Don’t Allow Your Brother To Stumble And Fall On Your Account

So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.  For the Scriptures say, As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God.  Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God.  So lets stop condemning each other.  Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall. (Romans 14:10-13 NLT)

 A good runner knows how to stay in his lane to avoid disqualification or causing others to stumble and fall.   The same principle applies to life.  We must stay in our lane and not assume God’s role as judge because we will in turn stand before His judgment seat to be judged.  When our fellow brothers and sisters fall into sin, we should be quick to forgive and restore those individual back into fellowship with God.  That is not the time to gossip about it or constantly remind the person of their past sin.  In John 8:1-11, a woman was caught in the act of adultery.  The Scribes and Pharisees brought her to Jesus to be stoned to death as the law of Moses required.  Though the LAW required her to be stoned to death for her sin, Jesus said to the crowd All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!  Not one of them did because they realized that they all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Jesus did not condemn the woman; He forgave and restored her back to Him.  As believers, Christ expects the same from us – forgive and restore.

Jesus allowed His life to impact the world for over two thousand years because He was and still is the Light of the world.  We should never find ourselves at the place where we become a stumbling block to others. Our lives should reflect Christ, He forgave those who offended and betrayed Him.  He does not hold on to un-forgiveness, bitterness, or animosity.  He has a pure heart and He loves us unconditionally.  We have all sinned, and we have all been hurt by our fellow believers in Christ in some way.  People make mistakes, we are human.  Hebrews 12:1 states ‘Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.  And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.   Having sin (un-forgiveness, bitterness, animosity, etc.) on board will slow down a believer and will eventually cause a person to lose the race.  We began the race when we accepted Christ as our Savior.  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, let us not allow sin to stop any of us from completing the race that God has set before us.  Let us also keep in mind that we will all have to give an account to God for our action.

Missionary Judith Gilzene Moodie