ACC ~ Romans 14 v4

A SPIRIT OF DEVOTION. AMBROSIASTER: The servant is not guilty whether he eats or not, as long as he does what he does in a spirit of devotion. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

PASSING JUDGMENT ON ANOTHER’S SERVANT. DIODORE: A servant of Christ is anyone whom Christ has accepted. He is then no longer under the law. Who are you, therefore, to judge someone by the law when he is a stranger to it? PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

IN GOD’S SERVICE WE ARE JUDGED BY GOD. CHRYSOSTOM: It is not because someone does things which are worthy of escaping judgment that we are not to judge, but because the person in question is another man’s servant—not ours but God’s. It is up to God to decide what to do. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 25.

WHO ARE YOU TO PASS JUDGMENT? AUGUSTINE: Paul says this so that, when something might be done with either good or bad motives, we should leave the judgment to God and not presume to judge the heart of someone else, which we do not see. But when it comes to things which obviously could not have been done with good and innocent intentions, it is not wrong if we pass judgment. So in the matter of food, where it is not known what the motive in eating it is, Paul does not want us to be judges, but God. But in the case of that abominable immorality where a man had taken his stepmother, Paul taught us to judge. For that man could not possibly claim that he committed such a gross act of indecency with good intentions. So we must pass judgment on things which are obviously wrong. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 79.

GOD ALONE IS JUDGE OF THE HEART. AUGUSTINE: These men were of a mind to pass judgment with regard to things which may indeed be done with a bad intention but which may also be done with an upright, simple and magnanimous motive. Although they were men, they wanted to judge the secrets of the heart—secrets of which God alone is the judge. SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.18.59.

JUDGING THE LAW. PELAGIUS: What authority do you have to judge someone whom the law does not judge? This is why James says: “He who judges his brother judges the Law”; in other words, he judges himself to be wiser than the law. Nevertheless, Paul himself judged those who broke the commandments and gave others the power to judge. A man either lives or dies according to his own master. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

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