Romans 14:13-15 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather… While from the beginning the kindly affections of men's nature have been largely developed, outside of their own households they have seldom felt themselves under much obligation to men, and outside their acquaintanceship and nation are felt a hundred obligations of aversion. And it is one of the tokens of the Divine inspiration of the truth that "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" has been the declaration of the Divine law from the earliest period. And there is no duty that the Apostle Paul so developed as this. Note — I. THE GROUND ON WHICH HE PUTS MEN IS THE GROUND OF THEIR SACREDNESS. 1. Christians are tempted to judge men by standards that are not the highest nor the most Christian. (1) We are tempted to put value upon men according to their social relationships. A man may be very low in the social scale, and we may be accustomed in measuring him to call him a brute, and worthless, but the man has some other value besides that which consists in his relationship to society. (2) Nay, a man's economic value may be nil. There are many who do not produce as much as they eat. They are sick or shiftless, and die useless paupers. And we are apt to speak of them with contempt as being the "dregs of society." 2. And yet, low as they are, their value may be beyond count. (1) For every man is God's creature in a sense that none of the inferior animals are. He is made after the image of God. (2) More than this, every man is made sacred by what has been done for him. In the old days the colonists were forbidden to manufacture anything for themselves. The privilege of furnishing these things to them was reserved to the Crown. Not only that, but the very timber of the country was sorted out, and wherever a valiant pine or a noble oak, fit for the masts or for the ribs of ships was found, the Broad Arrow was stamped on it. The tree was in no respect different, but when people saw the Broad Arrow they said, "That is the king's." Now it is not an arrow, it is a cross that is stamped upon every living soul. For every human being Christ died; and this is made to he the sign and token of the value that is in every man (ver. 15). (3) Again, men are to be greatly respected for their development into immortality. Although there is but very little value in acorns, when they are planted they will become trees; but what they will be when a hundred years have dealt with them no man can tell. And though men, as seeds, are comparatively insignificant, when they shall have been planted again, in a fairer clime and in a better soil, and shall have been under a higher culture, they will then unfold their real and true selves, to which they will not come in their relationship to time and society. II. IT IS UPON THE GROUND OF THE VALUE THAT INHERES IN MEN THAT WE MUST NOT PUT ANY STUMBLING-BLOCK IN THEIR WAY. It is a case in which the highest are to serve the lowest. It is being to men what mothers are to children. What father is there that does not subdue himself to the level of the cradle? Accomplishments, tastes, and liberties are commanded to serve the wants of the little one. We must use our liberty and our strength for men, not them for our strength and liberty. 1. It is right, if a man is worshipping superstitiously, to supplant the superstition by a more rational worship. If I go into a Catholic church, and there stands the font of sacred water by the door, and I perceive one and another dipping their hands in and making the sign of the cross with the utmost reverence, I do not follow their example; I have no need of it; and yet I should abuse my liberty if I were to ridicule the act, or if I were to use my liberty and my intelligence to oppress the consciences of those that were lower and less than I. To a person who performs the act it may seem sacred; and if you cast contempt upon it you may be a violator of what is sacred to him, and therefore you may put a stumbling-block in his way. Idolaters were not treated with disrespect by Christ and His apostles. When Paul stood in the midst of the radiant idols at Athens he never spoke of them in such a way as to wound the feelings of any one who believed in them. 2. It is sometimes said of men, "They do not preach all that they believe." They would be fools if they did. You might as well say to the mother who has a medicine chest, "Give all the medicine there is in that chest," as to say to a man, "Preach all that you believe." A man preaches to build men up. Are you to reproach a man for not putting all the materials for building into every edifice that he constructs? If a man builds of brick he does not think it necessary to exhaust the whole material that the country affords. And a man that teaches is not teaching for the sake of unsettling men. There are those who pile sermon upon sermon the year round, loosening everything, and at last nothing remains. But it is said, "They are bold men." Yes; and they may do harm with their boldness. "Well, they are honest." Honesty is a good thing; but even that should be handled prudently. It is better that men should have truth than that they should have delusion and falsity; but it is not wise that the change should be made too abruptly. Where a man has on a filthy garment, it is better that he should wear it than that he should go naked. Don't take it from him until you have a better one to put in the place of it. 3. A man has a right, in the employment of his wealth, to have regard for the comfort and refinement of himself and his household. But no man has a right to such a use of wealth as shall be exclusive and selfish. A man has a right to the use of his property, but he must use it charitably. And, on the other hand, those that are poor are not to rail at rich men, but are to act according to the spirit which is contained in the gospel (vers. 2, 3). 4. There are very many pleasures which I avoid, not because I have the slightest conscience respecting the things themselves, or because I suppose they would be otherwise than beneficial to me, but because my example should be such as not to mislead, but lead aright, the young men of the community, who, in looking upon what I did, if I indulged in all those things which were harmless to me, might venture on things that I could do safely, and they could not. 5. This should be carried still further. I hold that there is no one thing that is more perilous to young men than the usages of society in the matter of intoxicating drinks. Nevertheless, if I observe that my brother, in a neighbouring church, holds a contrary view, I have no right of disputation over his conscience. I may wish that he could see as I do; I may even attempt to give him the light that I have; but if, after all, in the exercise of his own judgment and discretion, he says, "I stand in my liberty before God," I have no right to cast an imputation on him and his liberty. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. |
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