Sounds Good, But Is It The Truth? (10)

 

 

Continuing to reflect on Matthew 7:1 – 6, we come to 7:6:

 

“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

 

Let’s not miss the juxtaposition of this verse with the first verse of this passage, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” As we previously pointed out, both the immediate and greater context of Matthew 7:1 – 6 contains teaching on how we should judge, and discern, and understand the true and false, good and evil, godly worship and hypocritical worship. If we are going to follow Jesus Christ we are going to live in tension regarding many things, and in Matthew 7:1 – 6 we have one end of the bungee cord hooked on 7:1 and the other end hooked on 7:6; to relieve this godly tension is not only foolish, it saps the energy of the passage and releases it from my soul.

 

In 7:5 Jesus teaches us about helping our brothers and sisters see better, keeping in mind that we have our own problems and challenges – and if we’re smart we’ll seek others to help us see better. Then He says, “Do not give what is holy to the dogs…”

 

How might we think about this?

 

Frederick Dale Bruner cites Proverbs 9:7 in this regard, “He who corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.” Bruner then has this observation:

 

“Chrysostom…understood the dogs and swine to be the incorrigible, and cites excellent cross references: 2 Tim. 3:5, “Avoid such people”; Tit. 3:10, “As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him.””

 

I am struck by the word “holy.” “Do not give what is holy to dogs…” This directs our focus to verses 1 – 5 in which we see, I hope, that the question of clear vision, of clarifying vision, of helping one another along our pilgrimage, is a holy matter – it is sacred. I ought not to take lightly the awareness that my brother has a speck in his eye, I ought not to take lightly that I have been given a measure of grace to help him, and I ought not to take lightly that my own vision is not the best and can always use improvement.

 

The Body of Christ is holy, for Christ is holy. Our relationships within the Body of Christ are holy, sacred, and we ought to honor them and treasure them as gifts that God has entrusted to us. If the furniture of the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon was holy, how much more holy is the substance which that furniture represented – and in various fashions that substance includes the Body of Christ, the People of God, the Living Tabernacle.

 

I think I can promise that, try as we might, trust Christ as we might, that we will likely never get Matthew 7:1 – 6 quite right. But I also think I can promise that if we will trust Christ to help us grow in this passage, that He will work in us and through us to nurture holy relationships with our brothers and sisters, and that He will cause us to grow in wisdom toward one another – and that we will, by His grace, be a little better today than we were yesterday in helping one another see with clearer vision.

 

There have been times when I’ve said things I shouldn’t have said, or have said them at the wrong time, or in the wrong way. There are other times I haven’t said things that I should have said – and then there are times when I’ve known that I should not say anything and have been wise enough, by God’s grace, to keep my mouth shut, and other times when I have loved my brother enough to speak as best I could by God’s grace.

 

Then there are times when friends and brothers have cared enough to say things to me that I needed to hear, or that they have thought I needed to hear – and I have come to value the latter as much as the former. What I mean is that even if I don’t see what they are saying to me about the speck (or beam!) in my eye, that I’m learning to listen and ponder what they  say, knowing that they speak to me out of relationship in Christ…a holy relationship. As I write this, I am thinking of one friend who, when he says something to me that I don’t quite agree with, or perhaps definitely don’t agree with, that I nevertheless keep his words in my heart and mind and don’t forget them – this is because I value our friendship in Christ and honor what he tells me. Also, without a doubt, he has said some corrective things to me over the years that I needed to hear and which I have not forgotten.

 

Back to “Do not give what is holy to dogs…” There are some people who are not yet, and perhaps will never be, in a place where we can have the give and take of helping to clarify one another’s vision in Christ. There are some people who are more open to the Gospel than others, there are those who are hostile to the Gospel and seek to destroy it. Every relationship, every human interaction, has its fruitful potentialities and possible pitfalls…I suppose. Great hope and great sorrow are latent in our interactions and relationships; gardens have the potential for both fruit and weeds.

We ought not to ignore or explain away Matthew 7:1 – 6. We are called to holy relationships in Christ that entail humility, mutual submission, and helping one another to clarify vision as we live in a community of careful judging and discernment. We are also called to recognize that community, the ekklesia, by definition is discernable and has boundaries – we are reminded of those boundaries in Matthew 7:6. 

Amen.

