Romans 14:4, commentary and pictures

Each person is the servant and purchased property of God and Christ as Owner and Master, and is accountable to Him alone rather than to other people. To his own master he stands or falls means a person's standing and eternal destiny are determined by God alone according to real character, and every one must at last stand or fall for himself and not by any human judgment or party opinion. No one has the right to sit on the judgment seat to judge, condemn, discard, or rule over another's servant, and exalting self to accuse brethren is itself rebuked by the question who he is to do so. He shall be held up means God alone judges and sustains His servant and is able to uphold him and make him stand, even when he is tempted, weak in moral power, overcome again and again, and enslaved by habit. Therefore differences of conviction, conscience, disposition, and experience are to be met with forbearance, tenderness, pity, and help rather than with judging, controlling consciences, or imposing one person's rule upon another, for there is but one Lawgiver.

Servant, Master, and Standing

Another man's servant means each person belongs to God and Christ as owner and Master, as His property purchased by Christ's blood, and is accountable to Him rather than to other people. Whether that servant stands or falls is for the Master alone to determine, so no one has the right to judge another who belongs to and answers to his own Master. Those converted to the truth stand or fall to Christ alone, and the minister instrumental in their conversion gains no ownership over them and has no right to place them under his control, nor are converts to place themselves under the minister's control. Ministry must bring souls directly to Christ to be answerable to Him alone, respecting the individuality of every person that no other person can claim, and even where God gives different special works and appoints human helpers there are to be no separate parties set against each other but unity and blending together under Christ as Great Teacher and Leader. Taking the judgment seat and making one person subject to another is not ordained, for there is but one Lawgiver and every person is accountable to God, upheld by God, loving God supremely and neighbor as self, and following Christ's example of loving righteousness and hating iniquity.

To his own master he standeth or falleth means each servant answers to God as his own Master for his course and will meet all the results of his influence in the final day. When plain reproof has been given and human effort can do no further good, the person is left with God to remain faithful or to fail on his own, while God who knows all carries forward His own work. Each person's standing before God is determined by God alone according to real character and merits in His sight, not lessened or decided by another presuming to decide what people in different states may or may not do. The language of standing or falling applies to eternal destiny: a claim to hope for eternal life must be tested by God's word, and one must continue in the struggle for Christian victory in the Redeemer. The time has come when every soul must stand or fall according to his own merits before God, which requires giving God the whole heart and the whole being with no divided affections, for God will accept nothing less and will not receive a divided offering, and a few righteous acts or good impulses presented as evidences of righteousness are not enough to make a person stand.

Every person must at last stand or fall for himself before God, not according to the opinion of the party that sustains or opposes him and not according to the judgment of any man. One believer is not accountable for the sins of erring brethren and those sins will not be recorded against him, and no one can urge another person's unfaithfulness as the reason for his own stumbling. The church may warn, counsel, and admonish, but it cannot compel anyone to take a right course, and whoever persists in disregarding the word of God must bear his own burden, answer to God for himself, and suffer the consequences of his own course. This makes individual responsibility solemn, requiring each person to do duty patiently and kindly toward those who err, pitying their failings, then leaving the result with God and going right along serving God faithfully and humbly, for a humble practical life does more good than much reproof and many words. Each has individual duty to bear fruit to the glory of God with the eye single to God's glory and fixed constantly upon Jesus, seeking purity, virtue and holiness in order to represent Christ to the world, walking in the light as Christ is in the light as the only path of safety leading to heaven, with no excuse if the work given by the Master is neglected, as sons of God representing Him and the power of truth in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation as lights in the world, marching steadily onward and upward, becoming one with God in interest, sentiments and designs, and uniting with Christ as co-laborers in saving perishing souls.

Each person has an individual life, identity, and responsibility before God that must not be controlled, absorbed, dictated, or lessened by another. No one has the right to dictate or control another person's life or to decide what people in different states may or may not do, and no one has authority to control another person's conscience or decide that person's duty before God. Each person has an individual standing before God and is to be free to follow the Holy Spirit and the Word and serve God, rather than being guided by the flawed will, influence, and control of erring people. Ministry must respect the individuality that no other person can claim, bringing souls directly to Christ without ministerial ownership or control on either side.

