Romans 14:10, commentary and pictures

Do not judge your brother by criticizing, condemning or pronouncing sentence upon him, and do not despise him or set him at nought as worthless. No brother, minister, or any other person has been appointed to sit on the judgment seat and rule another's conscience, for Christ alone is Judge because He took humanity and lived a perfect life in this world. All will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, which is the judgment seat of God, where every knee shall bow and every one shall give account of himself to God for himself and not for another. That judgment examines every deed, word, motive, spirit and thought as written in the books, with Christ's faultless life as the pattern, and each one will meet the record fixed by his own life. Instead of judging one another, judge to put no stumblingblock in a brother's way, discipline self and examine the heart, and meet weakness and wrongdoing with pity, help and encouragement rather than censure or contempt.

Command Not to Judge

The verse forbids judging a brother, which means no criticizing, condemning, censuring, pronouncing sentence upon him, or dealing out sentences to fellow believers. It likewise forbids setting a brother at nought, which means despising him or treating him as worthless. This double prohibition is laid upon believers because all will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and each one will give account of himself to God. Remembering personal weakness and shared infirmity of heart should move those who see another fall and struggle to respond with compassion rather than discouragement, contempt, censure, or reproach. Human judgments can be unjust, especially since those who judge have also erred and received God's patience, so instead of denouncing an erring brother they are to pity, comfort, and help him.

Judging is climbing upon the judgment seat and taking God's place as judge. It is ruling another person's conscience, yet no redeemed person is subject to another, for there is but one Lawgiver and every person redeemed by Christ's blood is amenable to God. Mortal man is not fitted to judge his brother's actions and motives, since each heart knows its own bitterness and God alone sees every thought and deed and judges according to works. To seize the seat is to lose sight of one's own imperfect character, to press discontented words upon brethren, and to pass judgment on the ways and works of Christ in the person of His saints. Such criticism shuts light away from the soul, shows Christ is not enthroned in the heart, and drives the Spirit of God from the soul that admits it.

Judging includes watching brethren to find something in them to condemn, finding fault, and picking flaws. It includes criticizing dress and appearance, which misuses the believer's place and can discourage souls from accepting truth. It extends even to thinking unkindly of brethren, and to lifting self up to rule and command others. No shepherd or watchman may take the judge's place in this way, because all will stand before Christ's judgment seat. That spirit of watching and disunion grows from unwillingness to receive light and preference for ways of one's own choosing, even searching testimony to encourage unbelief and disobedience.

Setting at nought includes exercising a close, ungenerous spirit toward a poor stranger, making him feel his poverty, placing him in unpleasant positions to bring him to terms, and failing to deal kindly and after the manner of Christ. A record is kept in heaven of how brethren are treated, and those who act so will meet in the final settlement of all accounts a record they will not be proud to face. For this reason the cause of God must be kept free from every act of littleness, injustice, and oppression. The command not to judge or despise binds all believers, and it is spoken expressly to those bearing responsibility as editors and contributors of periodicals, to shepherds and watchmen, and to holders of position and office even as president of a conference, whose office gives no power over consciences and justifies no crowding, pushing, or oppression of one who differs on points of truth.

Christ Alone as Judge

Christ has been made Judge because He took humanity upon Himself and lived a perfect life in this world, and He alone can be Judge, while neither the Father nor the angels are the Judge. He became Lord of both the dead and the living by living and dying as a man, being executed in man's stead, and rising and reviving to purchase human life. By that death and resurrection He made it impossible to lose eternal life if they believe on Him and made immortality possible, so that the life of men and women is precious in the sight of God.

Christ is the Redeemer and Advocate who died to make it possible for the world to be cleansed from sin and to keep the commandments of God. The opening of His Word reveals His dealings with the world and with individuals in working out His great plan. No brethren, ministers, fathers, or mothers have been appointed to judge others, and no one man nor a score of men may dare to take the judgment seat, for Christ has not placed any person there to pass judgment on a brother or sister who is unfortunate or falls into error. God alone reads every heart and gives no commission to judge or to exalt human virtues, so to take that seat by praising and exalting a human being dishonors God.

