Single lesson
Romans 14: The Law of Liberty
Romans 14:1–12; Romans 14:13–23
Romans 14:1-23 teaches how believers should act when they disagree about food and certain days. Children can learn the chapter’s main instructions: accept one another, stop judging, and choose peace that helps others.
Before you teach
The first part of the chapter says not to turn differences about eating and special days into despising or judging one another. The second part says believers should make a different decision instead: do not place a stumbling block in another person’s way, but pursue peace and mutual building up.
Students will explain that Romans 14:1-23 teaches believers to stop judging one another and to pursue what makes for peace and builds one another up.
Welcome: Notice the differences named
4 minBegin with the real differences named in the passage. One person eats all things, another eats only vegetables. One person values one day more, another treats every day alike. Tell children to listen for the Bible’s instructions about how believers should treat one another in these disagreements.
Romans 14:2, Romans 14:5
Read and explain: God has accepted them
8 minRead Romans 14:1-12 aloud. Point out the commands: accept the one who is weak in faith, do not despise, and do not judge. The passage gives reasons too. God has accepted that person, each person should be fully assured in his own mind, and believers live to the Lord.
Romans 14:1, Romans 14:3, Romans 14:5, Romans 14:8
Discuss: We belong to the Lord
5 minHelp children hear the strong questions in this part: why judge your brother, and why despise your brother? The chapter says each servant answers to his own lord, and each person will give account to God. That shifts attention from criticising others to remembering who is truly Lord.
Romans 14:4, Romans 14:10, Romans 14:12
Make and respond: Peace-builder reminder card
9 minRead Romans 14:13-23. Explain that the chapter moves from ‘don’t judge’ to ‘decide not to put a stumbling block’ in another person’s way. Then children make a card using a short phrase from the passage, such as ‘let’s not judge one another’ or ‘make for peace’. Use simple imagined examples about meals or choices.
Romans 14:13, Romans 14:15, Romans 14:17, Romans 14:19
Closing: Walk in love and peace
4 minFinish with the chapter’s final direction. If food grieves a brother, that is no longer walking in love. Believers are told not to overthrow God’s work for food’s sake, but to avoid what makes another stumble. Repeat the goal together: follow what makes for peace and builds others up.
Romans 14:15, Romans 14:19, Romans 14:20, Romans 14:21
Questions to explore
In Romans 14:3, what two wrong attitudes are named between the person who eats and the person who does not eat?
Read both halves of the verse carefully. One person is warned not to despise, and the other is warned not to judge, because God has accepted him.
Romans 14:3
According to Romans 14:17 and Romans 14:19, what describes God’s Kingdom, and what should believers follow after?
Look for the exact words in verse 17, then connect them with the command in verse 19 about pursuing peace and building one another up.
Romans 14:17, Romans 14:19
What does Romans 14:13 tell us to decide instead of judging one another?
Notice the change in the verse. Believers are told to stop judging one another and decide not to put a stumbling block or occasion for falling in a brother’s way.
Romans 14:13
Make, think or respond
Peace-Builder Reminder Card
What you’ll need
- small cards or paper
- pencils or pens
- crayons or coloured pencils
- Bible or written-out verses
Try it together
- Read Romans 14:13, Romans 14:17, and Romans 14:19 together.
- Let each child choose a short phrase from one of those verses to copy onto a card.
- Decorate the card with simple pictures that match the words, such as a path, a heart, or building blocks.
- Offer one or two imagined examples about disagreement over food, days, or judging, and ask which response would avoid a stumbling block and make for peace.
- Invite children to keep the card where they can remember the passage this week.
The card keeps the chapter’s own words in front of the children and points them to peace, love, and building others up.
Adapt for your group
- For younger children, offer only two short phrase choices, such as ‘God has accepted him’ or ‘make for peace’, and let them trace the words before decorating.
- For older or more confident children, ask them to compare Romans 14:14 and Romans 14:23 by noticing the difference between what is unclean in itself and what is not from faith.
An optional closing prayer
‘Lord, help us not to judge one another. Help us walk in love, follow after what makes for peace, and build one another up. Thank you that we are yours.’
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Romans 14
1 Now accept one who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions.
2 One man has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
3 Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.
4 Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand.
5 One man esteems one day as more important. Another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.
6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. He who doesn’t eat, to the Lord he doesn’t eat, and gives God thanks.
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself.
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
9 For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11 For it is written, “ ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘to me every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess to God.’ ”
12 So then each one of us will give account of himself to God.
13 Therefore let’s not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling.
14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
15 Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
16 Then don’t let your good be slandered,
17 for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
19 So then, let’s follow after things which make for peace, and things by which we may build one another up.
20 Don’t overthrow God’s work for food’s sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating.
21 It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak.
22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn’t judge himself in that which he approves.
23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.