We are to serve God in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We are not to serve him by judging others, for we too are but human. Only God judges correctly, completely, without bias. Christ died and was raised again to be Lord of both the living and the dead. He was three days and three nights in the grave to be Lord of the dead. He was resurrected after those three days to be Lord of the living. Christ is the Lord of all people whether they live or whether they are dead. Therefore, why should we mere humans attempt to be the lord of others, judging or condemning people for what they say or do in life. He who is creator of all things is the rightful judge and evaluator of everything He has made. He is the Lord, not us. Perfection, being right with God, comes through faith in his salvation plan: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) The Lord who redeems is the only one who has the right to judge the quality of our walk with him. Only Jesus’ life satisfied the righteous requirements of God’s holiness and the law. Jesus Christ’s life is the template of a holy life. He alone has the right to judge our waywardness according to God’s standard of righteous living. Paul tells us that we frail humans are susceptible to sin and often lacking faith with no right to be other people’s critics. We do not have the privilege to judge someone for what we perceive is a grave weakness. He tells us that some eat everything, believing God blesses all that we eat. Others believe we have to be circumspect in what we eat. Regardless of what all of this entails concerning strength or weaknesses in our faith, we should let God determine the truth or the validity of such actions. (See Romans 14:1-4) Christians should be careful about criticizing someone who seems to take too much liberty in his faith or too little liberty in his faith. Instead of judging the person, to the best of our ability we should live in harmony with him or her. If we are not harsh, judgmental, critical with our fellow brethren who are IN CHRIST, we will live in harmony with them, sharing in the Lord’s supper with them without hypocrisy. Preferring others above our own willfulness is a positive attribute when it comes to peace and harmony. Rather than sitting in the judgment seat of others, we will be their servants, bringing cohesiveness to the family of God. Unreciprocated love conquers much discord in a family, for love intends no harm. As the Bible says, Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)
In Luke 11, we see Jesus dealing with a Pharisee who sees himself as very righteous, as a person on the right track to pleasing God. This Pharisee invited Jesus to eat with him at his home. When Jesus failed to ceremonially wash his hands before eating, the Pharisee perceived this as a weakness, even as something that would separate Jesus from God. He was amazed at Jesus’ unwillingness to follow the appropriate customs of the Jewish people. Jesus confronts this Pharisee with a very strong word: fool. Jesus calls his host a fool because the Pharisee mistakenly believes that the washing of hands makes him pleasing to God. As many today believe, by going to church, by reading the Bible, by doing religious deeds, God finds people worthy of acceptance. Jesus observed, Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. (Luke 11:39) Jesus said, washing of the hands or the outside of a person does not cleanse the inside, the heart. Religious activities or customs do not change one’s position with God if an individual is not in right relation with God. Jesus tells the Pharisee that God accepts a person who has a heart’s desire to bring love and justice to others. Religious activities and customs can sometimes be self-serving, oriented only towards saving oneself from God’s judgement and insuring eternal life. Otherwise, religious customs, traditions based on doing good, can be self-serving, not other-serving. Jesus tells the Pharisee that giving to the poor is a much better activity than living a life committed to the customs or traditions of religion. Good works to others is what God desires from people. If the heart is pure, totally committed to others, then the whole man is pure, whether he washes his hands or not before he eats. Jesus goes on to say to the Pharisee, what sorrow awaits Pharisees, for judgment will come to them someday. Justice finally will prevail when God sits on the throne to judge everyone. The Pharisees’ religious activities are not necessarily wrong, for people should tithe and should honor God in everything. But by doing appropriate things, they should not ignore the more weighty matters: bringing justice and love to the needy, the neglected, the poor. You may be disciplined in serving God through your religious activities, but God wants you to be fervent in loving people who are made in his image. Jesus told the Pharisees that God was not pleased with their desire is to be honored by the people, to be respected by the people over obedience to God. He said, your lives are oriented towards gaining adulation from the people, not towards serving God with your whole heart. Inside you have hearts that are indifferent to God’s purposes for you: to bless people with the love of God, to make people better human beings. Instead, you crave the praise of the rich and the influential. Your hypocrisy makes you like hidden graves of corruption, undetected by the people who interact with you. They do not perceive the deadness within your souls. But God knows who you really are and eventually justice will be meted out to you, for God is a just God.
If we judge people based on our perceptions of how religious they seem or on how they worship Christ, we can become as the Pharisees, looking at people in a judgmental way, always placing people in categories of being right or wrong with God. Instead of letting God critique people’ lives, we become the critic, the know-it-all. Judging from outward appearances is always dangerous. To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14) The church is one body, a body attuned to the voice of God. We are known as the body of Christ. Consequently, in the church there should be harmony, peace, mercy, and grace. If we are looking at each other’s weaknesses rather than each person’s strength, we are concentrating on the wrong things in our relationships. God desires the church to be one of enduring love, not a fragmented body of Christ based on what we see as good and evil in the church. Today many stand outside of the institutional church doors, complaining about what is wrong with the church. They judge and critique the church by the standards that they hold so dear to their hearts, projecting and analyzing the wrongness of the body of Christ rather than the positiveness of Christ’s body. The failure at the Garden is still with every human being: the desire to be like God. The desire to elevate our ideas and attitudes above others, even God, is in the DNA of every human being. As a result, we see so much trouble and violence in the world. But Paul says in today’s focus: Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. We should compromise in the elementary things of religion that do not affect our faith: what we eat, what we do not eat; the organizational structure of the church; which songs or hymns we sing; what we wear to church; what we call each other; what structure the church services should follow; who should read the gospel, who should not; when should we take communion; who should be promoted to leadership in a church; and the like. There might be rights and wrongs in the above list according to our traditions and practices, but these are not moral absolutes. We should put those lesser issues aside; so we can hold the body together in love. Most of all, worship God in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. As we read earlier in this study, Live in harmony with one another. (Romans 12:16)
Note: We have had a long siege of illness with Mom down with pneumonia and Dad sick with bronchitis. We appreciate your patience with not receiving the breakfast these past weeks. God bless you!
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