Romans VerseQuest Commentary — Essay 95: The Kingdom of God Is Not Meat and Drink

Key Passage: Romans 14:17–19

“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.” (Romans 14:17–19)

Introduction

Romans 14 has already taken the believer through doubtful disputations, personal convictions, days, diets, Christian liberty, weaker consciences, stumblingblocks, and the coming Judgment Seat of Christ. Now Paul reaches down into the middle of the argument and reminds everybody what Christianity is actually about. “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink” (Romans 14:17). That sentence ought to embarrass Christians who can turn a plate of food into the Battle of Armageddon. Paul is not saying conduct does not matter, doctrine does not matter, or that God has suddenly become indifferent to holiness. He is saying that the spiritual life of the believer cannot be reduced to arguments about allowable food and personal scruples. Some Christians spend so much time defending the borders of their private convictions that they forget there is supposed to be a country inside them. Paul points beyond the dinner plate to “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” When the menu becomes more important than the Master, something has gone badly wrong.

This passage must also be handled doctrinally rather than turned into one of those religious slogans that sounds pleasant until somebody asks what it means. Paul is writing to believers in the present dispensation of grace, addressing their conduct toward one another in the body of Christ. He is not cancelling God’s literal promises concerning Israel, spiritualizing away the future kingdom, or announcing that every kingdom passage in Scripture now means a warm feeling inside the Christian. God has not misplaced Israel, and Romans 14 does not revoke what the prophets wrote concerning the earth, the throne, Jerusalem, or the future reign of Christ. The immediate point is practical: in the Christian’s present walk, the things carrying real spiritual weight are not the ceremonial and dietary questions over which the brethren are fighting, but the righteous conduct, peace, and Holy Ghost-produced joy that should characterize those who belong to Jesus Christ. Rightly dividing the Word prevents us from stealing Israel’s promises and also prevents us from missing Paul’s plain rebuke to the Church.

Then Paul moves from priority to pursuit. Verse 19 says, “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.” Notice that Christian peace is not passive. You follow after it. Edification does not accidentally appear because everybody happens to be in a pleasant mood. It is pursued deliberately. Yet Paul is not teaching peace at any price, because the same apostle spent his ministry exposing false doctrine, rebuking sin, naming deceivers, and refusing to surrender one inch of gospel truth. Biblical peace is never purchased with the currency of compromise. The believer does not throw truth overboard so the boat feels calmer. He learns to distinguish between truth worth fighting for and preferences not worth fighting over. A mature Christian will contend when Scripture commands him to contend and yield when Scripture gives him liberty. Wisdom knows which hill contains the flag and which hill merely contains somebody’s picnic basket.

1. The Kingdom of God Is Not Meat and Drink

Paul begins with what the kingdom of God is not in this context: “meat and drink.” He is confronting believers who have allowed legitimate questions of conscience to grow until they dominate fellowship. One believer eats; another abstains. One regards a day; another does not. Paul has already established that the strong believer understands the food itself is clean, while the weaker believer may still possess scruples about eating it. Yet neither man is entitled to make the matter the center of Christianity. The kingdom of God is bigger than what is sitting on your plate. That sounds obvious until you watch religious people turn secondary matters into entrance examinations for spirituality. Give the flesh a minor issue long enough and it will build a courthouse around it, appoint itself judge, and begin issuing subpoenas. Paul walks into the courtroom, looks at the whole proceeding, and says in effect, “Brethren, you have mistaken the cafeteria for the kingdom.”

The statement also exposes the poverty of external religion. Men naturally prefer visible regulations because visible regulations can be measured. You can count what a man eats. You can record which days he observes. You can photograph how he dresses, catalogue what he refuses, and make a respectable-looking chart of his habits. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost require something deeper than checking boxes. The Pharisee has always preferred a ruler because a ruler cannot measure his heart. Colossians 2 warns about “Touch not; taste not; handle not” (Colossians 2:21), and says such things can have “a shew of wisdom in will worship” (Colossians 2:23). The flesh can become extremely religious as long as nobody crucifies it. A man may refuse twenty lawful foods and still consume pride by the bucket. God is not fooled because sin learned table manners.

