Here is a straight-forward two-voice setting of Romans 14: 1-12, one of the suggested scripture passages for September 11, 2011. It’s taken from The Voice translation. (See below for publication information.)
Readers’ Theatre
(Romans 14: 1-12, from The Voice)
One: It’s high time that you welcome all people weak in the faith
without debating and disputing their opinions.
Two: Here’s the issue:
One person believes that nothing’s off the menu;
he’ll eat any food put before him
with no concern whether or not it has been associated
with a pagan ceremony.
One: But here’s another believer—we’ll call him the weaker—
who eats only vegetables because the meat is tainted
through contact with an idol.
Two: If you are an eater of all things,
do not be condescending to your vegetarian brother or sister.
In turn, those who abstain from certain foods on religious principles
should not judge your brothers and sisters who eat meat—
if God has accepted them, you have no reason to reject them.
One: How could you think for a moment that you have the right
to judge another person’s slave?
We all answer to our own Master,
and we will either stand or fall in His presence.
Two: The good news is that both eaters and non-eaters will stand
because the Master is able to make it so.
There may be a believer who regards one day as more sacred
than any other,
while another views every day as sacred as the next.
In these matters. all must reach their own conclusions
and satisfy their own minds.
One: If someone observes a day as holy, he observes it in honor of the Lord.
If another eats a particular diet, he eats in honor of the Lord
since he begins by giving thanks!
If yet another abstains from that same food,
he abstains our of respect for the Lord
and begins his meal by thanking God too.
Two: The truth is that none of us lives for ourselves,
and none dies for ourselves.
For if we live, we live for the Lord.
If we die, we die for the Lord.
So in both life and death, we belong to the Lord.
One: The Liberating King died and returned to life to make this a reality:
through His death and resurrection,
He became Lord of the living and the dead.
Two: So how is it that you continue to judge your brother?
How is it possible for you to look down on a sister?
We will all stand before the judgment seat of the living God.
For it is written,
One: “As I live, so I promise,” says the Lord,
“every knee will bow down at the sound of My name.
Every tongue will claim Me as their God.”
Scripture taken from The Voice™.
Copyright ©2006, 2007, 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society.
Used by permission. All rights reserved
