Less Judgment; More Love
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Introduction
Introduction
Last week, as we were getting into Romans 14, I mentioned that one of the distinguishing signs of a Christian is their love for God and love for neighbor, to welcome one another in love despite the difference in scruples. This morning, we continue on in our study of Romans 14 and we must continue to look to love for one another as a driving force for our actions. Whereas last week we saw our negative actions toward others, or perhaps we could say our negative reactions, this week, we are looking at our positive actions toward.
And there are two major proactive measures that we as believers in Jesus Christ need to take that we see in these four verses. The two are interrelated. So if you don’t do the first, then it is almost impossible to do the second. And if you do the first, but the second is not an outflow of it, then it probably means that we really don’t do the first. So what are these two proactive steps that every believer needs to do? The first is to keep our judgment in mind. The second is to keep your brothers and sisters in mind. Consider our spiritual family.
Consider Our Judgment
Consider Our Family
Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
Consider Our Judgment
Consider Our Judgment
The first proactive measure that we need to take is to continuously keep our time of judgment in mind. And by our I mean our. I will not be in heaven alone. Paul wrote that “we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” You see, this is Paul’s motivation for not judging or despising.
Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
Last week’s question was “why should we welcome those of differing scruples?” The answer was “For God welcomes him.” This week’s question is “why ought we not judge or look down on others?” The answer is “For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.” If we will keep that in mind, then our hearts will begin to be more compassionate toward one another. But before we go further, I want us to take a look at these three verses as they make up this argument that we ought to consider eternity.
In verse 10, I want us to understand what the judgment seat of God is. In verse 11, I want us to understand the text Paul quotes. Finally in verse 12, I want us to see Paul’s conclusion for what it is.
The Judgment Seat
The Judgment Seat
As we consider our judgment, we really can’t do that without understanding the judgment seat. The word used here for judgment seat is the bema seat. Back in the 80s and 90s when there as a great emphasis on the end times, there was a lot of talk about the bema seat. And the problem is that a lot of that talk was misinformation. I don’t think it was disinformation; I don’t think anyone was purposefully leading people astray, but they were misinformed and so inadvertently misinformed others.
I remember hearing things like the bema seat and the great white throne judgment are two separate and distinct actions. The believers go to the bema seat and the unbelievers go to the Great White Throne Judgment. The bema seat was for rewarding good deeds while the Great White Throne was for the punishment of the wicked. But if we look at how the word “bema” is used in Scripture, this just doesn’t hold water. For example, not only will Jesus sit upon the bema seat, the judgment seat, but Jesus also stood before the bema seat.
Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.”
So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha.
Paul also stood before a bema seat:
But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you yourself know very well.
The word “tribunal” is actually bema. So to say that a bema is simply for rewards is not true. Thus, when Paul says that we will all stand before the judgment seat (the bema seat) of God, it is a very real judgment.
John wrote of the Great White Throne judgment. Some Christians see the GWT judgment and the Bema seat as two different moments in God’s timeline. I don’t see that. John wrote
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
The books were open, including that book of life. That book of life that Jesus promised the church of Sardis that he would not blot them out of if they would repent. It’s that book of life that John mentions will be the cause of singing Jesus’s praises. It’s that book of life that John talks about in Revelation 21 as he reiterates that only those who are in it will enter the kingdom. The books were open, so that we would be judged for what we did and did not do. We will give an account. But we who live in faith in Jesus Christ, we are in the book of life, and will still be welcomed into the kingdom of God.
The Quoted Verse
The Quoted Verse
The proof that Paul gives for us standing before the judgment seat comes from Isaiah 45:23. He quotes in
for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
In the context of this verse in Isaiah God is calling people to turn from wickedness and turn to him. There will be a reckoning, and by that I don’t mean like the old west and Wyatt Earp saying, “There’s a reckoning coming,” and meaning vengeance. Instead, that there will be a reckoning of accounts. Each one of us is held accountable for our own actions. How have we acted toward one another? How have we acted toward our neighbor? How will we respond when asked at the bema seat? Because our response is going to determine the judgment we receive.
Every single knee will bow before him. Every single knee will submit to his authority, give an account, and receive his judgment. Every single tongue will make confession, swearing their allegiance is to God that he is sovereign and worthy to judge. There will be no disputing that. There will no longer be a desire or an effort to wrestle judgment away from God. We will know our place and our place is on bended knee.
