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.  Matthew 7:1-2

You know the phrase. You hear it from friends or acquaintances in the work place…maybe even at church. It usually is uttered by someone whose life is an ongoing train wreck of bad decisions and consequences. He or she has just made another one and is telling you not to speak into their life unless it is a word of total approval. If it is someone at church, they like to quote scripture as a rebuke to you even thinking of disapproving of their decisions.

The verse above comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Of course, we call it by that name, he didn’t.  That verse and other’s like it have been misused on many occasions to protest any admonition or rebuke levied against an individual’s sin or misbehavior.  The current cultural gist of the phrase means that I don’t think anyone should hold me accountable for any of my bad, hurtful, destructive, or just plain stupid behaviors.  

If “judging,” in the sense that Jesus used it, meant calling another person to repentance or a course correction, then Jesus himself sinned on numerous occasions as well as most of the other writers of the New Testament.  Jesus pointed out the sins of the Pharisees on numerous occasions. He also encouraged the “adulterous woman” of John 8 to “go and leave your life of sin. ” He warned the paralytic he healed at the pool of Bethesda to stop sinning or something worse would happen to him. In addition, the writers of the New Testament often pointed out sins in the churches to whom they were writing as they called them to repentance and, on occasion, even called out people by name. From time to time they even ordered church discipline to be administered to those who persisted in sin.

So, if the “judging” Jesus warned about is not a prohibition against pointing out the sins of others, what is it ?  It’s an important question and one that needs to be seriously considered in the area of spiritual freedom and spiritual warfare.  

As in most spiritual issues, the key seems to be the condition of the heart and our motives for “judging,” that makes the act either a sin or a righteous act on our part. In the context of the Sermon on the Mount, I believe the “judging” is a matter of condemnation of another person from a sense of self-righteousness or moral superiority.  It is one thing to point out a behavior that is misaligned with God’s will out of concern for the sinner and quite another thing to condemn the person while holding ourselves up as models of virtue.

The key is that righteous “judgment” is out of concern for a person’s salvation and the spiritual health of the body of Christ.  There is no self-righteous component in which church leaders are feeling morally superior to the person caught in sin.  Love is motivating the discipline in the same way that love motivates a parent to discipline a rebellious child. The goal of proper judgment is always redemption motivated by love.

The judgment that Jesus warns us about is a personal judgment based on a feeling of superiority or a desire to wound or demean another person. We tend to leap past the behavior and label another person as if we know his thoughts, his  heart, his motives, and his history.  Instead of saying that a young woman is involved in sexual immorality, we simply label her as a slut…verbally or in our own minds. At that point, we have made her “less than” us, although we undoubtedly have another variety of sin in our own life that we justify or don’t recognize.  That judgment exalts us and diminishes the other person.  We don’t feel concern, but rather contempt. We don’t love, but reject.  We judge the person’s worth and value, rather than letting God be the judge. Here is the danger.  When we judge with that heart, we align ourselves with Satan who is the chief accuser of the brethren.

2020 has been a miserable year. People are stressed, discouraged and afraid. In the wake of that, people make bad decisions and calls for marriage counseling have increased. For me, the most difficult thing in marriage counseling is to deal with judgment.  Once a spouse has judged his or her partner as selfish, hateful, perverse, manipulative, etc., it is difficult for that person to see their spouse in any other light.  Even when that spouse is trying to change, the one who has made a judgment will not see the change or credit the effort.  Eventually, the “judged” spouse will give up trying to be different because they sense that whatever they do will never be enough. The spouse who has made the judgment will always feel superior to the other and their disdain or disrespect will poison the relationship.  Believe me, Satan will work hard to justify and maintain that judgment in the mind of the spouse who has made it. You can see how damaging this kind of judgment can be.

Secondly, Jesus says that “with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.”  When we judge others with a heart of moral superiority we have entered into the realm of pride and arrogance, which opens us up to the enemy.  That kind of judgment is a form of “unforgiveness” in which we have condemned another and refuse to let go of our condemning attitude. We have defined another person without mercy or forgiveness.  When we judge another, in this context, we sin and the unrepented sin is an open door to the enemy.  Not only that, but once we have cast another person in a certain light through judgment, we typically dismiss or “filter out” all evidence to the contrary. If you think about it, that seems to be the basis for racism and bigotry.

This kind of judgment, because it is sin, gives the devil a legal right to afflict us.  That is how our judgment comes back on us.  Remember…with what judgment we judge, we shall be judged. If we judge someone to be a perverse person, Satan can deal with us as a perverse person. If we judge someone to be selfish, the enemy can deal with us as a selfish person. In finding freedom, people not only need to repent of active sin and unforgiveness, but of judgments as well. In the same way that we repent of sin and renounce it, we must also repent of judgments and renounce them before we can dismiss every demon. Again, this is not a denial of sin, but a change of heart toward the sinner and any sensei of our own superiority.

Once again, identifying behavior as sinful, based on the word of God, is not the same as labeling a person and thinking less of them because of our personal agendas.  The kind of judgment the apostle Paul calls us to honors the word of God and humbly seeks restoration of a person caught in sin. The judgment Jesus warns us against, actually diminishes the chance for restoration because we feel no obligation to try to redeem that person we have labeled and often seek to have others join us in our judgment against him or her through gossip and inuendos.  

