SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/15/2021 10:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
An Erroneous View of God
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 7:1
Message
of the verse: “Do not judge lest you
be judged.”
I am eager to look at the meaning of
this verse as it has been a mystery to me for many years. I think that it is important for us to
remember that Jesus is talking about how the scribes and Pharisees did things,
which as we have learned were wrong and unrighteousness.
MacArthur writes “Unrighteous and
unmerciful judgment is forbidden first of all because it manifests a wrong view
of God. With the phrase ‘lest you be
judged,’ Jesus reminds the scribes and Pharisees that they are not the final
court. To judge another person’s motives
or to curse to condemnation is to play God.
‘For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to
the Son’ (John 5:22).” As I think about
what I have just written the thought has come to my mind of the importance of
not just taking one verse without learning the full context that surrounds that
verse one needs to look at why that verse is there. If one would combine these two verses
together without looking at the context you would be in a world of
trouble: “Judas hanged himself; go and
do likewise.” I think you get the point
I am trying to make here.
We can
look at Matthew 19:28 to see that in the Millennial kingdom Christ will share
some of that judgment with us. “And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you
who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His
glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel.” One more verse
to look at and that is 1 Cor. 6:2 “2 Or do you not
know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are
you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?” That will be later on as mentioned in the millennial
kingdom, but until that time we blaspheme God whenever we take upon ourselves
the role of Judge. Romans 14:4 tell us “Who
are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls;
and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” We can
see that Paul was a little concerned about just how other people judged him,
but he was not even a little concerned about how he judged himself. “3 But to me it is
a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court;
in fact, I do not even examine myself. 4 For I am conscious of nothing against
myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the
Lord.”
In
James 4:11-12 we see that we are not to judge a person’s ministry, teaching, or
life, with the exception of they may be continually teaching false doctrine or
following standards that are clearly unscriptural. “11 Do not speak against one
another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother,
speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are
not a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one
Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you
who judge your neighbor?”
MacArthur
concludes “Whenever we assign people to condemnation without mercy because they
do not do something the way we think it ought to be done or because we believe
their motives are wrong, we pass judgment that only God is qualified to
make. An unknown poet of past days
wrote,
Judge
not the workings of his brain,
And of
his heart thou cannot see.
What
looks to thy dim eyes a stain,
In God’s
pure light may only be
A acar
brought from some well-won field
Where thou
wouldst only faint and yield.
“The
Savior does not call for me to cease to be examining and discerning, but to
renounce the presumptuous temptation to try to be God.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful to the Lord for using once
again John MacArthur to help me to understand what was once a very difficult
passage.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I continue to look to the Lord to bring
revival to our Sunday school class and that the Lord will use my teaching,
which I believe came from the Lord, to bring about revival to our class which
will then spread throughout our entire church and beyond.
1/15/2021 11:06 AM
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