CLS Bi-weekly Devotional I like Ants! Part 2:

Vol 3., No. 12 
June 2011
by Brady Tarr, Attorney Ministries Coordinator

 

Summary of Part 1:

In the last devotional, you will remember that in Philippians 1:5-6 we learned:

1. All Christians are partners with all other Christians because of the gospel

2. Partnership is not an option, but rather a reality for Christians

3. The sins of bitterness, jealously, envy, and pride disrupt gospel partnership

Philippians 1:4-6 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

In Part 2 of this devotional, we will be looking specifically at verse 4 as we discuss the opportunity that Christians have to partner with other Christians through prayer.  As you read, please consider how you might be able to pray specifically for other legal professionals or law students.  In fact, if you can either have the time to read this devotional or to pray for your co-workers and the legal profession as a whole, I would encourage you to take a couple minutes to pray for them instead of reading this.

First, what is prayer?  Prayer is a humble communication with God in which we praise him, confess to him, and ask him for requests.  Prayer reflects a heart that is fully dependent on Him for our life, breath, and all things.  Paul’s consistent prayer life informs us about his humble dependence and reliance on God.  A prayerful person is a humble person.  Owen Carr made a convicting statement when he said that “A day without prayer is a boast before God.”  What does our personal prayer life tell us about our posture before God?  When we do not pray for God’s help in all things, we are pridefully declaring, whether we realize it or not, that we are not reliant on God and can take care of ourselves. 

Paul’s practice of prayer is a great example of praying in such a way that is humble and selfless because his prayer is not centered on himself but focuses on others.  In fact, he is overflowing with joy at the opportunity that he has to pray for the Philippian believers.  As I studied this passage, I quickly became convicted and had to confess to God that the majority of my prayers were selfishly centered on myself and my own needs instead of on the needs of others.  I encourage each of you to consider the following question:  If God were to answer all my prayers, would the world be changed or would my life (or my law firm) be all that changed?  If you are convicted as I was, let me share with you something that I have implemented in my own prayer life in an attempt to help me be more faithful to pray for others.  Each time I pray for myself about something, I make the same request for someone else that I know.  For example, when I pray for the Lord to help me fight a specific sin I struggle with, I will try to immediately think of a Christian brother or sister who is struggling with that same sin and pray that very same prayer for them. 

As I previously mentioned in the last devotional (http://www.clsnet.org/membership/publications/e-devotionals), the moment a person becomes a Christian he/she instantly becomes a partner with every other Christian both locally and worldwide.  While we can and are supposed to partner with Christians across the world in a general way through prayer, we also have the privilege and obligation (Heb. 10:25) to intimately partner with a local group of Christians by joining or becoming a member of a local church.  When we do this, the avenues of partnership increase dramatically, but the most important way to partner with those in the local church continues to be through prayer. 

In these verses, Paul, in his less than comfortable circumstances, explains that he is continually and joyfully praying on behalf of the Philippians whom he has partnered with in person and is now continuing to actively partner with through prayer.  This should be a good reminder to us that our location or circumstances do not limit our ability to partner with others.  For example, a parent who stays home with a sick child on Sunday can partner by praying for the service.  When something unexpected happens that disrupts our schedule or when we are stuck in traffic, let’s try to be more intentional to use that time to pray for others and your own needs.  May we also join together as a Christians and flood God’s ears with continual prayers of praise that only he deserves.  We must remember that even if God does not answer our prayers the way we think he should, he is still worthy of our praise.  Prayers of praise to God are not dependent on answered prayers.  God is worthy of our praise at all times.   

Prayer is a great way to encourage others.  Even though Paul was separated from the Philippians and didn’t know what things they would immediately need prayer for, he was still able to be an encouragement to them by letting them know he was praying for them.  I encourage you today to pray for your co-workers in your law firm or law school.  You might want to even consider sending them a one sentence email just to let them know you have prayed for them today.  I think that you will find that they will be really encouraged to know that you have prayed for them. 

As we strive to implement the humble partnership of prayer in our lives, we must remember that, even though our efforts will be imperfect, God will carry out all the works that he begins, and allows us to be a part of, to completion in the day of Christ Jesus.  As valuable as partnership is, our hope must not be in the good but flawed partnerships we can have with other Christians, but rather our hope must be fully and resolutely in Jesus Christ who will never fail or forsake us. 

Louis Berkhoff profoundly stated that, “It is a consoling thought that Christ is praying for us, even when we are negligent in our prayer life; that He is presenting to the Father those spiritual needs which were not present to our minds and which we often neglect to include in our prayers; and that He prays for our protection against the dangers of which we are not even conscious, and against the enemies which threaten us, though we do not notice it. He is praying that our faith may not cease, and that we may come out victoriously in the end.”

