Romans 14:15-23

15 For 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.
16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.
21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.
23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

Two verses arrest my reading of this passage when considering conditional security. Both of these verses employ the English word destroy. Lets take a look at these verses for a few minutes.

15 For if your brother is grieved …By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.

“Destroy” in verse 15, is the Greek word ἀπόλλυμι apóllymi. I have provided a survey of this word through the New Testament in an earlier post (See Perishing in Eternal Torment). In that post I tried to correct my then current understanding of perishing, as this is one of the ways apóllymi is translated.

Paul is speaking in verse 15 of our walk of love towards those for whom Christ died. The general context is that of mature believers behavior for the sake of the immature, those who may still require foundational stability in their walk with the Master.

Is Paul describing a hypothetical situation where a mature believer impacts a young convert by his actions (fueled by a mature understanding of the gospel and it’s impacts on our lives!), and the result would be that the young convert would walk away from Christ? That in the young believers decision to walk away, (based on the behavior of the mature believer), this young believer would be destroyed? Is this what Paul is saying?

Let us move on to the second verse we find “destroy” in this passage.

20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.

In verse 15, we find the one destroyed as “one for whom Christ died”. Here Paul associated this destruction with the work of God. Different? Possibly. I tend to think Paul is referring to a singular believer and his response due to the mature believers behavior that is questionable in the young converts life.

Nevertheless, this “destroy” is a different word than in verse 15. In verse 20, Paul uses the Greek word “καταλύω katalýō“. This term is translated as destroy (obviously) but also has the meaning of to subvert or overthrow, to render vain or to deprive of success.

What are we to make of this difference? Whatever the finer points of the different words, it is obvious to me that as a mature believer I need to consider my behavior when near younger believers.

For a younger believer to be influenced by my allowed actions, to a point of destruction, is a perilous situation for not only the younger believer, but also for myself. When the outcome of my allowed behavior is translated by others to their harm, I am not walking in love.

For the immature believer to be grieved (v15) or to stumble (v 20) by my actions, (though they may be perfectly allowed before God), is a restriction that I should thoughtfully and willingly take on as a light burden. We should remember that the Lord continues to take on our misunderstandings, errors and confusion in order to grow us.

As Paul so aptly states in verse 16

.. do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.

Let’s be a bit more like the Master today, and consider those who need a model of service and not be a master of my own circumstances only.

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