Daily Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:3 I couldn’t care less if I’m judged by you or by any human court; I don’t even judge myself. 4 I’m not aware of anything against me, but that doesn’t make me innocent, because the Lord is the one who judges me. 5 So don’t judge anything before the right time—wait until the Lord comes. He will bring things that are hidden in the dark to light, and he will make people’s motivations public. Then there will be recognition for each person from God.
Romans 14:4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servants? They stand or fall before their own Lord (and they will stand, because the Lord has the power to make them stand). 5 One person considers some days to be more sacred than others, while another person considers all days to be the same. Each person must have their own convictions. 6 Someone who thinks that a day is sacred, thinks that way for the Lord. Those who eat, eat for the Lord, because they thank God. And those who don’t eat, don’t eat for the Lord, and they thank the Lord too. 7 We don’t live for ourselves and we don’t die for ourselves. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to God. 9 This is why Christ died and lived: so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 But why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you look down on your brother or sister? We all will stand in front of the judgment seat of God. 11 Because it is written,
As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me,
and every tongue will give praise to God.[a]
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
13 So stop judging each other. Instead, this is what you should decide: never put a stumbling block or obstacle in the way of your brother or sister.[Footnotes:
Romans 14:11 Isa 45:23]
Reflection Questions:One problem with believing that I should “hate” someone else’s sin is that it requires me to believe I’m qualified to judge that what that person is doing IS a sin. But the apostle Paul said only God (not us) can accurately assess people’s motivations, and see what is in their hearts. He strongly admonished the Christians in Rome: “Stop judging each other.”
- In verse 13, Paul said part of Christian community is to “never put a stumbling block or obstacle in the way of your brother or sister.” Scholar Leslie Allen summed up Paul’s point: “Christian fellowship does not imply a right to run other people’s lives for them: only Christ can—and will—discharge such a right.” What's the difference between healthy accountability, helping a fellow Christian avoid self-destructive behavior, and trying to run that person’s life for them?
- Have you ever been upset, even angered, by another person’s “sin,” only to have things that are hidden in the dark brought to light, motivations revealed, in a way that totally changed your view of the situation? How can trusting God to judge far more accurately than we ever could change the way we relate to one another?
Compassionate God, help me to major in majors and minor in minors. Free me from the urge to judge your servants, and help me to live in an increasing measure of your peace and love. Amen.
Read today's reflection from contributor name online. Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at the Vibe, West, and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.
Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at the Vibe, West, and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.
As a creative manager in a high-stress agency, I got to deal with some pretty colorful situations. The most frequent was my employees having trouble dealing with irrationality on the parts of their coworkers. Why do they need this today? Why are they doing something we know is bad for the client’s goals? Why are they breaking process? In most cases, the other party wasn’t being irrational at all–there was just more to the story. They need it today because the client’s having trouble meeting their quarterly goals and need this campaign as soon as possible. We’re doing something bad for client goals because the client has other goals that weren’t explained to us. They’re breaking process because this is an absolute emergency and everyone is at wit’s end. My employees didn’t have a complete perspective to see everything that was going on.
In the same way, there are a lot of things going on in people that we don’t understand. That guy driving like a maniac may be on his way to the hospital. That couple at the abortion clinic could be taking care of a fetus which has already died. That kid who bullies others could be living in an abusive home which is so far out of his control that he needs to control something just to maintain his sanity. Are these things always happening when people make bad choices? No, absolutely not. But the thing is, we don’t know–only God does.
The terrible thing is when we don’t even want to know.
In general, people are a lot more similar than we like to admit. Everyone has a desire to do good and a desire to serve themselves, and these are constantly at war. We’re told in church that we are to be set apart, different from the world. But it can be really hard to be so loving that the world takes notice. It can be very difficult to be so merciful and so forgiving that other people see it as something truly special. So it can be easier to find other ways of setting ourselves apart as more righteous than others.
When that happens, people typically pick a handful of sins (ones they don’t struggle with) and set them up as a measuring stick. If people commit those sins, they’re sinners. If people don’t condemn those sins, they’re heretics. The whole time, a blind eye is turned to sins that these people struggle with.
I’m sure you have some sins in mind with my description above. For me, my incarnation of this was judging others who I believed to be perpetrators of this. In the greatest of ironies, my judgment of others was for judgment of others. This tendency runs deeper than a few issues, and it affects everyone at times.
The point is, we don’t have the perspective to accurately judge, and we’re all in trouble. When we judge others, we play God, and we’re in no place to play God. Let’s leave God’s business to God and focus on what he told us to do.
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224 United States
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