CLS Bi-weekly Devotional

Vol 4., No. 3
March 2012
By Garrett Kell, edited by Brady Tarr

Did Jesus Teach that We should not Judge Others when he said “Judge not lest you be judged”?  In a culture that doesn’t know much about Father Abraham, Noah’s Ark, or the 12 apostles, people seem pretty sure that the command to not judge is found somewhere in the Bible. In fact, I think it’d be safe to say that if there’s any verse in the Bible that most people would know it’s the one that says “Judge not.”

Now, this may be due to the fact that we live in a day where the chief value of our culture is tolerance. Our culture and our hearts often preach to us that true love is an accepting love. True love is one that’s tolerant with other people’s choices and lifestyles, and any attempt to speak a word of correction to another person is seen as a closed-minded, arrogant and bigoted posture. After all, even Jesus said, people shouldn’t judge.

The call to not judge others is popular, even among some household names. The late Mother Teresa once said that “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” Charles Barkley in an interview on CNN said about Christians that “they’re not supposed to judge other people, but they’re the most hypocritical judge of people we have in this country…” Bob Marley had a song called “Judge Not” and of course in his 1996 album All Eyez on Me the late great theologian 2Pac Shakur proclaimed that “Only God can judge me!”

So what should we think about the idea of judging other people? Should it always be avoided? Is it always arrogant to point out things in other people’s lives especially if they don’t ask your opinion? What about in the court of law? Can we judge others there? What might Jesus have to say about all of this?

To help us think about this topic I’d like us to consider 2 major questions: What did Jesus say about not judging others? What did Jesus say about judging others particularly in a court of law?

What did Jesus say about not judging others?

The famous quote “judge not” I referenced at the beginning of this devotional comes from one of Jesus’ teachings in the Bible in a book called The Gospel of Matthew. So what I’d like to do is read through His teaching line by line and then we’ll decide exactly what Jesus said and how it should apply to us today.

Matthew 7:1-2 Jesus says, “Judge not, 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. 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? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

In the first 2 sentences Jesus gives a very clear statement…“judge not” and then He gives a clear reason why “or you too will be judged...” Jesus’ command to not judge others is given as a motivation for us to avoid judgment ourselves. It’s important however for us not to stop the discussion there because Jesus didn’t. Let’s listen to the illustration Jesus used to clarify even further what He meant when He said “Judge not.” Matthew 7:3-5 “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? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

So, what is Jesus teaching against? The mere act of judging others? No. Jesus didn’t teach against judging.  He taught against a specific kind of judging.  The type of judging he spoke against was a blind, ignorant, hypocritical, self-righteous judging that overlooks one’s own faults, failures and sins and only sees faults, failures and sins in other people. And the picture He uses is supposed to be kind of funny.  There’s two guys in a wood shop…one guy looks at the other guy and says hey you’ve got some sawdust in your eye…all the while the dude’s got a 2x4 sticking out of his eye.

The issue Jesus is going after is the pride that was in the people’s hearts which made it easy for them to see other people’s faults, but be blinded to their own. And notice what Jesus called them “you hypocrite.” Now, what’s a hypocrite? Someone who pretends to be something they aren’t. In the 1st century you usually only had one or two play actors would use different masks to play in different roles. They’d pretend to be something they weren’t. Here Jesus is going after people who wear a mask of piety over a heart that was judgmental, critical, and self-righteous toward others.

Jesus wasn’t telling people not to judge.  He was telling people not to be a hypocrite when you judge. He’d been speaking to a crowd about what true righteousness is. He’d been talking about issues of the heart and about what makes a person pleasing before God. He was teaching against people having a critical, condemning, self-righteous, judgmental attitude toward other people. It was what some people might call social or spiritual B.O. That pompous posture of looking down on others because you’ve got it all together and they certainly don’t. That kind of judgmentalism was found in the hearts of many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day and among the crowd who was listening.  And if we’re honest, it’s an attitude that’s present in our own hearts. 

If we’re honest, we find ourselves being critical people by nature. We tend to think that we see things rightly and that others are wrong. We tend to think that our reasonings and our perspectives are at least just a little better than people we disagree with. We seem to be quick to find fault and condemn people.

Why do you think that is? I’m sure there are lots of reasons. I know there have been seasons of my life when I judged people because I was intensely insecure. So I found comfort in tearing others down so that I’d feel better. There have been other seasons when I judged people because I thought I knew better than they did. I remember a time I judged a friend named Dave who talked to me about Jesus, and I thought he’d become some religious freak who was on his high horse because he’d stopped smoking weed and having sex. All of us can find reasons for judging others, but the reality is that many of those times our judgment has been hindered because pride or ignorance blinded us from seeing things rightly. 

Blind, self-righteous judging is dangerous in several ways, I’ll give you 2:

1.      It can cause us to wrongly interpret what is happening in another person’s life.

Maybe there’s a girl who never talks. It’s easy to judge her as stuck up or full of herself. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned as a pastor, it’s that we all wear masks. We all have pain.  You don’t know if she’s been abused or if her father has cancer or if she’s weighed down with financial debt. We should be slow to judge others, because we can wrongly interpret what’s happening in another person’s life.