Which takes us back to
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
The Concluding Thought
The Concluding Thought
Taking what Paul wrote about us all standing before the bema seat, the judgment seat of God and the verse that he quoted that we will acknowledge at the judgment seat that only God has the right and the sovereign authority to judge. So Paul wrote,
So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
In other words, we need to consider eternity because we will have to answer for our actions. We must not forget that there is an accountability to come. Remember, we do not live to ourselves, nor do we die to ourselves. But whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. We are not held accountable for how someone else acted. We are not held accountable for how someone else lived. Each must give an account of himself to God. Which means that if you or I go against our scruples, our moral understanding that keeps us from doing what we do not believe we should, then we will have to answer for that. But if someone else goes against your scruples, you won’t answer for that.
Considering what happens at the judgment can be liberating. And in part, that’s what Paul wants us to understand. We are so concerned that people do as we think right on issues that are not sin related. It’s as if we think that if we don’t get everyone to conform with our ways of thinking that we will answer for it for all eternity. Paul, in part is saying, we—each one of us—will give an account of himself (and only himself) to God. So we can live by our own scruples and not try and manage everyone else’s.
Consider Our Family
Consider Our Family
This leads us to the second consideration. We need to take a second proactive measure and that is to consider our family—our spiritual family. We ought to acknowledge that we have differing scruples and be accepting of them. Again, we are to welcome one another, but not to quarrel over scruples. But being considerate of scruples is the flip side of that coin. Paul wrote,
Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
Paul literally says here “Therefore we may not pas judgment on one another any longer.” This isn’t so much a command as it is a realization. How can we possibly go back to pretending like we’re God, judging and looking down on each other? We can’t. We mustn’t. We may not do it any longer. It’s just not allowed to happen anymore.
But then he does give a command: decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother (or sister). Again, quite literally, Paul tells us to judge this all the more. Consider it. Ponder it. Put it into action: never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way.
But what does that mean: a stumbling block or hindrance? First, they don’t mean separate things. This is what we call a hendiadys. That’s a fancy word that means one meaning using two words. We do this all the time. When we say something was going on night and day, we really just mean all day, but we use two words to describe it: night and day. It’s black and white. Two words to mean something is understandable.
But, stumbling block or hindrance is not so black and white. What does Paul mean? I think that what Paul means is that a Christian ought not make it harder on his brother or sister to make it to the judgment seat without stumbling, but should instead, love their brothers and sisters enough to keep obstacles out of their way. And here is why I say that.
Paul has been developing an argument about Christian liberty. In this argument, he is juxtaposing two truths that must remain in tension. On the one hand we are to love and welcome one another. On the other hand we are not to judge and look down upon one another. On the one hand God welcomes us all. On the other hand, God will judge us all. On the one hand we are not to put out obstacles before our brothers and sisters. Paul calls one of them a stumbling block. If you’ve ever tripped over something, what do you do? No one wants to fall so we look for something to grab on to. Hopefully there is someone or something around that keeps us from falling. If no one is there to keep us from falling, we fall. And sometimes we fall hard.
Perhaps you’ve held a child’s hand when they tripped. And you feel the tug as they begin to fall, and you instinctively lift the arm and help them remain standing. Then you look and see what made them trip. Was it their own two feet? No. Someone left a toy on the floor. Someone didn’t put their shoes away. How inconsiderate. Your child nearly got hurt because someone else was inconsiderate and left a stumbling block before them.
So on the one hand we are not to put obstacles before our brothers and sisters. On the other hand, “he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand,” (Rom. 14:4c). Do we love one another enough not to harm one another? Last week, I made a statement, “For the weak to try and constrain the strong to his/her own scruples is just as wrong as the strong trying to make the weak go against his/her scruples.” I stand by that statement 100%. But I also stand by this one: we ought to love one another enough so that we willingly abstain from our liberty if it means our spiritual family gets home safely. Because as we saw last week and we’ll see next week,
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Last week, I read that in defense of the strong in faith. Don’t judge the strong in faith on what they eat because the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking. This week, I read it in defense of the weak in faith. If the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking, then there is no need to eat and drink offensively.
If however, our love for our brothers and sisters does not compel us, then perhaps, the fact that we will be asked about our calloused hearts at the judgment seat. We’ll be asked why we knowingly placed obstacles in the way of those we are to love the most, causing Jesus to uphold us and keep us from falling. Does it not pain a parent when one child causes another to stumble? Does it not pain our Lord when one brother causes another to stumble?
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Let our love for Christ, our desire to please him, help us to love one another, helping each other reach the bema seat in holiness.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish these four short verses, I hope we see how we ought to consider our judgment and our spiritual family. The judgment seat is at once both freeing and constraining. It frees us from the idea that we are responsible for everyone around us. It constrains us from the idea that we can do act in ways that may cause those around us to stumble. Judging one another’s scruples is not our duty. Loving one another in spite of them is.
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.