[Sidenote: Ver. 16.] =Do not therefore let your good,= your glorious creed of holy liberty in Christ, =be railed at,= as only a thinly veiled self-indulgence after all; [Sidenote: Ver. 17.] =for the kingdom of our (τοῦ) God is not feeding (βρῶσις) and drinking;= He does not claim a throne in your soul, and in your Society, merely to enlarge your bill of fare, to make it your sacred privilege, as an end in itself, to take what you please at table; =but righteousness,= surely here, in the Roman Epistle, the "righteousness" of our divine acceptance, =and peace,= the peace of perfect relations with Him in Christ, =and joy in the Holy Spirit,= the pure strong gladness of the justified, as in their sanctuary of salvation they drink the "living water," and "rejoice always in the Lord." [Sidenote: Ver. 18.] =For he who in this= way[241] =lives as bondservant to Christ,= spending his spiritual talents not for himself but for his Master, =is pleasing to his (τῷ) God, and is genuine to his fellow-men (τοῖς ἀνθρώποις).= Yes, he _stands the test_ (δόκιμος) of their keen scrutiny. They can soon detect the counterfeit under spiritual assertions which really assert self. But their conscience affirms the genuineness of a life of _unselfish_ and happy holiness; that life "reverbs no hollowness." [Sidenote: Ver. 19.] =Accordingly therefore let us pursue= the interests of =peace, and= the interests of =an edification which is mutual;= the "building up" (οἰκοδομὴ) which looks beyond the man to his brother, to his brethren, and tempers by that look even his plans for his own spiritual life. Again he returns to the sorrowful _grotesque_ of preferring personal comforts, and even the assertion of the principle of personal liberty, to the good of others. [Sidenote: Ver. 20.] =Do not for food's sake be undoing (κατάλυε) the work of our God. "All things are pure";= he doubtless quotes a watchword often heard; and it was truth itself in the abstract, but capable of becoming a fatal fallacy in practice; =but= anything =is bad to the man who is brought by a stumblingblock to eat it.[242]= Yes, this is bad (κακόν). What is good (καλὸν) in contrast? [Sidenote: Ver. 21.] =Good it is not to eat flesh, and not to drink wine= (a word for our time and its conditions), =and not to do anything in which your brother is stumbled, or entrapped, or weakened.= Yes, this is Christian liberty; a liberation from the strong and subtle law of self; a freedom to live for others, independent of their evil, but the servant of their souls.