2008-08-29
Good Morning God’s Treasures,
Last week, I was led to begin writing about when we must decide with signs that apply, that Christians aren’t perfect-just forgiven, the need for patience, and “extra grace required” people. This week, we’ll look at what makes judgment wrongful, as expressed in MT 7: 1-5. “Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, for god will judge you in the same way you judge others , and He will apply to you the same rules you apply to others. Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the log in your eye? How dare you say to your brother, ‘Please, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when you have a log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” This certainly reminds me of the concept of minding one’s own business, because there is so much to do with that, it will take all our time. There won’t be time to mind some one else’s. The reason for this is straight forward. God realizes we have enough of our own sins to discover and expunge that it will take us the rest of the lives to accomplish that purpose.
If that seems naïve to say, of course, there are times when a superior in his company must help subordinates assigned to him to learn what they need to know to work as a team in problem solving. This involves evaluating their work and helping them to correct their mistakes. All too often the power of that responsibility goes to a person’s head, and he gets heady with it. Let’s look at an example from the Bible in RO 2 when Paul was dealing with the self-satisfied Pharisees and teachers of the law. RO 2: 1-3, “Do you, my friend, pass judgment on others? You have no excuse at all, whoever you are. For when you judge others and then do the same things which they do, you condemn yourself. We know that God is right when He judges the people who do such things as these.” Paul went so far as to say to them, in RO 5: 5-6, “But you have a hard and stubborn heart, and so you are making your own punishment even greater on the Day when God’s anger and righteous judgments will be revealed. For God will reward every person according to what he has done.”
Judgment with hypocrisy can be brutally destructive in every way. This is particularly true when adults are interacting with children. An adult expecting perfection and nagging when he/she doesn’t get it, can lead a child to attain adulthood with no feelings of self-worth or self-confidence. The latter are necessary tools for adults to be productive citizens ready to raise emotionally balanced children themselves. It is one of the reasons that dysfunction gets passed on from generation to generation in some families. Another example is where an overage of self-satisfaction gets in the way of God’s work in churches. Someone new to a task and thus, not sure of himself in doing it, is assigned to an experienced person, who refuses to have patience with the learning process and always blames the greenhorn for everything that goes wrong. Refusal to train the new person results in problems that either bring the project over budget, cause it to be finished too slowly, or stop it from being finished at all.
A third example is setting up a model for perfection that no one can attain and then passing judgment. For example, many family providers look at pictures in magazine ads of models who are being portrayed as making a food product that will cause the family to love them more, because they put the food being advertized on the table. The message is a lie, because true believers understand that the family will love that provider more if he/she earns that love through being loving and obedient to the Lord as portrayed in the Scriptures. Food doesn’t make a woman more desirable or a man more lovable or anything else. It’s necessary sustenance for the family and nothing more. Yet the ad makes a judgment-if you don’t serve this food, then you are less than desirable as a provider. The same principle apples to ads for exercise equipment, diet aids, toys, adult beverages, sporting goods, and a host of other products. None of these things adds one bit to the love God has for His people, or the love we should have for the buyer of it. We should not be lured into hypocrisy in our quest for improving ourselves.
People often rush to judgment. After all, look what happened to our Lord Jesus Christ. He was judged guilty by Herod and the others responsible for his arrest, mistreatment, and eventual crucifixion, even though nothing He ever said or did brought evil to mankind. His ministry was an irritant to the traditional Jews of his day, because it brought to light their hypocritical emphasis on ritual over the content of God’s teaching. MT 23: 23, 26, “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You give to God one tenth even of the seasons herbs, such as mint, dill, and cumin, but you neglect to obey the really important teachings of the Law, such as justice, mercy, and honesty…Blind Pharisee! Clean what is inside your cup first, and then the outside will be clean too!” Our honest, brave, and self-sacrificing Lord went to the cross for us, to take on the sins of the world and to give His life to redeem many [JN 3: 16, RO 3 24-25; MT 20: 26-28].
PRAYER: O Lord, when people refuse to seek You out through your word, prayer, their congregations, and learning from the circumstances of their lives, all perspective nearing Yours is lost. Rushing to judgment, making judgments on inappropriate foundations or knowledge, and being hypocritical is judgment that is most often wrongful. We come before Your mighty throne today to acknowledge these things and to ask for Your help in knowing when and how to judge. We know there are times when only you should be judging, as in the case of granting and taking away human life. We also know that there are some judgments we need to make and which are rightful for us to make in the conduct of our every day lives. These, we acknowledge, should be made on the foundation of Your teaching, compassion, and patience. Often the press tries to place inappropriate judgments on current events, even candidates running for political office. You alone know the contents of each person’s character and his/her fitness to serve in public office. Our own acquisition of an opinion on an issue or person should be made only after prayer and thorough investigation. Otherwise, we run the risk of being a hypocrite. Our expectations for other people should be realistic and fair, just as Yours are of us. I can’t help but think of the time President Ronald Reagan was joking, thinking the microphone was turned off, about the Russians invading America. The press got hold of this and portrayed it as something quite different than the joking it was. You let us know, in ZECH 8: 15-17, the kind of judgments we should make. “But now I am planning to bless the people of Jerusalem and Judah. So do not be afraid. These are the things you should do: Speak the truth to one another. In the courts give real justice-the kind that brings peace. Do not plan ways of harming one another. Do not give false testimony under oath. I hate lying, injustice, and violence.” We thank and praise You for Your clarity and direction, for all that You are and all that You do. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
Next week, we will examine how hypocritical judgments can be even more destructive to God’s plan to bring His children home to Him for eternity. If space permits, we will look at constructive vs. destructive criticism. All of us will eventually face the Lord in the last judgment. Whether or not our names are written in His book of the living is sufficient motivation for us to model the love of Christ to our fellow man. We have already been told that God is a fair and just Judge. PS 94: 1-2, 14, 20, 22-23, “Lord, You are a God Who punishes; reveal Your anger! You are the Judge of all men; rise and give the proud what they deserve!...The Lord will not abandon His people; He will not desert those who belong to Him…You have nothing to do with corrupt judges, who make injustice legal…But the Lord defends me; my God protects me. He will punish them for their wickedness and destroy them for their sins; the Lord our God will destroy them. The Psalmist understood the justice in God’s teaching, in PS 119: 73, 75, “You created me, and You keep me safe; give me understanding, so that I may learn Your laws…I know that Your judgments are righteous, Lord, and that You punished me because You are faithful.” As David did when he knew he was to be punished for taking the census against God’s will [2 SAM 24: 13-16; 1 CH 21: 11-13], we can entrust our punishment with God over men. When we do nothing wrong, then we have no reason to fear God’s judgment. That should give us tremendous comfort. Praise be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn