Lately, I have really been conscious of seeking to obey Christ in an area where it is easy for me to fall short. And that is in obedience to these words in Matthew 7:1-2: Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. God has made it fairly clear to me that if the yardstick I use to judge others is very short, then that is the same measurement He will use against me. That is a very sobering truth, for often my yardstick is an inch long—if that! It is so easy to dismiss a judgmental and critical spirit—thinking that we have a right to our opinions. But God has revealed to me that I do not have that right, that I can quickly judge without thinking, that it is so much more than just a bad habit—it is actually a sin.
And let me note that God is not calling for no judgments here, for later in that passage He says that once you remove the plank from your own eye you can see clearly to remove the speck from another’s eye. But more often than not we judge hypocritically. We look and comment on what is wrong in someone else’s life while all the while there is something grievously wrong in our own lives. Every time I cut someone down with my words, or judge them to be inferior in any way—especially when I have ignored sin in my own life—I grieve God. I grieve His Spirit within me.
So I have sought to be conscious of NOT grieving the Holy Spirit in this way. However, here is what I have discovered: once you realize that it is indeed a sin and thus decide not to engage in such activity any longer, you realize how hard of a command it is to obey! You soon realize how often your tongue was quick to bring judgment upon another person. In fact, when you decide that you will no longer allow a critical, unkind, judgmental word pass over your lips—and you are around people who do—you find that you are very silent. Before, you would have affirmed and agreed and added your own 2 cents. Now your silence allows you to hear how you used to be. And it shames you.
Had we as Christians received the same harsh judgments from God that we display to one another we would be doomed for all eternity. Instead, God’s measuring stick has always been one of mercy, forgiveness, compassion and love. Therefore, there is no room in a Christ follower’s life to point a finger of disdain. We have no ground to stand upon to find fault with another human being to where our words and or actions are merciless, unforgiving, compassionless and unloving (or even murderous).
Before I committed adultery, I judged other Christians who fell into immorality with a very short yardstick. I basically wrote them off. My harsh judgment of such persons made me feel superior. Superior in that, “I would never do that… I am above such a sin….therefore they are beneath me…” The very thing I said I would never do, however, is the very thing that toppled me. How true is God’s word: “Pride goes before a fall….” And fall I did. Humiliated, ashamed and ruined—I had become what I once condemned: an adulterer. And I realized then—that there is no good thing in me. I who thought I was superior could do the unthinkable. It humbled me and still does.
But here’s the kicker: there is still no good thing in me. And what makes me realize that? My quick and unkind judgment of others. When I unmercifully and hypocritically judge another person, I am saying, “There is good in me and there is bad in them. I am superior, they are inferior.”
Furthermore, just as I was powerless to clean up my life morally without Christ, I am also powerless when it comes to cleaning up my words. And to lean only on God to clean us up morally but not think we need His help to clean up our thoughts and our words is to eventually grieve Him. We may not be guilty of adultery—but no where does the flesh seek to have its way than when we blister someone with our words—whether within earshot or not. When God began to clean up my moral life—He turned me to the other things that were just as disobedient in His sight: unbridled speech and harsh criticisms. To allow God to tame our flesh morally and not tame our tongue is to think that God only cares about the BIG sins in our lives.
However, the truth we must embrace is that from immorality to unloving speech God cares about it all. Jesus sweat blood and tears to redeem us from every sin we have ever committed, and we need to pray and sweat over them too—even over what we might deem the “little” sins that seem of little consequence.
Don’t get me wrong. I still have a long way to go. I can really relate to a facebook post I recently read:” Sometimes my greatest accomplishment is just keeping my mouth shut.” But as they say, being aware of our folly is half the battle! And what has come with that awareness Is the acknowledgement that I can never for one moment let go of God’s Hand! The second I do—thinking there is some goodness in me I can call upon, I stumble and fall. If adultery has taught me one thing it is that no longer do I glibly say, “There go I but for the grace of God.” Rather, I say it with the deepest acknowledgment, with the highest recognition, that truly—there go I—a vile, hypocritical, unrighteous person—BUT for the grace and the goodness of God.
The day I wrote this devotional, I read in my own devotions these words from Andrew Murray: “You cannot separate God from His Word. No goodness or power can be received separate from God…..look up into the face of your loving Father, take time every day with Him, and begin a new life with the deep emptiness and poverty of one who has nothing and who waits to receive everything from Him; with the deep restfulness of one who rests on the omnipotent Jehovah.”
That about sums it up! We cannot separate God from His word or from the way we live to the words we speak. God wants it all—all of us. When we give Him full access and then confess that we are absolutely helpless apart from God– then He takes up residence within bringing His omnipotence with Him–the power to be silent, the power to overcome.
Again Andrew Murray says it well: In worship, in work, in sanctification, in obedience to God, I can do nothing of myself; my place is to worship the omnipotent God and to believe that He will work in me every moment of every day…..
theheartmender 