in or out

DEVOTION

ROMANS

IN OR OUT

Rom 14:9-12

9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. 11 It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'"   12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

NIV

We are still in the admonition about not judging each other based what we eat and drink or not eat or drink, and that we all belong to the Lord. That is the reason for this very reason phrase is being used. The only question that seems to not fit is that Christ is the Lord of both the living and the dead. What does he mean by that? Did he mean those who eat and drink freely are the dead or those who do not eat and drink freely? Most likely the point is that Jesus is the Lord of all people and all people will stand before him and give an account of ourselves. So who are we to pass any kind of judgement on another? We cannot think of others as being less of a believer then we are, such as not exercising their faith as much as we do. We cannot look down on them because they do something we think is an act of not trusting God. This is not to say that we should refrain from speaking the truth, but the truth should always be accompanied with grace. Yet we also should know each person will stand before God and give their account. That should give us more reason to speak the truth with grace when we see a believer behaving in a manner which does not glorify God. It is not that we should judge their behaver, for who are we to judge. So then how do we speak the truth without judging? Should we allow our fellow believers to continue to live in a manner they will be judged by God? The judgement cannot be about every act or though we believers do or have. For we all have sinned, and we all continue in some way to sin for we are not perfect people yet. That is why Jesus died for our sin. In Christ we are perfect, holy and blameless. So the judgement of God is based in whether we are in Christ or not. It is not about if we eat or drink freely or we don’t. It is about being in Christ, being born again, being alive. It is those who have not been born again who are the dead. But Jesus is Lord of them too, which means they will have to stand before God and be judged as not being in Christ and they will be cast into the darkness. This is the account all will have to give. It is not the way Mel Brooks portrays it in his movie, “Defending your life”, in that every act we ever did is shown to us on a big screen and we have to explain ourselves. No, the judgement is about either being in Christ and living or being out of Christ and dying. So who are we to judge who is in or out?