To take the judgment seat is to lose sight of one's own imperfect character and failures and to press discontented words upon brethren, passing judgment on the ways and works of Christ in the person of His saints. Mortal man is not fitted to judge his brother's actions and motives, since each heart knows its own bitterness and all have hereditary and cultivated weaknesses yet may obtain precious victories every day. Climbing upon the judgment seat to judge a brother shuts light away from the soul and makes manifest that Christ is not enthroned in the heart. The Spirit of God goes out of the soul that admits the spirit of criticism.

All Accountable Individually

All will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, which is the judgment seat of God, where as it is written every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to God, and every one shall give account of himself to God. No one is therefore to judge a brother or despise a brother, but instead to see that he puts no stumblingblock or occasion to fall in his brother's way. Human life is precious in the sight of God because Christ lived and died as a man and rose and revived that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living, purchasing human life by being executed in man's stead to make eternal life possible to those who believe and to make immortality possible.

Judgment is personal and individual, for each person answers for himself or herself and not for another, and every soul will stand in review before God in that great day. No one's purity or devotion can make up for another's lack, and all will be judged according to their deeds, each answering for his own conduct and hearing his sentence with each case decided. This includes answering for sowing seed that produces confusion and many other evil results, including dishonoring God and failing to uphold the men of God's appointment. The prospect of that judgment presses the responsibility of speaking to people who are unready and in danger of being lost.

Another person's defects, choices, or wrongdoing does not excuse one's own sin or make it right, and does not excuse one's own guilt, because each person is individually responsible with Christ's faultless life as the perfect pattern. The number of people who share a practice neither excuses wrongdoing nor lessens its condemnation. Each person must therefore put his own heart in order, because every soul is precious to God and all will face judgment.

Standing before Christ's judgment seat is a solemn reality and a final settlement of all accounts under God's inspection, calling each person to act with integrity rather than judge others. All will meet the work they have done, including physicians and all connected with sanitarium work who will have to meet their sanitarium work in the judgment. Every deed and harsh word will be reviewed, the motives behind actions revealed, and the harm caused by unjust, unchristlike treatment of souls made plain. The judgment is already in progress in the heavenly sanctuary in the present day of atonement, where each person's life is examined with searching scrutiny, and it will soon reach the cases of the living, so each person must repent, search the heart, confess, prepare, and trust in the merit of the crucified and living Savior while the day of atonement is underway.

Every person must stand before God's tribunal, so preparation for that judgment requires more than worldly learning or accomplishments. The mind must be trained in spiritual exercises and the life prepared for Heaven.

Scope of Final Examination

Every deed is written in the books and will be reviewed, for each person must stand before Christ to answer for himself and not for another. The judgment examines not only words and actions but the motives behind actions, with spirit and thoughts laid open, for God sees every thought and deed and judges according to works. Christ's faultless life is the perfect pattern by which life is measured, and another person's defects or choices do not excuse guilt. Every deed and harsh word will be reviewed, the motives revealed, and the harm caused by unjust, unchristlike treatment of souls made plain. Each person's work and its results, including labor given and remuneration received, will be reviewed before God. The record of conduct is fixed at death and will be faced in the judgment without shame or to shame, so harsh words, unkind acts, and failures to support a brother or sister matter and call for kindness and care now while there is time to encourage others. A record is kept in heaven of how brethren are treated, and those who exercise a close, ungenerous spirit will meet in that day a record they will not be proud to face.

Each person will meet in the day of God the record laid up by his own life, to shame and blushing if he has persisted in sin. Refusing light and following the bent of the mind forfeits divine favor and the confidence of brethren, takes away wisdom so sacred and common can no longer be discerned and sin loses its offensive character, and deteriorates principle, manners, temper, and every trait of character instead of perfecting Christian character. The judgment includes giving account for gifts entrusted by God, such as intellect, wealth, reason, and grace, which belong to Him and are to be faithfully improved through use to bless others, for neglecting them brings loss. All will stand before Christ's judgment seat and give account of how opportunities have been used and privileges have been valued.

