2009-07-10
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Once again, we pull out MT 7: 1-2 from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount to compare it to another verse, PS 1: 1 for an examination of God’s view of integrity. MT 7: 1-2, “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 that you apply to others.” PS 1:1, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates days and night.”
We would all like to think that we live with integrity. PS 1: 1 actually describes a person with it. The American College Dictionary defines integrity as “soundness of moral principle and character; uprightness; honesty.” While the dictionary remains secular in this definition, I will be so bold as to add to it, “in line with and standing on the foundation of God’s appointed ethics.” Why “appointed ethics?” It is because God has been crystal clear on what this means to Him in every context of our lives- in the Scriptures. Just to give a taste of what I mean, consider these examples [by no means complete]. MICAH 6: 8, “He has showed you, O Man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” PS 24: 3-6, “Who has the right to go up the Lord’s hill? Who may enter His holy temple? Those who are pure in act and thought, who do not worship idols, or make false promises. The Lord will bless them and save them; God will declare them innocent. Such are the people who come to God, who come into the presence of the God of Jacob.” PS 15: 1-2, “Lord, who my abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart.” God is very clear on how He reacts to such integrity too. PS 146: 8, “The Lord loves the righteous.” PS 89: 14-16, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne. Love and faithfulness go before You. Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim You, who walk in the light of Your presence, O Lord. They rejoice in Your name all day long; they exult in Your righteousness.”
The Lord has allowed me to live long enough to see unrighteous people, people who make a lifestyle of self-centeredness, manipulation for evil, duplicity, and rejection of His principles, fall under His eventual adjudication of their individual cases. I have never seen the Lord deal in this process with any kind of evil or unfairness. Eventually, He, rarely with the wronged people in the wrongdoer’s life used for this purpose, will adjudicate the case. Refusing to give in to the temptation to react to evil with evil, is a matter of faithful trust in God. It is a kind of patience and submission to God that the righteous have. It is also a refusal to usurp God’s right to judge. We humans are impatient and often lack sufficient faith to see our necessary submission to God’s greater right here. Even the Father Himself had to patiently sacrifice the physical life of His beloved only begotten Son on the cross to find the most efficient way possible to save believing mankind from spiritual death [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. It’s a matter of timing and God’s superior wisdom and power. No one can set a better example of perfection under the suffering we humans experience than the Lord Jesus Christ [HE 4: 15]. In so doing this, He set the example which is our paradigm to follow. We sin and fall far short of the glory of God [RO 3: 23], but we have a Model in Him to follow in our sanctification [our joint grace covenant work with God toward sufficient perfection to eventually, in His perfect time and way, to go back to Him for a blissful eternity].
Having integrity often means giving up what would feel good at the time we are wronged. A person I know well continued to lie to me over a period of time. I suspected I was being lied to, but chose not to say or do anything about it. This was not a person I could easily drop out of my life. After a while, I finally got confirmation that this very shallow person, not a believer in the Lord, had indeed been lying. My task here was to find a way not to allow these lies to destroy my life or question my faith in the Lord. Sufficient life’s experience tells me that God will eventually deal with this person. It is not my job to do that. No amount of setting a good example by how I live or trying to witness to this particular person may make a difference. That is why I recognize that this is God’s choice and His responsibility, not mine. In the face of this behavior, it takes internal work for me to remain steadfast in my faith and obedience to God. That takes me right back to PS 1: 1, a verse to which I must often return. I must not take counsel from the wicked. They will only suggest revenge. [See RO 12: 19; DT 32: 35]. I must not stand in the way of sinners-work evil or harm to my wrongdoer. I must not act with disrespect-sit in the seat of mockers-toward my wrongdoer. Because of this person’s relationship to me, I have no right whatsoever to be disrespectful, returning wrongful behavior with wrongful behavior. God has given me help in addition to His presence in my life to deal with the angry, hurt feelings I have at receiving these lies. He has given me His word! This is why PS 1:1 talks about the honest and righteous person taking delight in His law and being willing to meditate on it whenever I feel the need-which in my case is often. I suspect it is in yours too.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come to You today with hearts heavy when we have been wronged. And yet You give us a right way to deal with these feelings and plenty of comfort for them. Meditation is a kind of hovering over a verse or passage of Scripture to mine out the precious gems of meaning in it. Often, if we will listen for you in prayer first, You will give us cross-references to allow us to have a deeper understanding of the message you have in it for us. And/or, You will lead us to a source of solace for having chosen to obey You faithfully and keeping to our righteousness. One way or another, we will understand the blessing of MT 5: 3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the Kingdom of God.” We will know that Your intervention in our lives is the only way we can remain righteous, pious, and truly appreciate the blood our Lord Jesus shed for us. The law referred to in PS 1: 1 is not a legalistic set of rules; instead it is the full understanding of Your ethics and moral foundation given us in the Scriptures. It is not based on form, as much as on content. We must also acknowledge that Your agenda must become our first priority. To do this, we must study Your word every day. The mystical supernatural quality of it shouldn’t be lost on us. What is meant by this is how we can return over and over again to the same verse or passage, always learning something new from it every time. Such study can go on forever, and no other book has this quality. You have told us in JER 31: 33-34 when You first announced there will be a new covenant, that “I will put My law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. None of them will have to teach his fellow countryman to know the Lord, because all will know Me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.” [see also HE 8: 12]. And so it is, with prayer, study, piety, righteousness-even when wronged and most of all with integrity, we are Your adoring servants who thank and praise You forever. We pray all of us in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Next week, we will compare MT 7: 1-2 to MT 18: 12-20, a very important passage with specific guidelines for dealing with wrongful behavior. We are given more than just a set of ethics on which to found our lives, but we are also given encouragement, empowerment, and comfort in the Scriptures. There is a reward for the righteous. PS 94: 12-15, “Lord, blessed is the man You instruct, the one whom you teach Your law. You give Him rest from the days of trouble until a pit is dug to trap the wicked. The Lord will not abandon His people; He will not desert those who belong to Him.” Divine encouragement is found in 2 THESS 2: 16-17, “May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, Who loves us and in His grace gave us unfailing courage and a firm hope, encourage you and strengthen you to always do and say what is good.” We are given empowerment to live out a life of victory in spiritual warfare against wrongdoers in EPH 1: I ask that your minds may be opened to see His light, so that you will know what it’s the hope to which He has called you, how rich are the wonderful blessings He promises His people, and how very great is His power at work in us who believe. This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength, which He used when He raised Christ from death and seated Him at His right side on the heavenly world.” And the comfort He gives us amidst our trials and after them is found in PS 55: 22, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit honest men to be defeated.” If we live with integrity according to PS 1: 1 and all its meaning, this treasure chest of godly eternal gems will be showered on us! Praise be to God!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn