Paul had already insisted that we have no moral standing to judge others; when we do so we condemn ourselves, because we who judge are just as guilty as those whom we judge (Romans 2:1). Now he emphasizes that we also have no social standing for judging one another, because those whom we want to judge don’t belong to us, but to God. “Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own Lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand” (14:4).

The immediate context has to do with eating food offered to idols, and keeping particular days as sacred, for fasting or for feasting. It turns out that some think you can eat anything, while others only eat vegetables (14:2), because the only way you can know for sure that you never eat meat from an animal that was sacrificed in worship of a false god is to never eat meat at all. On the other hand, some people were setting aside certain days for particular devotion, while others consider all days to be equal: you should be particularly devoted to God every single day (14:5). In either case, the conviction they expressed was, “You can’t really be a Christian if you do it the way that other group does it.”

Yet the reality of Jesus is bigger than any such argument. It is bigger than life and death. “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” (14:8) – another of those verses that we would do well to memorize. “For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (14:9). In the light of his death and resurrection, all our petty squabbles can be seen for their pettiness.

What if we believed that, in all its splendor? What if we believed that our Lord will indeed sustain those whom we are tempted to despise (14:3, 14:10)? It is before their own Lord (not before us) that they stand or fall; and it is Jesus himself (not us) who will make them stand. What if we believed that, and prayed that, day by day?

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Ah Lord Jesus! You know how harshly we judge people who see and follow your call differently from what seems best to us. Yet they are your servants, not ours. You are the only one who can sustain us; and you are the only one who can sustain them. We trust in you, O Lord. Save us, and them, and all the world!

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