“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. — Basileia tou Theou (kingdom of God) consists of dikaiosynē (justice, right-relationship with God), eirēnē (peace, wholeness), and chara (joy, exultation) en pneumati hagiō (in the Holy Spirit). Food observance is peripheral; the Spirit's fruit is central. Dietary disputes are ontologically beneath the kingdom's reality.
Church Fathers on Romans 14:17
“Let not then your good be evil spoken of. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink.” By their “good,” he means here either their faith, or the hope of rewards hereafter, or the perfectness of their religious state. For it is not only that you fail to profit your brother, he means, but the doctrine itself, and the grace of God, and His gift, you cause to be evil spoken of. Now when you fight, when you quarrel, when you are vexatious, when you make schism in the Church,…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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