So, as we examine ourselves to see if we are in alignment with the Father’s will, we may want to scan our own hearts and history to see if judgment is opening a door for the enemy or is keeping us from reconciling a relationship.  If we are ministering freedom, to others, judgment is an area that needs to be explored.  If we have placed a judgment on ourselves, we also need to repent of that judgment and renounce it.

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.  Matthew 7:1-2

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Luke 6:37

The two verses above come from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Of course, we call it by that name, he didn’t.  The verses have been misused on many occasions to protest any admonition or rebuke levied against an individual’s sin.  We all know the phrase, “Don’t judge me!”   If “judging,” in the sense that Jesus used it, meant calling another person to repentance, then Paul sinned on numerous occasions in his letters to the churches, as well as Peter and James and other writers of the New Testament.  These writers often pointed out sins in the churches to whom they were writing as they called them to repentance and, on occasion, even called out people by  name.

So, if this is not a prohibition of pointing out the sins of others, what does it mean?  It’s an important question and one that needs to be seriously considered in the area of spiritual freedom and spiritual warfare.  Let’s again settle what it doesn’tmean. In his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul commanded, “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you” (1 Cor. 5:9-13).

Jesus says, “Judge not…”  Paul says “Judge.”  Are these two teachings contradicting one another?  We believe that the Holy Spirit directed Paul’s writings and that Jesus spoke what he heard from the Father, so these cannot be contradictory commands because God does not contradict himself. What, then, do they mean?

Typically, the issue in spiritual matters is the heart and I believe that is the issue that settles the matter on judging.  When Paul commands us to judge those within the church, we are not making personal judgments but are submitting to the judgment of God’s word.  If a man or woman is living a life that is clearly contradictory to scripture and will not repent after leadership has gone to them, shown them what Jesus had to say about their lifestyle, and prayed with them, then some form of discipline is in order.  The key is that the “judgment” is out of concern for their salvation and the spiritual health of the body of Christ.  There is no self-righteous component in which church leaders are feeling morally superior to the person caught in sin.  Love is motivating the discipline in the same way that love motivates a parent to discipline a rebellious child.

The spirit of this “judgment” is revealed in Paul’s letter to the Galatians when he says, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each onelooking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” (Gal.6:11-3).  This verse describes the heart of proper judgment.  The Word is the standard rather than our own biases. We approach the individual with gentleness and a sense of our own weakness and vulnerability to sin. We typically judge the behavior rather than the heart or the person, because only God knows all the issues behind the sin.  We still deal with the sin, because unrepented sin puts the person’s eternal destination in jeopardy and eventually can lead others into sin as well. The goal of proper judgment is always redemption motivated by love.

The judgment Jesus speaks of is a personal judgment based on a feeling of superiority or a desire to hurt the other person. We tend to go past the behavior and simply label another person as if we know their thoughts and their heart.  Instead of saying that a young woman is involved in sexual immorality, we simply label her as a slut…verbally or in our own minds. At that point, we have made her “less than” us, although we probably have another variety of sin in our own life that we justify or don’t recognize.  That judgment exalts us and diminishes the other person.  We don’t feel concern, but rather contempt. We don’t love, but reject.  We judge the person’s worth and value, rather than letting God be the judge.

Here is the danger.  When we judge with that heart, we align ourselves with Satan who is the accuser of the brethren. Secondly, Jesus says that “with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.”  When we judge others with a heart of moral superiority, we open ourselves up to the enemy.  We have not shown mercy or forgiveness.  When we judge another, in this context, we sin and the unrepented sin is an open door to the enemy.  Not only that, but once we have cast another person in a certain light through judgment, we typically dismiss all evidence to the contrary.

The most difficult thing in marriage counseling is to deal with judgment.  Once a spouse has judged their partner as selfish, hateful, manipulative, perverse, etc., it is difficult for them to see their spouse in any other light.  Even when that spouse is changing, the one who has made a judgment will not see the change or credit the change.  Eventually, the “judged” spouse will give up trying to be different because they sense that whatever they do will never be enough. The spouse who has made the judgment will always feel superior to the other and their disdain or disrespect will poison the relationship.  Believe me, Satan will work hard to justify and maintain that judgment in the mind of the spouse who has made it.

This kind of judgment, because it is sin, gives the devil a legal right to afflict us.  That is how our judgment comes back on us.  If we judge someone to be a perverse person, Satan can treat us as a perverse person. If we judge someone to be selfish, the enemy can deal with us as a selfish person. In finding freedom, people not only need to repent of active sin and unforgiveness, but of judgments as well. In the same way that we repent of sin and renounce it, we must also repent of judgments and renounce them before we can dismiss every demon. Again, this is not a denial of sin, but a change of heart toward the sinner.

Once again, identifying behavior as sinful, based on the word of God, is not the same as labeling a person and thinking less of them because of our personal agendas.  The kind of judgment the apostle Paul calls us to honors the word of God and humbly seeks restoration of a person caught in sin. The judgment Jesus warns us against, actually diminishes the chance for restoration because we feel no obligation to try to redeem that person we have labeled and often seek to have others join us in our judgment against him or her.  So, as we examine ourselves to see if we are in alignment with the Father’s will, we may want to scan our own hearts and history to see if judgment is opening a door for the enemy or is keeping us from reconciling a relationship.  If we are ministering freedom, to others, judgment is an area that needs to be explored.

