BUT YOU, WHY DO YOU JUDGE YOUR BROTHER: Su de ti krineis (2SPAI) ton adelphon sou:

We have no right to judge and condemn one another because the Judge is the Lord. Each believer will have enough to do in keeping his own account right without interfering with others’ accounts!

Referring to the conduct of the "weak" brother in v3 . Believers are not judges of other believers, whether weaker or stronger bc we will ALL be judged by God (1Co 3:10-15; 2Co 5:10). HOWEVER BALANCE WITH the fact that the church needs to keep its own fellowship pure and to refrain from assuming God's role as Judge of the world (1Cor 5:9-13). Thus the command here not to judge one another is not to be construed so as to allow immorality and wickedness, etc, to remain within the church. Beware if it is allowed for it is LEAVEN (1Co 5:7) and will corrupt good morals (1Cor 15:33).

You remember that the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees who wanted to stone an adulterous woman...

He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her. (John 8:7) (Comment: And not one threw an stones that day.)

One of the most sinister aspects of judging a brother or sister is judging his or her motives. When we do so we are saying in essence that we are omniscienient and capable of reading their minds and discerning what has transpired in their life that might be radically affecting their affect and/or actions. This is a slippery slope.

Let the world condemn him if it will, but simply because we are intimately related in Christ let us get alongside and love him, or at least overlook his failures without seeking to condemn him for his faults. Let no man judge another because one day, in the light of the judgment we have passed on others, every one of us must stand before the judgment seat of Christ . Silence then the censorious tongue. Cast the burdens of the misjudged motive and the misunderstood action at the feet of the Lord and leave them until that day when He shall vindicate, for vengeance is His and He will repay.

Paul is saying "Silence that critical tongue, for we must appear before the Bema of Christ. Stop judging another, which has become the practice of so many lives, because Christ the righteous Judge is at the door (James 5:9) We must remember that the one we are judging is our brother not our enemy. (see note Romans 14:3)

That we shall all be judged has been amply foretold in both the old and new testaments...

Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. (Ecclesiastes 11:9)

The LORD...is coming, or He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness. (Psalm 96:13) (Spurgeon's note)

(This verse is painful to read for Jesus promised) "that every careless ( argos = a = negates + ergon = work - literally "not working words!) word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment.' (Mt 12:36)

Under these circumstances (the religious leaders were plotting against Jesus trying to catch Him in something He might say), after so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all," Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. (Luke 12:1-2)

There is no room in the family of God for one group to pass judgment on another. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus settled the issue:

Do not judge (present imperative with a negative can be paraphrased = "Stop doing this" - it was going on) lest you be judged." (see notes on Matthew 7:1, one of the most inappropriately quoted text in the Bible!).

This admonition to not judge has however been far too often taken out of context and used by many to say that believers are never to disapprove of anything another person does. What Jesus actually said in context was...

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then (this is critical, not before but after the log removal) you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Furthermore how would we be able to follow through on Jesus' admonition in Matthew 7...

You will know them by their fruits" (see note Matthew 7:16) speaking of false teachers.

We would have to be "fruit inspectors" but it's still in the context of first be "log removers"! What Jesus is prohibiting in Matthew 7:1 is harsh and censorious criticism, not insight conditioned and made possible by biblical truth and the indwelling Spirit of Truth.

OR YOU AGAIN, WHY DO YOU REGARD YOUR BROTHER WITH CONTEMPT: e kai su ti exoutheneis (2SPAI) ton adelphon sou: (Ro 14:3,4; Luke 23:11; Acts 4:11)

Earlier Paul had declared that...

The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions (See notes Romans 14:3; 14:4)

Regard with contempt (1848) (exoutheneo from ek = an intensifier + outhenéo = bring to naught) means to treat someone or something as of no account and so to despise then based on the judgment that they are worthless or of no value. It means to show by one’s attitude or manner of treatment that the brother has no merit or worth!

