Assuming God’s Role (Protestant/Evangelical Devotional)

Email from "The Navigators" | 12/8/2020

[Gamecock]

Today’s Scripture: Matthew 7:1

“Judge not, that you be not judged.”

It’s easy to become judgmental toward anyone whose opinions are different from ours, then to hide our judgmentalism under the cloak of Christian convictions. Paul wrote, "Stop judging one another regardless of which position you take." Then he added, "Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand" (Romans 14:4). Basically, Paul was saying, "stop trying to play God toward your fellow believers in Christ. God is the Judge, not you."

That’s what we’re doing when we judge others whose preferences and practices are different from ours. We’re arrogating to ourselves a role God has reserved for himself. Perhaps this is what Jesus had in mind in the well-known words of Matthew 7:3 when he said, "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" Could that log in our eye be the log of judgmentalism, arrogating to ourselves the role of God?

Here we see Jesus using hyperbole to make his point. Physically, it’s impossible to have a log in one’s eye. But the log in one’s own eye may well represent God’s verdict on our sin of judgmentalism. If I’m correct, then the seriousness of the sin of judgmentalism is not so much that I judge my brother as that in so doing I assume the role of God.

We sin if we condemn the obviously flagrant sins of others without at the same time acknowledging that we ourselves are still sinners before God. One of the major objectives of this book is to help us stop doing that. (Excerpt taken from Respectable Sins)

[Gamecock]

Ping

[Buffalo Bob]

The following is a good primer on Christian judging based on scripture
(you will need to search for "32225" once there)

Jesus teaches us to — in love — tell fellow believers about their sins. In John 7, Jesus states that we should “judge with right judgment” and not “by appearances” (John 7:14). The meaning of this is that we should judge biblically, not worldly.

Such biblical judgement should be redemption-oriented, with the motive of helping a fellow brother or sister back into a right relationship with Christ. Furthermore, in the passage we most relate with church discipline (Matthew 18:15-20), Jesus directly teaches the disciples, “If a brother sins against you, go tell him his fault…” (Matt 18:15). Thus, we are commanded to “judge” and “go tell” that our brothers and sisters in Christ may be redeemed.

This is not to shame or humiliate or to gain a superior spiritual standing over someone else. No, Jesus says the sin should be first confronted privately “between you and him alone” (v.15). We are to go and tell them so that we may love them, truly. The uncomfortable conversation must be had so that we may keep our brothers and sisters in Christ from the awful effects of sin (Rom 1; Gal 5:19ff) and sin’s ultimate end: death and eternal condemnation (James 1:15; Heb 9:27; 1 Cor 6:9f; cf. Rev 21:8,27).

Matthew 7:6 points to the wisdom that we should exercise discretion to whom we confront, but for Christians, the principle stands. Meaning, the most unloving and least Christian thing one can do is withhold the saving knowledge of holiness (Heb 12:14) and not approach a fellow brother or sister in Christ about their sin. We are to “see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God” (Heb 12:15).

And where is the only place this life-giving grace is to be found? In Jesus and His perfect forgiveness for sins, which alone reconciles us to God, forever. So, with the above in mind, what do we make of the meaning of Matthew 7:1? Context tells.

There are five verses that follow Matthew 7:1 and a parallel passage in the gospel of Luke (Luke 6:37-42) that together offer invaluable contextual clues to the meaning of 7:1.

Verses 3-5 reveals it is a matter of hypocrisy, and the hypocrisy will be judged by the level of the hypocrisy (v. 2).

Meaning, if you are not living a life that is yielded to God, you are not in a place spiritually to lead someone else to holiness. You will be like the blind leading the blind (Luke 6:39), preaching Jesus but knowing nothing about Him nor His power, yourself.

This does not mean that one needs to be “perfect” or sinless to help another by pointing out sin and discipling them to a right standing with God. But it does mean that if you are living purposely in unrepentant sin, your intentions to confront another over their sin are, at least, suspect.