n
“Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another<\/em>” (Romans 14:19).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Since the kingdom of God is about righteousness, and this issue is not a matter of moral right or wrong, and since the kingdom of God is about peace within ourselves and among ourselves, then here is a good way to handle a difference between us. We want peace and edification between us. Pursue the things that make for peace. One thing we can do is be careful not to force a brother to violate his conscience. Give him room to grow. As edification and learning take root, he may, in time, learn that he can indeed consider that there are no foods that God characterizes as unclean in the kingdom. But, as long as he thinks he should refrain from some foods, then don’t tempt him to harm his own conscience.<\/p>\n
This does not mean that we are to treat even sinful issues in the same way. For example, Paul did not treat the issue of fornication in I Corinthians 5 the same way he treated the issues of liberty and conscience in Romans 14. Food and days are not the same as moral sins and are not treated the same way. Sometimes, pursuing what brings peace means confronting sinful behavior so that there can be real peace afterward.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton Romans 14 shows that liberty in Christ has taken all “unclean” foods under the Law of Moses off the list of unclean. However, those who grew up under that Law had a hard time releasing their conscience into such liberties in Christ. If pork were unclean, the Jewish conscience would have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[202,456],"class_list":["post-95697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-uncleanness","tag-unity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40689,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/kill-and-eat\/","url_meta":{"origin":95697,"position":0},"title":"Kill and Eat","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton In Acts 10 Peter was told by God in a vision to kill and eat the animals, and there was a wide assortment, some of which God had forbidden to the Jews under the Old covenant. God explained that those unclean animals (off-limits to the Jews\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/peter_and_the_roman_captain-250x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32916,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-the-old-testament-diet\/","url_meta":{"origin":95697,"position":1},"title":"Why the Old Testament Diet?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton God \"imposed\" food and drink laws on Israel, not on us (Hebrews 9:10) until the time of reformation. The time of reformation is the New Testament age under Christ. Under Christ, the earthly food laws of the Old Law are not binding (you can go ahead\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/food-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49927,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/acts-11-does-not-prove-we-can-now-eat-pork\/","url_meta":{"origin":95697,"position":2},"title":"Acts 11 does not prove we can now eat pork","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You said we could eat pork and pulled Acts 11 out to debate your cause, but you see that that vision was talking about the Gentiles if you keep reading on. The Bible tells us to get the conclusion of the whole matter. Answer: In \"Uncleanness,\" I said: \"While\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35406,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-god-condemned-something-in-the-past-does-that-mean-the-law-remains\/","url_meta":{"origin":95697,"position":3},"title":"If God condemned something in the past does that mean the law remains?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! I came across a website today about Leviticus and homosexuality. At the bottom it said the following: \"Now, if God never changes and never goes back on His word, what He says in Leviticus stands for all time. Thus, what He condemns in the Old Testament remains condemned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1718,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-paul-sometimes-drink-wine\/","url_meta":{"origin":95697,"position":4},"title":"Did Paul sometimes drink wine?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 17, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Paul said in Romans that he would eat no meat if it causes his brother to stumble or be offended. In the same context, he mentions wine a few verses later. I have concluded that he would neither eat meat or drink wine if it caused his brother to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3851,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/uncleanness\/","url_meta":{"origin":95697,"position":5},"title":"Uncleanness (Article)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Students of the Bible are frequently confused by the Old Testament laws regulating uncleanness. Many do not understand the purpose of the laws and often wonder if they impact the Christian in some way or not. The concept of unclean is certainly an old one. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/DirtyPig.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}