We are continuing to work through the “beatitudes” of Christ as presented in Matthew 5.  We’re doing so because Jesus taught these things over and over as essential qualities in the life of a believer.  These qualities are really fruits of the Spirit that increase our intimacy with God which, in turn, increases our authority and anointing for ministry.  The declarations of Jesus that I want to consider this week is…

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

 We need to notice that blessedness comes from developing qualities that belong first to the Father and making them our own. Mercyis one of those qualities that is almost wholly assigned to the Father in the Old Testament.  “For the Lord your God is a merciful God” (Dt. 4:31). Mercy carries with it the idea of having empathy for the plight of a person and not requiring perfection in order to continue a relationship.  Related to mercy is the realization that men are but flesh and blood and will all stumble at times – even the best. Because we are imperfect we cannot require perfection of others.  That constitutes judgment rather than mercy. Righteous judgment sees to it that s person gets what he or she deserves.  It is the opposite of grace through which we receive underserved favor. I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t want to get what I deserve but rather grace and mercy that overlooks my great imperfections and failings. Jesus is saying that God will extend mercy to us in the same proportion we extended it to others.

A definitive illustration of mercy is found in Matthew 18. You know the story.  Jesus tells of a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. These were servants to whom he had entrusted money for investment or to whom he had loaned money. One of his servants owed the king ten thousand talents and, when the time came, was unable to repay the king. The king ordered that the servant, his wife, and his children to all be sold as bond servants to pay off part of the debt. The text says, “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the enormous debt, and let him go.”

The king recognized the servant’s inability to keep his financial commitment and that he would never be able to pay back the debt with his own earnings. The servant had taken the money, promised to pay it back, and then had made foolish or even unethical decisions that caused him to loose much. If not all,  of the money. The king had every right to jail him or sell him into slavery but decided to forgive the servant for his immense shortcomings. The twist comes when the forgiven servant goes out immediately and demands that another servant, who owes him a small amount, pay him immediately.  When the servant couldn’t pay, the forgiven servant had him jailed.  When the king discovered what had happened, he called the forgiven servant, and rebuked him saying, “You wicked servant…I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.  Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?”  He then revoked the mercy he had originally shown and turned the man over to the “tormentors” until he could repay the debt. Jesus went on to say that that is how God will treat us if we do not forgive others from our hearts – not just the words but sincerely.  The story illustrates the connection between forgiveness and mercy.

The parable reveals that forgiveness flows out of the mercy we extend to the imperfections of others.  We are to extend mercy to others because God has had great mercy on us.  The psalmist said, “The Lordis compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love…he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities…As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lordhas compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” (Psm.103:8-14).

We tend to reserve our mercy, our forgiveness, our charity, or our empathy for those that we believe ”deserve it.”  James tells us that mercy triumphs over judgment (Ja.2:14).  The truth is that when we withhold mercy, we  have judged another person as unworthy of our care and concern.   Jesus warns us when he says, “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” (Mt.7:1-2). Mercy triumphs over judgment because when we show mercy, God withholds judgment from us.  There are two aspects of God that must always be satisfied – holiness and love.  Judgment relates to his holiness that demands payment for wrongs.  Mercy relates to love and is considered a higher virtue than even righteous judgment because the greatest of qualities is love.  The cross has satisfied judgment so that I;n love he can extend mercy.  He fully expects us to do the same.

There is a true blessedness when we give up the role of judge and release all of that to the Father for his perfect judgment. When we judge others we always fall into the trap of comparisons.  We judge that we are more righteous, more deserving, smarter, etc. so that we somehow have the right to condemn or point out faults that we presumably don’t share. As we do, we will always be measuring ourselves against others and either feel “less than” or we will have to justify our shortcomings in order to judge another. Both of those options leave us in a bad place with God. Blessedness comes from our freedom from comparison, judging, and justifying.  We simply extend mercy because God extends it to us and there is a blessedness and peace in knowing that we live under the grace and mercy of our Heavenly Father who does not treat us as our sins deserve. Jesus has covered our weaknesses and failings. Like the forgiven servant in Matthew 18, we should be quick to extend that mercy to all who cross our paths.

The Book of Judges is a cyclical drama of Israel’s faithfulness and rebellion toward God that occurred after the death of Joshua. Israel would push through a few decades of faithfulness to Jehovah, enjoying the blessings attached to that faithfulness, and then would depart from his ways. Eventually, after a long season of idolatry and sin, God would bring judgment on them in the form of oppression from neighboring tribes until they repented. When their hearts and eyes returned to the Lord, he would forgive them, raise up a man or woman (called judges) to lead them against their enemies, and free them from their oppressors again. This cycle occurs over and over again in the book of Judges. One of the individuals he raised up was Gideon. I want to spend a few blogs finding some insights from his very unique story that we might apply to our own lives.

His story begins with these lines, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites”… Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. When the Israelites cried to the Lord because of Midian…The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” “But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his mighty wonders that our fathers told us about” (Jud.6:1-13)?

I like Gideon. He was not politically correct. At the moment he voiced that question, he was not yet aware that the man he was speaking to was an angel. The man was a stranger to Gideon and gave an unusual greeting – The Lord is with you mighty warrior! Gideon wasn’t sure who the man was but he gave a very honest response which amounted to, “If the Lord is with me, why am I hiding in this winepress trying to keep from starving and where are all the big miracles I’ve been praying for and hear about in synagogue?” It’s very possible that there have been times in your life when you were thinking essentially the same thing.

Gideon could have covered his thoughts and said something “spiritual” like, “Yes. God is good and his love endures forever. I know he is with us in ways we just can’t see.” All of that statement would have been true, but it would not have been an honest response from his heart at the moment. God loves honest conversation. He knows what is in your heart, so there is very little reason to give the “Sunday School response” instead of acknowledging what you are struggling with.