 

Vernelle

 

My friend Vernelle went to be with Jesus a few days ago. Below are some reflections I sent to our old coworkers and her family. What I wrote below has one word changed from what I previously sent, all because it might be read during her memorial service and I wouldn’t want to give anyone heartburn by using the word “hell.” We will watch what we will on television or stream what we will, or vote for people of low character and low truth-telling, but we will not tolerate reading the word “hell” in church unless, I guess, it comes straight from the Bible.

 

As I thought about Vernelle, I thought about the many courageous people I’ve known who have worked in difficult housing situations. Folks like to talk about providing housing in troubled environments, but I don’t know that I’ve heard many talk about the front-line people who work in those environments, about their commitment, the dangers they face, the stress, the uncertainty.

 

I don’t recall any clients who expressed concern about the dangerous environments people worked in, whether they were international or national financial institutions, or regional investors. I don’t recall representatives from government agencies expressing concern (other than police and fire agencies!). I have known few industry executives who did more than give lip-service and fewer owners of management firms. People generally care about their return on investments, about political capital, and their own safety and security and don’t much care about others, not really.

 

Yet, people like Vernelle are critical to providing decent housing in difficult areas; they must keep their employees safe, their residents safe, deal with limited financial resources, contend with drug dealers, gangs, and other criminals – and have little support from their communities, the firms they work for, the financial investors in their apartment communities, and in local, state, federal government, and associated housing agencies. The Vernelles of this world are some of the most courageous people I have ever known…and generally some of the most underpaid (is this because they are usually women?)

 

To be sure I have encountered sleazy landlords and their employees who ought to be in jail, and authorities who look the other way for whatever reason – but I’m focused on the Vernelles I’ve known, not on those elements who have taken advantage of the defenseless.

 

I have learned more from the Vernelles of my life than I have taught them; I do hope that I have been there for them when they’ve needed me. I’m sure I have let them down at times, but I’ve never intended to do so, at least I hope not. I’ve worried about them, prayed for them, fought for better conditions for them. I am a better man for knowing them.

 

Vernelle Vial

By: Bob Withers

 

Hurricane Gaston came as near as anything to shutting her down, to forcing her to take a break, to making her pause for a breath; but I think even Gaston gave up and finally left Richmond after pummeling our city hours on end, flooding streets and lives. After making sure her employees, which were her extended family, and her residents – which she saw as her responsibility – were as safe as possible, she started to make her way home from Richmond to Louisa County via Broad Street.

 

The rain, as you may recall, was Biblical, making Niagara look like a dripping faucet. Cars were doing one of two things, either crawling or floating. Electricity was out, sewers were bursting, trees were falling, water treatment plants were shutting down, but Vernelle was doing her best to make it home to Ellis and Louisa county – because that’s what folk like her did, that’s how she was raised – she loved her husband, her family, took care of the folks who worked for her, and since the watery heavens were coming down to earth she was going to do whatever it took to get home to be with her man.

 

Gaston and Vernelle were in a stand-off; Vernelle would drive a few feet and Gaston would push back, Vernelle would drive a few more feet and Gaston would push back again. Vernelle didn’t have her cell phone charger with her, and her phone’s battery was running down; there were still many miles between her and home – they were unknown miles that night. Unknown because who knew what roads were closed, what accidents there were, what rushing waters were greeting motorists in the dark? First responders couldn’t respond, 911 operators couldn’t keep up with the calls…what to do?

 

There it was, the good old Holiday Inn, on good old Broad Steet, right around good old WTVR. Vernelle was stubborn, she was tenacious, and she could be ornery, but she wasn’t stupid. She and Gaston must have come to some kind of agreement. Vernelle must have said, “Look Gaston, if you make sure there is a room left in the Holiday Inn, I’ll call it a night and we’ll call it a draw.” Since I reckon Gaston was probably about as tired as was Vernelle, he agreed – anything to get that old country girl off the road – he could not let it be said that she whipped him; sometimes better to call it a draw.

 

Of course the likely truth is that Vernelle probably didn’t actually talk to Gaston, because as we all know you can’t reason with a hurricane. The likely truth is that Vernelle was praying to her Lord Jesus the entire time and that He, as few of us could, reasoned with Vernelle that she needed to pull into the Holiday Inn and that she could trust Him to take care of Ellis and all those she loved and cared about. And to show you just how much the heavenly Father loved Vernelle, while His Son was born outside the motel, He gave Vernelle a room inside…well…come on now, Vernelle was a bit older than the infant Jesus and really did need the shelter and a good bed.

