Love as Judge

Paul now explains in this passage how we must keep Love Supreme in our welcoming and judgment of others. Paul is trying to bring down walls and barriers to unity. We must not condemn each other in secondary issues that manifest in legalism or licentiousness. We are called to judge in light of the Final Judgment. Paul is now appealing for Christians from all backgrounds to make this a reality in their present common life. God has declared both this person and that person to be members of his people. They stand before their maker and their Lord, and must take responsibility for themselves. Christians must learn to respect one another, and to find ways of living out in practice what it means to live to the Lord and to die to the Lord. We must lean into the truth that ‘Mercy triumphs over judgment’.