I believe Gideon had been struggling with the very thing he expressed. Where are you God? Don’t you still love your people? I know we have been out of line and deserve what’s happening, but I don’t know how much longer we can even survive as a nation. Couldn’t you just show us the same mercy you showed our fathers, even when they had been rebellious, and do something miraculous for us? We need a break and I know that would turn our hearts back to you…but all I’m hearing is crickets!”

For me, the question is why did God choose Gideon to raise up as a leader over unfaithful Israel? I know he often chooses the most unlikely so that he gets the glory, but he also looks at the hearts of men and I think he saw something in Gideon’s heart he could work with. I believe the first thing he saw was a man without pretense. He had honest questions and he asked them. He didn’t pretend to have great faith when his faith was starting to crumble. He didn’t throw out a biblical answer in an effort to cover up his doubt. Confession is good for the soul. God can work with that.

I think we often deny our own doubts – to ourselves and to the Lord – in an effort to avoid the truth that we are struggling with our faith, our concept of God, or our own sense of unworthiness and the creeping fear that God only answers prayers on the basis of our spiritual performance – which has been really lousy of late. Until we acknowledge our own thoughts, we cannot answer them with the Word or request a gift of faith from the Spirit. Sometimes our effort to have perfect faith, by denying our doubts, undermines our ability to have an honest conversation with the Lord or a faithful brother so that our thoughts might be clarified and a word of faith given to us so that we might resolve, rather than deny, our doubts.

Gideon just puts it our there. “If God is with us, why are things so bad?” The angel responds in a very interesting way. “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” In essence, the angel says that God is still in the miracle business and that Gideon is going to be his miracle. Sometimes, God is going to answer our prayers through us when we have been looking elsewhere for the answers. God is a “multitasker.” As he answers our prayers he also wants to accomplish something within us.

Many times we just want to be rescued but God is going to give us strength to fight our way out of something so that faith and character are developed in the process. He told Gideon to go in the strength that he had and that God would make up for whatever he lacked when the moment came. He will do the same for us when the time comes but often we must act on his directions rather than doing our own thing or simply waiting for him to solve the problem. Instead of crying, “Where are you?”, “we may need to cry, “What is my next step, Lord?”

God is not looking for perfect people or even perfect faith. He is looking for honest people with a willing heart and just enough faith to take the next step. Gideon will model that for us over the next few blogs.

In his letters to the seven churches in Asia, Jesus affirmed many things but then called out five of the seven churches on issues that were hindering their relationship with Jesus. To the church at Pergamum, Jesus applauded their steadfast faith in the face of severe persecution. Even when one of the believers there had been put to death, they had not denied Jesus. And yet, even though they had never denied Jesus, he had some issues with the church.

Jesus said, “Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth” (Rev.2:14-16).

Pergamum was a church that had stood strong in the face of persecution but that had also compromised with the culture. They had begun to practice tolerance rather than holiness. Jesus declared that they were fellowshipping those in the church who practiced idolatry and sexual immorality and who were encouraging others to do the same. The Nicolaitans were a group who believed that since grace covered all sin, you could sin all you like. Jesus was not condemning those who struggle with sin. He was condemning those who don’t struggle against sin at all.

We are vulnerable to the same things in our culture. Perhaps, persecution had prompted them to be a little more tolerant of the culture and to not speak out so loudly against sin. Perhaps, they thought “fitting in” a little more might improve their outreach. The gospel of tolerance had taken over at Pergamum. That gospel declares that love is never judging others, never making them feel bad, never rejecting someone because they hold different views or understand God in a different way. The gospel of tolerance questions the clear meaning of scripture and makes the holiness of God take a back seat to his grace. What was once not tolerated in the church becomes tolerated, and then, at some point, is celebrated as proof of a love that doesn’t reject or judge sinners.

Jesus doesn’t reject sinners, but he does reject sin because sin degrades and eventually destroys. Being tolerant of weakness as people grow in the Lord is not the same as tolerating sinful lifestyles that are paraded about and that actively recruit others. Balaam’s strategy against Israel was simple. Draw them outside the will of God and let his judgment fall on them. I’m sure it began with the premise of practicing a little tolerance so that you don’t alienate your neighbors. One of Satan’s strategies is to draw churches and individuals out of the will of God so that they give Satan a legal right to really come after them while the sin blocks the blessings and move of God in their lives.

Even though the church at Pergamum had not denied the name of Jesus, they had compromised with the culture and invited idolatry and sexual immorality into the church. After all, that was standard operating procedure in pagan temples. The desire to be like those around us was not new to Pergamum. Israel wanted a king like the nations around them when Saul was chosen to rule. It took very little time for Israel to incorporate the idols of the surrounding nation into their worship of the one true God. In defiance of the Law of Moses, it wasn’t long until Israel made alliances with all kinds of unbelieving nations. Each of those compromises cost Israel dearly.

So what about us? Even though we wear the name of Jesus, have we compromised with the culture and brought the culture’s standards into the church rather than taking the church’s standards into our culture? Those who practice homosexuality are now welcomed into the leadership of mainline churches, even though scripture clearly calls it sin. Christians eagerly attend movies that only a few years ago were considered pornographic. But because culture is comfortable with what is portrayed, many Christians have become comfortable. Church discipline is almost extinct because we tolerate and do not judge anything, even though we are commanded to hold one another accountable to God’s standards. We could go on, but the church today is in danger of a rebuke from the Lord because we tolerate the active practice of sin – typically by our silence.