Stop trying to take God's place. You, the weak, why do you judge your brother? And you, the strong, why do you look down on your brother? It is wrong. You are trying to take Christ's place when you do that. But remember that all of us, men and women alike, all brothers and sisters in one body of Christ, must individually stand before God's judgment seat.                                        

FOR WE SHALL ALL STAND BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF GOD : pantes gar parasthsometha (1PPFMI) to bemati tou theou: (Ro 2:16; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Matthew 25:31,32; John 5:22; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Jude 1:14,15; Revelation 20:11-15)

We...all - In context this judgment includes Paul and all believers of all ages. We all like to read the Bible for its promises and here is one of the more awesome promises for believers.

Let me ask you -- Given that this is a promise and God is not a man that He should lie about this promise, honestly, are you looking forward to this day or are you dreading this great day, a day as sure as God's promise? How you answer most likely reflects how you are living in this present age. Are you living for this great day or are you living simply for today? We need to keep God's "context" (His view of time) in mind...in the passages below observe the terms of comparison used to describe the brevity of man's existence...

A voice says, "Call out." Then he answered, "What shall I call out?" All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:6-8)

Man, who is born of woman, Is short-lived and full of turmoil. Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain. (Job 14:1-2)

Let the rich man glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away....Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (James 1:10, 4:14)

The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. (see note 1 Peter 2:12)

Remember how short my life is, how empty and futile this human existence! (Psalm 89:47, NLT)

Man is like a mere breath. His days are like a passing shadow. (Psalm 144:4)

Spurgeon writes...

Man is like to vanity. Adam is like to Abel. He is like that which is nothing at all. He is actually vain, and he resembles that unsubstantial empty thing which is nothing but a blown up nothing, -- a puff, a bubble. Yet he is not vanity, but only like it. He is not so substantial as that unreal thing; he is only the likeness of it. Lord, what is a man? It is wonderful that God should think of such a pretentious insignificance.

His days are as a shadow that passeth away. He is so short lived that he scarcely attains to years, but exists by the day, like the ephemera (ED: denoting a plant said to last only one day, or an insect with a short lifespan), whose birth and death are both seen by the self same sun. His life is only like to a shadow, which is in itself a vague resemblance, an absence of something rather than in itself an existence. Observe that human life is not only as a shade, but as a shade which is about to depart. It is a mere mirage, the image of a thing which is not, a phantasm (ED:  an illusion or apparition) which melts back into nothing. How is it that the Eternal should make so much of mortal man, who begins to die as soon as he begins to live?

The connection of the two verses before us with the rest of the psalm is not far to seek: David trusts in God and finds him everything; he looks to man and sees him to be nothing; and then he wonders how it is that the great Lord can condescend to take notice of such a piece of folly and deceit as man.

As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away. (Psalm 90:10)

Spurgeon writes...

And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow. The unusual strength which overleaps the bound of threescore and ten only lands the aged man in a region where life is a weariness and a woe. The strength of old age, its very prime and pride, are but labour and sorrow; what must its weakness be? What panting for breath! What toiling to move! What a failing of the senses! What a crushing sense of weakness! The evil days are come and the years wherein a man cries, "I have no pleasure in them." The grasshopper has become a burden and desire faileth. Such is old age. Yet mellowed by hallowed experience, and solaced by immortal hopes, the latter days of aged Christians are not so much to be pitied as envied (ED: Psalm 92:13,14 Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age. They shall be full of sap and very green). The sun is setting and the heat of the day is over, but sweet is the calm and cool of the eventide: and the fair day melts away, not into a dark and dreary night, but into a glorious, unclouded, eternal day (ED: Pr 4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.). The mortal fades to make room for the immortal; the old man falls asleep to wake up in the region of perennial youth.

For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. The cable is broken and the vessel sails upon the sea of eternity; the chain is snapped and the eagle mounts to its native air above the clouds. Moses mourned for men as he thus sung: and well he might, as all his comrades fell at his side. His words are more nearly rendered, "He drives us fast and we fly away;" as the quails were blown along by the strong west wind, so are men hurried before the tempests of death. To us, however, as believers, the winds are favorable; they bear us as the gales bear the swallows away from the wintry realms, to lands

"Where everlasting spring abides
And never withering flowers."

