Are you judging others??

JUDGMENT…….

I have been on the receiving end of judgmental people. To be honest, I have also been on the other end of that slippery slope as well. The reason that I am writing about this today is because our pastor at Church of the Highlands is preaching on a sermon series about prayer and as the introduction to that series yesterday he spoke about asking the Holy Spirit to reveal any sin that has not been confessed because of our being unaware of that sin.

Here is a link to the entire service.

http://media.churchofthehighlands.com/messages/download/2014-07-20/m4v/weekend

 

Last night as I was in the office studying and preparing for a Bible study my lovely bride, Paula King, called me into the living room to ask me some questions about something that she was unknowingly a participate in when she was a teen. After we discussed this group that she was indirectly involved in and its secretive way of operating, she felt broken and remorseful. She decided to get off by herself and ask God for forgiveness. It was an amazing thing to witness. She went from being distraught and broken to feeling like a great big weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Now, I know people enough to know that there are some that are reading this and have already cast judgment on her without knowing the details. I also know that what she experienced is complete healing from her Heavenly Daddy who loves her and is at this moment saying “What sin is he talking about?” I can tell you that I haven’t seen anything like the transformation that she experienced since I myself went through the Salvation experience. What an awesome God we serve!!

As I mentioned earlier, I have been guilty of judging others and have also been judge LOTS of times by others and I am sure I will be judged for what I about to say but I feel that God is directing me to say it for the benefit of other believers. Unbelievers will read it and some my even get it to a small degree but they will not understand it completely because just as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14-16   “14The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (NIV) This indicates that the “natural person” unbelievers can read the word but it will not make sense to them because they do not have the Holy Spirit with them to guide them and interpret the Word for them.

There are many examples of the unbeliever taking Scripture out of context and using against a person that they believe is far from God but the one I hear of the most is found in first Timothy, “10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money” (1 Timothy 6:10 NIV)

The first problem with this is it is not the complete verse. The second issue is that the person using this partial scripture doesn’t understand that it cannot stand on its own. The surrounding verses help us understand what this partial verse is making an argument about.  The third issue is that people relate the “stuff” people have with the phrase “The love of money”.

I will attempt to discuss these three points in a way that will cause us to all take a look at our view of this in the future. Again, if you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus as your personal Savior, you will not get this completely no matter how simple I make it but here goes a sincere attempt.

1) The complete verse says ” 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:10 NIV) This is making it clear that it is not having stuff that is the root of all evil, although if one loves their stuff more than they love God it is the same thing. Since I am trying to argue the point of judging, I will say that the Holy Spirit will convict that person if they are in this position, if they are a believer. It is not our job to judge them and if you are I would suggest searching your heart because there is some buried sin in your life that makes you judgmental.

2) The surrounding verses paint a complete picture of what Paul is saying towards this point.

“6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:6-10 NIV)

These verses simply explain the issue at hand. Paul shows us here that the issue is there were some that were not content with having what God had provided for them and wanted to get rich which leads to temptation and desires for things more than God which will ultimately find that person or persons in deep trouble financially and spiritually.

I will say that some people have the means to have more stuff than others. There could be many roads to this end and it seems that the least popular way is to actually work hard to reap the results. In today’s world there are so many that want a hand out and couldn’t get off the couch long enough to get a drink of water without complaining much less get up and earn a living, however, no one should assume that those that have more stuff than they do didn’t work for it, obtained it by some other means or they are so strapped with debt that they couldn’t pay attention much less buy anything else. It is my belief that a person must put God first in the way of a Tithe and if they do that then they are under no obligation to keep them from spending the other money that God has blessed them with on stuff so long as it is does not dishonor God. Actually, this is not just my opinion, Paul writes “Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)

Thirdly, I feel like I have already covered this but I will say just because the neighbor has a riding lawn mover and I have a Kevin propelled lawn mower doesn’t mean the neighbor is going to burn in hell. It might mean that he is up to his eyes in debt or it could mean that he has been wise with his money and can afford to pay cash for something that nice, or it could mean that it is 10 years old and he just knows how to take care of what God has so richly blessed him with.

Since I feel like I have covered the act of judging in great detail let me leave you with some verses to think about the next time the feeling to cast judgement on another rises up inside you.

Matthew 7:1
“Judge not, that you be not judged.”

Romans 2:1-3
“Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are that judge: for wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you that judge do the same things.”

Luke 6:37
“Judge not, and you shall not be judged: condemn not, and you shall not be condemned: forgive, and you shall be forgiven”