Romans 14:4,10-13

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.... 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'" [Isaiah 45:23]. So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way.

Paul’s illustration is that of a household slave or servant, a menial worker. And the one judging this slave or servant or menial worker needs to realize that he is not the head of household. We are not the master of our fellow man. Only God is the master, and so all men are first and foremost accountable to Him. In fact, Paul makes it clear that God’s judgment of us should play a major factor in our lifestyle choices. We should think and behave in light of the fact that we will stand before God and give an account of our whole lives. That ought to scare us into humble, loving obedience!

Does this mean that we don’t judge one another? Of course not! The principle is this: Don’t judge or despise your fellow believers by treating them as unbelievers or by being critical of them without brotherly affection. We should not be too quick to take upon ourselves the role of judge and master. We should give as much room as we possibly can to the consciences of our brothers in Christ. As we’ll see in a minute, the conscience of an individual plays an important role in this as well. And lastly here, notice Paul’s transition from attitudes toward one another to actions or behaviors toward one another. Recall Jesus’ admonition (Matthew 18:1-6; Luke 17:1-5) not to make a little one stumble. He was speaking to the disciples, so that warning may very well be for the mature-in-faith dealing with the weak-in-faith.

See Matthew 7:1-5 and Luke 6:37-42. As these passages suggest, we are to judge ourselves first. How does this truth fit with the pattern of men’s accountability groups? We need help judging ourselves! And we’ll never finish that task, because we’re not yet glorified. Every time we think about judging or looking down on or condemning our Christian brother, we should stop to examine ourselves. We’ll find faults, and thus, we shouldn’t even think about condemning or judging or looking down on one another (see John 8:7). And others likewise should be looking at themselves in the same light. Accountability groups should be for the purpose of aiding self-examination. If someone in your group doesn’t want to examine themselves in light of the Word of God, then perhaps they ought not to be a member of the group. We need to avoid being stumbling blocks to our Christian brethren. We should seek not to tear others down, but to build others up and to be built up. It’s okay to place a stepping stone on their path, but not a stumbling block.

And then notice that the weak believer, and the strong one too for that matter, is not only accountable before God, but will certainly stand before God. Why? The Lord is able to make him stand. We’ll all give an account before the judgment seat of God, before the throne of Christ. And believers will be found standing after that. I think it’s critical to recall that God grants faith in different measures. We may not understand why, but we trust God’s reasoning. Since he’s the One granting the faith, it only makes sense that He would be able to keep a person in the faith which He has granted to them (see Philippians 1:6). Perhaps He’ll increase it; perhaps He’ll increase their faith by your influence on them (see 1 Timothy 4:1-8). Regardless, since God will make the weaker brother stand, we ought to do the same. Why should we tear him down if God will make him stand?

To summarize, Paul brings up the little things, the disputable matters, and tells us to be loving and supportive to one another; then he exhorts us to keep in mind the bigger picture – we will all face judgment and God will make us stand. He’ll do a similar thing in the next portion of this chapter, which we'll look at next time.