Devotional Romans 14: Stop Judging and Avoid Stumbling Blocks Reflection on Romans 14: why only God is the true Judge, the responsibility of not being a stumbling block, and the call to live without hypocrisy. Topics: Devotional, New Testament.

Devotional Romans 14: Stop Judging and Avoid Stumbling Blocks

Today’s devotional is found in the book of Romans, chapter 14, and this is what happened.

Synopsis: In this chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he explains to them that we should not judge one another and should not put stumbling blocks or obstacles in each other’s path.

Observations

These were my observations:

1. Let us stop judging one another. This is advice that we should all heed. For this is literally one of the greatest problems of our experience as human beings. Since ancient times, we have always sought reasons to judge others who do not belong to our group—or worse yet, to attack and subjugate them. This can literally be considered humanity’s greatest problem. When Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, our human nature was corrupted (Genesis 3:17, 23). From that time until now, we have been unable to live in peace without judging others in some way or another: status, social class, religion, ethnicity, etc. This would be bad enough if it were only happening with non-believers in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. But it is terrible when supposed Christians themselves imitate the practices of the world. As Christians, we have a great responsibility to follow Christ’s example and honor Him in our conduct (John 13:15 and 1 Peter 2:21). That is to say, we cannot be hypocrites proclaiming that we believe in Him, yet living as though we belong to the world. For no one has the moral ground to judge sinners when we are all sinners and share the same destiny (Romans 3:23 and 6:23). Because the true Judge is God, and He will judge us all, regardless of our differences, according to His precepts, laws, and commandments (Romans 14:10–12).
2. Let us stop putting stumbling blocks and obstacles in the path of others. This was one of Paul’s warnings to the Romans (Romans 14:13). But this warning applies to us as well. As Christians, we must be very careful not to be the reason people (whether Christians or non-Christians) stray from God. Our conduct as Christians must resemble that of Jesus Christ, because others are observing us to see if we are consistent with our beliefs. In other words, people will look to see if we are true Christians or hypocrites. Furthermore, it is through this exact behavior (hypocrisy) that we cause others to blaspheme God (Romans 2:23–24). This is very serious, as Jesus warned us that one of the worst things we can do is to cause others to stumble or to be obstacles in their walk toward God (Matthew 18:7–9).