 

I was blessed to work with Vernelle, or Miz Vernelle as she was often called, twice; and as I look back over my life Vernelle is a member of a small circle of people I’ve known who are characters with character. What I mean by “characters” is that they are one of a kind, there ain’t four of them, or three, or two – they are each one of a kind.

 

What I mean by “character” is that they can be trusted, their word is good, they will not lie to you or for you, they care about others, and they have courage. It takes courage to do the right thing the right way in this world, and it takes courage to work in some of the places that Vernelle worked in, treating people right and trying to give them a decent place to live.

 

I honestly don’t know how many times I’d get a phone call from Vernelle and she’d say, “Bob, we’ve locked the office door, we’re under our desks, and they are shooting outside. The police are on their way.”

 

I think Vernelle was probably the safest person on her properties. Her residents knew she cared about them. The drug dealers knew she wasn’t afraid of them. She worked well with the police. She looked you in the eye when she spoke to you, she walked straight with her head up. She looked out for her employees. She had a sense of humor. And…O yes…she trusted the Lord.

 

But she did have the good sense to know when to lock the office door and get under the desk. Once she was leading a group of us on a property inspection at Lincoln Manor when gunfire erupted – we all made it into a vacant unit and called the police…between us and her rental office a man lay dead.

 

This is the environment that Miz Vernelle worked in at times in her career – she knew that most of the people in her community were good people just trying to do the best they could…and she was there to help them however she could. She was a woman with character.

 

She worked to have after school programs at Lincoln Manor, both with the Boys and Girls Clubs and with church groups. She worked to foster good police and community relations. She invested herself in others. She didn’t have to do everything she did, but she did what she could to help others because that is who she was.

 

Vernelle and I often talked about Jesus and the Bible and church; Christ was at the center of her life with Ellis, her family, friends, coworkers, and her residents. We prayed lots, laughed lots, sorrowed a fair bit at the heartache around us – and we gave each other a bad time – because while we always didn’t agree, we liked each other and trusted each other. I could aggravate Vernelle and Vernelle could aggravate me – and that made it fun for us…aggravating yes, but also fun.

 

Going back to hurricane Gaston…as the storm was pouring oceans of water on Richmond, Vernelle got a phone call from one of her managers at another property, it went something like this:

 

Manager: “Miz Vernelle, it’s flooding here. The dumpsters are floating in the parking lot. What should I do!?”

 

Vernelle: “Well honey, get the hell out of there right now!”

 

Yes, Vernelle had her special ways about her, but perhaps most important is that Vernelle had Jesus’ ways about her -  she could be a character in the best sense of the word, but more importantly she was a woman of character, for that I’ll always thank God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds Good, But Is It The Truth? (9)

 

Continuing with Matthew 7:1 – 6, it seems to me that there are at least two more elements for us to consider (acknowledging that we can, and should, go deeper in Christ in all of these things…but a blog is a blog); how do we live in verses 1 - 5, and what does verse 6 mean? Or we could say that there is one remaining question, how do we live in verses 1 - 6? And that it is has two sub questions, what does verse 6 mean and how do we live in that?

 

Many of us are accustomed to periodic eye checkups; I received my first pair of glasses in elementary school and wearing glasses is second nature to me. Since I have diabetes, I am supposed to have an eye exam every year because diabetes can lead to eye disease and blindness. While Medicare will not pay for an annual eye exam for its general recipients, it will pay for an eye exam for those recipients who have diabetes because it recognizes that untreated diabetic eye disease can lead to serious health complications, which means more expense to the Medicare system. (Forget about the fact that as we all age we are all more susceptible to eye problems and that failing eyesight can lead to a number of problems and injuries!)

 

Just as I should have eye exams to determine any effect of diabetes on my natural vision, I need spiritual eye exams to counteract the effects of sin and this fallen world on my moral, ethical, and spiritual vision – the difference is that I need ongoing eye exams for my heart and mind and soul and spirit, my spiritual vision needs constant cleansing and renewing and correcting – it should really be a way of life in Christ and in community with others in Christ.

