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Help me understand Romans 14:23. As we know as Christians, we tend to disagree on interpretations which leads to sometimes uncertainty.

For example, say there’s something you you’ve always done that you’ve never believed was wrong/sinful. Let’s say… using tampons for example. And then someone tells you it’s wrong and uses a vague scripture to back it up. So you start to question it and wonder if it’s actually sinful to use or not. To me this sounds like doubt but I feel like it’s unfair to say I’m in sin since I’m not 100% sure it’s a sin, I’m just trying to do my due diligence…

What are y’all’s thoughts?

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  • See other topics on the same verse by searching Romans 14:23
    – Michael16
    Commented Feb 1 at 3:51
  • A poor interpretation of Romans 14 will be one that tends to bring a person back 'under the law'.
    – Mike Borden
    Commented Feb 1 at 14:00

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The majority of this chapter is more about judging fellow believers over these types of "doubtful disputations" (verse 1 KJV). You originally did not believe there was any sin against God, but your accuser did. Paul is basically telling the accuser to mind their own business (verse 3), because from the verse in question (23) you originally had faith that God was not going to judge you. You were correct in that thought. Regardless of whether it is a sin or not, we live by faith in Christ taking all the punishment that we deserved at the cross (where all our sin was forgiven). This does not mean that God's grace is now an open invitation to knowingly sin. If there is sin in our lives the goal of the believer is to remove it, but to also live in peace through faith that doubtful disputations are not worth losing any faith over.

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  • I can think of some people I wish would take this to heart. (With respect to Christians eating pork, for example...)
    – Matthew
    Commented Feb 1 at 15:33
  • @Matthew Me too!
    – Mark Vestal
    Commented Feb 1 at 16:08
  • I think it is also worth reminding that this letter was to the Roman Jews who would have been among the more sophisticated, but more arrogant and judgmental of the Jewish people. Not only that, but Paul was a Roman Jew himself, so he was probably very familiar with their self-righteous attitudes.
    – David Eisenbeisz
    Commented Feb 2 at 21:19
  • @DavidEisenbeisz Good point!
    – Mark Vestal
    Commented Feb 2 at 21:55

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