Eating in Doubt

“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. 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.” -Romans 14:22–23

By the phrase The faith that you have, Paul means the conviction by which the stronger is fully persuaded concerning diets and days. Paul is not diminishing the legitimacy of the stronger believers’ liberty in Christ. But out of deference to his weaker brother, it is best to keep that conviction between himself and God.

There is a blessing, a certain joyful benefit, that comes to the one who refrains from putting himself in the position to condemn himself for violating his conscience. Ultimately, the believers needs to build his conscience according to the word of God; this can take time. In the meantime, it would be a sin to partake in a liberty one is not fully convinced is available to him. It is a sin to do anything that is contrary to faith (that of which one is fully convinced), even if that faith is immature or misguided.

But it is equally sinful to neglect growing up unto Christ, which is the building up of one’s conscience by continually examining it in light of the word of God (Cf. Ephesians 4:15, 1 Peter 2:2, 2 Peter 3:18).