But Paul’s words should never be twisted into the opposite error of saying bodily conduct is irrelevant. First Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Meat and drink are not the kingdom’s central substance, but even ordinary eating and drinking fall under Christ’s Lordship. The issue is proportion. A fork is useful at supper, but nobody sane builds the house around the fork. Likewise, personal scruples have a legitimate place when governed by Scripture and conscience, but they make miserable foundations for Christian fellowship. When secondary things become primary, primary things are inevitably neglected. Paul therefore restores the order: deal with food charitably, exercise liberty responsibly, respect conscience carefully, and then remember that the life of God in His people is supposed to display something more substantial than an argument over dinner.

2. Righteousness Comes Before Religious Scruples

The first positive word Paul gives is “righteousness.” In Romans, righteousness is no small subject. Earlier chapters have thundered the truth that sinners are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:22 speaks of “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” The believer’s standing before God is not produced by diet, ceremony, law-keeping, or personal merit. Christ is the foundation. Yet Romans 14 is dealing with saved people and their conduct, so righteousness here also has practical force. The man declared righteous in Christ ought to walk righteously toward his brethren. Grace that saves does not train a man to become careless; Titus 2:12 says it teaches us that “we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” Positional righteousness should produce practical righteousness, not religious laziness.

Righteous conduct in Romans 14 means, among other things, refusing to use liberty selfishly. A man may be correct about his freedom and unrighteous in the way he exercises it. That is the uncomfortable part. Christians love being correct because correctness can be demonstrated with verses, arguments, and carefully sharpened points. Righteousness asks what you did with the truth after proving it. Did you wound a weak conscience? Did you parade liberty to demonstrate your superiority? Did you despise a brother because he had not learned what you had learned? Did you judge another man’s servant because your private conviction was not printed in his Bible? The fellow who can explain Christian liberty perfectly while trampling Christians with it resembles a surgeon who understands anatomy but operates with a shovel. Technical knowledge does not excuse destructive handling.

Righteousness also refuses to surrender clear biblical truth merely to keep everybody comfortable. Paul is not telling the strong believer to agree that clean meat is unclean. He has already said, “I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself” (Romans 14:14). Charity restrains liberty; it does not rewrite revelation. That distinction must remain clear. Peace purchased by calling truth false is counterfeit peace. Love that requires disobedience to Scripture is counterfeit love. Righteousness comes first in Paul’s sequence for a reason. Biblical peace is built on righteousness, not on surrender. Isaiah’s principle that “the work of righteousness shall be peace” (Isaiah 32:17) reflects an order human diplomacy frequently reverses. Men want peace first and will negotiate truth afterward. God establishes righteousness and lets genuine peace grow from it. There is no virtue in everybody holding hands while walking in the wrong direction.

3. Peace Is More Than the Absence of an Argument

After righteousness comes “peace.” Romans has already told the justified believer, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). That foundational peace is settled by Christ’s finished work. Romans 14 concerns the practical outworking of peace among those who already possess peace with God. Christians reconciled to God ought not spend their time manufacturing unnecessary wars with one another. Yet believers can turn minor questions into major conflicts faster than a child can turn a cardboard box into a fortress. One prefers this; another prefers that. One possesses liberty; another abstains. Soon the Lord Jesus Christ has disappeared behind a cloud of arguments about matters Paul deliberately places beneath righteousness, peace, and joy. A church does not become spiritually strong because everybody has become an expert at winning disputes that never deserved a battlefield.

