I read through Galatians 3 & 4 today, but I'd like to look at a discussion we had in our small group last night, where the topic was much the same as what I've been looking at over the last couple days. I believe the words Andy Stanley used in the video were: "Judge the believin', not the heathen." As with Pastor Todd's sermon on Sunday, he brought up the point that we have no call to judge anyone outside the church, but we are to judge those who call themselves a brother or sister in Christ and are living in a way that's contrary to the way of Christ. This brought up a lot of good, deep discussion among our group, including questions like, "What does it mean to judge our brothers in a Christlike way?" and "How do we even know if we're qualified to judge others' sins?" We looked at the way Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 5, and 2 Corinthians 2 - that the hope of this judgment is repentance, redemption, reconciliation. I see this concept many times in the Bible, perhaps best expressed as 'speaking the truth in love'. We took a quick look as well at the pattern Jesus gave in Matthew 18, where the first step is a one-on-one discussion, with the hopes of winning them over. Then we looked at Matthew 7, where Jesus talks about judging others. I think there are two main points to learn from this passage. The first is about what we are actually doing. We are not sitting in the place of the judge and passing sentence on our brothers, God is the judge. All we are doing is reminding our brothers of the judgments He has already made. We are not seeking to condemn, we are seeking to impart wisdom to aid in reconciliation. The second thing we can learn is when it is or isn't right to act this way. The passage doesn't say, "Never remove the speck from your brother's eye." Instead it lets us know that until we remove the plank from our own eye, all efforts to remove the speck from our brother's are in vain. Those efforts are useless, fruitless, and hypocritical. Imagine trying to explain why they ought to change when it's perfectly obvious that you also need to change that, but are unwilling to obey God! What sort of example of obedience does that set?
(Before I go any further, I want you to know I'm writing these words for my own benefit. It's easy to find extenuating circumstances, as to why I don't obey God, why I procrastinate when I know His will, why I'm really more spiritual than I look... but if I want to be a godly man, I have to realize that God's not interested in those extenuating circumstances. The only extenuating circumstance He takes into consideration is His payment for my sin, and in His eyes that is enough. That's an amazing and hope-filled truth, but it's also an eye-opener. God is not taken in by my creative logic. I can't fool Him into thinking that I'm following Him if I'm not. If I want to be a godly man, I simply have to leave all other so-called extenuating circumstances aside, man up and live like it. He has covered all my sins, but that doesn't mean He'll cover for me if I choose not to follow Him and help me pretend that I'm in a right relationship with Him. His love for me is to great to allow Him to encourage me in self-destructive behaviour. Okay, back to the blog.)
Several characteristics of planks came to mind, and led to some thought-provoking discussion. For example, planks are much bigger than specks, we may see someone heading towards the same wrong choices we have made, but unless we learn from God how to fix those problems in ourselves, we won't have anything useful to offer the one starting out on that road, whereas once we do learn from God, our experience uniquely qualifies us to give useful, helpful advice. Another thing about planks is that they are not logs. They have been shaped, formed and smoothed until they are comfortable and fit well. Our sins, as they become habits, become tailored to us, they are comfortable and fit us well, or so we think. They don't bother us, but our brother's sin does. Until we remove the plank from our own eye, we can say what we like, but all that our life will show our brother is how to shape, form and smooth his sin until it's comfortable and fits well. When we say one thing and do another, then either we don't believe as we say we do, that God's way is right, and as our Lord He has the right to lead us in His way, or we do believe it and are rebelling against our better judgment, our conscience, and our Lord Himself. In either case, we're not in the place to be leading others towards Christ, we need to examine ourselves first to be sure we are living what we believe. Remember, God has not condemned us, but He does give us His judgments, which are right and true. In a similar way, we should not condemn our brothers, but remind them of what is right and true, as we share God's judgments with them. Remember also, we ought to be the first ones we share God's judgments with, before we move on to our brothers. A godly life starts with obedience in ourselves, not mandating obedience in others.
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