[S]top passing judgment on one another.
—Romans 14:13
In Romans 14, Paul warns us to tap the brakes when passing judgment on the conscience and conviction of others: “why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother?”
Browse a few commentaries, and you’ll quickly find an accredited scholar espousing an interpretation of a text that is totally different from that of an equally credentialed exegete.
“The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him” (Prv 18:17). Eugene Peterson rendered that verse this way: “The first speech in a court case is always convincing—until the cross-examination starts!”
Some of us are stuck in the mud of thinking that unless people see things exactly as we do, they are wrong. Jesus command was to “make disciples,” not “make converts to your own views and opinions.”
The Bible is infallible.
Our interpretation of it is not.