Biblical peace, however, is not cowardice with a hymnbook. Paul who wrote “follow after the things which make for peace” also wrote, “earnestly contend for the faith” is Jude’s wording, and Paul himself commanded Timothy to charge men that they “teach no other doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:3). He rebuked Peter publicly when the truth of the gospel was at stake (Galatians 2:11–14). The apostle of peace was perfectly capable of drawing a sword when Scripture required one. The difference is the cause. Truth deserves contention; ego does not. The gospel deserves a fight; your preferred supper does not. Sound doctrine deserves defense; your need to win every doubtful disputation does not. Some believers have never learned that distinction, so they either fight over everything or fight over nothing. One is perpetual warfare; the other is doctrinal surrender. Neither is maturity.

Romans 12:18 already supplied the balance: “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” Scripture recognizes that peace is not always possible because truth and righteousness can create unavoidable division. Christ Himself said truth could divide households where some receive Him and others reject Him. But “as much as lieth in you” places responsibility on the believer not to create needless conflict. Do not manufacture enemies because you enjoy combat. Do not provoke brethren because sarcasm feels powerful. Do not turn every disagreement into a test of fellowship. There are Christians who carry spiritual gasoline and then act surprised when every room they enter smells like smoke. Peace requires strength precisely because it forces the flesh to surrender the pleasure of having the last word. Sometimes the holiest sentence in an argument is the one you were capable of saying and chose not to.

4. Joy in the Holy Ghost Is Not Religious Entertainment

The third great reality is “joy in the Holy Ghost.” Paul does not say happiness in favorable circumstances, excitement produced by music, emotional enthusiasm generated by a crowd, or religious entertainment sufficiently polished to make people forget their troubles for an hour. He says joy “in the Holy Ghost.” The source matters. Christian joy is supernatural because the Spirit who indwells the believer produces what circumstances cannot guarantee. Galatians 5:22 lists “joy” among the fruit of the Spirit. Philippians was written from confinement, yet its pages repeatedly speak of rejoicing. The world requires favorable conditions before granting permission to be happy. The believer can possess joy while the roof leaks because his treasure is not stored in the shingles. Holy Ghost joy rests in Christ, salvation, truth, hope, fellowship with God, and the certainty that present circumstances do not own eternity.

That does not make joy shallow cheerfulness. The Bible contains tears, grief, persecution, sickness, disappointment, and mourning. Paul could be “sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). Only Christianity can put those words in the same sentence without contradiction. Holy Ghost joy does not deny sorrow; it prevents sorrow from becoming sovereign. A believer may weep and still know he belongs to Christ. He may suffer and still rejoice that his name is written in heaven. He may lose earthly possessions and still possess “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Modern religion often tries to manufacture joy by dimming lights, increasing volume, and repeating a chorus until emotion catches up. The Holy Ghost needs no stage machinery. He can put a song into a prisoner at midnight with his feet fast in the stocks.

Joy also rebukes the sour spirit that often accompanies religious scrupulosity. Some Christians seem to believe holiness is measured by how miserable they look while practicing it. Their religion has all the warmth of a February tombstone. They can tell you everything they oppose but almost nothing they enjoy in Christ. Paul does not recognize that as spiritual maturity. Righteousness, peace, and joy belong together. True holiness is serious, but seriousness is not the same as gloom. A believer who understands grace has reasons to rejoice that no earthly circumstance can erase. His sins are forgiven. His Saviour is alive. His life is hid with Christ in God. His future is secure. His Bible is true. His inheritance is waiting. If all of that produces nothing but a permanent frown, the problem is not a shortage of reasons for joy. The problem is that somebody has been staring at the wrong kingdom.

5. Serving Christ in These Things

Romans 14:18 says, “For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.” Notice that righteousness, peace, and joy are not decorations placed around Christian service; Paul says the man who lives in these things “serveth Christ.” Service to Christ is larger than preaching sermons, teaching lessons, distributing tracts, giving money, or holding an office in a local church. A Christian serves Christ by treating brethren righteously, pursuing peace, and walking in Holy Ghost joy. The fellow who teaches three classes on Sunday and spends Monday tearing believers apart over doubtful matters should not congratulate himself too quickly. Activity is not identical with service. A hamster can run all night and remain in the same cage. God is interested not merely in how much motion we produce, but whether that motion proceeds from truth, charity, and obedience.

