Romans 14:11
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It is written: “As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God.”
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
For it is written-- (Isa 45:23). As I live, saith the Lord--Hebrew, JEHOVAH. every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God--consequently, shall bow to the award of God upon their character and actions.
Open source ↗The apostle having, in the former chapter, directed our conduct one towards another in civil things, and prescribed the sacred laws of justice, peaceableness, and order, to be observed by us as members of the commonwealth, comes in this and part of the following chapter in like manner to direct our demeanour one towards another in sacred things, which pertain more immediately to conscience and religion, and which we observe as members of the church. Particularly, he gives rules how to manage our different apprehensions about indifferent things, in the management of which, it seems, there was something amiss among the Roman Christians, to whom he wrote, which he here labours to redress. But the rules are general, and of standing use in the church, for the preservation of that Christian love which he had so earnestly pressed in the foregoing chapter as the fulfilling of the law. It is certain that nothing is more threatening, nor more often fatal, to Christian societies, than the contentions and divisions of their members. By these wounds the life and soul of religion expire. Now in this chapter we are furnished with the sovereign balm of Gilead; the blessed apostle prescribes like a wise physician. "Why then is not the hurt of the daughter of my people recovered," but because his directions are not followed? This chapter, rightly understood, made use of, and lived up to, would set things to rights, and heal us all.
Open source ↗14:11 This quotation is from Isa 49:18; 45:23. In its original context, Isa 45:23 is surrounded by assertions of God’s sovereignty (Isa 45:22, 24). Only the sovereign God has the right to stand in judgment (Rom 14:10, 12).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
May all kings bow down to him and all nations serve him.
that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven.
If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
Lift up your eyes and look around. They all gather together; they come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “you will wear them all as jewelry and put them on like a bride.
so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise You among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to Your name.”
And the four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
“Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD,
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, refusing to confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah— a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”