Actions and habits practiced in secret are not hidden from God and angels and will be faced again. Transgressing the laws of physical life is sin against God to be accounted for when every case is reviewed. Moral and physical powers must be kept from being weakened by tobacco and strong drink that lessen capacity to comprehend truth and gain the victory, and deeds must be made right now by being true to Bible principle, since honest belief does not excuse believing a lie. All must render an account to God in the last day and settle His claims in beneficence, neglected vows, unpaid pledges, and daily robbing God, matters that should strike the conscience and bring remorse as underpaying a neighbor or refusing to cancel an honest debt troubles the conscience. That certain final accounting requires new and deeper convictions, an aroused conscience, and earnest attention now. In that day each soul will be lost or saved and deeds tested to see if they will stand, with no neutrality toward the gospel, for each hearer will stand either among the pure and holy around the great white throne or among those told to depart.

Living Without Judging Others

Instead of judging one another, the requirement is to judge this: to put no stumbling block or occasion to fall in a brother's way. What anyone can do is to discipline self, come down from the judgment seat in humility, and leave judging to Christ who alone is Judge. In light of accountability before God's tribunal, each person must examine the heart for secret sin and idols rather than rely on outward religious duties that merely quiet the conscience, putting the heart in order and acting with integrity.

Because all share like infirmities of heart and whatever anyone has was received, there is no ground for exalting self over another. Remembering one's own weakness and faults should move believers to meet weakness and wrongdoing with compassion rather than censure, reproach, discouragement, contempt, coldness, disparagement, or dealing out sentences. Each heart knows its own bitterness, and all have hereditary and cultivated weaknesses yet can obtain precious victories every day, so climbing upon the judgment seat to judge a brother's actions and motives, for which mortal man is not fitted, shuts light from the soul, shows Christ is not enthroned in the heart, and drives the Spirit of God from the soul that admits criticism.

Instead of judging, oppressing, and casting a dark shadow, believers are to pity, comfort, help, and encourage souls that need help. They are to speak only words of comfort and peace and hope and courage to the oppressed, for harsh or even thoughtless words sting and bruise the struggling, fainting soul and may drive it onto Satan's ground never again to listen to Christ. They are to love one another as brethren with kindness, courtesy, and sympathy, with a variety of gifts brought into the building of the temple of the Lord, each finding its proper place to grow into an holy temple, blending in unity under Christ as the one Leader and Master, loving God supremely and neighbor as self. How brethren treat souls that need help tests them and reveals what is in the heart and whether the fire of first love still burns on the altar, with all heaven watching, and Christ identifies His interests with suffering humanity and marks all work for them as done unto Himself. Knowing Christ as Redeemer and Advocate who died to make cleansing from sin and keeping God's commandments possible calls believers to meet and work harmoniously, one in unity of faith, bound up with God and one with Christ as He is one with the Father, preparing men and women by communicating the knowledge of God's infinite wisdom, love, and power, while harsh words, unkind acts, and failures to support a brother or sister matter because the record of conduct fixed at death will be faced in the Judgment.

The prospect of judgment presses faithful work for souls, for the one who holds forth the Word of life and those who hear it will stand together before the judgment seat of God. Preaching and speaking is therefore done as in the presence of judgment, as if already before that seat, leaving nothing unsaid that might influence a soul to make peace with God. This accountability for what has been done in life makes the warning urgent and lays the duty of earnest work to lead people to accept the truth, with responsibility pressed by the solemn reality that every person will answer before God, each case decided, especially toward those unready and in danger of being lost.

