Friday, June 17, 2016

What I See In Your Eye Is Merely A Reflection Of My Heart

My Utmost For His Highest
 
Judge not, that you be not judged. —Matthew 7:1
 
“Jesus’ instructions with regard to judging others is very simply put; He says, “Don’t.” The average Christian is the most piercingly critical individual known. Criticism is one of the ordinary activities of people, but in the spiritual realm nothing is accomplished by it. […] The Holy Spirit is the only one in the proper position to criticize, and He alone is able to show what is wrong without hurting and wounding. […] Criticism serves to make you harsh, vindictive, and cruel, and leaves you with the soothing and flattering idea that you are somehow superior to others. Jesus says that as His disciple you should cultivate a temperament that is never critical. […] If I see the little speck in your eye, it means that I have a plank of timber in my own (see Matthew 7:3-5). Every wrong thing that I see in you, God finds in me. Every time I judge, I condemn myself (see Romans 2:17-24). […] I have never met a person I could despair of, or lose all hope for, after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.”  CHAMBERS
 
Jesus did not say to ignore sin.  Our challenge is to recognize sin without condemning the sinner.  We must be careful that we don’t take on the role of the Holy Spirit which is to convict the sinner or that of God which is to judge the sinner.  We should not ignore sin.  We certainly should not condone sin.  Are you familiar with the phrase, “Hate the sin and love the sinner”?  Did you know that it is not a Bible verse?  It is a quote from writings by  St. Augustine and Mohandas Gandhi’s (most know Gandhi as Mahatma [Sanskrit for “the great-souled one”]). Certainly the principle is Biblical.  John 3:16 is the best known verse that tells us that God loves us, but Jesus had to die for us because of our sin.  Paul reinforces that truth in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
 
Not judging others has to do with the sinner and not the sin.  When we judge others, we are condemning them in our hearts.  There is a parable about the unforgiving servant that Jesus used to get the point across.  (Matthew 18:21-35)  The servant wanted forgiveness but was unwilling to show it toward others. Certainly there are consequences of sin, but one of them is not to be our judgement.  We must leave that to the Judge.  We should not accept sin. We certainly should not participate in it.  Although, we are not to condemn the sinner, sin is never OK.  Is it wrong to speak out against sin? No. But it is wrong to hate people because of their sin.  They need Jesus and we are the ones that are supposed to tell the sinner about God’s grace and mercy. How do we have the capacity to do that?  Only through the power of the Spirit in us.  And by the way, that feeling a person has well up inside them when they are judging others does not come from God, it is not righteous anger … well, it’s their own sin.  Read about the speck and the beam in Matthew 7. CHARLEY

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