“For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.”
Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. — Apollymi (destroy, ruin) to ergon tou Theou (God's work, likely referring to the weak person God is building up) di' autou (through food) is gravely wrong. Yes, panta katharē (all things are clean), but kakon (evil, bad) to esthiō (eat) if it becomes stumbling block (proskomma) to another.
Church Fathers on Romans 14:20
“For meat destroy not the work of God.” Giving this name to the salvation of a brother, and adding greatly to the fears, and showing that he is doing the opposite of that he desires. For thou, he says, art so far from building up as you intend, that you dost even destroy, and that a building too not of man but of God, and not for any great end either, but for a trivial thing. For it was “for meat,” he says. Then lest so many indulgences should confirm the weaker brother in…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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