God Only Knows
God only knows I got a message of conviction yesterday and I didn't know if it was for myself or for others, or for both. It usually starts with me; because everything always starts at home. But I waited to post it because (due to its nature) I wanted to make absolute certain that it was meant to be shared. So, I didn't post anything yesterday because of this; because I needed to meditate on it a little more.
Since I started this page; or should say, was led to start this page, I've been introduced to various different pastors, preachers, teachers, witnesses; people with pages and groups and their own ministry all over the world. It's really amazing and it's been confirmation after confirmation and great message after great message. And, I've been connected with all the right pieces of the body; arms and legs, hands and feet, brothers and sisters in Christ. I’ve felt privileged to be able to do this; beyond the obvious blessing of being able to spread the Gospel, even just having been connected with these brothers and sisters is a blessing. But, throughout this, as I comb through sermons and messages from others that I’m led to, I've also seen a lot of negativity and judgement within the body. A lot of hard stances on morals and lifestyles that don’t align with Christian values. And, a lot of people trying to be good Christians instead of being Christ-like; standing in judgement of others because of their sins. A lot of people not realizing the hypocrisy of these judgements and stances.
Part of this message was; ‘If you're a Christian and you take a hard stance on something, make sure that it's biblically aligned first’. And, I don’t mean, make sure that the person or thing that you are judging is biblically sinful. I mean, make sure you take a good look at yourself before you do so. That you are without sin before you cast any stones. Because God is very clear that He loves everyone and expects us to love everyone, as well. He also says that Jesus paid the price for our sins so that we could be forgiven ours. That our sins are forgiven before we even commit them; and that His grace is sufficient to save us. He was pretty clear that only those, without sin were able to cast a stone.
Who among us is without sin? Even those of us who have been born again, sin. We’ve been born again, and given a new heart but we still have our flesh. And, until our flesh is gone we still have sin. So, f we have flesh, we do sin whether we like it or not; even with a new heart. The new heart makes it harder to sin; because we don’t want to in the same way we did before. We want to be better than we were before we were given this new heart, but we are made of flesh, and flesh is weak. So, we sin. Whether it’s telling a white lie to make someone happy, drinking too much wine, or not observing the Sabbath appropriately, or worse, we all sin. And, like it or not, no sin is greater than another.
Throughout the past several months, I've come to recognize the (far too large) number of ‘Christians’ who have judgement in their hearts and, who take hard stances on certain issues. It’s understandable that, because of our faith, we want people to be more Christ-like and, that we want ourselves to be more Christ-like; but our walk is our own. And, our relationship is our own, as are those we are standing in judgement of. The Bible is clear on how we're supposed to behave; it is laid out in all of God’s commandments. Unfortunately, I think sometimes, that we forget the most important of all of these commandments is to love God and one another. And, another important one being that we shouldn’t judge others, unless we are willing and able to judge ourselves by the same measure. Which is not to say that we judge ourselves based on the sins of whomever we are judging, but by sin, itself.
And yes, it does say that we can sharpen one another; as iron sharpens iron and, we are supposed to sharpen one another. But there's a difference between sharpening one another and judging one another. And, because of this, if we do judge others, we have to judge ourselves by the same measure. We pay lip service to the Word; by saying things like, ‘God’s grace is sufficient’; but we do so when witnessing to someone or to one another. When it comes to those we see as sinners (or greater sinners than ourselves, in most cases), we still judge other people and ignore that they too, have been given the gift of God's grace. That God is allowing them to be forgiven, loved and given a new heart should they come back to Him. God’s grace and mercy isn’t exclusively for born again Christians. It is for all of His creation. And, the bible says that He is not willing that any should perish. He wants all to come to repentance. We play a role in that, by preaching, witnessing and teaching; and sharpening our brothers and sisters, but we must remember two things. And, we have to remember these things, with the knowledge that we all sin. One, it's not our walk, it's theirs. And, more importantly, that God is the ultimate and final judge. It is not our job; it’s His.
As I mentioned, and as you all know, God tells us His greatest command is to love Him and to love each other. And, loving each other; loving our neighbour, as ourselves means loving our neighbour in the same way that we love ourselves. It means being honest with our neighbour and, more importantly, being honest with ourselves. The bible tells us not to be hypocrites. If we are not honest with ourselves about our own sins, especially when we stand in judgement of others, we are hypocrites.
Psychology says that the things that you loathe most about other people are the things that you don't like about yourself. Too often, when we judge others, it's because we are judging ourselves by the same measure unknowingly. And, judging them and putting ourselves above them, which is self-righteousness. Either, because we are not being honest with ourselves about our own sins; that we all sin. And, no sin is greater than another, and because of that, we are no greater than those we judge, ourselves. Or, because we are hypocrites, and either don’t realize or won’t admit to our own sinful nature.
