There Is A Judge And It's Not Me

“Who will bring charges against God’s elect?  God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns?  Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather He who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

Romans 8:33-34

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.  Accepting Jesus as our Lord, Master and Savior washes us clean of all our sins.   We need not spend our lives defending ourselves against our past sins, because we are forgiven. 

Likewise, we are to view other Christians without condemnation because Jesus died once for all, including those whom we would like to judge as unworthy.  We need to be mindful that new Christians are new and may take a while to sort those things out in their lives which do not measure up to God’s word.  Rather than judge, it is better that we rejoice with them in their salvation and pray with and for them.

Guide the Nations

God be gracious to us and bless us

And cause your face to shine upon us—

That Your way may be known on the earth,

Your salvation among all nations.

Let the peoples praise You, O God;

Let all the peoples praise You.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;

For You will judge the peoples with uprightness

And guide the nations on the earth.

Psalm 67:1-4

Let Your Yes Be Yes

“But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either my heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.” 

James 5:12

A good reason to always speak the truth is that you never have to remember what you said.  We don’t have to say any more and we don’t have to defend the truth, because it is what it is and nothing can change it. 

He Leads, We Follow

“…Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” 

Romans 2:4

Even when we are not looking, God is there leading us to repent.  All we have to do is follow. 

God is kind, tolerant and patient with us because He loves us and wants nothing more from us than that we accept the forgiveness for our sins that He makes available to us through His Son, Jesus.

God leads us to repentance.   All we have to do is follow.

Humbly Come Before God

And He (Jesus) also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 

The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself; ‘God I thank You that I am not like other people: Swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’

“But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, ‘God be merciful to me, the sinner!’

I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 18:9-14

The message here is twofold.  First, we should not judge those who are trapped in sin and fighting to get free.  Second, a humble sinner is highly regarded by God. 

We cannot undo our sins, but we can confess them to God and be forgiven.  None of us are without sin and we should remember this when we devalue those who wrestle with what consider to be bigger sins than ours. 

God does not judge the sin; God judges the man or woman’s repentant heart. 

We May Not Like What It Says, But The Bible Is The Word Of God.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness so that the man (or woman) of God may be adequately equipped for every good work.”

2 Timothy 3:16

Jeff Foxworthy said, “It’s a weird sensation to be mad and learning at the same time.” 

That is the way it is with the Bible.  We do not like it when the Bible challenges our ideas of what is OK.  Notice I did not say right, I said OK. 

Society likes to randomly reject some of the scripture, depending upon the popular sin of the week.  There are those who think that the Bible does not mean “Thou shall not commit adultery.”  Others have a problem with the idea that marriage is between one man and one woman.  There are those who think we should not feed the poor even though Jesus fed the 5,000 and didn’t check anyone’s income.  Some apply “Thou shall not kill” to abortion, but not capital punishment.

All kinds of arguments are made in defense of rejecting parts of the Bible.  Like, the government says it’s legal and everybody is doing it.  Just because it is legal does not mean it is moral and if everybody is doing it that alone is a good reason not to do it. 

We need to heed the Bible's instructions. 

We may not like what it says, but the Bible is the Word of God.