 

Whereas, as we age physically our vision tends to deteriorate, as we mature spiritually our vision should become clearer and clearer until that glorious Day when we are in the fulness of the Presence of our Lord Jesus. Therefore, it is good to keep in mind where we have come from in the sense that we are all, hopefully, on pilgrimage; we are all, who know Christ, somewhere on the road to the New Jerusalem. Peter reminds his readers of where they have come from (1 Peter 4:1 – 5), as does Paul (Ephesians 2:1 – 3; 1 Cor. 6:9 – 11). Wherever we are on the road of pilgrimage, we are there by the grace and mercy of God in Christ.

 

Along this line, as we consider how Jesus Christ forgave us, and forgives us; how He loved us, and loves us; we are to love as He loves and forgive as He forgives.

 

“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant offering.” (Ephesians 4:32 – 5:2; see also John 13:34 – 35; 15:12 – 14; 1 John 3:16).

 

We are also to live in mutual submission to one another, giving preference to one another (Rom. 12:1 – 13; Eph. 5:15 – 21) in the fear of Christ.

 

While there are many times our impediments to clearer vision are matters of understanding and growing in Christ and His Word, there are other times when they are a matter of sin. In those times especially we need to act toward our brethren “in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted” (Gal. 6:1).

 

What is the temptation that Paul speaks of? While it may be a temptation to engage in the sin of the person we seek to restore, I think we also have to consider that it can be the temptation to play the role not of healer and restorer, but of judge and executioner. That is, do we seek to help our brother or sister out of love and concern, or out of self-righteousness? There are, I think, two sides to this coin of temptation – let us not partake of the sin, nor let us not play judge and executioner – let us rather, as Christ, lay our lives down for one another.

 

It seems to me that if I am to live within Matthew 7:1 – 6, that I must keep the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ always before me, that my own vision must be of Jesus, His Cross, and of me at the foot of the Cross. That is, I must live in the remembrance and present reality of His forgiveness and mercy and grace in my own life – of my ever-present constant need for His sustaining grace, of an awareness of where Christ has brought me from and where He is drawing me to.

 

I must also live in community with my brethren and in submission to them, allowing them to speak into my life – directly and indirectly; preferring them above myself, seeking their honor and betterment and edification. I must also love them enough to “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15) as we grow up in Christ together. Now this is messy, it is untidy, and it is hard to find – but we don’t want to give up. Sometimes we may have more company, and sometimes less – but what else can we do? We need one another to know Jesus Christ – let us not be so foolish as to think otherwise.

 

To live in Matthew 7:1 – 6 is to live in the shadow of a beam in my own eye, to realize that in an instant a beam may materialize without my knowing it, and that I may even be so foolish as to use a beam in my own eye as a measuring stick for others – that is particularly dangerous.

 

To live in Matthew 7:1 – 6 is to realize that I have, all too sadly, played the role of judge and executioner more than once; and yet it is to also determine that I shall not allow my sin to be a barrier to faithful obedience to Jesus’ command to help my brother see Him a bit clearer today than yesterday. Jesus has forgiven me and cleansed me of my sin, and I want Him to redemptively use my past foolishness and stupidity to help me grow and better understand His ways so that I might be a blessing to others today. Also, when others play the role of judge and executioner toward me, may I remember my own past ugliness and forgive them, just as Jesus Christ forgave (and forgives!) me.

 

We still want to consider Matthew 7:6; the Lord willing we’ll pick that up in the next post.

Sounds Good, But Is It The Truth? (8)

 

 

“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

 

“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7:1 – 6.

 

What does it mean, “Judge not, and you will not be judged”? As we saw in the previous post, the context of this statement is one of judging, discernment, and distinguishing – not only between thinking and attitudes and actions, but between people. Jesus says, “Don’t be like the hypocrites.” That is, Jesus doesn’t just say, “This kind of behavior is hypocritical, this kind of thinking is hypocritical, this kind of attitude is hypocritical,” He says, “These people are hypocrites.”

 

We often want to separate actions from people; our therapeutic society, including much of the professing church, doesn’t want to admit that there are bad and evil people, that there are false prophets, that there are hypocrites. However, as Paul points out in Ephesians 2:3, at one time we were all “by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Much of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 – 7) is to help us see hypocritical religion and false teaching, and more especially what it is to live as the sons and daughters of our Father in heaven in contrast to hypocritical and false religion.

