Romans 14:10-12

                                                                 Romans 14:10-12

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; for it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

 

Paul continues to give us arguments that are designed to convince us to stop dividing over differences of opinions in areas of personal preference.  This argument points to the eternal consequences that a failure to live by the pervious principles will cause.  Believers need to take these things seriously because one day we will stand before God to account for these issues and the result will be eternal in nature.

 

WE WILL ALL BE JUDGED BY GOD: It is impossible for us to judge one another’s motives, but that does not mean that our motives are unimportant.  The reason we are not to judge motives is that it is impossible for us to know what someone else’s motives are.  However, those motives are clearly seen by God and one day every person will stand before Him at the judgment seat and must give an account for what we have done and why we have done those things.  He knows what things were done out of pride and what things were done because of true conviction in our heart and with a desire to please the Lord.  The time we spend striving to judge the motives of others would be much better spent seeking to discern our own motives.

 

WE WILL ALL BOW BEFORE GOD: On the day we stand before God at the judgment seat, we will all bow down before Him in worship.  We will not be able to justify our actions, thoughts, and motives or be able to give excuses for them.  Our only hope for justification is in Christ and His sacrifice on our behalf.  We will bow before Him in complete surrender and dependence on His grace and mercy.  We will worship in complete awe of His holiness and wonder that He could ever accept people as lowly and sinful as we are.  On that day it will seem ridiculous that we stood in judgment of others because of dietary differences or our view of how to observe certain days of rest or commemoration.  All the issues we consider to be so important will simply fade away in light of His holiness and majesty.  Any differences between one another will be infinitesimal when compared to the differences between ourselves and the Lord. 

 

APPLICATION: Understand that we will all stand before the Lord and the true motives of our hearts will be revealed.  Seek to examine our own motives now instead of being concerned about the motives of others. Worship God in awe of His holiness and bow in wonder at His grace.  It is what we will be doing for eternity so we may as well start now.

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