Pastor Lowell Nelson teaches Romans Chapter 14 "Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another" on 4/20/2026 for our Monday Upper Room Bible Study.
Pastor Lowell teaches through Romans 14 and the beginning of chapter 15, focusing on how believers should handle differences in personal convictions and liberties through the lens of Christian love.
The Priority of Love Over Liberty
Christian maturity is not measured by how many freedoms one exercises, but by the willingness to limit those freedoms for the sake of others. While the Bible provides clear directives on sin, many areas of life are "gray areas" where love must be the guiding principle to prevent causing a fellow believer to stumble.
The Danger of Judgment and Contempt
Believers often fall into the trap of either looking down on those with more rigid convictions or judging those who exercise more freedom. Since every Christian is a servant of Christ and will ultimately stand before His judgment seat, we must stop acting as judges over one another’s personal walk and instead focus on our own accountability to God.
Building Unity Through Edification
True unity in the church is found when believers stop flaunting their rights and start pursuing peace and mutual edification. By prioritizing the spiritual health of the "weaker brother," the "stronger" believer reflects the heart of Christ, ensuring that the work of God is not destroyed over superficial matters like food, drink, or days of worship.
Final Summary: The heart of this message is a call for believers to surrender their personal identities and preferences to the Lordship of Christ. We are challenged to move beyond self-pleasing and instead use our liberties to serve and build up the body of Christ. The ultimate call to action is to live in a way that honors God and protects the conscience of our brothers and sisters, ensuring that our walk is defined by righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14
Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another
1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. 4 Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11 For it is written:
" As I live, says the LORD,
Every knee shall bow to Me,
And every tongue shall confess to God."
12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.
Do Not Cause Another to Stumble
13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. 14 I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15 Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; 17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.
20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. 21 It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. 22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. 23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.