 

Can we see that one of the results of learning to judge ourselves, in first taking the log out of our own eye, is that we might “see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye”? That is, can we see that helping one another see clearly is an element of living in relationship with others?

 

Then we have, “For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” Can we connect this to Matthew 7:12? “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Paul expresses this in Galatians 5:14, “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

 

Could it be that one reason we misinterpret “Judge not that you not be judged” is that we don’t want the responsibility of allowing the Word of God to work within us, teaching us the difference between the true and the false? Could it also be that we don’t want the responsibility of living in relationship with one another – with all the messiness that can entail?

 

Could it be that another reason that we misquote “Judge not that you not be judged” is that we don’t want to learn God’s true “standard of measure” in the way we look at ourselves and others? To be sure, God’s standard of measure requires obedience and humility, it requires that we submit to His Word and to our Lord Jesus Christ, it requires that we see our great need and His great provision.

 

You see, we are tempted to use one standard of measure for ourselves and another standard for others. As someone said, “We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions.”

 

Just because there are many false understandings of “Judge not that you be not judged” doesn’t mean that we should not discover, and live out, its true meaning, for it is the teaching of Jesus Christ; indeed, it is His command – and Jesus teaches us that we are to teach others “to observe all that I commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). Who are we to reject the commandments of Jesus Christ?

 

Yes, there are those who appoint themselves the judges of all others, just as the scribes and Pharisees; and yes, there are those on the opposite end who say, “We’re not going to judge, no matter what.” Cannot the latter see that they are judging the Word of Jesus to not be relevant? Can’t they see that they have appointed themselves judges of Jesus Christ? As to the former, perhaps they should ponder Matthew 5:20, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

 

How do we take the log out of our own eyes? Without Christ and others this is an impossibility, we are incapable of seeing ourselves as we really are without the grace and mercy of God, without His Word, and without others. The psalms teach us to call upon God to search us and preserve us:

 

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139:23 – 24.

 

“Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me; then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:12 – 14.

 

The Word of God works deep within us, revealing things which we would not otherwise see, and leading us to our great high priest for mercy and grace – Hebrews 4:12 – 16.

 

As we live in relationship with our brothers and sisters, learning to know Jesus Christ and His Word together, Christ reveals things to us about ourselves in myriad ways. Yes, there are times we need someone to say, “Have you thought about what you are doing? Have you thought about what you just said? Have you considered your attitude in the light of God’s Word and Jesus Christ?”

 

But there are many more times when the nature of our relationships with one another – the love and grace and koinonia – in which Jesus Christ shines forth and in which His Word unfolds in our lives, reveals things about ourselves as a matter of course, as a fruit of our relationships. This becomes a thread of the fabric of our life in Christ, a critical and necessary thread, a vital element. Seeing Jesus in others has convicted and challenged me throughout my life, it has also brought hope and healing and grace, teaching me how to better live for Jesus and others. The older I grow in Jesus, the clearer I see this – O that I had seen this more clearly when I was younger, perhaps I would not have been such a fool.

 

More to follow in the next post…and by the way, this subject is meant to have tension in it, Matthew 7:1 – 6 is meant to have tension, it is not meant to be easy to think about, to obey, or to live. Why might this be?

Sounds Good, But Is It The Truth? (7)

 

O how I wish we would understand that the only way to know to Bible is to read the Bible, and that when we read the Bible that we must look for our Lord Jesus Christ and depend on Him to reveal Himself through His Word and the Holy Spirit. When I say, “Read the Bible,” I mean read it again and again and again – to live in it, to obey it, to ponder it, to speak of it with others.

 

I have been reading the Bible for 57 years, and I write this to say that I feel like I am just getting to know the Bible, it is fresher to me today than yesterday, and I am more excited to see Jesus in the Bible today than I have ever been before. And so with these introductory words I want to look at another often misquoted verse in the Bible, Matthew  7:1, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.”

 

Let’s begin with the immediate passage, remembering that the passage is in a section of Matthew chapters 5 – 7, the Sermon on the Mount:

 

“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

 

“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7:1 – 6.

 

Let’s please consider the context of this passage, for while we live in a world of sound bites, that has not been the case for most of history; while we have attention spans less than goldfish, that has not been the case for most of history (though to be sure the masses have often been stirred and manipulated by the equivalent of sound bites).

 

Remembering that chapters and verses were not in the original manuscripts, consider Matthew Chapter 6:

 

“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets…” Matthew 6:2.

