How believers are to behave toward everyone, but with the Lord always in mind. Personal opinion often is the rule for how a person behaves, but this is not what God is telling us here.
V.13-23 People often look down on those who do not act the way they think they should act. Believers are not to be controlled by what they think, but by the Word of God. We should be conscious of the effect on others of how we are acting; and more importantly, that we are responsible to the Lord. Some who had been Gentiles before they were saved might have been idolaters. The poorer people could buy from the slaughter house, meat which had been offered to idols. The question came up, as to whether it was all right for a believer to eat this meat. A person who had just come to know the Lord Jesus as Savior does not know much about the Lord or about the Scriptures. An older believer was not to offend the conscience of the younger believer by eating this meat, even though he might eat it himself with a good conscience.