Who wishes it to be otherwise? Wherefore should we linger here? What has this poor world to offer us that we should tarry on its shores? Away, away! This is not our rest. Heavenward, Ho! Let the Lord's winds drive fast if so He ordains, for they waft us the more swiftly to Himself, and our own dear country.

Behold, Thou hast made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Thy sight. Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah (Pause and Ponder!) (Psalm 39:5, cp Ps 39:11b)

Spurgeon  writes...

Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth. Upon consideration, the psalmist finds little room to bewail the length of life, but rather to bemoan its shortness. What changeful creatures we are! One moment we cry to be rid of existence, and the next instant beg to have it prolonged!

A handbreadth is one of the shortest natural measures, being the breadth of four fingers; such is the brevity of life, by divine appointment; God hath made it so, fixing the period in wisdom.

The behold calls us to attention; to some the thoughts of life's hastiness will bring the most acute pain, to others the most solemn earnestness.

How well should those live who are to live so little! Is my earthly pilgrimage so brief? then let me watch every step of it, that in the little of time there may be much of grace.

And mine age is as nothing before thee. So short as not to amount to an entity. Think of eternity, and an angel is as a newborn babe, the world a fresh blown bubble, the sun a spark just fallen from the fire, and man a nullity (ED: A thing of no importance or worth.). Before the Eternal, all the age of frail man is less than one ticking of a clock. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. This is the surest truth, that nothing about man is either sure or true. Take man at his best, he is but a man, and a man is a mere breath, unsubstantial as the wind. Man is settled, as the margin has it, and by divine decree it is settled that he shall not be settled. He is constant only in inconstancy. His vanity is his only verity; his best, of which he is vain, is but vain; and this is verily true of every man, that everything about him is every way fleeting. This is sad news for those whose treasures are beneath the moon; those whose glorying is in themselves may well hang the flag half mast; but those whose best estate is settled upon them in Christ Jesus in the land of unfading flowers, may rejoice that it is no vain thing in which they trust. (See notes on Jesus' advice in Matthew 6:20)

The point is that our mortal lives are but a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow, and how we conduct ourselves today will be evaluated at the Bema seat, this judgment somehow (Scripture is not entirely clear to me on this subject) reflecting our eternal existence.

Stand before (3936) (paristemi from para = near + histemi = stand) is literally to place or stand beside and includes the idea of yielding to the disposal of another (used with this meaning 4 times in Romans - see notes Romans 6:13; 6:16; 6:19; Romans 12:1). In secular Greek paristemi was a technical term in the legal field which meant “to bring” someone before the magistrate or judge. Note the future tense which in context speaks of a future event on every believer's calendar!

Luke used this same verb to describe Paul's pending appearance before Caesar...

'Do not be afraid (an angel of God stood before Paul and spoke this encouragement), Paul; you must stand before Caesar (the supreme human ruler in Paul's day); and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.' (Acts 27:22)

Paul's point in reminding us all of this future judgment of believers is that no believer has a right to judge (weaker judging stronger in context - see note Romans 14:3) or condemn (stronger looking down on weaker - see notes Romans 14:1; 14:3) one another because the Lord is the Judge. Each believer will have enough to do in keeping his own account right without interfering with others' accounts! The judgment seat of God (or Christ in 2Corinthians 5:10) will not entail a decision regarding one's salvation because Jesus said in John 5:24 that "he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." Thus every believer has crossed over from death to life, & eternal life is our present & permanent possession (cp 1 Cor 3:10-15). The judgment Paul is referring to is one that assays the quality of one's life.

