But as for you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you as well, why do you regard your brother or sister with contempt? For we will all appear before the judgment seat of God.
Parallel translations
- WEB But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
- KJV But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
- BSB Why, then, do you judge your brother? Or why do you belittle your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.
- NKJV But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
- NLT So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Since every believer will stand before God's judgment seat, no one is in a position to judge or despise a brother. God alone is the final Judge of His servants.
Overview
Paul confronts both the weak who judge and the strong who despise with the same sobering reality: all alike will give account before God. This levels every believer and forbids us from taking the Judge's seat over one another. The judgment seat here concerns evaluation of the redeemed, not condemnation, yet it demands humility and an end to censorious attitudes toward fellow Christians.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- 2 Cor 5:10For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
- 1 Cor 4:5Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each man will get his praise from God.
- Eccl 12:14For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.
- Rom 2:16in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.
- Rom 14:3–4Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.
- Matt 25:31–32“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
- John 5:22For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son,
- Acts 10:42He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that this is he who is appointed by God as the Judge of the living and the dead.
- Jude 1:14–15About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones,
- Rev 20:11–15I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
- Acts 4:11He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’
- Acts 17:31because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
- Luke 23:11Herod with his soldiers humiliated him and mocked him. Dressing him in luxurious clothing, they sent him back to Pilate.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 14:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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