The True Love of Jesus Christ Compared to Human Affection, and Why the Difference Is So Vast

Loving One Another Without Being Judgmental

Romans chapter 14, verses 1–12

Today in our ongoing study of the book of Romans, I will move on to chapter 14. Since there is a lot of subject matter to discuss, I am going to divide this portion of the study into 2 halves for all the new believers who are reading this posting. After all, I would not want to give you too much information all at once and risk losing anyone from ‘information overload’. Instead, I will lead this study with the first half of chapter 14, beginning at verse 1.

“Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (Romans 14, verses 1–4)

We are not supposed to be passing judgment on those whose beliefs and values are different from our own. Those who behave this way do so because they are motivated by pride or jealousy, and sometimes due to their own deep-seated contempt. Some folks such as myself can eat and thoroughly enjoy all kinds of food without feeling any particular sense of guilt or conviction. Others, on the other hand, are vegetarians, and they behave this way because of their convictions, which may well be entirely different than ours. Jews and Muslims do not eat pork. Neither do some Christians, although I personally am not one of those, but neither do I judge those who abstain. But what the apostle Paul was saying when he wrote these words is that we have no right to pass judgment on one another because of our differences, be they real or perceived, and particularly when they are baseless and without foundation (such as racial hatred). Judgment is God’s job — it’s not ours and it never was.

When God made each of us, when He formed us in our mother’s womb, He made every one of us to be a completely unique individual. God did this because He knew that there is much richness in diversity. But God also did this to teach us tolerance and mutual respect for each other. There are no two people…