Romans 14:10-13 | |
10. But why dost thou judge thy brother? 1 or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ: | 10. Tu vero quid judicas fratrem tuum? aut etiam tu, quid contemnis fratrem tuum? Onmes enim sistemur ad tribunal Christi: |
11. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. | 11. Scripture est enim, Vivo ego, dick Dominus, mihi flectetur omne genu, et omnis lingua confitebitur Deo. |
12. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. | 12. Unusquisque igitur de se rationem redder Deo. |
13. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock, or an occasion to fall, in his brother's way. | 13. Quare ne amplius judicemus alius alium: sed hoc judicate potius, ne lapsus occasio detur fratri aut offendiculum. |
10.
But first, by the term
11.
This is also a remarkable passage for the purpose of confirming our faith in the eternal divinity of Christ: for it is God who speaks here, and the God who has once for all declared, that he will not give his glory to another. (Isaiah 42:8.) Now if what he claims here to himself alone is accomplished in Christ, then doubtless he in Christ manifests himself And unquestionably the truth of this prophecy then openly appeared, when Christ gathered a people to himself from the whole world, and restored them to the worship of his majesty and to the obedience of his gospel. To this purpose are the words of Paul, when he says that God gave a name to his Christ, at which every knee should bow, (Philippians 2:10:) and it shall then still more fully appear, when he shall ascend his tribunal to judge the living and the dead; for all judgment in heaven and on earth has been given to him by the Father.
The words of the Prophet. are, "Every tongue shall swear to me:" but as an oath is a kind of divine worship, the word which Paul uses,
12.
From the various significations of the word to judge, he has aptly drawn two different meanings. In the first place he forbids us to judge, that is, to condemn; in the second place he bids us to judge, that is, to exercise judgment, so as not to give offense. He indeed indirectly reproves those malignant censors, who employ all their acuteness in finding out something faulty in the life of their brethren: he therefore bids them to exercise wariness themselves; for by their neglect they often precipitate, or drive their brethren against some stumblingblock or another. 4
1 It appears from the order of the words
2 The words "We shall all stand," etc., may be rendered, "We must all stand," etc. It is indeed the future tense, but this is according to what is often the case in Hebrew, for in that language the future has frequently this meaning. Romans 13:12 may be rendered in the same manner, "So then every one of us must give account of himself to God." -- Ed.
3 The passage is from Isaiah 45:23. In two instances the Apostle gives the sense, and not the words. Instead of "by myself have I sworn," he give the form of the oath, "As I live." This is the manner in which God swears by himself, it is by his life -- his eternal existence. Then the conclusion of the verse in Hebrew is, "every tongue shall swear," that is, "unto me." To swear to God or by his name is to avow allegiance to him, to profess or to confess his name. See Psalm 43:11; Isaiah 63:1; Zephaniah 1:5. The Apostle therefore does no more than interpret the Hebrew idiom when he says, "every tongue shall confess to God." -- Ed.
4 The two words,
The clause might be thus rendered, --
"But rather judge it right to do this, --
not to lay before a brother a stumbling-stone, or an impediment." -- Ed.