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. Romans 14:10-12
Matthew Poole’s Commentary / from Biblehub.com
“He goes on to persuade them to a mutual forbearance, to dehort them from condemning or contemning one another about indifferent things. He suggests two arguments against it in this verse; one (which is more implied) is taken from the relation they bore one to another; they were brethren, not by natural generation, but by regeneration and adoption; they had the same Father, even God. The second argument is more plainly expressed; and it is taken from the consideration of the day of judgment, when all shall stand before Christ’s judgment seat; both the strong and the weak; and then he will determine who hath done well or ill. In the mean while, who art thou that darest to usurp his place or office? The interrogation hath the force of a strong denial; Have you no more grace, charity, or wisdom, than so to do.”
With the explosion of social media and the degradation of face-to-face communication the temptation to ‘judge our fellow Christian’ has exploded exponentially. Because of what we call ‘community’ also has been redefined to a much lessor definition and construct. So now social media “communities” are NOT real, but filled with fake personas (and AI bots) of people’s opinions who would NEVER say ‘it’ in person to another individual. We’ve removed the consequences of terrible behavior within most of the online communication. Texting has lowered our communication to the absolute lowest level, requiring the reader to interpret almost everything with their own ‘filters’.
So many “Christians” have not matured beyond the ‘seat in the theater’ of the professional performance of the Sunday morning “worship” hour. Even many of the ‘small groups’ are only another form of ‘light’ discussion without ever addressing the difficult questions or delving deeply into the spiritual implications of the time or scriptures. Real discipleship has become rare. We’ve traded real in-time in-person deep conversations for a single line of text. So ‘judging’ each other has become the ‘norm’ in many people’s behavior. Our human natural tendencies have some how been exploited by the rise of technology. Our behaviors are being shaped by code in a machine. Now ‘discernment’ has become being able to write the right ‘prompt’ for the AI tool you are asking a question for an answer. Are you asking the Holy Spirit first BEFORE going to the AI tool?
Most don’t understand the danger of sitting on the Throne of God and usurping His authority of judgment. His power and holiness has become a ‘myth’ in most people’s minds. Yet we have many who have ‘returned’ from being clinically ‘dead’, and have VIBRANT memories of what happened to them AFTER their physical death. Heaven IS real. The Throne of God IS real. His judgment IS real. Christ WILL judge all of us who call Him Lord.
Maybe before we judge someone, we should ask the Holy Spirit how we should pray for that individual? Don’t be naïve – there will ALWAYS be consequences for ALL of our decisions. We will not escape the consequences of our bad choices. We should remember how much the Lord has forgiven us – for even things we did today. We have MANY brothers and sisters who are ‘weak’ and immature in the faith. Should we judge them or pray for them? Should we despise them or love them? Does this mean I accept and approve of all their evil terrible behaviors and actions? Of course not. Am I to trust them blindly? No.
Our daily lives must be driven, guided, and directed by the Holy Spirit, NOT by ourselves. How much of your day is driven by your own plans? Are you actively listening to Him? Can you recognize His Voice within you? How much of His fruit is in your responses today?
Father, I humbly give it ALL back to You! Jesus thank You for the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit I surrender, and please lead the way today.