The diagram in this post seeks to present biblical truths about foodstuffs in a way that helps provide greater understanding about what Scripture really teaches about acceptable versus unacceptable uses of foodstuffs or of things as foodstuffs.

The diagram is patterned after the X-Y axes diagrams used in mathematics to display the coordinates of points in their proper quadrants.

It provides many (but not all) biblical truths about foodstuffs or things used as foodstuffs in my Four-Quadrant Approach to understanding what Scripture reveals about foodstuffs or things used as foodstuffs.

Acceptable versus Unacceptable Uses of Foodstuffs or of Things as Foodstuffs

In this diagram, a positive value on the “X” axis (on the right half of the diagram) denotes biblical information about acceptable uses of foodstuffs or of things as foodstuffs. A negative value on the “X” axis (on the left half of the diagram) relates biblical information about unacceptable uses of foodstuffs or of things as foodstuffs.

Eating or Offering Foodstuffs in Corporate Worship versus Eating Foodstuffs in Ordinary Life

A positive value on the “Y” axis (on the top half of the diagram) denotes biblical information about eating or offering foodstuffs in corporate worship. A negative value on the “Y” axis (on the bottom half of the diagram) relates biblical information about eating foodstuffs in ordinary life.

Properly Interpreting Romans 14:1-4

This diagram helps us in interpreting properly the statements about foods in the following battleground passage in Scripture concerning “Christian liberty”:

Romans 14:1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. 3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. 4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

Because Paul says in Romans 14:2a, “For one believeth that he may eat all things,” some have wrongly understood this teaching to be without any limitations. Scripture, however, teaches us that understanding is false.

All of the Scripture-based entries in the bottom left quadrant of the diagram that are preceded by an “x” relate biblical teaching about things that no one may believe that it is right for a believer to eat. Eating any of these things is not a matter of “Christian liberty.”

Romans 14:2a does not teach that a believer who is strong in the faith eats things that are poisonous to humans (cf. 2 Kings 4:40), It also does not teach that being strong in the faith includes eating human flesh (Deut. 28:57) or blood (Lev. 17:10; Acts 15:20).

Conclusion

“Christian liberty” does not extend to eating all things without any qualifications whatever they may be. Using the teaching of Romans 14:1-4 as the basis of asserting that “Christian liberty” entails the legitimate use of all things without any qualifications at all in matters that one believes are matters of “Christian liberty” is a misunderstanding and misuse of Scripture.

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

Three passages in Scripture plainly teach us the matchless superiority of godly wisdom versus worldly wisdom:

Genesis 41

Although Pharaoh consulted with all the magicians and wise men of Egypt, none of the Egyptian magicians or wise men had the wisdom that he sought for:

Genesis 41:8 And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.

After Joseph provided him with the wisdom that he had sought for (Gen. 41:25-32), Pharaoh acknowledged that there was no one who was as discreet and wise as Joseph was:

Genesis 41:38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? 39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:

The wisdom that God gave to Joseph was incomparably superior to all the worldly wisdom of all of Egypt’s magicians and wise men!

First Kings 4

God gave Solomon exceedingly great wisdom:

1 Kings 4:29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.

God through the inspired writer of First Kings made known the matchless superiority of the divine wisdom that He gave to Solomon versus the wisdom of all other people:

1 Kings 4:30 And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about.

Daniel 1

God gave to Daniel and his three friends surpassing wisdom that made them uniquely excellent among all those whom the king examined after they had been brought before him:

Daniel 1:17 As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. 18 Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. 19 And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king.

Strikingly, the Spirit reveals that the king found Daniel and his friends to be ten times better than all the occult wise men that were in his entire kingdom of Babylon:

Daniel 1:20 And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.

Application

God wants His people to accept that He gives matchless wisdom to those whom He specially chooses to be His own. When such people are devoted to Him through His working in their lives, their wisdom is surpassingly greater than all the wisdom of the world.

Consecrated believers must turn away from heeding all worldly wisdom in any area of their lives because their heeding any such wisdom is utterly unacceptable to God!

See also this closely related post: Divine Wisdom versus Occult Wisdom: Learning from a Vital Comparison.

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

The following excerpt from my most recent post in a thread on Sharper Iron explains plainly what “eateth all things” in Romans 14:1-2 does not establish:

Scripture reveals that God created plant substances that He did not provide as food for humans, but they nonetheless are plant substances that humans can ingest.

Psalm 104:14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

In fact, God punished Nebuchadnezzar by making him to eat grass that was for oxen and not humans:

Daniel 5:21 And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

Some may try to argue against this point by setting forth that there are many grasses that are edible for humans. Even so, that does not change the fact that there are many that are not and never were intended to be food for humans.

Similarly, God’s punishment on man after the Fall included the following:

Genesis 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

This revelation contrasts the herb of the field that God commanded man to eat with the thorns and thistles that the ground would also bring forth. The implication is that God did not cause the ground to bring forth these thorns and thistles as food for humans. . . .

These biblical considerations . . . establish that God never intended eats “all things” in Romans 14:1-2 to be taken in any sort of unqualifiedly universal sense even for the eating of plant and animal products as foodstuffs in ordinary eating and drinking.

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

In my previous post, I treated many passages concerning the biblical revelation about honey and the teaching of Romans 14. At least 19 additional verses in Scripture beyond the ones that I treated previously highlight the importance of honey in Scripture distinctively by speaking of God’s promise to bring His people into a land that flowed with milk and honey:

Exod. 3:8  And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Exod. 3:17  And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

Exod. 13:5  And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.

Exod. 33:3  Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

Lev. 20:24  But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people.

Num. 13:27  And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

Num. 14:8  If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.

Num. 16:14  Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up.

Deut. 6:3  Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

Deut. 11:9  And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Deut. 26:9  And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Deut. 26:15  Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Deut. 27:3  And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee.

Deut. 31:20  For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.

Jos. 5:6  For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Jer. 11:5  That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.

Jer. 32:22  And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;

Ezek. 20:6  In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands:

Ezek. 20:15  Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;

What’s more, Ezekiel 20:6 and 20:15 underscore that importance profoundly through revealing the divine declaration that the land that flowed with milk and honey that God spied out and promised that He would give them was the glory of all lands“!

Through direct divine declaration, we thus learn that God Himself made known that the Promised Land was glorious in His estimation above all other lands and that divinely extolled land was a land that flowed with honey.

We must carefully consider the relevance of this additional evidence in determining a right “understanding of what Romans 14 teaches about strong believers being the ones who ‘eats all things.'”

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.