What Does Romans 14:10 Mean?
But why do you judge your brother? And why do you make nothing of your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of the Anointed One.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.THE KEY
The verse names contempt as a second kind of verdict: you either judge your brother or treat him as nothing, yet both of you stand before Christ.
THE MEANING
When you measure your brother, your verdict is not final; Christ is the one before whom both of you stand. Contempt does not free you from that shared standing, it makes a claim about your brother’s worth while placing you under the same judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief this dissolves is that your judgment or contempt gives you the last word on your brother’s standing.
THE ROOT
ἐξουθενεῖς
exoutheneis
GROWS FROM
ἐξουθενέω (exoutheneō), built around οὐδέν (ouden, nothing)
To treat as nothing, despise, or regard as negligible.
“make nothing of” in this verse is exoutheneis. The Greek verb carries the stark sense of treating someone as nothing. Beside judging, it shows two ways of taking a place over another person: assigning a verdict or dismissing their worth.
ALSO GROWS
ouden: Nothing, no thing
οὐδέν
This element makes visible the force of “at nought”: contempt treats the other as if they count for nothing.
oudeis: No one, nobody
οὐδείς
This related negative form echoes how dismissal can make a person seem like no one in the eyes of the one judging.
κρίνεις
krineis
GROWS FROM
κρίνω (krinō), κριν- (krin-)
To distinguish, decide, or judge.
“judge” in this verse is krineis. The root joins discernment to decision: judging draws a distinction and assigns a verdict. Here that verdict sits beneath Christ’s judgment seat, where the person making the distinction stands too.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: Judgment, decision
κρίσις
The shared root shows judgment as a decision, not merely an observation.
kritēs: Judge, one who decides
κριτής
The person who judges is named by the same root that describes the act of deciding.
krima: Verdict, judgment
κρῖμα
The family reaches the resulting verdict, the kind of final word this verse places before Christ.
THE PATTERN
A human reading of another person is provisional because final discernment belongs to God.
But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.Judge not, that you be not judged.Therefore, judge nothing before its season, until the Lord comes, who will light up the hidden things of darkness, and will make visible the plans of the hearts. And then the praise will come to each one from God.THE THREAD
Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will be held upright, for God is able to make him stand.Romans 14:4 uses κρίνω (krinō, “to judge”), the same root as “judge” here, and asks who you are to judge another person’s servant. It says that servant’s own master is able to make him stand, opening the image in this verse: both you and the brother you judge stand before the same Lord.
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