God and Vegetarianism

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¹ Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. ² One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ³ The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. ⁴ Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 

Romans 14:1-4

When I read this last Sunday, it made me smile.  I never realized the Bible had anything to say on vegetarianism!  This passage speaks directly to the issue.  If you want to be a vegetarian, do so.  But whether you are a vegetarian or not, you should not be judging people who have different diets.  Instead you should support their gastronomical choices.

This verse is of course more than just about food.  It's about the fact that it's not our job to judge others.  That's a tough thing to swallow. (Pun intended.)  It's much easier to judge.  We all have perceptions of good and bad.  God says that he doesn't care, he forgives it all whether we think an act is good or bad.  And that's the point: God is the arbiter.  He decides what is good and bad.  It doesn't matter what we think, whether we agree or not.  God decides when someone has done something wrong and will handle the situation at the appropriate time.  It's our job to do our best to forgive.

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