My Own Account

Word Unpacked: Devotionals in Romans

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Romans 14:12 (NIV)

So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

If we stood in a courtroom today, what would we be asked to say?

We'd probably come prepared. Some of them had grown up keeping food rules and holy days their whole lives. Others had never kept a single one — and both sides sat in the same room. Who ate what. Who kept which day as special. Whose faith looked too loose, or too strict. We've already built the file in our heads — the evidence, the dates, even the verdict.

Paul opens a very different scene. "We will all stand before God's judgment seat." Every knee. Every tongue. That brother or sister we were so ready to judge — they're standing there too. But so are we.

So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. An account — a report we give out loud, in person, about ourselves. No lawyer speaks for us. All that time we spent studying someone else's plate, someone else's calendar, how hot or cold someone else's faith looked to us — what file did we never once open?

Mine.

But here's the thing — the file we built on someone else doesn't just disappear that day. It changes hands. Whatever measure we used on our brother or sister, God uses that same measure on us.

That's the turn. But...