 

“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners…” Matthew 6:5.

 

“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the nations do…” Matthew 6:7.

 

“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites…” Matthew 6:16.

 

Jesus gives us four examples of how not to think and act, and these examples are all of people. While one of these examples is of the nations in general (6:7), the other three examples are Jewish religious people, “in the synagogues.” Jesus is drawing the attention of His hearers to people they know, He is saying, “You know these people, don’t be like them.” He is not only drawing attention to actual people, He is naming them “hypocrites.” He is saying, “When you see people acting like this, judge this way, make a distinction between this behavior and godly behavior.”

 

Jesus’ warnings about hypocrites, and His teaching about godly giving, godly prayer, and godly fasting in Matthew Chapter 6 are a continuation of Chapter 5, and within Chapter 5 Jesus says, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20).

 

Here Jesus draws His attention to two groups of religious people, (perhaps effectively one group), and says, “Look at these people, people you know, people you live with, people who teach you, do you see how they live? Do you see how “righteous” they are? Unless your righteousness exceeds their righteousness, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Then Jesus proceeds to demonstrate what that higher righteousness looks like and extends that teaching into Chapter 6.

 

Can we see how Jesus’s teaching leading up to “Do not judge so that you will not be judged” is laced with judgment? Can we see how Jesus is saying to His hearers, and to us, “Judge this thinking this way. Judge this teaching this way. Judge this living this way”?

 

Let’s keep in mind that Jesus isn’t just saying to judge and discern what is sinful and bad behavior and thinking, but He is also showing us how to judge righteous behavior, for example, “But I say to you, love your enemies…” (5:44); “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (6:3).

 

Then we have the context in terms of what follows, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” Have you noticed 7:6? “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine…” In one moment Jesus says, “Do not judge,” and in the next moment He says, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine…”

 

Now then, since we know Jesus isn’t referring to actual dogs or swine, to whom is He pointing? Of course He is pointing to people, just as He is pointing to people in 5:20, 6:2, 6:5, 6:7, and 6:16.

 

Then we have 7:15 - 20, “Beware of the false prophets…you will know them by their fruits.”

 

Not only is the statement, “Judge not that you not be judged,” preceded by Jesus teaching us to judge and discern between ungodly religious practice and thinking and teaching, and godly living as sons and daughters of our heavenly Father (Matthew 43 – 48), but it is followed by Jesus continuing to teach us to judge between godly and ungodly living – and the ungodly living He points to is in the context of religious thinking and practice. If anything, what follows Matthew 7:1 is starker than what precedes it, for we have “dogs and swine” in 7:6 and false prophets who are “ravenous wolves” in 7:15.

 

Also, we should not ignore the identification of people with practice – that is, Jesus is teaching us about those who are living as sons and daughters of God as contrasted with those who are hypocrites and dogs and swine and false prophets and ravenous wolves.

 

Consider Jesus’ words in John 8:44 (best read in context), “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father…”

 

This is hard for most of us to absorb in our therapeutic society and in a church that has surrendered to the therapeutic. We feel compelled to gloss over the words of Jesus, to spin them, to sugar coat them, to ignore them, to be embarrassed by them. Yet, if we rightly understand the Gospel we can all say that at one time “we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest [of mankind]” (Ephesians 2:1 – 3).

 

So again, what does the context of “Judge not that you not be judged” tell us about judging and discerning and differentiating between people and between thoughts and actions? What does it tell us about hypocritical religion with its self-righteousness as contrasted with true worship and righteousness? The context tells us that we ought to most certainly judge between these people and these things, Jesus is teaching this – He is drawing a stark and, to His listeners, a surprising contrast between the true and the false, He is teaching us to judge, to discern, to differentiate.

 

How then are we to understand “Do not judge so that you will not be judged”?

 

We’ll ponder this in our next post.

Sounds Good, But Is It The Truth? (6)

 

Continuing from our previous post, reflecting on Romans 8:28:

 

Do we define what is good, or does God define it? What is the “good” that Paul is speaking of in Romans 8:28?

 

Let’s note that all things work together for good to those who love God. We are to love God with all that we have and all that we are. We are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:29 – 31), and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In the previous post I included references to Biblical love, a love with definition, a love with a certain form of expression, a love that can be identified – to love God means that we keep His commandments, it means that we lay our lives down for Him and others, it means that we judge what is true and what is false, what is good and what is evil.

