Don’t Judge?

At times, it is easy to be critical, harder to be gracious. This conflict is compounded by two passages in the NT that seem to contradict one another. The first is something Jesus said:

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. (Matthew 7:1–2)

The other one says: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness…” (Galatians 6:1) 

But how can I do that without discerning that the other person is doing something sinful? After thinking about this, I have to conclude that seeing sin in other people is unavoidable. This isn’t about seeing it, but about what to do about it. And what to do about it has parameters that are usually found in the context of various commands. For instance, the words of Jesus add this:

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3–5)

Often God shows me my sin by allowing me to see it in someone else. In that case, instead of judging the other person, I’m supposed first deal with my own sin. I cannot help anyone be free of a problem if I have never been free of it myself.

The next passage gives instruction along the same lines: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.” (Galatians 6:1–5) 

This time, it is a call to help the person who is entrapped as long as I am not, and aid that person to be set free. It is not only helping them but without as selfish motive.

There are other ways to deal with the sin of others. God asks me to pray for other believers that they are able to say yes to God and no to sin. Prayer is burden-bearing in a quiet form.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death… All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. (1 John 5:16–17)

God could ask me to warn those who are being tempted as many verses warn about not to give in to temptation: 

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:12–13)

Even noticing sin is from God, but it can happen to those who feel inferior and try to boost their self-esteem by putting down others. Yet Christ died for all because all have sinned, none are worthy, and His grace puts us on a level field. 

Not only that, God is patient. He saw sin in the days of Noah, and Lot, and in Job’s story, and in the days of the kings and the prophets. Yet He did not pour out judgment at first glance. Charnock notes: “He brings lighter smarts sooner, that men might not think him asleep, but he suspends the more terrible judgments that men might be led to repentance.” God holds back His rod, waiting for His people to repent and return to Him. I have no right to be impatient with sin or with God’s way of dealing with it.

One more thought. What I consider sin might not be. The NT says not to pass judgment on others if it will cause them to stumble. He is the Savior; I am not. I need to serve Him and love His people, not get in a huff over such matters. “Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. . . .” (Romans 14:13–23)

PRAY: Jesus, I am raised up and seated with You in heavenly places, that You will show the riches of Your grace in kindness toward me and toward all Your people. Our destiny is not about judgment and wrath, but about kindness and grace, and about being like You. Seeing sin in others is not about making myself a judge but about obedience and patience toward all who struggle with sin.

Grace Deeply Needed

 

Yesterday was a time of discovery and great heartbreaking disappointment. We got a first hand statement of bitterness and deep anger of a person against a parent. Our prayers afterwards did not erase the sorrow, which was not the reason for praying anyway. The rift is so deep that it seems impossible for even God to bring reconciliation and forgiveness. I don’t often cry myself to sleep.

Piper’s reading for today begins with this:

May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy! He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. (Psalm 126:5-6)

He points out that there is nothing sad about sowing seed. It takes no more work than reaping. The days can be beautiful. There can be great hope of harvest. Yet Psalm 126 speaks of “sowing in tears.” It says that someone “goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing.” Why is he weeping?

The reasons could be many but the gist of this passage is that I am not to let sorrow or any other emotion or event in my life stop me from “speaking the truth in love” to whoever needs to hear it, even to the person whose outburst put such anguish in my heart. This psalm teaches the tough truth that there is work to be done whether I am emotionally up for it or not, and it is good for me to do it. Otherwise there will be no harvest.

PRAY: Jesus, the pain of this sadness is mind-numbing and filling my thoughts with jumble. Also thinking why nothing I can say will be effective or appropriate or even heard, let alone helpful. This is a description of my weakness? Or is it doubt in Your ability to use my weakness as an opportunity for Your strength to shine? All I can think is that I need to be filled with Your Spirit and the confidence to speak whatever You put on my heart, or the confidence to keep my mouth shut  — if that is what You ask me to do.

No matter what — God can…

 

Yesterday’s worship at our church was filled with blessings, so much so I feel again like God’s spoiled brat. The weather was perfect. The music incredible. The sermon matched my devotions and praised the wonder of God’s salvation. Communion always gives me the sense of a grand family reunion, and the church was filled.

Then, as people went forward to receive the bread and grape juice, one waved to me — a man who lived across the street from us as a boy and spent more time in our house than his own. How thrilling to see him in that place. Other friends, one who sat with us and had lived with us before going on a mission trip to Morocco. A family who came a year ago as refugees fleeing persecution and have become our family. The entire time filled with the sense of the Lord’s presence with us. How wonderful.

Then today I look at my prayer list. Wars and rumors of wars. A controversial election coming south of us. A friend with cancer. Another with serious heart issues. A family whose wife and mom died at age forty. Reports of children being brainwashed. A friend in danger of losing his sight. Many events needing the hand of God to give them meaning and grace. I hear Him whispering, “Back to work, my child” because the day of rest is past. And then He says this:

“What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27)

What a wonder that with less than ten words, the load is already lighter, yet I still must pray — for the events, for the people, for changes and grace, for meaning given to all who wonder if the Lord has forgotten them, and most of all and in it all that God is glorified. 

