ACC ~ Romans 14 v3

NOT PASSING JUDGMENT. ORIGEN: Paul wants harmony to prevail in the church between those who are more mature and those who are less. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

NOT ABSTAINING. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: We are not to abstain completely from different kinds of food but only not to be preoccupied with them. We are to eat what is set before us, as a Christian should, out of respect to our host. THE INSTRUCTOR 2.1.

PERSONAL CHOICE. AMBROSIASTER: What we eat or do not eat is a matter of personal choice and therefore it should not become a matter for argument. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE STRONG SHOULD NOT DEMEAN THE WEAK. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul does not say that the one who eats should simply ignore the one who abstains, nor does he suggest that the latter should not be blamed and put right. All he is saying is that the stronger ones should not look down on the weak or be contemptuous of them. Likewise, those who abstain are not to pass judgment on those who eat. For just as the strong mocked the weak, claiming that they had no faith, that they were not really saved and that they were Judaizers, so the others thought that the strong ones were lawbreakers and gluttonous. Since these were probably mostly Gentiles, Paul adds that God has welcomed them. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 25.

ON NOT DESPISING ANOTHER CULTURE’S CUSTOMS. AUGUSTINE: The apostle instructed those who ate such food with a clear conscience not to despise the weakness of those who abstained. … And he told the weak not to condemn as polluted those who consumed such meat and wine. … For the strong insisted on despising the weak, and the weak did not hesitate to condemn the strong. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 78.

KEEPING THE BALANCE. AUGUSTINE: Paul wanted to keep the balance, by which scandals are avoided, between those who fast on Saturday and those who do not, so that the one who eats would not despise the one who does not eat, and the one who fasts would not judge the one who eats. LETTER 36.

NOT TAKING OFFENSE. PELAGIUS: These people took offense at each other. Those who did not eat judged those who ate as carnal, and those who ate ridiculed those who did not eat as fools and considered them to be superstitious. But God called the one, just as he called the other. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

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