Romans 14
I was lead to this chapter today (Romans 14), and decided to write about it instead of continuing with Matthew 5. I will get back to Matthew tomorrow, but I felt this couldn’t wait.
Romans 14 really gets at what I think the Laws of Moses stand today. So many questions I have had are answered in these verses. The LORD alone is our judge. We should not do things just because someone else tells us it is the right thing to do. God gives us the answers in our conscience, we just have to listen. In the same right, we should not judge others who choose to do things different from us. If someone believes that what they are doing is correct, then it is. Paul, in Romans 14 uses food to make this point. I would imagine the diet restrictions of the Laws were on a lot of early Christians minds, just as they have been on mine. However, I think food was just an example here, and anything in our modern lives can fit this teaching.
The teachings of Jesus were of loving your neighbor. He taught to feed the hungry, to cloth the naked, to reconcile with your brother. In Matthew 5:23-24, Jesus says, “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.” He doesn’t say, make your brother follow rule X, or do Y. He commands that we reconcile. I would think that reading this says that even if your brother has done something that is so vile (enter any number of atrocities here) you want nothing to do with him, that it is your duty to let it go. Don’t push him away to make yourself feel better. Never once can I find in the Scriptures where Jesus said to condemn anyone for anything.
So, we must remember that everything we do, we do for God. Likewise, everything others do, they do for God. We all will be judged alone.