As a self-diagnostic, we need to ask ourselves if there are areas of compromise in our own lives because we have wanted to fit it with the world. What do we participate in so that we feel accepted at the office, at school, or with the team? What are we compromising for the sake of a relationship and has that relationship become an idol? What are we compromising for the sake of a career? What are we silent about that is wrong? When we choose not to speak out, we eventually rationalize our silence. That rationalization becomes tolerance and tolerance eventually becomes acceptance.

I’m not saying that we should go around condemning everyone we have contact with and point out his or her sins. Paul tells us that we are not to judge the world, but he is clear that we are to judge the church…not by our standards, but by God’s standards. We are not to judge self-righteously, but out of concern for a soul endangered by sin and the bondage or discipline it may bring. Love always acts in the best interest of another, and encouraging others to live holy lives is in their best interest.

The danger is that we begin to believe that whatever cultures calls good or acceptable, God will call good or acceptable. Culture does not establish the standards for righteousness and so culture is not the measure of our life in Christ. God sets the standards and Jesus, unapologetically, calls us to those standards.

In our own lives, compromise damages our relationship with God and creates open doors for the enemy. Jesus called on Pergamum to repent of tolerating sin and he would say the same to us. These may be the hardest things to identify in our lives because they creep in slowly. We rationalize our involvement, or at least our decision not to stand against something, and we usually spiritualize that decision by calling it non-judgmental or an effort to build relationships so that we can share Jesus with someone later.

This isn’t a call to isolate ourselves from culture or the lost otherwise we can never affect them for Jesus. Somehow Jesus was able to spend time with “sinners” without compromising and without offending them. In fact, broken sinners were drawn to him. I think he simply was who he was and didn’t change that in any context. He did not excuse sin but neither did he make sin the issue among the broken and the shamed. He affirmed what he could and pointed them to the love of the Father. He did not compromise his standards, but simply demonstrated the attractiveness of godliness when it is wrapped in love.

In my own self-diagnostic, I need to ask the Spirit to show me areas of compromise, rationalization, and “buying in” to what the world is peddling. I need to realign my thinking with the Father and determine to maintain godly standards while loving those who are bound up in sin. As a church, we need to love broken sinners but stand against those who willingly sin as a lifestyle and who try to draw others in with them. The praise and acceptance of the world cannot be our goal, only the praise and acceptance of Jesus. Be blessed today and be aware of where you stand.

As we continue to look at events in the life of Hezekiah, I am drawn to an event that reveals the true heart of God. As I mentioned in my last blog, after being installed as king at the age of 25, Hezekiah’s first order of business was to restore Solomon’s temple and true worship to Israel. “So the service of the temple of the Lord was reestablished. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people, because it was done so quickly” (2 Chr.29:35-36). When God’s people have a heart to do something and his hand is with them, amazing things can be accomplished in a short time. How we view God determines to a great extent whether are hearts will be turned towards him in anticipation of love and grace or away from him in anticipation of harsh judgment.

We often have a view of God in the Old Testament as a harsh judge ready to punish every violation of his Law – large or small. Regarding the Law of Moses, many believe that if things were not always done in exact accordance with the letter of that Law, then those things were unacceptable to God and, on a bad day, fire might come out from the altar and destroy whoever made a mistake in protocol no matter how well intentioned. That notion probably first arose from the account of Nadab and Abihu. The Old Testament says, “Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev.10:1-2). Yikes! Many have interpreted “unauthorized fire” as a mistake in the protocol or contents of the incense they offered. That understanding presents God as an unbending tyrant who demands perfection in our service to him.

From this account, many have assumed that God would strike down even well meaning people if they missed one point of the Law or stumbled over a recipe for incense. But if we read a few more verses we discover the real issue. “Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come” (Lev.10:9). The problem was not a failure to interpret and perform every law exactly as it had been commanded, but rather a heart of disdain for the holiness of God because these two men had entered the Holy Place drunk.

In the days of Hezekiah, another violation of the Law of Moses took place. As temple worship had been outlawed by Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, all the feast days commanded by God had also faded from practice. After restoring the temple and its worship, Hezekiah decided that Israel should once again celebrate Passover. The Passover had very clear and specific commands attached to it. God had commanded Moses to keep the Passover on the tenth day of the first month (Ex.12:2). However, Hezekiah determined to celebrate Passover in the second month with out the people being sufficiently purified. Sounds like risky business but here is what we read in 2 Chronicles. “Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written (emphasis added). But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, ‘May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God—the Lord, the God of his fathers—even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.’ And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people” (2 Chr. 30:18-20).

In our life with God, the condition of the heart – a heart set on seeking God – can make up for a lack of doctrinal correctness. Let me be clear, this is not an invitation to be careless with our beliefs or our teaching just as long as we are sincere. A sincere heart always wants to live in obedience and do all things as God would have us do them. However, sometimes we are serving God to the best of our understanding rather than with perfect understanding. Sometimes we are serving God in the best way that circumstances permit. That was Hezekiah’s dilemma and so he trusted in the heart of God to extend grace where doing everything according to the letter of the Law seemed to keep them from obeying the spirit of the Law which called on them to remember and celebrate what God had done for them in the past.