2.      It can cause us to wrongly estimate ourselves.

We all have blind spots and are prone to self-deception. For example, this morning I was walking through my room and tripped on a shoe. The first thing that went through my mind was to judge my wife for not picking up her stuff off the floor.  I was instantly humbled and convicted when I saw that it was my shoes—two pairs of them—that I had tripped over.

In all of this, however, I want us to hear that Jesus doesn’t say don’t judge.  He says take the plank out of your eye and then judge rightly. Jesus was under no illusion that speaking truth to other people was a bad or unloving thing. He never intended to prevent His people from making insightful, wise and accurate judgments about situations or about each other. No, He knows that we were created to speak truth into each other’s lives. Truth is a good thing. I want people to tell me the truth, and so do you.  If I have a big piece of food in my teeth or something, I want the truth from you and won’t be happy if you don’t tell me. 

More seriously, if I go to my oncologist and on the scan he sees a lump on my spinal cord, he better tell me. I want him to speak truth, and he has a responsibility as another human made in God’s image to speak truth to me. And I want him to judge my situation rightly, because it’s best for me.

So, Jesus’ famous words about judging can be summarized in this way: Don’t go around with a self-righteous attitude that points out where others have failed while neglecting to first evaluate your own life. Don’t be a hypocrite by pretending to have it all together but call other people on the carpet for their sins and shortcomings. First, repent of your own sin, and then you can lovingly speak truth into another person’s life. You must do this because God is going to judge you, and if you have not been cleansed of your own sin, your judgmental attitude toward others will be one of the things that condemn you on that final day.

What did Jesus say about judging others in a court of law?

So that’s what Jesus meant when He spoke about not judging.  So what does that mean for people who practice law? Well, a few things:

     1st, Jesus in no way forbids people from judging others in courts of law. In fact, the systems of law that we have are a branch of God’s institution of government that He has given to keep order in His world. So that means that when you serve as a judge or lawyer or an assistant you are serving in a God-ordained institution that He has placed you in to uphold truth and justice as a reflection of His character. So, Jesus in no way forbids people from judging others in a court of law.  In fact, He has ordained it.  

      2nd, Jesus would agree that all judgments should be made purely. Jesus affirmed all of the Old Testament and there are some striking words about the need for those who practice law to uphold truth and to not compromise. Deuteronomy 16:18-19 “Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. 19 Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.” And then another in Proverbs 17:23 “A wicked man accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the course of justice.” And one more, Proverbs 11:1 “The Lord abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight.”

     God hates dishonesty, particularly among those who are supposed to be upholding the Law. Why is that? Because our laws are a reflection of common truth that God has revealed to all of us about him.  Lawyers and Judges and Governments are supposed to do all things with honesty, impartiality and truth because they are supposed to reflect the character of God, which is true, impartial and good.

     For those who have been given places of influence with the law, when Jesus says “judge not”, they should ensure that there’s nothing in their eye that would keep them from judging rightly. No bonus or a promotion or a headline or partnership or anything else that might blind your judgment should be allowed to remain so that you do not judge another wrongly because God will judge each of us.

Now all of this is important for many reasons, but the ultimate reason is because the Bible teaches that each of us will one day stand before God to be judged. Do you remember why Jesus said “judge not?”…“or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged.” According to Jesus’ words we will each be evaluated not only for our actions, but the attitudes of our heart. When we stand before the perfectly good and just God, everything we’ve ever done, thought or tried to do…and our motivations…will be admitted as evidence before God. And on that day, if left to ourselves, none of us would pass through the judgment without being condemned to an eternity in hell for our sin against God. That’s bad news!

The good news however is that God’s Son Jesus, the one who spoke these words we’ve been considering, willingly came to earth and lived a perfect life, then died on a cross receiving the judgment that we deserved.  He died as a substitute for everyone who would repent and genuinely believe in him.  There was no evidence of sin against Him because he never sinned…not even once.  He was free to willingly take our judgment and be condemned so that we could go free to live a life that pleases Him. Let me read another famous verse from the Bible that you may have heard before.

John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Jesus says that if you don’t believe in Him, the evidence is already in, and you are condemned before God. But He also promises that if you turn from your sin and trust in Him, He will forgive your sin and give you new life.

Now, if you’re reading this, some of you are certainly thinking, “this guy’s an example of someone with the 2x4 in his eye. I mean I just told you that apart from you believing in Jesus and turning from your sins, you would be condemned to hell. I understand how that sounds, and it’s been told to me before too.  But what I’m asking you to do, however, is to wrestle with the words of Jesus.  I’ve tried to do that and will continue to do that because if they are true, it changes everything about our lives.

By Garrett Kell

A Pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church