 

Let’s also note that all things work together for good for those who are called according to God’s purpose. We no longer belong to ourselves, we belong to God in Jesus Christ. Our lives are not to be about our agendas, for we are called to surrender our agendas, along with ourselves, to Jesus Christ. Here, my friends, is one of our great challenges; we live in a church, at least in the West, which considers itself as the center of the universe – we have had a reverse Copernican revolution, we have gone from thinking the sun is the center of the solar system to thinking that we are the center – our wants, our needs, our desires, our agendas, our pleasures, our definition of good is what matters – we have pushed the Cross of Christ out of the way, we have locked it up in a basement storage room and installed multiple locks on the door…and we dare not bring the Cross out lest it cause us discomfort. O we might take it out for lip service during Holy Week and dress it up so that it is unrecognizable, but then we’ll put it back where we think it belongs so as not to offend anyone, so as not to interfere with our own personal “good.”

 

To quote Romans 8:28 out of context, to use the word “good” as a nebulous fuzzy image without Biblical definition, is to suck the glory of the verse and the passage out of it (humanly speaking) and to deprive us of it glorious message, a message that we can rely on, indeed, a message that we can stake our lives upon.

 

For the “good” of which Romans 8:28 speaks is none other than that we should be “conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). Indeed, the greater context of 8:28 is our sonship, in Christ, in the Father and our destiny in that sonship – a destiny in which we bear the likeness of our Elder Brother, the Firstborn Son, crying out, “Abba! Father!” (8:15), a destiny in which we share in the sufferings Christ, in which we are coheirs with Christ, in which a glorious unveiling awaits us in which the creation will be set free from its downward spiral of decay and in which it will be set free “into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

 

The trajectory of our destiny in Christ is that nothing will separate us from the love of God, a love which has clarity and definition and articulation, as Paul writes, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (8:32). Within our destiny and calling in Christ, nothing will separate us from the love of God (8:38 – 39).

 

When we define “good” we have nothing to build our lives upon, nothing upon which to trust, nothing upon which to hope, nothing with which we can encourage and comfort our brothers and sisters; but when we realize that God’s “good” is our transformation into the likeness and image of Jesus Christ, when we see God’s ultimate purpose and intention in our lives – individually and as His People – then we can live “looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2), then we can “keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1 – 4), knowing that “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

 

Does the context of Romans 8:28 matter?

 

What do you think?

Sounds Good, But Is It The Truth? (5)

 

How many times have we heard, when someone is going through a difficult time, “Well, we know that the Bible says that all things work together for good”? This sounds good, but is it the truth?

 

The statement, “All things work together for good,” is taken from Romans 8:28:

 

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (NASB).

 

What does the verse itself say? How does the context of the verse help us understand the verse? What is the “good” that the verse is speaking of?

 

While I’m sure that there are many facets to Romans 8:28, I want to focus on the idea of “good” in this verse, because here is where I see the greatest misunderstanding among people, and this has led me to consider Romans 8:28 one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible, a verse that is quoted countless times without its context.

 

What is the “good” of which Paul is writing? What does this good look like? How might we define it? How can we recognize it?

 

Is this a utilitarian good? That is, do we recognize this good as making us better off than we were? Are we thinking in terms of a lesson learned? Or perhaps it is a case of “things might have been worse.” Would an example of “good” be getting laid-off from a job, or fired, and as a result finding a job we love and that pays us better than we could have imagined? Are any of these things what Paul had in mind when he used the word “good”?

 

What does the context tell us? What is the message of Romans Chapter 8? What do we see in the immediate context of Romans 8:28, that is, in Romans 8:26 – 31?

 

You see, we use the word “good” in this verse without knowing what Paul means when he uses the word. This is similar to the way we use the word “love” – the word love has become so ambiguous that its meaning has been reduced to momentary feelings and whims and fancies and thoughts…often with the lifespan of a soap bubble. Yet, if we read 1 Corinthians 13, Philippians 1:9 – 11; John 15:9 – 17; and 1 John 3:16, we see that the “love” of the Bible is a love with extreme definition and recognition – it is anything but ambiguous, it is anything but based on momentary feelings and fancies and fleeting thoughts.

 

What is the “good” of which Paul is writing?

 

What do you think?