Your Brother's Keeper, Not His Judge Text: Romans 14:10-12
Introduction: The Itch to Supervise
We live in an age of rampant judgmentalism. But we must be precise here. The world accuses the church of being judgmental whenever we call sin what God calls sin. That is not judgmentalism; that is basic obedience. But there is another kind of judgmentalism, a cancerous kind that grows inside the church, and it is the kind that the Apostle Paul is addressing here. It is the spiritual itch to supervise God's other servants. It is the prideful impulse to take up an office to which we were never appointed, that of judge, jury, and prosecuting attorney for our brother's conscience.
In the church at Rome, this manifested as a conflict between the "weak" and the "strong." The weak were those whose consciences were bound by scruples not found in Scripture, particularly regarding diet and the observance of special days. The strong were those who understood their liberty in Christ. The temptation for the strong was to despise the weak as legalistic simpletons. The temptation for the weak was to judge the strong as licentious rebels. Paul's instruction is for both sides to knock it off. Why? Because you are both servants of the same Master, and He is perfectly capable of managing His own household.
This is a perennial problem. We are always tempted to measure our brother's spirituality by our own particular yardstick. We set up our personal preferences as the standard of righteousness and then get out our clipboards to see how everyone else is measuring up. We do this with schooling choices, musical tastes, political strategies, and a thousand other things. But Paul pulls the camera back. He lifts our eyes from our petty squabbles on the ground to the looming reality on the horizon. There is a judgment coming. There is a throne, and a Judge sits upon it. And you are not Him. This reality, the reality of the judgment seat of God, is the ultimate cure for our petty, horizontal judgments.
The Text
But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you view your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, TO ME EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS TO GOD." So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
(Romans 14:10-12 LSB)
The Double Rebuke (v. 10a)
Paul begins with two sharp, rhetorical questions aimed at both factions in the church.
"But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you view your brother with contempt?" (Romans 14:10a)
He addresses both sides of the aisle. To the weaker brother, the one eating only herbs, he says, "Why do you judge your brother?" To judge here means to condemn, to pass a verdict of guilty. The weaker brother looks at the stronger brother eating his steak and says, "That man is worldly. He is carnal. He is not taking his faith seriously." He has taken his own scruple, elevated it to the status of God's law, and then condemned his brother for violating it. He is judging uphill, trying to bind the conscience of a man who is freer than he is, and this makes him cranky.
Then Paul turns to the stronger brother. "Or you again, why do you view your brother with contempt?" The word for contempt means to despise, to treat as nothing, to look down your nose at someone. The strong brother, who rightly understands his freedom in Christ, looks at the vegetarian brother and thinks, "What a pathetic, rule-keeping little man. Doesn't he understand the gospel? He's still tangled up in all that nonsense." This is the sneer of the enlightened, the arrogance of the theologically correct. He may be right on the theological point about the meat, but he is dead wrong in his attitude toward his brother. He is right about the meat, but wrong about the meat in his head.
Notice that both attitudes are a violation of love. Both are a form of spiritual pride. Both involve setting yourself up as the standard. And Paul's answer to both is to point them to the ultimate, objective standard, which is the judgment of God Himself.
The Great Appointment (v. 10b-11)
The reason we must cease our unauthorized judgments is because there is an authorized judgment coming for every single one of us.
"For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, 'AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, TO ME EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS TO GOD.'" (Romans 14:10b-11)
This is the great equalizer. "We will all stand." Paul includes himself. The strong, the weak, the apostle, the new convert, every Christian who has ever lived will have a personal, mandatory appointment before the judgment seat of God. In 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul calls it the "judgment seat of Christ." The Greek word is bema. This was the raised platform in a Roman city where a magistrate would sit to render judgments and bestow awards.
Now, we must be absolutely clear about what this judgment is and what it is not. This is not the Great White Throne judgment of Revelation 20, where the lost are judged according to their works and cast into the lake of fire. That is a pass/fail judgment, and the only way to pass is to be clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. For the believer, that verdict has already been rendered. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). Our justification is settled, sealed, and secure.
The bema seat judgment is for believers only, and it is not about salvation, but about rewards. It is an evaluation of our lives, our works, our service. It is a performance review. It is the day when all our work will be tested by fire, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3. The wood, hay, and stubble will be burned up, but the gold, silver, and precious stones will remain. The one whose work is burned up will still be saved, "yet so as through fire."
To ground this, Paul quotes from Isaiah 45:23. This is a staggering declaration of God's absolute sovereignty. "As I live," says the Lord. This is God swearing by His own existence. The day is coming when every knee, without exception, will bow before Him, and every tongue will confess to Him. This universal submission is the foundation of His right to judge. He is the Creator, the Lord, the one to whom all allegiance is ultimately owed. Your brother does not belong to you; he belongs to God. He will stand or fall before his own Master, and God is able to make him stand.
The Personal Audit (v. 12)
The conclusion of the matter is intensely personal and individual. The judgment is corporate in that we are all there, but the accounting is individual.
"So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God." (Romans 14:12)
Notice the pronouns. "Each one of us" will give an account of "himself." You will not be giving an account for your brother's dietary choices. You will not be asked for your opinion on his Sabbath observance. You will be giving an account for you. How did you talk to your wife? How did you handle your money? What was the attitude of your heart when you looked at that brother you disagreed with? Was it love or contempt? Was it patience or judgment?
This is a sobering and clarifying reality. It ought to radically reorient our lives. We are so concerned with what others think of us, and so busy forming opinions about others. But the only opinion that will matter in the end is God's. We are living for an audience of One. The question on that day will not be, "Was your brother right about the holidays?" The question will be, "Did you love your brother, even when you disagreed? Did you walk in humility? Did you mind your own business and trust Me to mind his?"
This truth should not lead to morbid introspection or fear, because our condemnation has been dealt with at the cross. Rather, it should lead to a joyful seriousness. It should make us want to live well. If you are going to build a house that you know the building inspector is going to meticulously examine, you build it carefully. You build it to code. Knowing that our lives will be reviewed by the Lord Jesus should motivate us to live lives that are pleasing to Him, lives full of gold, silver, and precious stones, not a pile of flammable trash.
Conclusion: Look to Your Own Ledger
The practical application is straightforward. Stop judging. Stop despising. Your brother is God's servant, not yours. You have your own race to run, your own account to prepare. You simply do not have the time to be auditing your brother's books because you will be far too busy with your own.
When you are tempted to look at a brother and think, "He is too worldly," or "He is a legalist," you need to stop and remember the bema. You and that brother will one day stand side-by-side before the Lord Jesus. On that day, all the petty disagreements that seem so important now will fade into utter insignificance. The only thing that will matter is what the Lord thinks of each of you.
Therefore, let us resolve to mind our own business. Let us resolve to grant our brothers the same charity and liberty that we desire for ourselves. Let us be "fully persuaded in our own minds" about our own choices, and let our brothers be persuaded in theirs. And let us conduct all our affairs with the knowledge that the books will one day be opened. This is not a threat; for the one in Christ, it is a promise. It is the promise that all our fumbling, imperfect efforts to serve Him will be seen, evaluated, and rewarded by the only one whose opinion truly matters. He is the Judge, and He is also our Savior. Thanks be to God.