Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. 2Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. 3Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. 4Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord* is able to make them stand.
5 Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. 6Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.
7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.11For it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.’
12So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
Brothers and sisters fight. It is human nature. Psychologists and family therapists right books about it trying to explain this natural tendency. First child, middle child, baby of the family all describe people's places in the family. And in one way or another, judgment is passed simply by naming roles. There is so much that is lurking in the undercurrent of our minds, that it can be hard to refrain from judging someone or writing someone off. We do this when we ask people what they do, where they went to school, or who they voted for on American Idol.
If brothers and sisters raised in the same house, with the same parents fight, what hope is there for those of us who consider ourselves a part of the family of God? The answer, I think, is easier than we suppose. We may not be linked to one another by blood lines, but we are bound to each other by the blood of Christ. We are first heirs of the kingdom, yet we are adopted and loved like everyone else. If we are to take Paul's mandate to refrain from judging seriously, then we need to recognize that we all share equally with God and each other.
Prayer: God, it is difficult to see that we are all your children. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that love and serve you as our parent. Amen.
G. Thomas Martin