To serve Christ in these things means Christ remains the center. The strong believer does not surrender liberty because he fears men; he restrains liberty because he serves Christ. The weak believer does not cling to conscience because he wants control; he seeks greater understanding because he serves Christ. Peace is not pursued merely to keep church attendance comfortable; it is pursued because the Lord values the unity and edification of His body. Even joy becomes service because a rejoicing believer testifies that Christ is sufficient beyond his circumstances. Colossians 3:23 says, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” That is the cure for both people-pleasing and people-provocation. When Christ becomes the audience, the believer no longer needs to perform either strictness or liberty for the crowd.

Paul says such service is “acceptable to God.” That phrase should carry more weight than ten thousand human compliments. The believer’s great concern should not be whether every person approves his convictions, but whether God approves his walk. Second Corinthians 5:9 expresses the same desire: “Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.” This is not earning salvation; the context concerns believers who will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Salvation is settled by grace through faith. Service is evaluated. One of religion’s great tragedies is watching men sacrifice divine approval for human applause, then call the trade successful because the room clapped. The applause of men is cheap currency in eternity. Better to please Christ with ten people misunderstanding you than please ten thousand by disobeying the Book.

6. Approved of Men Without Becoming a Man-Pleaser

Romans 14:18 also says the believer serving Christ in righteousness, peace, and joy is “approved of men.” That does not mean every man will like him. Paul certainly did not enjoy universal approval. He was beaten, imprisoned, slandered, opposed, and eventually treated like a criminal by the world he preached to. Christ Himself was rejected of men. So the phrase cannot mean that faithful Christianity guarantees popularity. It means righteous, peaceable, Spirit-filled conduct carries a recognizable integrity before observers. Even men who disagree may have to acknowledge that the believer is not acting from selfishness, malice, or hypocrisy. First Peter 2:12 similarly speaks of maintaining honest conduct among the Gentiles so that even accusers may behold good works and glorify God. A clean testimony does not guarantee applause, but it deprives criticism of legitimate ammunition.

There is a vast difference between being approved of men and living for the approval of men. Galatians 1:10 says plainly, “for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” The man-pleaser changes truth to retain an audience. The faithful believer obeys truth and endeavors to live in such a way that unnecessary reproach is avoided. One sells the message to protect himself; the other adorns the message because he loves Christ. Modern Christianity often confuses diplomacy with faithfulness and rudeness with courage. Neither confusion survives Scripture. You do not prove courage by being obnoxious, and you do not prove love by trimming doctrine until nobody objects. A bulldog can make noise without knowing doctrine, and a politician can smile without possessing conviction. God calls for something harder: truth spoken and lived with both courage and charity.

That principle matters especially in Romans 14 because doubtful matters provide perfect opportunities for fleshly performance. A strict believer may display his restrictions to gain a reputation for holiness. A liberated believer may display his freedom to gain a reputation for maturity. Both are playing to the same crowd from opposite ends of the stage. Paul directs both toward Christ. Serve Him. Be acceptable to God. Maintain conduct that honest observers can recognize as upright. But never rewrite the Bible to avoid criticism. Acts 5:29 remains true: “We ought to obey God rather than men.” The Christian’s testimony is important, but testimony means showing men what obedience to God looks like, not asking men for permission to obey. When pleasing God and pleasing men can walk together, wonderful. When they divide at the crossroads, the believer already knows which road belongs to him.