Our Chinese brothers and sisters typically believe that the Bible teaches immersion as the proper form of water baptism. However, as men and women come to Christ in the “re-education camps” of China, there are no places to immerse anyone so they baptize in showers. Does God accept their “baptism” since their hearts are seeking God? I have heard some church leaders say that their baptism was invalid but I think this passage from the life of Hezekiah confirms that God indeed accepts those baptisms.

In the same vein, David is described in scripture as a man after God’s own heart. Yet, at least twice in his life David violated the Law without a rebuke from the Lord. Once he and his men, starving and on the run from Saul, ate the tabernacle showbread which symbolically sat in the Holy Place and was to be eaten only by priests. Another time he put on priestly garments to lead a procession when the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem. David was not a priest. He was from the tribe of Judah while only those from the tribe of Levi could serve in the temple. However, because of circumstance (the showbread) and his passionate heart for the Lord, God extended grace to those violations of the Law. Remember that Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees who were meticulous keepers of the Law because their hearts were far from God.

Again, Hezekiah shows us that God is more concerned about our hearts than demands for doctrinal correctness. That should encourage us when we are concerned that we may not fully know or understand his will on something or when we have acted believing that we have heard from God and then later determined that we had not. Our primary goal should be to seek God with all of our hearts and if we do, his grace will cover us while we are still learning his ways. God is and never has been an angry God just waiting for us to violate one word of the Law. Rather, the Law was given to teach us right from wrong and to lead us to Christ while, all along, God has simply been trying to draw us into a loving relationship with him. Hezekiah reminds us of that truth once again.

As I was browsing through some chapters in Isaiah, I was reminded of the degree to which Hezekiah is  highlighted in the Old Testament. He is given space in 2 Kings 18-20, 2 Chronicles 29-32 and also in the book of Isaiah, chapters 36-39. That is a significant amount when most of the kings of Israel received only a half column or a chapter to tell their stories. So why Hezekiah?

Hezekiah was installed as king over Judah when he was twenty-five years old. If you are not familiar with Old Testament history, shortly after Solomon’s death a civil had broken out in Israel and the nation was divided. The northern part of the nation was called Israel with Samaria as the capital and the southern part was called Judah with Jerusalem as the capital. Sometimes these two political entities were enemies and at other times they were allies. The kings of Israel built their own altars and high places for worship so that their people would not go to Jerusalem and for the most part fell quickly into idolatry.

Although Judah possessed Jerusalem and the temple, it too fell into idolatry. Ahaz was king prior to Hezekiah. He had no regard for the God of Israel. He worshipped idols and had even sacrificed some of his own sons in the fires of the pagan god Molech. In summary, the text says, “Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and took them away. He shut the doors of the Lord’s temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and provoked the Lord, the
God of his fathers, to anger” (2 Chr. 28:24-25).   Hezekiah was his son.

If we ever think that a son is destined to follow in the footsteps of a perverse father, Hezekiah is proof to the contrary. At the death of Ahaz, Hezekiah was installed as king. The text in 2 Chronicles says immediately, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.” David is called his father here because he reflected the character of his ancestor David rather than his biological father Ahaz. God tends to assign family trees based on the heart of a person rather than his biology. For instance, we are all sons and daughters of Abraham if we have the faith of Abraham. We too are children of David if we love God as David dud and we are children of God if we have a heart that resonates with our Heavenly Father.

It is amazing to think that within two hundred years of David and Solomon’s rule and the building of the great temple by Solomon that the center of Jewish life and culture would be closed, the priests dismissed, and the temple consigned to a state of neglect and decay. That suggests that Ahaz was not just indifferent to God or religion but actually hated the things of God which strongly suggests a demonic presence in him. His hate for the things of God and his exaltation of the demonic set Judah up for the heavy hand of God’s judgments. Ahaz only ruled for sixteen years and yet brought Judah to the brink of destruction through this godless administration. But God is full of grace for his people and had done a work in the heart of young Hezekiah. My guess his that his mother had something to do with that and probably hated the pagan God’s of Ahaz. After all, she had lost some sons to the fires of those gods.

After becoming king, his immediate responses was to reopen the temple doors, repair and sanctify the temple, restore the priesthood, and restore worship to the God of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob. He also destroyed the high places of idolatrous worship. What followed was years of peace and prosperity for Judah while Israel, the northern kingdom, was destroyed by Assyria because of idolatry with most of the population being carried off into slavery.

We are going to consider several events in the life of Hezekiah in my next few blogs but one thing we see in the opening accounts of his life is the difference that one man can make for a nation for either good or bad. Although the people of Judah had no real political influence in who became king, there must have been many praying in the shelter of their homes for God to raise up a godly king so that God’s name would be honored again in Judah and his blessings restored.

From this account of Hezekiah’s beginnings we see that judgment does not always come when it is deserved. Regarding a nation, if godly leaders are in the pipeline because of the prayers of godly people, then God can restrain judgment because he longs to extend mercy and blessings whenever his people give him the opportunity through personal repentance and prayers for godliness to rule once again in a nation. In the life of an individual, the same principles apply even when that life is presently in shambles.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray and never give up (Lk.18:1) because God’s responses are not based solely on the present but also on the future and the future of God’s people rests not on present circumstances but faith and prayer for the future. So…if you are discouraged take heart and pray for the future. Even while many of the Jews were in exile in Babylon, God had the prophet Jeremiah send them a letter in which he stated, “ For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer.29:11). That is always God’s heart for his people or for nations. So, if you are discouraged or afraid…take heart and pray.

