You then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgement seat. ~ Romans 14:10
I’d like to say that I have perfected the art of being non-judgemental, but that would be a downright lie. This is something I have to admittedly work on. We are reminded in this verse that we will all be judged by God so judging others is not a wise use of our time. Instead, we should be judging ourselves with the same standard that we want to judge others by and see how well we do. If we would remember that we also will have to answer to God we might be a bit more gracious and merciful towards others. God alone is judge and jury and in this verse, brother or sister refers to a fellow believer in Jesus. Family. We should be living in love for them and living humbly for them. Helping them in their walk as they help us - not being judgemental, or hurtful. Paul even used the word contempt; which also is translated as despised and families that have siblings in a contemptuous relationship are sure to cause fractions within the whole family. We must not despise each other; in so doing, we are being judgemental and that is not our place. Unity is important and vital to any family, so it goes with Christ’s family. The fact of the matter is that each of us will be judged and none of us will come out squeaky clean, so who am I to judge my fellow brother, or sister when I probably have the same issues, and those issues probably have nothing to do with the huge commonality we have as being family in Christ? For in the larger scheme, why should personal opinions or convictions that don’t have salvation significance get in the way of loving one another? If it’s not a salvation issue, it is a secondary issue and should not be allowed to disrupt unity among family members. Righteous living, humility, love of others and trust in God should be our forward goals; not judgement of our brothers and sisters. Let us put our opinions away and love. ~ Amen
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