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Pastor.s Blog November 4, 2021

"View of God in Romans XXXV"

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Thanks to our religious history, Adventists tend to think in "clean" and "unclean" categories when it comes to food.  These categories are primarily about meat, but our approach to health has tended to adopt overtones of "clean" and "unclean": this diet is in line with God's design and therefore holy, and that diet is less in line with God's design and therefore less holy.  But did you know that your approach to food can be the arena in which God demonstrates his saving work and merciful character? 

In Romans 14:20, Paul makes this very point: "Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food.  All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense" (NASB).  Paul's argument about food in this verse is similar to his larger treatment of the subject in 1 Corinthians 8-10.  In those chapters, Paul maintains that followers of Jesus have the freedom to eat food offered to idols, but that they shouldn't use their freedom to scandalize the consciences of believers who don't feel permitted to eat such food. 

The use of the terms "clean" and "evil" in Romans 14:20 roughly mirrors the stakes in 1 Corinthians 8-10, where many Jews and Christians would have considered any food that had been offered to an idol as something that became "unclean" or potentially "evil."  Paul is saying in Romans 14:20 that God has made all things clean (as in, God has made all things "good"); the apostle is not talking about clean and unclean meat.  But this isn't even Paul's point.  The primary point of Romans 14:20 is the first sentence: "Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food." 

The context of Romans 14 indicates that God's work is the transformation he enacts in the lives of those he saves through Jesus.  And while it's possible - perhaps even usual - for people to tear down the work God is doing in each other's life (in this case by means of food), Paul is emphasizing that God shows us what his true concern is: to build people up, rather than tear people down. 

Friends, know that God supremely loves you, as demonstrated by his keen interest in working salvation in your lives.  Look for ways to cooperate with God in building each other up.

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