by Mark Ryan
Exodus 14:19-31 and Psalm 114 or Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21 | Genesis 50:15-21 and Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-13 | Romans 14:1-12 | Matthew 18:21-35
In Romans 14 Paul is concerned with the fellowship practiced in the church, particularly, it seems, between its Jewish and Gentile members. The former find a need to observe some parts of the Mosaic law which the latter believe irrelevant to those living in Christ. He exhorts his audience “to welcome the weak” among them rather than trying to “win arguments.” “Do not judge your brother or sister” he further instructs. What do we learn from this passage about human relations and thus extending Christ’s friendship inside of the church and out?
Begin with the word “judgment,” which appears several times in the selection. It has a negative ring in contemporary ears. For instance, my teenage daughters might criticize another’s statement about an issue of public significance—say, recreational marijuana use—with the words, “don’t judge.” Further, overly moralistic dispositions toward others or their ways are describe by them as “judgy.”
But the word “judgment” has a further sense, expressed in sentences like, “That was a tricky situation and she showed sound judgment.” Here, the word ‘judgement’ refers an operation of human intelligence that has an aesthetic dimension: to have good judgment in this sense is to display keen perception of the significance of what is happening right now. Aristotle called this phronesis (practical knowing), and, as a manifestation of human rationality, distinguished it from epistēme (theoretical knowledge) in part by the former’s connection with the body’s senses. To have the virtue of practical wisdom implied being attentive to what was going on around one. Phronesis is about “good sense” rather than book knowledge.
Thus, Paul writes, “Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for disputing over opinions.” I hear Paul saying to me, “do not approach those with who you do not see eye to eye as though your first move needs to be to win the grand argument with them.” Rather, I should approach them with hospitality, attempting to meet them where they are. To seek out an argument, we might say, is to be obsessed with Aristotle’s theoretical form of reason, focusing on the abstract so as to miss the individual person standing before one.
Aristotle proposed that virtuous deeds arise from finding the mean between extremes. For example, in a situation that produces fear, a person with the aesthetic capacity to see what action would count as the mean between foolhardiness and cowardice would be able to act courageously. A modern day analogue to Aristotle’s conception of good judgment might be someone with “savvy” (from the French savoir), that is, possessing the ability to respond in a politic, or “fitting,” way under the circumstances. Furthermore, the words “politic” and polite imply that virtuous action is ordered to the social whole, and I think this goes for both Aristotle and Paul.
Thus, in this week’s passage, where Paul exhorts members of the Roman church not to “judge your brothers,” he seems to play on both senses of the word—that is, judgment that seeks to win an argument, often resulting in “passing judgment” on another, and judgment as the aesthetic perception that prepares the way for virtuous action. The failure to be truly present and attentive to another and the stimulus to argue would seem to go hand in hand. Knowing someone intimately makes it quite difficult to pass judgment upon them.
What the reading also brings out is that, while Aristotle and Paul both order virtue to the service of a “polis” or community, Christian phronesis is distinctive in being Christocentric. For the goal of Christocentric phronesis is not to succeed in worldly matters but to build life-giving friendship with other church members, especially the weak. And shouldn’t all of us for whom Christ died while we were yet trapped in sin be able to identify with the weak?
Finally, how might we learn to exercise judgment in the sense of Christocentric phronesis? In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul offers a model of such discriminating judgment in his own person. He writes, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.” The passage continues with a list of the people and situations, including “the weak,” with whom Paul identifies as the occasion requires. In each case he is concerned not with universal arguments but welcoming the other as they are for the sake of that neighbor’s conversion or edification in Christ. “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” (I Corinthians 12:22)