Don’t tear apart the work of God over what you eat. Remember, all foods are acceptable, but it is wrong to eat something if it makes another person stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it might cause another believer to stumble. You may believe there’s nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right. But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning. We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord.

Romans 14:20-15:2

Dear God, the whole issue of what constitutes a sin in your eyes and what doesn’t is one that, again, Satan ha successfully used to divide Christians for the last 2,000 years—and it started almost immediately in the early church. And that’s just over the issue of “right and wrong.” Some examples of this would be drinking alcohol, premarital sex, same sex relationships/marriage, etc.

But then we get into differences in theology, which can be even more vague and have a potential to be man-made. Examples of this would be infant baptism, alcohol, musical instruments in worship, and even whether you can use anything but the King James Bible.

Man, we love to judge each other. And I confess to you that I do it. Growing up Baptist and now attending a Catholic church with my wife, there is a temptation to judge all kinds of things that I see because they a different than what I learned growing up. I emphasize those two words because a lot of us assume what we learned originally is the truth, but when we examine it more closely we start to realize that it has the potential to be as flawed as the thing we are criticizing.

Father, you cannot make me an instrument of your peace when I am going around judging people on a wholesale level. So help me to major in the majors, keep myself pure according to how you convict me, and love everyone I can.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen