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.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 15. Saint Paul repeats this, in almost the same words, in 1 Cor. chapter 8 and plainly gives us to understand, that Christ died for the salvation of all men, by supposing a Christian brother, for whom Christ had died, in danger of perishing by the scandal given by another. This supposition could never have been made, if the death of Christ was only offered up for the elect: but we here learn from Saint Paul, that they for whom Christ shed his blood and suffered the death of the cross, may perish eternally; and therefore all, even the greatest reprobates, may be saved, if they effectually desire it, by virtue of the death of our divine Redeemer.