And he that doubts is condemned if he eats, because he eats not of faith: for whatever is not of faith is sin.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
It is true that if someone thinks it wrong to eat but does so anyway, he is condemned. For he makes himself guilty when he does what he thinks he ought not to. If someone acts against his better judgment in a matter of conscience, then Paul says that it is a sin. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
If “all that is not of faith is sin, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” then everything outside holy Scripture, not being of faith, is sin.
He that discerneth, or who judgeth that he ought to abstain from such meats, if he eat, is self-condemned, because he acts not according to his faith. For whatever a man doth, and is not according to what he believeth he may do, or whatever is against a man's conscience, is sinful in him. It is a mistake of the sense of this place, to pretend that every moral action done by an infidel, must needs be a sin, as when he gives an alms to relieve the necessities of the poor. (Witham)
Discerneth. That is, distinguisheth between meats, and eateth against his conscience, what he deems unclean.
Of faith. By faith is here understood judgment and conscience: to act against which is always a sin. (Challoner) _
Every word or deed or thought which does not look to Christ looks completely to the adversary of Christ. For it is not possible for what is outside of light or life not to be completely in darkness or death…. The person outside of Christ rejects him by what he thinks, does or says. .
Once again, Paul shows what great harm people do if they force people to do things which go against their conscience. When a person does not feel sure or believe that something is clean, how can he do other than commit sin? Homilies on Romans
