Romans 14:13
Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
I was a terrible football player. At my age now, I think I’m beyond the machismo that would prevent me from admitting it. But I was. One could tell because I was literally the only player on my high school squad who, instead of posing for the yearbook picture with a stern and dangerous glower, I just grinned at the camera with a ludicrously dopey smile on my face. I remember our defensive coach finally telling me in exasperation, “Reed, just go over there, fall down, and let people trip over you.”
Actually that’s a pretty good description of what the Bible here calls a stumbling block, the disparaging criticism that passes judgment on someone else. Passing judgment is always a cheap shot. And it is always below the belt. Why? Because the critic has already fallen himself. From his position any blame on another will be a low blow. He only threatens to bring someone else down with him. Passing judgment is always a low blow because it never comes from someone standing tall.
In this simple verse, the apostle Paul shows that predominantly failure comes in pairs. Misery loves company. One sin leads so suddenly to another, and before you and I know it, we’re in a trading war. Passing judgment has just about the quickest of boomerang effects.
You know what I mean.
Disparaging someone or sneering at them is one abrupt way to get the same in return if not a whole ham fist right back at you. With sin, it takes two to tango. That’s why Paul says, “Let’s no longer pass judgment on one another” because if I’m taking you down, then I’m inescapably going down myself.
This is the nature of sin. It is so infectious. In the Garden of Eden, the fact that both Adam and Eve failed makes the question of who sinned first moot. The evil began with Satan, but it doesn’t matter who started a feud. Bickering will always cause multiple casualties. The finger pointing of two tangled up little boys never ends with a winner. And the odds are no better for grown ups who act that way. Adam and Eve fell together. This is why becoming a stumbling block to a brother is so dreadful. It is a deadly blow to our own flesh and blood.
In this kind of thing Jesus never participated. Every time someone tried to draw him into a quarrel, Jesus would say something like he did in Luke 12, “Who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”
It wasn't that Jesus didn’t see or understand the faults of others. It wasn't that he wasn't provoked. It wasn't that he couldn’t have taken his tormentors apart. But nothing Jesus ever said or did was a hindrance to others. Even when he spoke severe Law, this was not passing judgment. It was Him identifying the obstacles, temptations, and sins that so easily entangle. These He would ultimately carry away on His own back.
One of the most comforting passages of Scripture is 1 Peter 2:22-24, “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”
What is Advent but the beginning of a new day in which all the stumbling blocks, impediments, hold-ups and barriers are swept away.
The prophetic vision of Isaiah has come true with the Advent of Christ, “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” John the Baptist went out preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Do we know what that means?
It means there is no judgment against anyone baptized into Christ. There is no censure and no condemnation from God. There isn't even a slap on the wrist. There is no finger pointing, sucker punches, or ambushing others with criticisms they can't get past.
The standard doesn’t have to be very high to jam somebody. All you need is one little failing to point out and they won't be able to get around it. But St. Luke quotes Isaiah, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” (Luke 3:4-6)
This is the glorious confirmation of a barrier-free world where the disabled can come and not fall, where the guilty can come and not be condemned, where the blind will not stumble or the weak ever be trampled—where the path is straight and the rough places become level ways. This, my friends, is the bases on which to take Paul’s admonition.
In Romans 14, just before Paul begs us not to pass judgment on one another or hinder a brother, the Bible says, “We will all stand before the judgment seat of God…each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
“Therefore, let us not pass judgment.” Grammatically, the “therefore” is immediately tied to this warning of our own accountability. But I think the “therefore” reached back to Luke and Isaiah. “Every valley shall be filled, every mountain made low, the way made straight and level and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
Therefore!
The salvation of our God in the coming of Christ is the antecedent of our judgment-free, feud-free, barrier-free, and sin-free life together. In Christ is the salvation of our God. In him we now rise together with our brothers and show by Christ’s forgiveness that He has lifted us up.
No longer are we the fallen with others tripping over us.
