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"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than
to receive" (Acts 20: 35).
This statement in the Acts appears to refer to one of the unrecorded utterances of the
Lord, of which Luke would necessarily know many (Luke 1: 1-3). In Rom. 14: 14,
however, the Apostle may well refer to Mark 7: 18, 19:
"Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing
from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him, because it entereth not into his
heart . . . . . (this He said) making ALL MEATS CLEAN" (Mark 7: 18, 19, R.V.).
Nothing is unclean "of itself". The distinction made in Leviticus between "clean" and
"unclean" meats was mainly ceremonial--although it was no doubt true also in a material
sense that in giving Israel the ruminating animals such as the ox and the sheep, the Lord
was providing them with the best kind of food.
Parallel with this assertion, but approaching the truth from another angle, is the
statement in Titus:
"Unto the pure, all things are pure" (Titus 1: 15).
We hope that it is unnecessary to prove that the words "all things" here must be
governed by the scope of the passage in which they are found. That which is inherently
unclean is no more pure under grace than it was under law. The context speaks of "vain
talkers and deceivers, specially of the circumcision" and "Jewish fables and
commandments of men" (Titus 1: 10, 14).
This first principle of Rom. 14: 14 is well illustrated in the first epistle to the
Corinthians, where the Apostle had to meet problems similar to those discussed in
Rom. 14:
"All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful
for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly and the
belly for meats; but God shall destroy both it and them" (I Cor. 6: 12, 13).
It will be seen that there are two reason put forward here, why free moral creatures,
washed, sanctified and justified (I Cor. 6: 11) should not use their liberty to the full.
The first reason is that it may not be "expedient" to do so. The word "expedient" is
sumphero in the original, and is literally translated in Acts 19: 19, "to bring together".
It is in some ways an unfortunate word to introduce into Scripture, for its primitive
meaning has been overshadowed by a more modern and less pleasant one. "Expediency"
has come to mean a consideration of what is "politic", as distinct from what is "just":
"Matters of mere expediency, that affect neither honour, morality, nor religion"
(Chatham).
"Following his duty, instead of consulting expediency" (Jane Austen).
"Too fond of the right to pursue the expedient" (Goldsmith).