What Does Romans 14:15 Mean?
But if your brother is pained because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not, by your food, make him lose his way, the one for whom the Anointed One died.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.THE KEY
The food that grieves your brother can become the means by which he perishes, the same brother for whom Christ died.
THE MEANING
When your food grieves your brother, you are no longer walking according to love; the food can become the means of his perishing. His distress matters in the present moment, because this is the person for whom Christ died.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a choice is loving simply because you are free to make it: when it grieves your brother, that freedom can become his loss.
THE ROOT
ἀπόλλυε
apollye
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
apollymi
Perish, destroy, or lose; bring to ruin.
“make him lose his way” in this verse is apollye. The Greek verb names more than irritation: it points to a person being brought to loss or ruin. The verse places that danger beside Christ’s death for this very person, so the cost of the meal cannot be reduced to a private preference.
ALSO GROWS
apolōlos: Lost; one who has perished.
ἀπολωλός
This form shows the same root describing someone who is lost, giving weight to the warning about what the food can do.
apōleia: Destruction, ruin, or loss.
ἀπώλεια
This noun makes the root’s range visible: destruction is also a kind of loss.
λυπεῖται
lypeitai
GROWS FROM
λυπέω
lupeō
Grieve, cause sorrow or distress.
“pained” in this verse is lypeitai. The English can make grief sound like a private feeling, but the Greek verb places the brother in distress over the food. His pain is part of the situation the verse weighs, not an unrelated sensitivity.
ALSO GROWS
lypē: Sorrow, grief, or distress.
λύπη
The noun names the sorrow carried by the verb’s action.
lupeō: To grieve or cause distress.
λυπέω
The verb’s broader use connects the brother’s distress to something that causes it.
ἀγάπην
agapēn
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπάω (agapaō), stem ἀγαπ-
Love; regard for another.
The phrase is literally ‘according to love’; charitably here does not mean giving alms. Love is the path the walk should follow, so the verse measures conduct by whether it stays on that path.
ALSO GROWS
agapē: Love.
ἀγάπη
This noun is the love that sets the measure for the walk in the verse.
agapaō: To love or regard.
ἀγαπάω
This verb shows the related action of love expressed in how one regards another.
THE PATTERN
Freedom and personal comfort are bounded by the burden they place on another.
For you, brothers, have been called into freedom; only do not make the freedom a foothold for the flesh, but through love be slaves to one another.Let no one seek his own, but the other's.Draw your foot back from your neighbor's house, lest he be filled with you and hate you.THE THREAD
For in your knowledge the weak brother loses the way, the brother for whom the Anointed One died.This verse uses the same apollymi root in ‘perish’ and repeats the phrase ‘for whom Christ died.’ Together they show how one person’s conduct can become another person’s loss.
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