Verse 10. But why, etc. Since we are all subjects and servants alike, and must all stand at the same tribunal, what right have we to sit in judgment on others? Thou judge. Thou who art a Jewish convert, why dost thou attempt to arraign the Gentile disciple, as if he had violated a law of God? Comp. Ro 14:3. Thy brother. God has recognised him as his friend, (Ro 14:3,) and he should be regarded by thee as a brother in the same family. Or why dost thou set at nought. Despise, (Ro 14:3) why dost thou, who art a Gentile convert, despise the Jewish disciple as being unnecessarily scrupulous and superstitious? Thy brother. The Jewish convert is now a brother; and all the contempt which you Gentiles once cherished for the Jew should cease, from the fact that he is now a Christian. Nothing will do so much, on the one hand, to prevent a censorious disposition, and, on the other, to prevent contempt for those who are in a different rank in life, as to remember that they are Christians, bought with the same blood, and going to the same heaven as ourselves. We shall all stand, etc. That is, we must all be tried alike at the same tribunal; we must answer for our conduct, not to our fellow-men, but to Christ; and it does not become us to sit in judgment on each other. |