PRAY: Jesus, I won’t write all here, only to thank You for the freedom and ability to acknowledge when life feels like it’s too much. I’m glad the gospel calls me to hope not despair, to faith not doubt and worry, and to intercede with trust not in desperation or worse, in presumption.

I’m reminded how Mary was shocked at the thought of giving birth to you. She was overwhelmed yet she said, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Her attitude in that prayer is what mine needs to be: trusting, yet not my will but thine be done, an attitude You expressed before going to the cross. Kneeling before You with a long list of needs is nothing compared to what You faced in that garden long ago.

Jesus, I need the resources you’ve promised and you alone can give. I want to lift up friends, but also millions of people who I may never know, but who desperately need You to bless their lives. I’m not certain of their exact needs in this life, but no matter what that might be, I know that all need You.

You are the God of the possible. The prodigals in my family and in other families are not too far away for You to bring home. The deadly illnesses are not too difficult for You to cure, or to use as a blessing and the way home. I need wisdom to pray in Your will for these and all that You put on my heart. Most of all, I desire that You bring glory to Yourself in every situation and get the credit for what You do. And a small PS: A few big surprises today would be just so wonderful. Amen.

Speak up? Or Shut up?

READ Ezekiel 17–20

Sometimes human sinfulness distresses me deeply. I understand the OT prophets who rebuked God’s people for their failure to obey Him, but I also understand my own propensity to fail the Lord’s will. His enablement is available through Christ yet when I thoughtlessly ‘do my own thing,’ my actions no doubt distress others too.

God told His prophets to speak His will and thoughts about sin. While I realize my sins are forgiven in Christ, but know I and other Christians still commit them, what a dishonor to the power of God. If another believer is disobeying God, do I speak up? Or shut up? Or pray? Or all of the above? Galatians 6 helps, but is something like standing in the middle of a teeter-totter and not knowing what way it will tip:

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. (Galatians 6:1–4)

Ezekiel knew the challenges. He had to tell the people they were unjust in their ways, yet they said it was God who is unjust. God answered:

Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? (Ezekiel 18:25–29)

Spiritual blindness and the power of ‘I want what I want’ brought them into condemnation. Therefore God answered, “I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways . . . . Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone . . . . so turn, and live.” (18:30–32)

He used the prophet’s words, stories and allegories, even reviewing their history, “But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. None of them cast away the detestable things . . . nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt . . . . I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them . . . . I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.”

His review of how He rescued them did not stop their sin. He reviewed all He had done: leading them in the wilderness, giving them His covenant with promises, signs and wonders, yet “the house of Israel rebelled against me . . . . did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules” and profaned His Sabbaths. He did not allow them into the land He promised “for their heart went after their idols.” Yet He did not make a full end of them.

Still, their children rebelled too, with the same attitude and actions. He said he would “scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries” and disciplined them “that they might know that I am the Lord.” (20:8–26)

Even as the Lord God tells the prophet to convey His judgments and tell how He will purge out the rebels, He also adds His promise that they “will know that I am the Lord.”

I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations . . . . And you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed . . . . when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds . . . . (20:33–44)

I sense that unless God tells me to speak (with words that fit Galatians 6), I must keep praying that He will manifest His holiness as He sees fit and deal with His children according to His name’s sake. May all of us honor Him — all who know He is the Lord.

 

Praying for those in a war . . .

 

 

READ: Psalm 31-35

In my comfortable home thousands of miles from any military conflict, I’ve no right to tell anyone how any battle should be won or what to do concerning the millions of ordinary citizens that are targets and trying to flee to safety. Yet I know that God is sovereign and that prayer is also a battle — and it has a powerful overlapping effect on the physical world.

Today’s reading gives me hope for God’s people who are suffering under the guns of an uncaring enemy. The writer of these Psalms was unjustly attacked and had to flee his home. He knew what it was like to be overwhelmed by a foe who sought his life. What did David do? He prayed. And what did God do? Read on . . .

Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. (Psalm 31:21–22)

Because of God’s faithfulness, this man could offer advice to others in similar situations. He said this, and God verified it:

Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. (Psalm 32:6–9)

David had learned that “the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host” and he could say, “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.” (Psalm 33:4–11)

David also knew that “The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.” (Psalm 33:13–19) Because of these truths, David could also say:

I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them . . . . Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. (Psalm 34:4–7; 19–22)

This may not sound practical to those who do not know God, but David’s prayer was answered!

Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help! Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!” Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me! Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them away! Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them! (Psalm 35:1–6)

At times, David wondered how long it would take, but he knew that he would eventually “rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his salvation” because God would deliver him from all who were “too strong for him,” and he would thank and praise God for that deliverance.

Again, I cannot speak to or for those under attack in our world, but these verses tell me how to pray for them, and to ask God to “put to shame and disappoint altogether” those who rejoice in the calamity they have caused and “Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor” at what they have done.