Do
Not Cause Another to Stumble
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. Rom 14:13
let
us not... It does no good at all for us to try to judge(condemn)
another, because we are not the Judge, Jesus is. We are told to judge
not, lest ye be judged and, also, with whatever judgment we judge
another we will be judged. We find a very good Scripture covering
this in (Jas. 4:11).
Jas.
4:11 “Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh
evil of [his] brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the
law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a
doer of the law, but a judge.”
The
Greek word translated “judge” is here translated “determine”.
(In verses 3, 10 and 13a), the meaning is negative: to condemn. (In
13b), the meaning is positive: to determine or make a careful
decision.
but
judge this... The point of Paul’s play on words is that instead of
passing judgment on their brothers, they should use their best
judgment (careful decision) to help fellow believers. Anything a
believer does, even though Scripture may permit it, that causes
another to fall into sin by his going against his conscience, puts a
stumbling block in his brother’s way.
Without
Hindering
Paul’s
warning against judging relates to Christians’ attitudes and
actions toward the convictions of other believers (Rom. 14:1-12). The
other side of the coin is evaluating the impact of one’s own
convictions and actions on other Christians. In this section Paul
warned against causing other Christians to stumble (hindering their
spiritual growth) by asserting that one is free to live in accord
with convictions not shared by other believers.
Paul’s
opening sentence is both the final charge on the previous subject and
the introduction to the new one: Therefore, let us stop passing
judgment on (krinōmen,
“condemning”) one another (pres. tense subjunctive, “no longer
let us keep on judging or condemning one another”). Instead a
Christian should judge himself
and his actions so that he does not place a stumbling block
(proskomma,
lit., “something a person trips over”; cf. 1Cor. 8:9 and comments
on Rom. 14:20-21) or obstacle (skandalon,
lit., “trap, snare,” and hence “anything that leads another to
sin”; cf. Rom. 16:17) in his brother’s way (lit., “to the
brother”).