I’ve put off commenting on the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage because everyone and their dog have been commenting on it from every direction. For some it was no surprise – just the inevitable end of a long slide toward anti-biblical and anti-Christian values in America. For others it was the last nail in the coffin that will surely bring down the wrath of God on this nation. For still others it was a step in the right direction for tolerance in America moving us toward a “just America” where everyone is equal in the eyes of the law.

I guess I will share my thoughts now to add to your own. First of all, God was not taken by surprise when the edict from the Supreme Court was announced. In fact, very few of us were surprised. We had hoped for another outcome but did not have a great deal of expectation. A large majority of states has already legalized same-sex marriage and the number of homosexual couples in America did not suddenly spike because of the ruling. Those individuals were already living the lifestyle and won’t be anymore displeasing to the Lord today than they were a week ago. In addition, all of the heterosexuals in America who are cohabiting or secretly sleeping with someone else’s spouse or abusing their children won’t be any more displeasing to the Lord than they were a week ago.

I’m not saying the decision doesn’t matter. It does. Leadership matters. The White House or now “the Rainbow House” has not only tolerated the homosexual agenda but has now elevated it to a celebrated lifestyle. This, however, is just one more example of a nation’s leaders labeling those things that are good as being evil and those things that are evil as being good. My biggest concern is that this public declaration by the Supreme Court will convey the idea to our children and teens that homosexuality is now a moral lifestyle because it is protected by law. Remember, however, that at one time, slavery was protected by law. A nation’s law may say something is good or acceptable, but does not make it so.

I am also convinced that since our leaders continue to align themselves with Satan, they have opened the doors to even more demonic activity in America than we have seen before. We will be seeing a spike in the “spiritual warfare meter” over America. The mainstream media will be complicit with this agenda and will celebrate and continue to normalize same-sex marriage so that our children will grow up believing that it has always been part of the fabric of American culture – along with the sexual immorality, violence, and “real housewives” behavior that they see hourly now.

In the midst of this, what is our response? We live for Jesus. Our King is still on his throne and has not compromised. We have dual citizenship as Americans and as citizens of heaven but our citizenship in heaven must always have our greatest loyalty. As the light of the world, His church should shine even brighter in this darkness. Our values do not change even as culture ebbs and flows. Our assignment is still the same – make disciples of all nations beginning now with America. Will there be persecution in America? Probably. Christians who stand on the Word of God will be labeled as intolerant bigots and those who demand tolerance will attempt to crush those who don’t agree with them. But that is already happening.

Undoubtedly we will begin to feel some of the heat that our fellow believers in the rest of the world have felt for decades. Believers in America will have to decide whether they will stand with Jesus or bend to the culture trying to seek acceptance. Is all lost? Not at all. The church survived the brutality of Rome and built churches on the ruins of that nation that tried to stamp out the faith. The church is thriving in China while government bulldozers level church buildings and drag pastors off for interrogation and re-education. House churches are springing to life in Muslim nations where there are severe penalties for being a Christian. The church will prevail. The only question is whether we will be faithful or not.

Is it too late for America? That probably depends on the church. God would have spared Sodom for the sake of ten righteous men. There were many times that Israel seemed doomed to be erased in the dust of history but God would raise up a righteous leader, the people would repent, and Israel would prosper in peace again for a generation or two.

No doubt the Supreme Court decision is another wake up call. Judgment may come on the nation but God’s judgment always has a redemptive purpose and he will be with his people in the midst of that judgment if it comes. The church can roll over and let culture have its way or the church can rise up in prayer, holiness, love, and disciple-making and exalt the name of Jesus in this nation once again. Paul reminded the church at Corinth that many of them had been in bondage to sin as adulterers, drunks, homosexuals, swindlers, and so forth ( 1 Cor.6) but that they had been redeemed and transformed. Our culture is not beyond the reach of God and his power to save.

If you have seen the Apollo 13 movie with Tom Hanks, there is a scene in Mission Control where some are beginning to talk about the disaster that the probable loss of the spacecraft and crew will be for NASA. Everything was against them. A multitude of unknown variables probably did mark the flight for disaster. At the moment everyone else was despairing, however, Gene Krantz, the flight director played by Ed Harris, stands and says, “I believe this is going to be our finest hour.” A few minutes later the Apollo 13 capsule landed softly in the ocean and the crew was retrieved shaken but unscathed. I believe this too can be the church’s finest hour in America if we will stand.

But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city? (Jonah 4:11)

The above statement was God’s response to Jonah after the prophet complained about God’s mercy toward Israel’s long-time tormentor Assyria. He certainly had cause to complain from Israel’s point of view. Assyria was the dominant power in the Middle East around 700 B.C. and one of the cruelest nations in history. Assyria was the ISIS of their day. They had invaded Israel numerous times destroying cities, killing men, women, and children, and deporting many of the Jews as slaves. They were feared and hated.

It must have been mind-blowing to Jonah to get a word from the Lord commanding him to go the Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and preach repentance so that the city could avoid the judgment of God. First of all, Jonah believed Nineveh fully deserved to be judged by the God of Israel – not just judged but obliterated. Secondly, Jonah must have felt that as soon as he was identified as a Hebrew prophet, his life would be quickly terminated. But his greatest anxiety was that God was serious about extending mercy to those in the huge stronghold of the enemy if they repented.