Sometimes we need to be reminded of what the bible truly says. Sometimes we need to have the difference between religion and the religious spirit, and ‘relationship’ highlighted for us. Sometimes, we need to be reminded what it means to be in a real relationship with God; how we get to know God’s heart, in the way that He knows ours. Because, in order to have a true relationship, you need to know the person you are in a relationship with. How do we get to know God? Through His Words. And, He says; in various ways and in different places throughout the Bible, that we are to judge others by the same measures as we judge ourselves. That, if we judge we need to do so from that place of honesty I mentioned earlier. Acknowledging that we are all sinners because we were of the flesh. And, because we are all sinners, none of us have the right to judge another sinner unless we judge our own sins, accordingly.
So, we can sharpen one another, and we can witness and preach and, teach the gospel, but it has to be the full and true Gospel. We have to include messages of conviction; for others and for ourselves. As well as, messages of love; for others and for ourselves. Messages of conviction, like this one that I was given yesterday. To remember that the greatest of all commandments is to love God, and love one another (our neighbour), as we love ourselves; honestly and fully, and with forgiveness, grace, mercy and humility in our hearts. That, only those without sin should be casting stones; judging, taking hard stances on issues that aren’t ours to judge, etc. That makes us hypocritical. And, to remember the biblical definition of hypocrite.
Hypocrite one who puts on a mask and feigns himself to be what he is not; a dissembler in religion. Our Lord severely rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy ( Matthew 6:2 Matthew 6:5 Matthew 6:16 ). "The hypocrite's hope shall perish" ( Job 8:13 ). The Hebrew word here rendered "hypocrite" rather means the "godless" or "profane," as it is rendered in Jeremiah 23:11 , i.e., polluted with crimes.
The Bible does say not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, however. So, we can still witness to people but from a low place and a place of love. Spreading the Gospel with a heart like Christs and from a place of humility. And, we are to still love them, whether or not we agree with them. Even if we have to love them from a distance, we still have to love them. And, we have to forgive. Even if we have to forgive and then move forward, we still have to forgive all of these things. We don’t have to befriend them but we do have to be friends to them. Being friends to them, meaning that we have to love them and help them, like a friend would. Like Christ has done for us. So, instead of walking around, judging others and staying away from certain things; trying to be more Christ-like, we should in fact be doing the opposite. Instead of judging others, we should be out loving them. As a friend of mine always says, we can love the sinner but hate the sin. And, even then, we also have to look at ourselves in the same way. When the Bible says love your neighbour as yourself and to judge ourselves by the same measure, it’s saying that we need to look ourselves first, and as I said earlier, be honest with ourselves about our own sins and our own attributes. And, to ask ourselves if we are trying to be more Christ-like, or more like good Christians.
We have to look at ourselves as well because we can't just look at other people and say that what they're doing is wrong without realizing our own imperfectness. We have to look at ourselves and say what is it about them and what they're doing that is making us uncomfortable. Looking at it from a psychological perspective, what is it about ourselves that makes us uncomfortable; because we're not looking at ourselves in the same way, we're not judging ourselves by the same measure unless we can truly recognize why someone else’s sins are making us so uncomfortable and making us feel the need to judge them. The Bible also tells us to see and do things from a low place. And, to meet people from a low place (of humility); to do everything from a place of humility. So, by judging others, and taking a hard stance on what we see as their sins, we're putting ourselves above them. And, if we put ourselves above others we’re not doing things in a Christ-like manner. We aren’t humbling ourselves. We aren’t doing things from a place of humility. Even though we know that humility is Christ-like.
If and when we do things from a low place; from a place of love and humility, we are unable to take a hard stance on other people’s sins and life choices. We cannot say that we are better than or above them. If and when we are doing things from a low place of humility, this should prevent us from judging others. True humility prevents us from judging others without love, grace and mercy in our hearts. Humility is Christ-like. Like I posted two days ago love, peace, joy, forgiveness, humility, grace and mercy are Christ-like. They are characteristics of Jesus Christ, Himself. And, the Bible tells us to be more Christ-like; not to be better Christians. In order to be more Christ-like, we have to take on these characteristics and attributes. Characteristics, like forgiveness, love, grace, mercy, patience, and humility. We have to take a stance of non-judgment, ourselves, and remember that God is the ultimate judge. And, we can't take a hard stance on them without that stance being a hard judgement.
That's not to say that we can't take a stand on injustice and abuse. It’s not to say that you cannot support and stand up for others. Or, say how you feel about world issues. You can fight for people’s rights and stand up for justice, peace, equality and (Godly) righteousness. The Bible does tell us to help one another, to care for one another, to give to the poor and needy, and to help people who are weak. And, it tells us to ward off the wicked, but also that it says to repay evil with good, instead of evil with evil. So, if we have to take a stance on things, we have to; do so from a low place of humility, from a place of love, and with grace and mercy. We have to judge ourselves and our own sins by the same measure, and have to recognize that no sin is greater than another. We also have to practice forgiveness and love, even when the sin seems really bad and unforgiveable to us. And, we need to know that God will judge them, accordingly. So, we don’t need to.
God only knows the hearts of all of His creation. It’s not for us to know, nor is it for us to judge. We don’t need to. He’s got this!