You Are Not God!

UNSHAKEABLE: We would like to think that our modern Christianity is more mature than the believers whom Paul admonishes in Romans for being judgmental, but I suspect we do a fair amount of that very thing, too. We don’t tend to quibble over vegetarian diets and high holy days, but we do tend to judge music styles (contemporary or traditional), proper church attire (casual or formal), preaching methods (verse-by-verse or thematic), approaches to evangelism (seeker friendly or confrontational), or a whole menu of what Paul calls “disputable matters.” And just like the Romans, when we assign greater spirituality to one of those disputable matters by judging another, we take on a role meant for God alone.

Unshakeable Living // Romans 14:1, 4 (NIV & Message)

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters … If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.

Guess what? You are not God! God is, so leave being Judge of the Universe up to him.

And yet we don’t. We twist that wonderful truth, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” to a version more congruent with our god-complex: “God loves you and I have a wonderful plan for your life.” That would be pretty funny if it weren’t so true.

Our problem is that we love to take people whom God has redeemed and re-create them into our image — that is, our image of what we think a Christian ought to look like. That was going on clear back in Paul’s day, too. That is why he takes an entire chapter here in Romans to deal with this problem.

Apparently, for the Roman Christians, the issue they were getting hung up on was “diets and days.” Some of the Christians were saying that “real” believers ought to eat only a vegetarian diet, while others thought it just fine to take full advantage of the buffet table — especially the protein.

For instance, one person believes it’s all right to eat anything. But another believer with a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables. Those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don’t. And those who don’t eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them. (Rom 14:2-3, NLT))

Then there were some who felt that a “true” believer was obligated to observe certain high holy days, while others thought there was no such thing as a holy day—one day was no more holy than the next.

In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God. (Rom 14:5-6)

So when some didn’t align certain behaviors to those practices particular of those with a “purer” brand of Christianity, judgment was passed and fissures formed in the body of Christ—both of which were wrong and brought the sobering reminder from Paul that God will be the final arbiter of pure religion:

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. (Rom 14:10)

Fast forward to today, where we would like to think we are different. But I suspect we do a fair amount of that very thing, too. We don’t tend to quibble over vegetarian diets and high holy days, but we do tend to judge music styles (contemporary or traditional), proper church attire (casual or formal), preaching methods (verse-by-verse or thematic), approaches to evangelism (seeker-friendly or confrontational), or a whole menu of what Paul calls “disputable matters.” And just like the Romans, when we assign greater spirituality to one of those disputable matters by judging another, we take on a role meant for God alone.

So here is Paul’s recommendation—and mine, too: Relax! Just take a chill pill, because most of the things that drive you to be judgmental are just not worth the time and energy you spend getting worked up about. Let God worry about the way someone dresses, or the kind of music they like, or the way they preach, or how they approach reaching the lost in their community, or whatever else bugs you about them. As Paul says, “If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.” (Rom 14:4, MSG)

You see, only Jesus has the right to judge his followers. They are his, after all, not yours. He earned the role of the one and only Master and Commander by living a sinless life, dying as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and rising as the conqueror of death, hell, and the grave. Moreover, when he died, he rendered salvation by obedience to a set of religious laws null and void. So, since he is our Lord and Savior, and we will stand before him someday, let’s leave the judging up to him.

It will work out a lot better that way — and we’ll enjoy life a lot more when we take the weight of being judge, jury, and executioner off our shoulders.