You remember the story. Jonah tried to hide from God by booking passage on a ship and sailing away. But God pursued him with a storm. To prevent the ship from being sunk, Jonah was tossed overboard at his own request and was swallowed buy a great fish that God had prepared for that moment. After three days and nights in the belly of the fish he was puked up on dry land. God commanded him to go to Nineveh one more time and this time, with seaweed crusted in his beard, he obeyed. If he entered Nineveh fresh from the vomiting episode he would have been striking – smelly, disheveled, nervous, and bleached from the stomach acid of the fish. He would have looked like a man who had experienced the severe judgment of God and so might have been the poster child for avoiding such judgment.

At any rate, Jonah entered the gates of Nineveh and took several days to preach his way through it. From the king down, the city repented and God spared Nineveh from judgment. As a result, Jonah complained bitterly of God’s betrayal of Israel through the mercy He extended to the enemies of God’s people. But notice the heart of God, even toward those who had attacked his own. “But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city? “

God, especially as he is revealed in the Old Testament, has often been painted as a God of anger, judgment, and vengeance. Without doubt, God did send judgment on many nations but what we need to know is that the heart of God has no desire to judge or destroy. If you look at the details, he is incredibly long suffering and always looks for ways to avoid such judgment until he is left with no choice because of a nation’s persistent stubbornness, wickedness, and rebellion. God clearly exposes his heart in these matters when he says, “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?”(Ezek.18:23)

Remember when he allowed Abraham to strike a deal for Sodom and Gomorrah that if only ten righteous people could be found there he would spare the cities. In another place, after years of rebellion, Israel was facing the judgment of God. Even then God said, “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none” (Ezek.22:30). God’s holiness required judgment against sin but his love and mercy looked for anyone who would intercede for the nation as Moses had done in the wilderness of Sinai when God had threatened to destroy Israel after their persistent rebellion and unbelief.

Here is what we need to understand. There are times when persistent rebellion, unbelief, and unrepented sin may force God to honor someone’s own choices and release judgment or discipline to bring them to repentance. He may be “forced” to discipline a believer or judge a nation but it is never his heart, his desire, or his first choice to do so. He takes no pleasure in doing so and is quick to suspend that judgment or discipline when sincere repentance is offered. Like the father of the prodigal son, he is quick to forgive and restore anyone who returns – no matter what they have done.

Many of us have been taught that God is angry, quick to punish, and almost delighted to visit hardship, sickness, loss, and tragedy on people. That is never the case. When hardship comes or when loss or tragedy hammers us, God is rarely the source.   Even when he is, the discipline has come because of our persistent choices or the choices of someone to whom we are connected.  In all other cases, those things come to us as attacks from the enemy or simply as a result of living in a fallen world but God is with us in the midst of our pain. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us (Heb.13:5) and to make all things work together for good for those who love the Lord (Rom.8:28).

Jesus and the cross are our fullest revelation of God’s heart – not just toward his people but also toward the lost. We can be sure that God is for us when everything else seems to be against us and that his heart never delights in our pain. Regardless of the PR campaign that Satan has waged against the Father for millennia, he is a loving Father, who always wants the best for his children, not a sadistic abuser. Take that confidence with you into your prayer time and into your day. Take it into your crisis and your hardship. He is working behind the scenes to bring you good! Thank him for that and be blessed in Him.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord. (Ezek. 37:1-14)

This is one of the most poignant and compelling sections of scripture in the entire Bible and is filled with as much significance for us today as it was for the Jews in days of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel lived and prophesied during the days of Babylon’s world dominance. In 607 B.C. Babylon had invaded Israel and deported many of the best and brightest of the nation including Daniel. In 597 B.C. another invasion occurred and more of the Jews were taken. Finally, in 586 B.C. the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon’s temple, and took the temple treasures back to Babylon. The Ark of the Covenant, which stood in the Holy of Holies and on which the presence of God rested, disappeared and has been searched for ever since. The destruction of the temple and the disappearance of the Ark seemed to be irrefutable evidence that God had finally abandoned Israel to her fate because of years of unrepented sin.

By all rational standards, Israel was finished as a nation. After all, it was an insignificant nation by world standards – only 65 miles wide and 120 miles long. Their capital was decimated, the temple which was the center of Jewish faith and culture was destroyed, and all the powerful, gifted, and educated members of Jewish society had been enslaved and scattered through out the Babylonian empire. Israel looked as if it would disappear into history and be absorbed by the nations around it showing up in old manuscripts as only a curiosity – a small nation that flourished for a few centuries and then faded into oblivion.

But God was not through with Israel. To demonstrate his plans for the nation, he led Ezekiel into a valley of desolation and death. There the prophet scanned a lunar-like landscape covered with the bleached bones of a long defeated army left for the wild animals and hot sun to clean. No one had even cared enough or had the capacity to come find these fallen men and bury them. They were alone. The symbolism of defeat, death, despair, and hopelessness fit the mood of the Hebrews who had left Egyptian slavery for freedom but seemed to have had come full circle now as captives and slaves in Babylon. Having brought him to this valley of desolation, God asked Ezekiel the ultimate question, “Can these bones live?”

Maybe you have asked that question about your own life or the lives of others you care about in a different way but with the same sentiment. “Can that marriage ever be put back together after the adultery?” “ Will I ever feel anything but this pain?” “Can someone so broken ever be freed from his addiction?” “Will the child, molested and raped, ever be able to trust and love someone else?” Our world is full of dry bones. Perhaps, there are piles of dry bones in your own life? Can those bones live again? We will begin to look at the way back to life in my next blog.