God Upholds His Servant

He shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand means that God alone judges His servant and God alone sustains him, being fully able to uphold him and cause him to stand. Each person is accountable to God as owner and Master rather than to other people, and whether he stands or falls is for God to decide. No one therefore has any right to rule over, condemn, criticize, censure, command, pronounce sentence upon, or take judgment of a fellow believer into finite human hands, and a minister's error gives no grounds to discard him. Each has an individual life that must not be controlled or absorbed by another, but is to be guided by the Holy Spirit rather than by flawed human will, upheld by God while loving God supremely and neighbor as self. Judging another's conscience and picking at supposed faults only evades the humbling work of examining one's own heart and judging oneself fairly, and differing consciences are to be treated with tenderness and respect. Taking the judgment seat to make one person subject to another is not ordained, for there is but one Lawgiver, and even where God gives different special works and appoints human helpers there are to be no separate parties set against each other but unity and blending together under Christ as Great Teacher and Leader. Instead of judging, the call is to humility, to pity, comfort, and help the one who falters, since those who judge have also erred and themselves depend on God's patience.

God can keep a tempted person standing even when he has been overcome again and again, is weak in moral power, is controlled by habits of a life of sin, and has weakened confidence because of broken promises and forfeited pledges. One who feels the terrible power of temptation and cries that he cannot resist evil can resist and must resist, and need not despair that God cannot accept him or work with his efforts. Those who put trust in Christ are not to be enslaved by any hereditary or cultivated habit or tendency, but are to rule every appetite and passion. God has not left people to battle evil in finite human strength, and whatever inherited or cultivated tendencies to wrong exist can be overcome through the power He is ready to impart.

God's upholding puts courage into the heart, freeing His worker from discouragement to come into close relation to Him. So strengthened, he is to harness all his powers and do all he possibly can, standing under Christ's banner. God sees works differently than men see them, and He knows how to deal with many kinds of men with strong traits and imperfections. He pities, holds up, and keeps a place of work for one who has erred rather than casting him off. If there is sin without willful rebellion, God bears with forbearance and longsuffering and is ready to pardon and forgive and make him stand as one still just as beloved as those who judge him. God Himself can overrule circumstances to place him where he can labor with brethren in earnest work presenting truth and opening the Scriptures as laborers together with God. Therefore no one is to rule another man's conscience, sit on the judgment seat against him, judge him heartlessly, denounce, discard, cut him off from work, or rule over him for erring, blundering, or moving to another field against human ideas of order and wisdom. Those who lay hands on one of God's workers to drop him will render an account to God for all the good lost that might have been done, and there is no excuse for such dealing.

Do Not Judge Others

No one has any right to judge another person, for that other belongs to his own Master and stands or falls to that Master alone. No believer is to judge, condemn, denounce, discard, criticize, censure, rule, command, pull down, or humble another believer, to sit on the judgment seat, or to take judgment into finite human hands. Every redeemed person is Christ's own servant, accountable to God alone as the one Lawgiver, upheld by God who alone judges and sustains His servant and is able to make him stand. A minister's error does not give others grounds to discard him, for those who judge have also erred and live only by God's patience. Taking the judgment seat and making one person subject to another is not ordained of God, and even where God gives different special works and appoints human helpers there are to be no separate parties set against each other but unity and blending together under Christ as Great Teacher and Leader, with each loving God supremely and neighbor as self after Christ's example of loving righteousness and hating iniquity.

