Don't waste your time judging!

Devotions

Friday, September 19, 2008

Reading

NLT Romans 14:1 Accept Christians who are weak in faith, and don't argue with them about what they think is right or wrong. 2 For instance, one person believes it is all right to eat anything. But another believer who has a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables. 3 Those who think it is all right to eat anything must not look down on those who won't. And those who won't eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to condemn God's servants? They are responsible to the Lord, so let him tell them whether they are right or wrong. The Lord's power will help them do as they should. 5 In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. Each person should have a personal conviction about this matter. 6 Those who have a special day for worshiping the Lord are trying to honor him. Those who eat all kinds of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who won't eat everything also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God. 7 For we are not our own masters when we live or when we die. 8 While we live, we live to please the Lord. And when we die, we go to be with the Lord. So in life and in death, we belong to the Lord. 9 Christ died and rose again for this very purpose, so that he might be Lord of those who are alive and of those who have died. 10 So why do you condemn another Christian? Why do you look down on another Christian? Remember, each of us will stand personally before the judgment seat of God. 11 For the Scriptures say, " 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow to me and every tongue will confess allegiance to God.' " 12 Yes, each of us will have to give a personal account to God.

Meditation:

Literal - Paul is attempting to get Christians to accept one another instead of judging each other concerning areas in which God has not provided an authoritative word. The very fact that Paul could write this seems to indicate that he was not assuming absolute divine revelation on every single aspect of Christian conduct. Paul shows his practice of this principle in that he did not use his apostolic position to bind the conscience of other Christians where God had allowed there to be freedom. Where God has clearly spoken we can clearly speak and where God has not clearly spoken we must allow freedom of personal conscience.

Christian fellowship is to be one where we accept each other even when we differ about how we should honor God in areas of eating, drinking, and what days of the calendar should be celebrated as “holy”. These issues had to do with the conflicts between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians and how they felt it was best to honor the Lord in these areas. The condemnation towards each other would quickly turn into the idea that one group was being “legalistic” and the other “lawless”. Self righteousness would be in both camps as they perceived themselves as the more enlightened or faithful.

Paul says let Christ be the one that every Christian has to answer to on such matters and just focus on accepting and loving each other. Each Christian belongs to Christ and is attempting to honor Christ in what they do on such matters. So why bother condemning and judging your brother or sister? Cannot Christ handle that? Why must every believer conform to your way of following Jesus? God is more concerned about our attitude of love and acceptance of each other than He is about our conformity to some particular cultural expression of devotion to Him.

One of the key points here is that the one thing that all Christians agree upon is that life is all about pleasing the Lord in what we do. It is all about living for His glory and in gratitude. Keep the main thing the main thing. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Christocentric perspective: Paul’s understanding of who we are is very simple. We have been bought by Christ’s blood and belong to Him body and soul. We are the servants of Christ and of no other person. Every action we take we take to please Christ. We will have to give an account of every action to Christ. We are lead by the Lord in discerning the best path for us to take to please and empowered to do this. Christ is our life.

Moral perspective: Stop judging other Christians. We will not be judged on how well we judged others. We will be judged for judging. So it seems wise to stop judging and condemning and strive towards loving and accepting.

Eternal perspective: The church in the eternal kingdom will finally be free of all our party spirit, divisions, self righteousness, self centeredness, politics, and condemning spirits. We will be fully in love with the LORD and with each other. We will be accepting of our different cultures and background. We will be one in Jesus!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me not judge my brothers and sisters. Free me on majoring in the minors. Show me how to show love with those who disagree with me.

Contemplation: Love one another!

Action: Who have I spent time judging and condemning in the last week? Last month? Last year? Why am I tempted to focus my condemnation on this person? How could I release my condemnation and open my heart to accept them as they are?