The Judge Who Weighs Our Deeds
…here is the point: he did not say, “Do not count it against them,” but “Do not set it,” surely so that you may learn that our Judge weighs with an exact balance, weighing each person’s deeds at the time of judgment. For if “he set the mountains in a balance and the valleys on a scale” (Isaiah 40:12), how much more does he weigh what is ours, whether our failings or our good deeds?
“Do not set this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). Do not lift it onto the scale of judgment; do not weigh down, on my account, those already weighed down by their own doing; let not my blessing become for others an occasion of curse, nor my gain a cause of loss to the Jews.
I do not want my sacrifice to bring harm on those who offer it. For even if…
Greek
τοῦτό ἐστιν· οὐ γὰρ εἶπεν· «Μὴ λογίσῃ αὐτοῖς», ἀλλὰ «Μὴ στήσῃς», ἦ πάντως ἵνα ζυγοστάτην ἀκριβῆ μάθῃς εἶναι τὸν κριτὴν τὸν ἡμέτερον, ἑκάστῳ τὰς πράξεις ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τοῦ κριτηρίου σταθμίζοντα. Εἰ γὰρ «ἔστησεν τὰ ὄρη σταθμῷ καὶ τὰς νάπας ζυγῷ», πῶς οὐ πολὺ μᾶλλον ταλαντεύει τὰ ἡμέτερα εἴτε πταίσματα μὲν οὖν εἴτε κατορθώματα; «Μὴ στήσῃς αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ταύτην.» Μὴ ἀναγάγῃς αὐτὴν εἰς τὸν ζυγὸν τῆς κρίσεως· μὴ βαρήσῃς ἐξ ἐμοῦ τοὺς ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν βεβαρημένους· μηδὲ ἡ ἐμὴ εὐλογία ἑτέροις γένηται κατάρας ἀφορμή, μὴ τὸ ἐμὸν κέρδος ζημίας τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις πρόξενον. 28 Οὐ βούλομαι τὴν ἐμὴν θυσίαν βλάβος γενέσθαι τοῖς θύουσιν. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