Exalting self and bringing accusations against brethren is setting oneself up as judge, of whom Christ is ashamed. The question who art thou is God's reprimand to such judges, commanding them to get down from the judgment seat and on their knees with humility and contrition confess their own sins. If they take that course of humiliation and confession, Christ's intercession will prevail with God for them. Judging brethren is a work God has not given, and one who does it is not working with Christ, for God did not place anyone on the judgment seat to measure brethren and pronounce sentence upon them. Instead brethren should meet with humble minds feeling their own weakness and defects, ask the Lord to enlighten their understanding and fill their hearts with His love, and examine the Scriptures, and then imaginary difficulties that have become barriers between them will vanish and love, compassion, and respect will take the place of jangling and accusation.

Judging another's conscience and picking at supposed faults evades the humbling work of examining one's own heart and judging oneself fairly. Each has only to answer for his own wrongs and must leave brethren with the Lord rather than measuring off another's share of wrong. Correcting a neighbor while neglecting one's own faults forgets God and fails to recognize that the neighbor was purchased by Christ's blood. Instead each must search his own heart, confess his own wrongs, labor to keep his own soul, and keep at home a happy, cheerful, forbearing spirit, remembering his own sins and need of God's pardon and showing caution, humility, and tenderness when correcting others. One must not narrowly watch to pull weeds from a brother's garden while poisonous weeds grow strong and rank in his own, and when all unitedly take hold of the work and are one in carrying out the principles of truth and holiness, the work will be accomplished.

Fellow workers are not to be estimated according to human pattern, measurement, or standards, for all are human and fallible, and unless Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, such estimating makes great blunders. God knows the heart and judges without error, seeing beneath the surface, seeing all the good and marking all the evil, while a fellow worker blamed and sharply rebuked may not deserve it. One worker must not judge or sharply rebuke another because each is God's servant and God appoints each person's work, and workers may follow different paths because God leads them in different ways, so they should not condemn one another for not following their own example. No one has a right to judge another of God's workers by human standards, because each worker answers to God who is able to uphold His servant and make him stand. Christlike love and respect should govern their treatment of one another.

Each person should attend diligently to the work entrusted to him and leave others to answer for their own service, seeking God's grace and faithfully using the abilities and responsibilities given. Each is to make his own work fit for God's inspection rather than accuse, criticize, or undermine another worker, for each worker answers to God who judges righteously and who is able to uphold him. Watching and criticizing another's work wastes time, neglects one's own duties, and can weaken the church. Zeal should be used to serve people in need, and if someone cannot take part in another's work without judging it, he should choose a different responsibility and devote himself to doing that work faithfully.

Instead of judging, believers are to pity, comfort, help, and strengthen those who falter, with love, compassion, respect, forbearance, and sympathy. Each one is to lose sight of all others except Christ, keep the eye on Jesus, commit his own particular concern into the care of Jesus Christ, and seek Christ in humanity so that Christ may abide within. Criticism that discourages or disheartens fellow workers must give way to helping and strengthening them. Harsh human rule and censure are forbidden, especially when the would-be judge is not governed by the Holy Spirit. Believers must fear judging or condemning one another, since they are finite and fallible and may wound those whom Christ purchased with His blood, whom the Lord will defend, showing others the compassion they would want for themselves. No one has permission to judge, denounce, discard, or rule over another man's servant in ministerial work, even when he errs, blunders, or moves to another field against human ideas of order and wisdom, but is to leave judgment to God who sees works differently than men see them and who pities, holds up, and keeps a place of work for those who have erred rather than casting them off.

Conscience, Diversity, and Leadership

Differences of conviction about food are not to be judged, pressured, allowed to disturb fellowship, or made a cause of disunion, for each is to be left free to follow conscientious choice even when others would choose differently. Reform of diet calls for real common sense and broad, deep study, and forbids criticizing others because their practice is not in all things in harmony with one's own. No unvarying rule can regulate the habits of all, and no one is to make himself a criterion for all, since not all can eat the same things. Foods palatable and wholesome to one may be distasteful and even harmful to another, as some thrive on milk that others cannot use, some find peas and beans wholesome that others cannot digest, and coarser grain preparations are good food for some while others cannot use them.

