¹⁴ I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. ¹⁵ For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.

Does that mean there are no standards for the so-called “gray” areas of Christian living? Of course not. Paul is convinced on this issue. And since he writes as an apostle in this inspired letter, we take this as God’s truth. The precise question is, “Is food that has been placed on an altar in an act of worship to an idol somehow tainted with unholiness, or uncleanness?” Paul’s response is concise, unequivocal and clear: No. Food is food, regardless of what people used it for prior to its sale. Nothing has changed in the food; God has not attached some anathema to it. Paul details this in another place:

[C]oncerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one … However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. (1 Cor 8:4, 7)

So we see that a mature, knowledgeable Christian knows that eating food offered to idols is permissible for Christians. But that is not the final word. The issue there in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Christians, as well as here to the Romans: we should be more concerned about guarding another’s conscience first. There is a time and place for discussing the merits of right or wrong, which Paul clearly lays out when he asserts that food is not “unclean in itself.” But the superseding concern is what is best for our fellow Christian.

Notice the direction of the judgment here. The brother who enjoys the freedom of his knowledge about food should not in a cavalier manner flaunt his freedom of eating that food offered to idols and in the process cause another Christian, who because of his conscience, would sin by eating that food. We must be reminded of what Paul wrote, again to the Corinthians: “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify” (1 Cor 6:12, 10:23).

True, we cannot let other people’s scruples impose a “Christian legalism” on our freedom in Christ. But neither should we let our freedoms in Christ cause a fall into sin in those for whom that freedom would violate their conscience.

Lord, help me have wisdom and love to respond well to the gray areas of life.