Chapter # 14 Paragraph # 1 Study # 7
March 28, 2021
Humble, Texas
(110)
1769 KJV Translation:
10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11 For it is written, [
As] I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
1901 ASV Translation:
10 But thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or thou again, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God.
11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, And every tongue shall confess to God.
12 So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.
- I. Paul's Conclusion To Conflict Over Things That Do Not Matter.
- A. His two uses of an "emphatic 'you'".
- 1. The use of the personal pronoun "You" in both cases is grammatically unnecessary so that the insertion of the "unnecessary" becomes "emphatic".
- 2. This boils down to a deliberate "finger pointing": he is turning directly to those to whom he is writing and, metaphorically, points his finger, first, at those who are "judging" their brother, and then, second, at those who are "being contemptuous" toward their brother.
- 3. By this method, Paul is "getting in the face" of" those who presume to "know/believe" the truth but deny their real knowledge by misusing that "truth".
- a. The heart of both questions is this: What is it about "judging" and "showing contempt" that appeals to you?
- b. It is not about some "godly" goal, nor is it according to some "godly" methodology.
- c. It is all about that persistent insistence within all "sinners" that we be "seen" of men as qualified for their approval above our fellows. That this is no small matter is clearly revealed by God's treatment of Paul according to 2 Corinthians 12:7. If Paul needed such a barrier because of the greatness of the revelation given to him, then, obviously, even special divine privileges can/will be turned into tools of self-exaltation -- even the knowledge of God's special revelation, by which our minds are supposed to be "renewed" (Romans 12:1-2), can be brought into the service of our own lust for glory.
- d. It is a manifestation of Lucifer's original lust for the glory that belongs only to God (Isaiah 14:12-13).
- B. That he returns to the original subject in 14:3 indicates that he is now just about through with this issue.
- 1. Such a "return" creates the sense of an "inclusio" so that what he says between 14:3 and 14:10 is all about addressing the "final" problem: the attitude believers take toward one another when they disagree about what decision they should make when "non-issues" become issues.
- 2. What he is attempting to do is bring all such "judgmentalism" and "being contemptuous" to an end for the sake of harmony and joy in the Body of Christ.
- C. His major thesis is this: God is the only One Who is qualified to evaluate the decisions of His house servants and He has already revealed that He will establish a day of such evaluation for each member of His household.
- 1. "For" we all shall take our place before "the judgment seat of the God" at some point yet future.
- a. The "judgment seat" is "bemati", a word used in 12 verses of the New Testament with 8 of them written by Luke in the Book of The Acts. Paul only uses it twice. Matthew and John use it once each in their Gospels.
- 1) Six of Luke's eight uses refer to a setting wherein a Roman authority "takes his seat of judgment" in order to hear legal charges and defenses. One of his uses is "ironic" in that Herod "takes his seat in the formal place of decision making" and then suffers from God's overtaking that "seat" in judgment exercised against Herod unto death. The final use is odd at first glance: Luke records Stephen saying that God had not even given Abraham "a foot of ground" in the promised land even though He had promised it all to him. However, Stephen is using the word translated "ground" ("bema") in a very precise way: God had promised Abraham a land over which he would exercise all "authority" (the real bottom line issue of "bema"), but never even gave him the smallest amount of such a promise while he was living.
- 2) Both Matthew (27:19) and John (19:13) use this word in reference to Pilate's "seat of authority" at the trial of Jesus.
- 3) Paul's two uses (Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:10) are both involved with a coming day of evaluation and judgment for the purpose of "recompensing" His people in light of how they used their time and abilities in the light of His words and revealed plans. It is this "coming day" of which Paul writes in castigating the Roman believers who are completely out of line when refusing to treat each other with Love.
- b. Paul has already indicated the "outcome" of each individual's experience at the "bema": God will make each of His household servants "stand" (14:4).
- 1) The meaning of "stand" was also already indicated: it is the opposite of "to fall" (14:4) and it means that every one of Yahweh's household servants will, at the end of the evaluation and judgment, "stand" [The Lord has already "received" each of us (14:3) and no one can bring an effective charge against God's elect (8:33)].
- 2) This does not mean that there will be nothing negative within the process.
- a) In Paul's only other use of "bema" in all of his letters is highly enlightening as to his grasp of what will take place in that day for every one of the household servants (2 Corinthians 5:10). In this text he clearly includes both "deeds...done...whether good or bad". This means that "stand" does not mean "escape scot free"; rather, it means that a person will "survive" the evaluation/judgment so that he/she is not destroyed, but, rather, "established" in the "legitimate" place for which the deeds call.
- b) In the parallel passage where Paul explains "the day" without using the word "bema" in the process (1 Corinthians 3:10-15) we have more detail. In "the day" every deed will be subjected to the fire of divine judgment as to whether it will be approved or rejected by God. His conclusion is: "If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire".
- c) In another parallel passage, Paul told Timothy that every person has the personal opportunity to come out of "the day's evaluation/judgment" as a "vessel for honor" rather than "dishonor" by taking advantage of the provisions for "self-cleansing" (2 Timothy 2:20-21). Peter also addresses this issue by telling us that each of us is to exercise our spiritual gift(s) "as of the ability ("ischus") which God gives" (1 Peter 4:11).
- 3) But it does mean that this "day" before God's "bema" is for the purpose of putting each of the household servants in the "places of service in the house" to which they have been "qualified" by God's sustaining grace in view of the "purpose" for which each one has been made a member of the household (Romans 8:28's "called according to purpose").
- 2. "For" It Stands Written...(Isaiah 45:23).
- a. "...it stands written..." does not, in Isaiah 45:23, contain the "zo ego" phrase.
- b. "I am living...".
- 1) The phrase "zo ego" is emphatic (I am living) just as the repeated "su" in 14:10. Jesus used this reality in Matthew 22:32 to insist that it means that God is "God of the living" when those "living" are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who had died long years before as far as men's eyes could tell.
- 2) This phrase is an "implied meaning" of Isaiah 45:22 (I am God and there is no other) and a direct statement in Isaiah 49:18.
- c. "...says [the] Lord...".
- 1) This exact phrase, including the 'I am living', actually comes out of Isaiah 49:18 in the Septuagint.
- 2) Paul's point is that it was "The Living God" Who declared (as a sworn word that has gone forth out of my mouth) that "to Me shall every knee bow...".
- 3) It comes out as a direct "summary" of Isaiah 45:23 where the issue is "...no God beside Me; a just God and a Savior; none beside Me...Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else. I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of my mouth [in] righteousness, and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear...In Yahweh shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory." Both of the issues of Paul's contention are here: "justification" (God has accepted him, 14:3) and "shall glory" ("...he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand...", 14:4).
