Welcome those who are weak in faith but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat, for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on slaves of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it for the Lord. Also those who eat, eat for the Lord, since they give thanks to God, while those who abstain, abstain for the Lord and give thanks to God.

-Romans 14:1-6

You might have been caught off guard by what seemed to be a condemnation of vegetarians in last Sunday’s reading from Romans. “The weak eat only vegetables” —what? Does Paul seriously think God cares about eating meat?

The Roman Empire, where Paul did his traveling and teaching, was home to lots of religious groups. In many of those religions, animals would be sacrificed and the meat then sold at market along with other meat. There wasn’t any way to tell the difference between the meat that had been part of a sacrifice at a temple and the meat that just came from the butcher. Some Christians worried that eating meat sacrificed to an idol would be considered turning away from Jesus to worship a false god– so they didn’t eat any meat at all, just to be safe.

Understanding this context, all of a sudden, you can understand why a Christian might be hesitant to eat meat! If the meat you bought might have been used in a temple sacrifice, and eating it might make those around you think you had rejected Jesus Christ, you might not want to eat meat, either. Remember, Christianity was new and somewhat precarious. Figuring out how to follow Jesus was a real problem for newly formed Christian communities.

Paul has advice for this situation, however. He wrote earlier to the Corinthian church about the same problem, advising them to feel free to eat whatever meat they wanted, regardless of its sacrifice state, unless it would cause harm to someone else’s conscience. In other words, this particular social standard isn’t a matter of sin at all, except where it hurts others who care.

I wonder if Paul was able to brush off the question of eating meat so easily because he had traveled and experienced different cultures. He knew that the outward trappings of a culture might change, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same. Who cares if you eat meat, or shake hands when you meet someone, or slurp your soup, or wear ripped jeans to church, or cuss, or follow the liturgical calendar, or get circumcised, or sing along with an organ, or drink coffee after worship? None of those things is the gospel: that Jesus Christ lived and died and rose for you.

And yet, our social behavior does matter– not because it might offend God, but because it might offend our fellow believers. And Paul reminds us that the more confidently we trust in God’s grace instead of our behavior, the more we need to pay attention to not giving offense. I’m convinced that God doesn’t care all that much about the words we tell our children not to use, but since so many people find it offensive to hear those four-letter words in everyday conversation, I avoid using them where it might give offense because my neighbor’s conscience matters more than my freedom.

What started out as a question about eating meat becomes a much deeper, more challenging question: do my words and actions line up with God’s expectations AND avoid giving offense to my siblings in faith? In Romans 14:15, Paul urged, “If your brother or sister is distressed by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.”

I’m reminded of a scene from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Toula, the main character, brings Ian, her decidedly non-Greek fiance, to meet her decidedly Greek family. Toula’s aunts are flabbergasted that Ian is a vegetarian. “What do you mean, he no eat no meat?” one demands. Ultimately, Ian is welcomed into Toula’s family even though he doesn't eat meat. Family is more important than diet.

So it is with our whole Christian family. It is more important to welcome and be welcomed than conform to particular social or cultural norms. In God’s family, there’s room enough for all of us and more, however we eat, dress, or worship.