In the final verse of the first section in Romans 14 (v.12), Paul revisits the content of the end of v.10, which mentions standing before the judgment seat of God. He does this by referring to our individual accountability before the Lord. In light of that, here’s how we need to be thinking about these verses–We would do well to spend much more time thinking about how we will stand before the Lord to have our lives assessed, rather than how others are not living according to our standards. We will give an account to God and we can be certain we are not navigating matters of preference perfectly and so we would not want to add judging others to the negative side of our scorecard. We know God judges with perfect clarity and knowledge, so we would be much better off keeping a clean conscience before him in our love for one another.
Furthermore, how do we plan to love with those who line up differently than we do on these issues? Will we judge them? Will we require a minimum amount of maturity before we will minister to them OR will we love them by sacrificing our own preferences for the sake of souls and for the sake of the name of Christ to get glory in his saving work? Once again, we must be committed to something higher than our own personal likes and dislikes. For instance, how about the death and resurrection of Christ and the redemptive accomplishments of that work (v.9)?