Romans 14:3 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Let not him that eateth, despise, &c.— By him that eateth, St. Paul seems to mean the Gentiles, who were less scrupulous in the use of indifferent things; and by him that eateth not, the Jews, who made great distinction of meats, and days, and placed in them a great and, as they thought, necessary part of the worship of the true God.To the Gentiles the Apostle gives this caution, that they should not contemn the Jews as weak, narrow-minded men, who laid so much stress on matters of such smallmoment,andthoughtreligionsomuchconcernedinthose indifferent things. On the other side, he exhorts the Jews not to judge that those who neglected the Jewish observances of meats and days, were still heathens, or would soon apostatize to heathenism again; for he reasons, that God had received them into his family, and that theyhad no authority to judge whether they were of that family, or would continue so, on account of these unessential points: "That," says he, "belongs only to the master of the family; but notwithstanding your censure or hard thoughts of them, God is able and willing to continue them in his family, if they cleave to him in faith; not withstanding you suspect, from their free use of things indifferent, that they incline too much, or approach too near to Gentilism." See Locke.