After a break due to bad weather and Christmas holidays, the Bible studies resumed this week, looking at Romans 2:1-15.
This passage has much to say about judgment and the law, with Paul pointing out that to judge someone and to be guilty of the same thing is obviously wrong. If someone sets themself up as a judge, it doesn’t stop them being judged by God.
The whole area of judging is one that can seem confusing and contradictory. Matt 7 tells us not to judge or we will be judged. Romans 14:10, 13 also tells us not to judge our brother. At the same time, 1 Corinthians 2:15 talks about the spiritual man judging all things, yet he himself is judged by no one.
There is obviously a difference between making a judgment about an action, the results of which may be clearly contrary to Scripture, and making a judgment about a person’s motivation. The spiritual person – one in whom the Spirit of God lives, not someone who is by their own virtue ‘better’ than anyone else! – makes decisions and weighs lots of things: ways to act, what should or should not be done, what is right and wrong to do. Yet there are so many things that we cannot and should not make judgments about, simply because only God knows the heart. We can’t make judgments about another person’s salvation or their standing before the Lord.
We tend to want everything to be black and white and have to at times recognise that God is not simply a God of the monochrome! Passages such as Romans 14 and Colossians 2 point to a diversity of opinions which cannot be dismissed; we should not condemn others, or let them condemn us, simply because we don’t agree on every single point in life. Moreoever, our hearts are deceitful and it’s not always easy to know our own motivation, let alone anyone else’s!
“Every time you criticise someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.
You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.” (Romans 2:2-4, The Message)
Let’s keep our eyes on God and make sure we take the plank out of our own eyes before we start looking at the specks in other people’s eyes!