Some additional "light" reading on the Judgment Seat of God/Christ for believers: Pithy sermon by revivalist Leonard Ravenhill on "The Judgment Seat of Christ". Summary from the Radio Bible Class (Our Daily Bread publishers) on "The Second Coming & the Judgment Seat of Christ"). Article from the Jewish outreach ministry Friends of Israel entitled "The Judgment Seat of Christ"
 
Judgment seat (968) (bema) (see also Judgment by the Saints) in its most common NT use refers to a raised platform on which an official is seated when rendering judgment on certain legal cases or athletic events.

McComiskey writes that

In secular Gk. bema is used in the sense of step or stride, as in walking (Pindar, Aeschylus). It has also the associative connotation of a pace as a unit of measure. The word is also used as a platform for a public speaker and, in legal contexts, it denotes the place where litigants stood for trial (Demosthenes, Aeschines)." (Brown, Colin, editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology)

Bema is found 12 times in the NT (see below) and in the is translated as: ground, 1; judgment seat, 7; rostrum, 1; tribunal, 3. In the KJV it is translated once as crown.

Related Resource - The Judgment Seat of Christ by S Lewis Johnson

Click for a picture of the remains of the bema at the ruin in Corinth.

Here are the 12 NT uses of bema...

Mt 27:19 And while he (Pilate) was sitting on the judgment seat, (bema = here the official seat of Pilate the judge of Jesus!) his wife sent to him, saying, "Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him."

John 19:13 When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat (bema) at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

Acts 7:5 "And He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground (bema); and yet, even when he had no child, He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his offspring after him. (This is the only NT use of bema in the sense of step as a unit of measure).

Acts 12:21 And on an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum (or "tribunal") (bema = the structure, resembling a throne, which Herod built in the theater at Caesarea, and from which he used to view the games and make speeches and orations to the people) and began delivering an address to them.

Acts 18:12 But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat (bema),

Acts 18:16 And he drove them away from the judgment seat (bema).

Acts 18:17 And they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat (bema). And Gallio was not concerned about any of these things.

Acts 25:6 And after he (Festus, the Roman governor or procurator who succeeded Felix in the province of Judea) had spent not more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea; and on the next day he took his seat on the tribunal (bema) and ordered Paul to be brought.

Acts 25:10 But Paul said, "I am standing before Caesar's tribunal (bema), where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know.

Acts 25:17 "And so after they had assembled here, I made no delay, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal (bema), and ordered the man to be brought.

Romans 14:10 (note) But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat (bema) of God.

2Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat (bema) of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad (since Corinth had a literal bema where both athletic rewards and legal justice were dispensed [see Ac 18:12ff above], the Corinthians clearly would understand Paul’s reference)

As A W Tozer rightly said

Before the judgement seat of Christ my service will not be judged by how much I have done but by how much of me there is in it. (!)

Spurgeon illustrates this same idea with a story...

You remember the old Romish legend, which contains a great truth. There was a brother who preached very mightily, and who had won many souls to Christ, and it was revealed to him one night in a dream, that in heaven he would have no reward for all he had done. He asked to whom the reward would go, and the angel told him it would go to an old man who used to sit on the pulpit stairs and pray for him. Well, it may be so, but both would most likely share their Master's praise. We shall not be rewarded, however, simply according to our apparent success. — Barbed Arrows from the Quiver of C. H. Spurgeon

Occasionally a benevolent action wrought in faith brings with it an instantaneous recompense in kind; therein Providence is seen as smiling upon the deed. The late John Andrew Jones, a poor Baptist minister, whilst walking in Cheapside, was appealed to by some one he knew for help. He had but a shilling in the world, and poised it in his mind, to give or not to give? The greater distress of his acquaintance prevailed, and he gave his all, walking away with a sweet remembrance of the promise, "He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given, will he pay him again." He had not gone a hundred yards further before he met a gentleman who said, "Ah, Mr. Jones, I am glad to see you. I have had this sovereign in my waistcoat pocket this week past for some poor minister, and you may as well have it." Mr. Jones was wont to add, when telling the story, "If I had not stopped to give relief I should have missed the gentleman and the sovereign too." — Spurgeon - Feathers for Arrows

Bema means a step forward made by a foot (the space which the foot covers). In most NT uses it refers to a platform that requires steps to ascend. Depending on the setting, the bema could be a tribunal from which the judge or magistrate would address an assembly from a chair placed on the structure (the bema). Thus the judge would sit elevated above those he was addressing and rendering judgment upon.