7. Follow After Peace and Edification

Verse 19 begins, “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace.” The word “follow” implies deliberate pursuit. Peace does not maintain itself any more than a garden weeds itself. Churches contain saved sinners at different levels of growth, carrying different backgrounds, sensitivities, habits, personalities, and convictions. Leave all of that unattended and friction will arrive without an invitation. Paul therefore commands believers to pursue those things that promote peace. That means controlling the tongue, refusing needless provocations, giving brethren room to grow, overlooking personal slights when possible, distinguishing commandments from preferences, and refusing to weaponize liberty. Proverbs 26:20 says, “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out.” Some Christians should stop praying for peace while carrying lumber into every disagreement. If you keep feeding the fire, do not act amazed when the room gets hot.

Yet the goal of peace is joined immediately to “things wherewith one may edify another.” Edification means building up. Christian fellowship is not merely avoiding conflict; it is contributing to another believer’s spiritual strength. First Corinthians 10:23 says, “all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.” There is the higher question again. Something may be permissible without being constructive. A builder does not ask whether he is legally allowed to throw bricks around the job site. He asks where the bricks belong so the building rises. Knowledge, liberty, speech, correction, encouragement, example, and even restraint can all become building materials when governed by charity. The church is not a showroom for individual freedoms. It is a body in which every member should care whether the others are being strengthened.

Edification also prevents peace from becoming sentimental passivity. Sometimes building a brother requires correction. Second Timothy 4:2 says, “reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” A contractor who refuses to straighten a crooked wall because he does not want to disturb the lumber is not peaceful; he is incompetent. Likewise, biblical edification may involve confronting error, warning against sin, or correcting misunderstanding. But the aim is construction, not demolition for entertainment. The question is whether the brother is stronger in truth after you have dealt with him. Some men can win an argument and leave three wounded Christians bleeding behind them, then congratulate themselves for defending Scripture. Truth was never given to satisfy the flesh’s appetite for conquest. The sword of the Spirit belongs in a soldier’s hand, not a vandal’s.

Conclusion

Romans 14:17–19 restores proportion to the Christian life. “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink.” The believer must not confuse the accessories of conscience with the substance of spiritual life. Food questions have their place. Personal convictions have their place. Liberty has its place. Restraint has its place. But righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost carry a weight no dinner dispute can match. When Christians turn secondary matters into primary ones, the church becomes spiritually farsighted—able to inspect a crumb on somebody else’s plate while missing a mountain of pride in its own heart. Paul refuses that distortion. He pulls the believer’s eyes away from the table and back toward Christ. Christianity is larger than the thing you permit, the thing you refuse, and the opinion you are determined to defend.

The passage also gives us a mature balance desperately needed in every generation. Pursue peace, but never purchase it by surrendering righteousness. Edify your brother, but do not confirm him in error merely to keep him comfortable. Walk in joy, but do not confuse Spirit-produced joy with shallow emotionalism. Seek a good testimony before men, but never become their servant by altering what God has said. Exercise liberty, but remember that liberty is strongest when it can voluntarily restrain itself. Christianity is full of balances the flesh hates because the flesh prefers extremes. It wants either a rulebook controlling everybody or a declaration that nobody may restrain anything. Scripture gives us something better: truth without tyranny, liberty without selfishness, conviction without arrogance, peace without compromise, and charity without doctrinal surrender.

Then Paul gives the direction that should govern every local church and every Christian relationship: “follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.” That is enough work to keep a believer occupied until Christ comes. Build rather than merely criticize. Strengthen rather than merely display knowledge. Pursue peace where truth allows it. Stand firm where truth requires it. Let righteousness govern your conduct, let peace govern your treatment of brethren, and let joy in the Holy Ghost remind you that Christianity is much larger than the disputes men use to measure one another. The mature believer does not ask merely, “Can I prove that I am right?” He asks, “Can I serve Christ, honor God, preserve truth, and leave my brother stronger when I am finished?” When that becomes the goal, meat returns to the plate, personal scruples return to their proper place, and Jesus Christ returns to the center where He belonged all along.