“But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.”
If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. — Lypeō (grieve, cause sorrow) the weak through elutheria (freedom) in eating violates agapē (love). The rhetorical weight: ei dia bromin (if through food) apollymi (destroy, ruin, lose) your adelphos (brother) for whom Christos apothnesko (Christ died). The weak person's salvation is at stake if stumbled. Love must constrain freedom.
Church Fathers on Romans 14:15
“But if your brother be grieved with your meat, now you do not walk charitably.” You see how far, for the present, he goes in affection for him, showing that he makes so great account of him, that with a view not to grieve him he does not venture even to enjoin things of great urgency, but by yieldingness would rather draw him to himself, and by charity. For even when he has freed him of his fears, he does not drag him and force him, but leaves him his own master. For…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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