People differ in disposition, habits, education, understanding of truth, life experience, and the difficulty of trials and duties, so self-control, forbearance, and sympathy are required rather than assuming one's own judgment fits another. No one should presume to decide what people in different states may or may not do, since each is answerable to God alone who determines standing or falling, and individual responsibility before God is not to be lessened. Differing consciences, whether of a conscientious Sabbath keeper or a pleasure-loving professor, are to be treated with tenderness and respect, for each servant answers to his own Master who is able to uphold him.

No one may control another's conscience, act as conscience for another, decide another's duty, or take charge of brethren's consciences. To do so is evil, for it allows a man to stand in the place which God alone should occupy, since there is but one Lawgiver. Every redeemed person is Christ's own servant standing or falling to Christ alone as Master, with an individual identity and responsibility to follow the Word, love God supremely and neighbor as self, and follow Christ's example of loving righteousness and hating iniquity. Taking the judgment seat to judge, condemn, criticize, censure, rule, command, and make one person subject to another is not ordained of God, and even where God gives different special works and appoints human helpers there are to be no separate parties set against each other but unity and blending together under Christ the Great Teacher and Leader.

A person's standing in faith is answerable to God and not to human religious authorities or the church. God alone is judge of human faith, and the church has no right to control the conscience, define heresy, or punish it.

A minister's error, blunder, or move to another field against human ideas of order and wisdom gives no permission to judge, denounce, discard, rule over, or cut him off from ministerial work, for every worker stands or falls to his own Master. Those who judge have also erred and depend on God's patience, so humility is required, with pity, comfort, and help for the faltering rather than taking judgment into finite human hands. God sees works differently than men see them and knows how to deal with many kinds of men with strong traits and imperfections, pitying, holding up, and keeping a place of work for those who have erred rather than casting them off. If there is sin without willful rebellion God with forbearance and longsuffering is ready to pardon and forgive and make him stand, and the erring worker remains just as much beloved as those who judge him. God Himself can overrule circumstances to place him and his wife where they can stand in earnest labor presenting truth to those in darkness and opening the Scriptures in union with brethren as laborers together with God, so those who lay hands on one of God's workers to drop him will render account to God for all the good lost that might have been done, and there is no excuse for such dealing.

Those converted to the truth are Christ's servants and property standing or falling to Him alone as Master. A minister instrumental in their conversion gains no ownership over them and has no right to place them under his control, nor are converts to place themselves under his control, for ministry must bring souls directly to Christ to be answerable to Him alone while respecting the individuality of every person that no other person can claim.

Sincere workers are another man's servants accountable to Christ their Master and not to human wisdom, and men must not call brethren to account and condemn them as though in God's place. When workers under the Lord's special guidance and unseen agencies set aside men's specified directions to do the work in the very way He wishes it done, with right results, to blame them with humiliating censure and sarcastic words is to condemn Christ Himself, the great unseen medical missionary whose servants they are and whose way they follow.

All believers are the Lord's servants, and no one is made a judge of brethren in God's work. Each worker is given a different part, God appoints each person's work and leads in different ways, and workers are not expected to think and speak and act just as others do or to follow another's example and footsteps exactly. Room must be given for all to work without watching to see if footsteps measure exactly alike or looking with a critical eye at what they say and do, for God has other workmen who serve Him in His appointed way even when they do not follow exactly in another's footsteps, and the remedy for judging is to keep the eye on Jesus as Leader. A fellow worker may not deserve the blame and sharply given rebuke, since God knows the heart and judges without error, so Christlike love and respect should govern treatment of one another and condemnation for not following one's own path is forbidden. Those in positions of responsibility, even a president of the General Conference or of a state conference, have no power over consciences and must not climb upon the judgment seat to think unkindly of, censure, condemn, crowd, or push brethren who differ, but are bound under sacred obligation to respect the rights of all, to be forbearing, courteous, and Christlike at all times, to be like-minded with God, and to leave God to teach and guide. Criticizing the work of those bearing heavy burdens dishonors God at the enemy's instigation, and giving oneself to judging encourages others to take up the same work.