Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand.
Parallel translations
- KJV Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
- BSB 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.
- NKJV Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
- NASB Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
- NLT Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? Their own master will judge whether they stand or fall. And with the Lord’s help, they will stand and receive his approval.
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
It is presumptuous to condemn another's servant, for that servant answers to his own Master, the Lord. And God is able to uphold him so that he will stand.
Overview
Paul uses the image of household servants: a fellow believer is not our servant but Christ's, accountable to Him. To pass condemning judgment usurps the Master's place. The confidence is gracious: the Lord Himself has power to make His servant stand, so the weak believer's perseverance rests on God's keeping power, not on the approval of others.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Jas 4:11–12Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
- Rom 9:20But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”
- Rom 8:31–39What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
- Jude 1:24Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,
- 1 Cor 4:4–5For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord.
- John 10:28–30I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
- Ps 37:24Though he stumble, he shall not fall, for Yahweh holds him up with his hand.
- Rom 14:3Don’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.
- Heb 7:25Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
- Rom 16:25—
- Isa 40:29He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.
- Ps 37:28For Yahweh loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
- Ps 17:5My steps have held fast to your paths. My feet have not slipped.
- Deut 33:27–29The eternal God is your dwelling place. Underneath are the everlasting arms. He thrust out the enemy from before you, and said, ‘Destroy!’
- Ps 37:17For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but Yahweh upholds the righteous.
- Acts 11:17If then God gave to them the same gift as us, when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, that I could withstand God?”
- 1 Pet 1:5who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
- Ps 119:116–117Uphold me according to your word, that I may live. Let me not be ashamed of my hope.
- Rom 11:23They also, if they don’t continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
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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 14:4 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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