Lesson 31: Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another – 14:1-12
 1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.
3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
4 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.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 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;
11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

In this section of Romans we read about the effects of justification in our lives. Our verses today are about judging others around us. What does judging others have to do with our justification?


We as human beings have a tendency to judge others because we know ourselves well enough to see that we do not measure up to the standards God has set for us – to be like Jesus. We know we fail in this every day, and it brings us shame and guilt and fear. We know we cannot ever be like Him so our pride seeks other ways to make us feel better about ourselves. We forget that all we need to do is ask Him for forgiveness and cleansing – 1 John 1:9 – to receive His joy and peace again.

Rather than doing this, however, too often we look for someone around us we think is worse than we are. We begin to criticize and judge them loudly to others so they will see how much better we are than the person we are judging. Jesus says we are not to do this – we are to love these people rather than judging them because love will cover their faults rather than declaring those faults to everyone else – see 1 Peter 4:8.

In our verses today, the example of this kind of judging is about food. But the truth applies to any kind of judgment – dress, speaking, education, social status, actions, and so on.

Not judging someone does not mean we cannot call to their attention an act of sin in their life – but this must be done according to Jesus’ way as He outlined it in Matthew 18:15-17.

*Think of a time you used Jesus’ way with someone who had hurt you – what happened when you talked to them Jesus’ way?