Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 319 · November 15
Another Man's Servant
“Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.”
Quote this verse in a church conversation, and the conversation usually ends: "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant?" Somebody says it, the room goes quiet, and whatever was about to be raised stays unsaid. But if the verse meant what people often use it to mean, then no Christian could ever weigh up anything another Christian does, and most of the New Testament could not have been written.
I know how this verse gets used, because I have used it that way, and only ever in one direction. It comes to mind the moment I am the one being weighed up. It never comes to mind when I am the one doing the weighing. And I have never once caught myself making the switch.
The chapter names what the argument is about, two verses earlier: "one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs." It is about food, and about the calendar too: "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike." Paul is not neutral on the question. Later in the chapter he says plainly "that there is nothing unclean of itself." He has a view, and he states it. Even so, he will not let either side push the other out of the church.
Notice how carefully the warning runs both ways: "Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth." There are two sins here, one for each side, and each side is the last to suspect itself of its own. The free man looks down on the strict one, and the strict man judges the free one. Neither of them thinks he is doing anything except being right.
The reason Paul gives is about who sits in the judge's seat. "To his own master he standeth or falleth." "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God."
Lord, we have been sitting in a chair that already belongs to You, and we have been quoting this warning at anyone else who sat in it. The brother or sister we were weighing up is held by Your hands, not by ours. That is a better place for them to be, and for us too, because the same promise stands over every one of Your servants: "Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand." Amen.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 319 is Everlasting Consolation (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17).