This verse refers back to verse 13 and shows the result of causing one’s brother to stumble or fall. Because of something you eat is literally “because of food” (see King James Version “with thy meat”). This phrase can be misinterpreted as being some physical object which causes harm to a fellow believer. The real meaning here is, of course, “because you insist on eating certain things” or “because you insist that eating certain things is all right.”

Then you are longer acting from love is literally “you are no longer walking according to love.” The verb “to walk in” has the same force that it does in 6.4; 8.4; and 13.13. An American Translation* translates by “your life is not governed by love” and the New English Bible by “your conduct is no longer guided by love.” It may be difficult to translate the clause you are no longer acting from love. In some languages some rather important shifts in the semantic structure are required—for example, “what you are doing shows that you do not love him any longer.”

The verb translated ruin is a very strong verb and may have reference to eternal destruction. Actually it is not the food that you eat which ruins the man for whom Christ died, but it is the fact that you eat certain foods which causes such a person’s ruin. Accordingly, the last sentence of verse 15 may need to be restructured as “just because you eat certain foods, you must not allow that to ruin the man for whom Christ died” or even “… to destroy the person for whom Christ died.” However, as in so many contexts of this kind, it may be necessary to employ plurals throughout: “to ruin the people for whom Christ died.” Such a shift from singular to plural may apply to this entire chapter.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .