Romans 14:10-13 - Exposition

But thou, why judgest thou thy brother? or thou too, why settest thou at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God (so, rather than of Christ, as in the Textus Receptus). For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God ( Isaiah 45:23 , quoted very freely from the LXX .). So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us therefore no longer judge one another . This concluding appeal is addressed to both parties. In all that follows St. Paul returns exclusively to the more enlightened ones, whose feelings were in accordance with his own; and he now presses a further thought upon them, namely of the harm they might be doing to the very souls of the weak ones by tempting them, either by word or example, to disobey their own consciences. But judge ye this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block in his brother's way, or an occasion of falling ( σκάνδαλον ). For the meaning of the word, cf. Luke 17:1 ; Romans:33; Romans 16:17 ; 1 Corinthians 1:23 ; Revelation 2:14 .