It is important not to confuse the Bema “judgment seat” in (Romans 14:10 and 2Corinthians 5:10) with the Great White Throne from which Christ will judge the wicked unsaved of all ages (Revelation 20:11-15).

The bema then was a raised place or tribune (the platform from which an assembly is addressed) to speak from in a public assembly or court of law.

The bema was also the stand on which the judges stood to observe and evaluate the actions of athletes in the Olympic contests. If any athlete broke a rule, one or more of the judges (referees or umpires) would point to him and cry, “Adokimos!" (96) (that is, “Disqualified!” see discussion of adokimos in 1Corinthians 9:24-27). And thus he missed the prize (victor’s wreath -- see discussion of stephanos) (4735) regardless of the place he finished in the race or contest (see discussion of the necessity for athletes to compete according to the rules in 2Timothy 2:5). Likewise, when an event was completed, the contestants stood before the bema to hear the judges’ announcement of the results, and to receive such reward as might properly be theirs. This is a uniquely fitting illustration to make clear to us the fact that service and life are to be evaluated by our Lord, with possible reward (cf Luke 16:2 "And he [a certain rich man who had a steward] called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.').

As noted above, the bema was also used for a tribune, two of which were provided in the law-courts of Greece, one for the accuser and one for the defendant; it was applied to the tribunal of a Roman magistrate or ruler. The judge invariably sat on a special seat or throne. Jerusalem and the smaller cities alike had their thrones for judgment (Judges 4:5; 1Ki 7:7; Ps 122:5). In Rome, magistrate and jury were seated together on the raised tribunal or bench. The custom extended also to the provinces.

In the NT, kriteria (2922), tribunals, is used of law courts generally 1Co 6:2, 1Co 6:4), while bema is applied to the judgment seat not only of the Emperor (Ac 25:10) but also of the governors: 

In applying the term bema, may be thinking simply of the tribunal of the Roman magistrate before which he himself had stood, or he may be thinking of the Greek way of justice.

All Greek citizens were liable to serve as judges, or, as we would say, as jurymen. When an Athenian sat in judgment on a case he was given two bronze discs. Each had a cylindrical axis. One axis was hollow and that disc stood for condemnation; one was solid and that disc stood for acquittal. On the bema there stood two urns. One, of bronze, was called "the decisive urn", for into it the judge dropped the disc which stood for his verdict. The other, of wood, was called "the inoperative urn", for into it the judge dropped the disc which he desired to discard. So at the end the jury dropped into the bronze urn either the disc that stood for acquittal or the one that stood for condemnation. To an onlooker they looked exactly alike and none could tell the verdict the judges gave. Then the discs were counted and the verdict given. Even so some day we shall await the verdict of God (for rewards or lack of rewards but not for sin for there is "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" see notes on Romans 8:1). When we remember this great truth, life becomes a tremendous and a thrilling thing,

All believers are either making or marring a destiny
Winning or losing a crown
Time becomes the testing ground of eternity

In light of brevity of our life and the length of eternity and the certainty of the bema seat ponder these words by the great missionary to Burma, Adoniram Judson (click biography):

A life once spent is irrevocable. It will remain to be contemplated through eternity...the same may be said of each day. When it is once past, it is gone forever. All the marks which we put upon it, it will exhibit forever...each day will not only be a witness of our conduct, but will affect our everlasting destiny....How shall we then wish to see each day marked with usefulness...! It is too late to mend the days that are past. The future is in our power. Let us, then, each morning, resolve to send the day into eternity in such a garb as we shall wish it to wear forever. And at