Educators will meet their students before the judgment seat of Christ and answer for their work and the history of their management, to meet them without shame. They must therefore take youth as they are, bear patiently with dullness and ignorance, deal tenderly and kindly with sensitive, nervous students, cherish sympathy and forbearance from a sense of their own imperfections and failures, correct wrong faithfully but in a manner that binds the reproved closer, and deal with youth as Christ deals with them in bearing with perversity and rebellion without growing cold or giving them up. A physician will meet again before Christ as Judge every soul placed under his care, especially a sufferer who may be losing hold on life while last opportunities slip from grasp, so medical work with disease and death carries accountability for peril of the soul and not only peril of the body, making cure of souls the highest trust equally with the gospel minister and requiring deep yearning for souls and remembrance of the solemn realities of the future life, and physicians and all connected with sanitarium work will have to meet their sanitarium work in the judgment.

Parents will answer to God at the final reckoning for their responsibility in shaping their children, for inherited appetites and passions and neglect of godly training helped form character, and they will pass in review before God. They must answer for neglecting children entrusted to them, whose children may stand as witnesses to that neglect, making urgent the duty to model purity, courtesy, and self-discipline so children can learn the same in view of facing the Judge of all the earth.

The verse warns against making too much of a human leader and encouraging his pride, for every person is finite and must be regarded according to standing before God, and all will answer for sowing seed that produces confusion and many other evil results. It forbids watching brethren to find something in them to condemn, which brings disunion and comes from the same spirit that criticizes the testimonies, growing from unwillingness to receive light and preference for walking in ways of one's own choosing, searching the testimonies to encourage unbelief and disobedience. No one is placed in God's judgment seat, for God alone reads every heart and gives no commission to judge or exalt human virtues, so to take that seat by praising and exalting a human being, especially one who has not accepted a Thus saith the Lord in keeping His commandments, dishonors God and fails through estrangement from God to hold up by word and action the men of God's appointment. The duty is to keep silent where God has not spoken, to lift up the Man of Calvary, to love as brethren, to uproot every root of bitterness, and to keep the cause of God free from every act of littleness, injustice, and oppression, for judging a brother and setting him at nought includes exercising a close, ungenerous spirit toward a poor stranger, making him feel his poverty, placing him in unpleasant positions to bring him to terms, and failing to deal kindly after the manner of Christ, which will be met as a heavenly record in that day of final settlement that none will be proud to face.

Position and office, even as president of the General Conference or a state conference, gives no power over the consciences of others and justifies no oppression, not even to think unkindly of them. Even when a brother's views are questionable and he differs on points of truth, crowding and pushing him because he does not see as others see is inexcusable, for no one may climb upon the judgment seat to censure or condemn brethren. The holder is bound under sacred obligation to respect the rights of all, to be forbearing, courteous, Christlike and like-minded with God, and to be an example worthy of imitation in words, spirit, deportment and manner of treating brethren, because God teaches and guides them also, because the one who judges may himself be in many respects more deserving of censure, and because his own work is bearing the inspection of God.

Every person belongs to God and must give an account to Him, calling each one at the test of character, when the turning point of life comes and a course must be chosen, to be on the Lord's side in whole-souled service rather than following his own devising and refusing light. The life must be ordered and fashioned as in the eye of the great Taskmaster and as in the immediate presence of God, with character constantly tested by God's standard of right and spirituality cultivated, watching continually unto prayer and doing everything as in full view of pure angels and of the Redeemer. Those who have received great light must not be content with a low level but must earnestly and constantly seek the divine presence, cherish light, draw close to Jesus, adorn profession by a well-ordered life and godly conversation, keep pure, spotless, and undefiled unto the end, and hold the beginning of confidence firm unto the end, for the end of all things is at hand and the Judge of all the earth stands at the door. Those who reject plain testimony must answer for that choice, and refusing to be converted brings great loss, for no one can disregard His just and holy requirements, transgress in the face of Jehovah, or cherish unholy thoughts and base passions guiltlessly, since sin is mean, perilous, and fearful in the light of the cross and doubly sinful while standing on the very borders of the eternal world, and what grace has begun glory shall crown in the kingdom of God for those established in God.