Father, thank you for this time with You in Your word and this time with my good friend, Tina. I echo her questions from her previous post about how to be lights in such a very dark place. I know you have the solution, and I know you want to share it with us. Thank you that we are on this quest together and that you are revealing Your heart toward the nations and toward our own families right here in Paul's words. Increase our sensitivity to Your Spirit, increase our ability to hear Your message clearly and loudly in the midst of so many other messages out there, increase our ability to believe the words You speak to us and the message You have for us. Increase our faith, that one person can make a difference in a fallen world. Amen.
2:1 "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other ,you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things."
Here it is: The paradigm shift. It is in passing judgment that we condemn ourselves. In many other places, Paul tells us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Yet many of us who are in Christ continue to condemn others, both those inside and outside the church. Ouch! This is the biggest wake-up call I've ever had. That I am no better than anyone else. That God's grace, His unmerited favor, is turned toward the righteous and the wicked, for the wicked are really only those who are still in the dark about His infinite love toward them. The only difference between us and them is that we have seen the light of His love upon us. I was struck by the commentary you posted on the last verses by the relational nature of it. That is a side of things that I didn't hit upon fully...that all these "wicked actions" Paul is describing break down healthy relationships. When relationships aren't healthy, then interactions between people are filled with manipulation, jealousy, codependency, enmeshment, and so much other bondage. In this verse, Paul hits the ball out of the park...when we judge others, we condemn not only them but ourselves, for we are all guilty of loving on a purely human level...of selfishly using other people for our own gain. We have all done it, and we don't stop doing it just because we've given our lives to the Lord. It is only in recognizing this error, confessing it, and asking the Lord to help us recognize when we are loving wickedly that we have any hope of trading human love for Divine Love.
2:2 "Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth."
God's judgment falls on those who have not come under the umbrella of His grace, because they are still under the Law, which is based on truth! The Law is based on truth...the true standard, the true measure of all other thoughts, motives, ideas. And the Law at its very core is completely relational...governing man-to-man relationships and man-to-God relationships. The Law falls short in actually transforming the heart, though. Only the Spirit of Jesus Christ can transform our hearts so that we are internally governed by the heart of God. I can see so clearly that this is a pivotal and very important passage, but it is hard for me to put it into words. At some point, Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it...in fact, He did fulfill it in total surrender and dependence on Father God, by becoming the Law incarnate...by teaching us how to relate perfectly with God and how to relate perfectly with men. And we have the same opportunity to fulfill the Law by turning our hearts away from judging others and towards God and His infinite love for us. By recognizing that we are by very nature truly beloved and true royalty. When we know who we are, we will automatically act differently. That's why it was so important when Jesus said that He loved us first.
2:3 "So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment?"
This sums it up right here...why do Christians still struggle to have the fulfilled life? Why do Christians remain oppressed and downtrodden? I think it's because we've been taught by the church that our job is to point out sin...to talk about it when we get up, to talk about it when we eat together, to talk about it when we go to bed at night...to talk about how we're going to change ourselves, how we're going to change our children, how we're going to change our husbands. To talk about how we need to change ourselves, how we need to change our children, how we need to change ourselves. Isn't this what you've been taught? That believers are going to heaven because we have waged war against our own sin? That unbelievers are going to hell because they've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God?
Do you see the error in this? Do you see the subtle scheme of the enemy to distract us from the main point? Jesus wasn't focused on sin. He was focused on the Father heart of God. He wasn't focused on God's judgment or His wrath. He was focused on His love and on expressing His love in every way possible. Oh, yes, He talked about sin and righteous living. But actually most of His messages on this topic were couched in relational terms...He was always and forever inviting us into relationship with Father God...to fix our attention and gaze upon the Father and find that within Him is housed every answer to every problem, and the Spirit of God who brings forth the change we all know we so desperately need. It is His Spirit that transforms, not my effort, not my prayers for me or my family, not my complaining or nagging or exercising or dieting. Nothing I do can transform me, EXCEPT if I fix my gaze upon the One who loves me with an undending Love. The moment of true transformation in my life, the moment when all my healing and repentance truly began was when I started meditating on His affection for me. When I started reading my Bible through the lens that I am His beloved daughter, that I am His intended bride, that I am the Love of His Life. His love is the only thing that can transform our fallen hearts, that can transform human love into divine love.
2:4 "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?"
Again, the knife goes deeper into my heart. I know this verse. In fact, I've been meditating on it for weeks now. It is not my judgment that will change my husband. It is not my nagging that will make him change. It is God's revelation of kindness toward him. It is tolerance for mistakes, for bumbling, for hangups and weaknesses. It is God's kindness toward me that has changed me. I am no longer afraid to make blunders. I am no longer afraid to take risks, like allowing my husband to quit his job and really depend on God to provide for us. I am not afraid, because I know my Daddy loves me. I know He is infinitely patient and kind. That if I am on the wrong path, He will gently correct me and guide me. And He will do the same for my husband. And because I am so engulfed in the revelation of God's kindness for me, I'm actually being kind to my husband. I can offer nothing less to those around me than what He has offered to me. There was a time when I thought He was offering me judgment, so that's what I offered. There was a time when I believed that it was by fear that people stopped doing bad things. I think many Christians believe this and teach this...that we should be evangelizing based on the fear of hell.
That is pure silliness to me now, but it was something I believed with all my heart even a year ago! Now, I realize that avoiding hell is not at all compelling. The only thing more compelling that satisfying earthly pleasures and living for the now is the LOVE of God. When I evangelize now, I just introduce people to the Lover of my soul. I speak of Him as an intimate friend, as a deeply understanding and loving Father, as a blazing fire of passionate love for my soul. I speak of Him as if I know Him, because I do. I speak of Him as if He is the best person on earth I could introduce someone to, because He is. That is effective in breaking strongholds, in leading people into relationship with the Lord, in saving people from the hell that is separation from that Love.
Father, Thank you for revealing Your kindness to me. I pray that You will reveal Your kindness in a profound way to Tina this week. And to Mark and the girls. Lord, renew their minds. Renew their hearts. Renew their lives. Set them on a course to walk all the days of their lives in Your infinite grace, in your unmerited favor, in the peace that passes all understanding (the shalom of heaven that says that all good things are coming your way). I pray right now that You would break off the power of a foreboding spirit, that you would break off the power of a judging spirit, and that You would give them a revelation of the freedom they have in Christ...the freedom to make mistakes, to think wrongly about you and about others, to fall in the mud and to get back up again, knowing that nothing they do, nothing they think, nothing they say, nothing they try is going to change anything about the Love you have for them and the security they have in being children of God. Father, break through the glass ceiling in their lives...give them the keys to their freedom here and now. Father, no more lies, no more fear, no more depression, no more anxiety about provision, no more sickness, no more lack, no more poverty. Instead, replace all these things with the MORE of Heaven...more abundance, more peace, more faith, more joy, more life, more influence, more ministries, more money, more food, more resources. Father, make the great exchange in Tina's life that You've made in mind and blow her mind with Your kindness and Your goodness. ~Amen.
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