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Devotion Archive

True Faith: Judgement #25
19th September 2008

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Good Morning God's Treasures,

Last week, I was led to write about the fact that not all criticism is judgmental. We learned the importance of speaking the truth in love [EPH 4: 15], examined Paul's criticism of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and teachers of the law [RO 2: 1-2, 17-24], the importance of timing, needs, and feelings of those we criticize [LK 17: 1-5, DT 19: 15; MT 18: 15-20], and making our judgments in an orderly way within a congregation [MT 18: 15-17; 2 COR 10: 3-5]. Today, we begin by looking at our need to avoid projecting our own problems upon others.

Kay Arthur, the leader of Precepts Ministries, an international Bible study organization based out of Chattanooga, TN, tells a story which is an example of this. Kay was deeply concerned that she should do a job on a speech before a large audience that she was to give. He main motivation was to please the Lord. She prostrated herself before Him and prayed for His intervention. While I don't often get in this physical position myself, I surely do bow my head in prayer often, including when I am to write a devotion for others. I can related to Kay's state of mind well, as I am a Precepts Ministry instructor myself, and those lessons demand the best of anyone presenting them. By the way, they are wonderful! But getting back to Kay, another lady came upon her in the course of the prayer she was saying. She interrupted Kay's prayer, asking, "what on earth are you doing?" Then, she proceeded to criticize Kay, accusing her of showing off. All that was on Kay's mind at the time was to ask God to give her the right words to say and acknowledging she has a lot of responsibility, because she could influence so many people for God. In other words, Kay was humbly recognizing the poverty of her human spirit without God's intervention. In this case the critic completely misread Kay's attitude.

There are many parallels between MT 7: 1-5 and RO 2: 1-6, 17-24. Please take the time to reread these passages before going on. Let's begin with MT 7:1, "Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you,..." and RO 2: 17-20, "What about you? You call yourself a Jew; you depend on the Law and boast about God; you know what God wants you to do, and you have learned from the Law to choose what is right; you are sure that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in darkness, an instructor for the foolish, and a teacher for the ignorant. You are certain that in the Law you have the full content of knowledge and of truth." We must ask ourselves: what is the Lord teaching us here? If we are ever to be perfected enough in the process of sanctification to be ready for eternal life, we will have to understand the difference between righteousness and self-righteousness. We will need to be a good judge of character and of motives. Righteousness is living in accordance with God's will, even when it takes us out of our comfort zone, is difficult, and/or is inconvenient. Self-righteousness is being full of oneself, more concerned with appearances than right living with God, and often selfish. We know that in the last week of Christ's life, he had an argument with the Pharisees in the temple about their practice of being more concerned with form than with the content of God's teaching [MT 23: 2-3, 8-12, 23-24, 26, 28]. Their ears and eyes were closed to what they were doing. It was they, who led the people to their blindness as to Christ's real identity as the Messiah and to His suffering and crucifixion. MT 23: 34-36, "And so I tell you that I will send you prophets and wise men and teachers; you will kill some of them, crucify others, and whip others in the synagogues and chase them from town to town. As a result, the punishment of the murder of all innocent men will fall on you, from the murder of innocent Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berechiah whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you indeed: the punishment for all these murders will fall on the people of this day." If one thing should come out of this study, it is that God has every right to hold leaders, who can have influence over large numbers of people, to a higher than usual standard. The truth of Christ's words to the Father in JN 14: 9, 11 shines. "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father...Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me." Our Lord Jesus never did anything that was not the Father's will, even to taking on the sins of the world on the cross, so that we might be saved [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25].

The sheer tragedy of some people's sinfulness is that they have been given the truth by God in the Scriptures and through prayer. These Pharisee leaders are same as some leaders today. They are the blind leading the blind. The sad part about all of this is that anyone who has been leading a righteous life knows that life is full of God's blessings. That's how close these blessings are to those blind leaders who would rather allow the desires of the flesh to motivate them and keep their eyes closed to the truth, if they will only open themselves to the Lord's leadership. We are each called upon to examine how close to living according to God's will we are in our own lives. Are we righteous or self-righteous, caring or selfish, willing to submit to the Lord or not?

PRAYER: O Lord, as we come before Your throne today, we recognize both our need for Your guidance and intervention, and that we have no excuse for hypocrisy because we have the truth. The amazing gifts of the Holy Spirit and salvation through our faith in Jesus Christ are only the beginning of what we have. Your word, which from the very beginning we have been taught to understand and convey to others [including future generations], is our inheritance of love from You. PS 119: 93, 105, "I will never neglect Your instructions, because by them You have kept me alive...Your word is a lamp unto my feet, a light for my path." We have been encouraged to understand its value to us and how to treat Your word. 2 TIM 1: 13-14, and 3: 16-17, "Hold firmly to the true words that I taught you, as the example for you to follow, and remain in the faith and love that are ours in union with Christ Jesus. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Who lives in us, guard the Treasure entrusted to you...All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed." And Dearest Abba, You have told us an amazing truth that should further motivate us to obey what You have said about Your word. JN 1: 1-4, "Before the world was created, the Word already existed; He was with God, and He was the same as God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through Him God made all things; not one thing in all creations was made without Him. The Word was the Source of life, and this life brought light to mankind." From Your word, we learn that You are love and have loved us from the time You created us. JER 31: 3-4 [God speaking], "...I have loved you with and everlasting love. I have drawn you with loving kindness. I will build you up again, and you will be rebuilt." This is clearly an OT reference to our gifts of salvation and the Holy Spirit that we who believe have from our God. We acknowledge our need for You and the motivation You give us to live righteously united with Christ. PS 146: 8, "The Lord loves the righteous." And yes, Dearest Father, we return that love and devotion. We praise and thank You for Your presence in our lives. We pray to You in the mighty and holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Next week, I'm led to continue writing about the parallels between MT 7: 1-5 and RO 2: 1-6, 17-24. There is a verse that means a lot to me, because of the situation in which God has planted me. As the only Messianic Jew in a family of traditional Jews who reject the Lord Jesus, I have had to bear many insults for my faith. God placed me in this situation for His reasons, maybe even as a test for the strength of my faith. I am by no means the only person who suffers insults because of my faith. Paul and many others did and do so today. 1 PET 4: 14, "Happy are you if you are insulted because you are Christ's followers. This means that the glorious Spirit, the Spirit of God, is resting in you." People who live righteously, and I'm by no means perfect in this respect, are richly rewarded. Despite the comments of my family, I have an inner peace and comfort within my own skin that I never had before I came to faith. Why relate this? It is because some of you who read this devotion can relate to my experience in one way or another. We are given divine encouragement, in 2 THESS 2: 16-17, "May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, Who loved 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." I must end with this encouragement. 1 PET 4: 19, "Trust yourself to the God Who made you, for He will never fail you." Praise be to Him!

Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn

© Lynn Johnson 2012. All Rights Reserved.

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