This week's Bible study will be the first half of Romans chapter 14

Accepting One Another Without Being Judgmental

[Romans 14; 1-12]

Today in our ongoing study of the book of Romans, I will move on to chapter 14. Since there is a lot of subject matter to discuss, I am going to divide this portion of the study into 2 halves out of respect and thoughtfulness towards all the new believers who are reading this posting. After all, I would not want to give you too much information all at once and risk losing anyone from information overload. Instead, I will lead this study with the first half of chapter 14, beginning at verse 1.

“Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (Romans 14, verses 1-4 NIV)

We are not supposed to be passing judgment on those whose beliefs and values are different from our own. Those who behave this way do so because they are motivated by pride and sometimes by contempt. Some folks such as myself can eat and thoroughly enjoy all kinds of food without feeling any particular sense of guilt or conviction. Others, on the other hand, are vegetarians, and they behave this way because of their convictions, which may well be entirely different than ours. Jews and Muslims do not eat pork. Neither do some Christians, although I personally am not one of those, but neither do I judge those who abstain. But what the apostle Paul was saying when he wrote these words is that we have no right to pass judgment on one another because of our differences, be they real or perceived, and particularly when they are baseless and without foundation (such as racial hatred). Judgment is God's job – it's not ours and it never was.

When God made each of us, when He formed us in our mother's womb, He made every one of us to be a completely unique individual. God did this because He knew that there is much richness in diversity. But God also did this to teach us tolerance and mutual respect for each other. There are no two people exactly alike, and this was God's good and perfect intention for us all. So we can conclude from this simple truth that God intends for each of us to be tolerant of people from different religions, cultures, races, national origins, genders, sexual orientations and generations. He also commands us to show more understanding and empathy towards others who may be different from ourselves in a variety of ways. And we are to be continually doing this no matter where we are from, or what we have said or done in the past. God isn't interested in where we have been in the past, He is far more interested of where we may be going in the future. That's because where we are headed is far more important than where we have been, and what we are presently doing is also far more important than what we have done in the past. The past needs to be left where it is. Paul continues this train of thought in the next verses of this chapter of Scripture.

“One man considers one day to be more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” (Romans 14, verses 5-8 NIV)

Jews celebrate Hanukkah and the Day of Atonement. Muslims celebrate the month of Ramadan. Gentiles, which are basically everybody else, do not celebrate any of those. Christians have days of fasting (hopefully, and if not, why not?). Non-Christians do not. No matter what each of us is doing with the intention of pleasing God and glorifying His holy name, we do so with our minds and hearts directed towards God because we worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Each person does so in their own special way, and none of us may pass judgment or be critical towards one another because of it. As Paul says in verse 5, “each one should be convinced in their own mind”. Paul then continues in verse 9.

“For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written: 'As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me, every tongue will confess to God'. So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.” (Romans 14, verses 9-12 NIV)

Here Paul is reiterating the single most central point of the Christian faith, which is that Jesus died by crucifixion and was then raised from the dead on the morning of the third day. Jesus rose to everlasting life so that we too, who worship Him in Spirit and in truth, might have everlasting life with Him. Therefore we are not to be wasting time and energy judging our brother and our sister because all who believe have already been judged, and they who do not believe have similarly been judged, except with a different outcome. Those who believe in Christ have the Father's promise of everlasting life, and we pray for those who do not so that they too may come to a realization of the truth. After all, the Bible is very clear about this particular point, and the teachings of Jesus also state this with absolute clarity. And that teaching, which is found in all four Gospels and in numerous other places in the Bible as well, is that those who believe sincerely in Christ will be saved, but those who refuse to believe will face eternal condemnation in the fires of hell, and there for all eternity without end in just the same way as those who go to heaven when they die will also be there without end.

In conclusion, we are not to be judging and second-guessing other people no matter who they are. Judging others is God's job, it is not ours. We are to leave God's work to Him alone. We are not to go dabbling in it because it is none of our business. But instead, as the Bible says in the book of Philippians, we are to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord”. Yes, we are to do so armed with the knowledge that it is God almighty and God alone who judges, and in so doing “each of us will give an account of himself (or herself) to God”. Therefore we are to fear God's holy judgment because it is He alone who gives us everlasting life according to the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for each and every one of us. As such we are to conduct ourselves accordingly, knowing full well that we will adhere to this teaching according to the measure of faith that Jesus has implanted in every one of us. And we are to do so because as Christians we are to obey the commandments of God. In this case the commandment is that we are to be loving, charitable, tolerant and empathetic towards one another, knowing that we are going to be judged accordingly. Let us all resolve to do this to the best of our ability each day, and in so doing to make a better world in which to live. After all, a better world is what we all want, for that is what God intended.