Abstaining for a Brother, and One Body

For it is lawful to eat meat and to drink wine, but freedom in these things is not altogether without harm (Romans 14:21). Abstaining is also useful, so that we do not fatten the flesh with soft living and make the passions within it rage wild against ourselves. If, then, we abstain from these things for our own sake, much more for our brother’s, so that he may not stumble, because of the saying, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).

“Therefore receive one another, as Christ also received you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:7). We who are many are one body, and members of one another, as it is written (Romans 12:5), since Christ binds us together into unity with the bonds of love: “For He Himself is the one who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of partition, abolishing the law of commandments in ordinances” (Ephesians 2:14–15). So we must be of the same mind toward one another (Romans 12:16); and if one member suffers, all the members must suffer with it, and if one member is honoured, all the members must rejoice (1 Corinthians 12:26). That is why he says, “Receive one another, as Christ also received you, for the glory of God.” And we shall receive one another if we choose to be of the same mind, bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), and keep “the unity of the…”