Romans 14:4 and Brotherly Correction

A judging spirit does real harm in a church. Most of us have met it in the person who watches others for faults, who weighs every brother and finds him wanting, and who seems to enjoy doing so. Against that, the next claim sounds like fresh air:

“The born-again are dealt with by God. Even if they sin, do not judge them (Romans 14:4). If you string Scripture together only with sin and law, you get something strange. You must string it together with grace for it to come through.”

There is real wisdom in this. God does deal with His children, a harsh and fault-finding spirit is wrong, and Scripture read without grace really does come out strange. So the claim deserves to be taken seriously, beginning with the verse it quotes and then with its own picture of a string.

Romans 14:4 in Full

Here is the verse:

Romans 14:4 Who are you who krino κρίνω kree'-no(judges) another's household servant? To his own master he stands or falls — and he will stand, for God is able to make him stand.

The household servant, oiketes οἰκέτης oy-ket'-ace, is one who lives in someone else’s house. He belongs to that master, and “to his own master he stands or falls.”

But stands or falls in what? No verse floats on its own, and Romans 14 tells us what it is about in its very first lines:

Romans 14:1-2 Now receive the one who is weak in faith — not for diakrisis διάκρισις dee-ak'-ree-sis(discernment) of dialogismoi(reasoning, deliberations). One person believes he may eat all things, but the one who is weak eats only vegetables.

Diakrisis (διάκρισις) is the act of distinguishing, of passing judgment. Paul is saying: receive the brother who is weak in faith, and do not turn your fellowship into a court for settling his opinions. Then he names the kind of opinion he means: “One person believes he may eat all things, but the one who is weak eats only vegetables.”

That is the field of Romans 14: matters of differing opinion, such as whether one eats only vegetables. Chapter 30 reads Romans 14 more fully; here its first two verses are enough. In that field, Paul says, do not sit in judgment on another man’s servant, for his master will make him stand.

The claim lifts this verse out of that field and plants it somewhere else: “Even if they sin, do not judge them.” But Romans 14 is not about a brother who lives in sin. It speaks of vegetables.

About a Brother Who Sins

When Scripture does speak of a brother who sins, it speaks very differently. Here is Yeshua:

Matthew 18:15 If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault in private — if he listens to you, you have won your brother.

Yeshua does not say, “Leave him to God.” He says go, privately and gently, but go. And He states the goal: “you have won your brother.”

Yeshua did not invent this. It is in the Torah:

Leviticus 19:17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall surely reprove your fellow, and you shall not bear sin because of him.

See how the verse is built. It begins with “You shall not hate your brother in your heart,” and then gives the way of not hating him: “you shall surely reprove your fellow.” In the Torah’s eyes, to watch your brother sin and say nothing is no kindness; it sits right beside hatred. The verse ends with a warning for the one who stays silent: “you shall not bear sin because of him.”

Paul says the same to the Galatians:

Galatians 6:1 Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are pneumatikoi(spiritual) restore such a one in a pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit) of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.

The spiritual person is not the one who looks away. He is the one who restores, and he does it “in a pneuma(spirit) of gentleness,” watching himself as he goes.

James closes his whole letter on the same note:

James 5:19-20 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the aletheia ἀλήθεια al-ay'-thi-a(truth) and someone brings him back, let that person know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering way will save a psyche ψυχή psoo-khay'(soul) from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

“Will save a psyche(soul) from death.” That is what is at stake. To bring a wandering brother back is not to judge him in the sense Romans 14 forbids. It is to save his life.

Scripture, then, keeps two different things apart. On disputed matters of opinion, do not pass judgment on another’s servant. On sin, go to your brother, reprove him, restore him, and bring him back, because you love him.

Stringing the Beads

Now consider the claim’s own picture. Scripture, it says, is like beads to be strung together, and the string must be grace. Thread the verses only on sin and law, and the necklace comes out strange.

That much is true: Scripture must be strung together with grace. It remains only to check, in Scripture, what grace does, because the thread decides which beads it picks up.

Here is Paul’s description of grace:

Titus 2:11-13 For the charis χάρις khar'-ece(grace) of God has appeared, bringing Salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly epithymiai(lusts, desires, strong cravings) and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed elpis ἐλπίς el-pece'(hope) and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Yeshua Messiah,

Grace is “instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly epithymiai(lusts, desires, strong cravings) and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.” Read on to the end of the sentence, and the Messiah whose grace this is “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every anomia ἀνομία an-om-ee'-ah(Torah-lessness), and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:14).

Count the beads that grace picks up. It trains us to live godly lives, it redeems us from every anomia, every kind of Torah-lessness, and it makes a people zealous for good deeds. This is where we arrive when we string Scripture together with grace.

Grace does not string the verses into “even if they sin, do not judge them.” It strings them into “restore such a one,” “show him his fault,” and “brings him back.” A grace that left a brother in his sin would not be the grace that redeems us from every anomia.

What Love Looks Like Here

Picture a friend walking toward a cliff edge in the dark. You could tell yourself that it is not your place to judge his route, or you could run, take his arm, and turn him back. No one would call the second judging. Everyone would call it love.

That is the line Scripture draws. Do not sit in court over your brother’s vegetables, but do not let him walk off a cliff either. The born-again are indeed dealt with by God, and one of the ways God deals with them, according to His own word, is through a brother who goes to them in private, in a spirit of gentleness.

The next claim also concerns how we speak of other people, this time our Jewish neighbors, who read and memorize the Torah all their lives, and Yeshua Himself spoke about exactly this.