Judging

Some folks like quoting the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 7:1. He said "Judge not, that you be not judged". Jesus said that. So it is a holy command that must be obeyed. But in the same sermon, He also said that false teachers can be known by their fruits (i.e. deeds; Matthew 7:15-20). And that is a description of the act of judging - knowing that a person is fake, based on their actions. Is this a contradiction? No.

The Christian life requires one to distinguish between good and evil, for the purpose of rejecting what is evil in favor of what is right and good in the sight of God. You can not follow Jesus without discriminating against evil. You can not follow Jesus without cultivating the spiritual discernment to recognize and reject sin and falsehood when you encounter it. 

In order to obey Jesus, one must learn to determine who is a good example of Christlike holiness, and whose example should not be followed or encouraged. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth and said, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). 

So you see the logic. If one is following Jesus, then that one, in turn, becomes a tangible example for others who want to follow Jesus. But this automatically involves recognizing who is not following Christ, and therefore whose example should not be followed or encouraged. 

The cultivation of this discernment is accomplished largely by reading and studying God's holy word, the Bible, and talking to God in prayer. Further cultivation is achieved by practicing what you have learned from God's teachings, as well as conferring with fellow believers who also prayerfully read and study the Scriptures.

So how is this not contrary to the statement "Judge not, that you be not judged."? When Jesus said those words, He was talking about a certain attitude that one should not have while following Him. One should not have an attitude of superiority over others in the Church, or even outside the Church for that matter. 

One must be able to distinguish the good examples from the bad examples. But one must also be humbled by the realization that we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God. It is only by the grace of Jesus Christ that any of us are saved (Romans 3:23-24, Ephesians 2:8-10).

And so we have to realize that our power to judge is limited to deciding whose example is good to follow and encourage, and whose example is not good to follow or encourage. But only God Himself can really make the final, absolute judgement of what is going on in any person's heart and life.

We also have to be on guard against the tendency to be a fault finder. Some people sin by always intentionally seeking out flaws and short-comings in their neighbors, and never recognizing the work that God is accomplishing in them. And this fault finding tendency may distract the inordinate judge from surrendering his or her own self to God to be purified by Him. 

Or the fault finder might be just as hard, if not harder, on his or her self, and thus inordinately torment his or her self with excessive guilt and shame. Christ came to free you from shame and guilt, not to intensify it in you. If you are tormenting yourself with shame and guilt, you need to surrender that shame over to Christ. Let Him take it away from you. Let that guilt be nailed to the cross. You are not a prisoner to it anymore.

Of Pharisees and Physicists Part Two

At the beginning of last month I wrote about the Pharisees (teachers of the Law of Moses) who rejected Jesus; the Messiah that was predicted, foreshadowed, and prefigured in the writings of Moses, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. And I wrote about the teachers of the laws of nature who, in these modern times, reject Jesus through whom all things were created. He is the Author of the laws of nature. 

So I showed the similarity between the two sets of law-teachers. Both groups have missed the point of the laws which they have studies. And therefore both groups have rejected God who made the laws which they have taught. Now I want to continue with that observation. 

Jesus once indicted the Pharisees of those days by comparing them to "children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, saying:

'We played the flute for you,

And you did not dance;

We mourned to you,

And you did not weep.'

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon'. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'" (Luke 7:32-34).

This same illustration is applicable and relevant to the discussion of today's "teachers of the law". I say this because when we tell of the amazing miracles that where performed by Jesus Christ, and all the other miracles described in the Bible, as well as God's ability to perform miracles at any time and place He chooses; the naturalistic teachers of the law will scoff and ridicule these claims. They will say that the universe operates according to orderly sets of laws. 

When we tell the truth that God Himself instituted the laws of nature which He created and owns, and that He carries out most of His work through the laws which He has instituted over nature; they will scoff and ridicule this. They will call it "an argument from silence" for a "God of the gaps". But as Dr. Georgia Purdom of Answers in Genesis has recently pointed out in her blog, "we do not use God to fill in the gaps because there are no gaps". And there is no silence (Psalm 19:1-4). There is only God and His creation, which He made and owns.

It is simple. God instituted the laws of nature, they are His laws. And He also reserves the right to command the natural universe, which He created and owns, to behave differently at specific points in time and space. When He does, we call the result a miracle. 

But now, whether God works by way of miracles, or if He works by way of the ordinary laws of nature which He instituted; the wicked, corrupt self-deceivers will reject Him either way. If they ever did see a miracle happen before their very eyes, they would say "There must be some scientific explanation for this".

They ignore the truth that if all the universe is entirely the result of random, unguided processes, then our their brains are also the product of random, unguided process. In that case all their thoughts are the accidental products of random, unguided processes. 

And in that case they have no reason to believe that any of their thoughts are valid observations of the universe in which they accidentally exist. And that undermines their supposed observation that the universe is a result of random, unguided processes. In short, their naturalistic worldview undermines itself.

Science - the orderly, systematic study of the natural universe is possible because the orderly, sovereign Creator of the universe made nature to operate according to orderly sets of laws. And He also created our minds to be able to function in an orderly way that allows us to think and make valid observations.

Jesus said to the Pharisees who denied Him, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me" (John 5:39). His modern enemies claim to believe in the laws of nature. But the laws of nature point to the orderly, sovereign God who created nature to operate according to orderly laws. 

So the problem is not a lack of evidence. It is only the hardness of a fallen, corrupt, sinful heart that blinds anyone to the truth. These teachers of the law, in their heart of hearts, do not love God who is love (1 John 4:8), and who created humanity in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27) for the purpose of love (Matthew 22:37-40). They demonstrate their fallen nature in that they do not love God who is love.