DON'T MAKE
JUDGMENTS!
In his book "The Grace
Awakening," Charles Swindoll recounts an experience he once had while
ministering at a Bible conference. On the first night, he briefly met a couple
who seemed friendly and quite glad to be at the meetings. However, as the week
went by, Swindoll noticed that roughly ten minutes after he would start
speaking, the husband would be fast asleep!
This experience irritated Charles so
much, by the time of the final meeting, he was convinced that the man was there
only to please his wife and was "probably a carnal Christian." After
the last session, however, the wife requested to speak to Charles for a few
minutes. He figured she wanted to talk to him about her husband's lack of
interest in spiritual matters.
Imagine how greatly embarrassed he
was when the wife mentioned that her husband had terminal cancer and that they
had attended the conference mainly at his request. His "final wish" was
to be at the conference even though the pain medication he was taking made him tired.
She then said, "He loves the
Lord and you are his favorite Bible teacher. He wanted to be here to meet you
and to hear you, no matter what." Charles Swindoll wrote, "I stood
there, all alone, as deeply rebuked as I have ever been." What a dangerous
thing it is to judge others?[1]
We have been going through the First
Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian believers during 55AD, while he
was on his 3rd missionary Journey. The primary purpose of this letter was to address specific problems that the Corinthian Church was facing
and to layout scriptural instructions for them on how to conduct their lives
as Christians in a broken world.
In the passage from I Corinthians
4:1-5, we will see how Paul and Apollos lived out exemplary lives for us to
emulate, their evaluation of themselves and others, and finally, an appeal to
the Corinthian believers not to make judgments about anyone ahead of time.
I.
THE GOSPEL STEWARDS
Vs.
1-2, "So look at Apollos and me as mere servants of Christ who have been
put in charge of explaining God's mysteries. Now, a person who is put in charge
as a manager must be faithful." Paul here humbly draws the attention of
the Corinthian believers once again to his and Apollos's calling as mere
servants of Christ. This repeated saying of Paul that "we are only
servants of God" emphasizes that they were fully responsible to God and
not to the Corinthians.
The phrase "who have been put
in charge," "those entrusted with," in NIV means "house
stewards" and refers to a position often held by a slave entrusted with
managing the affairs of a household (example Joseph, Ge 39:2-19). In this case,
they were to explain God's mysteries.
God's mysteries are the divine
revelations that God had previously revealed regarding His redemptive plan for
humanity. Paul explains the mystery of the Gospel to the Ephesians. "As
you read what I have written, you will understand my insight into this plan
regarding Christ.
God did not reveal it to previous
generations, but now by his Spirit, he has revealed it to his holy apostles and
prophets. And this is God's plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good
News share equally in the riches inherited by God's children. Both are part of
the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to
Christ Jesus." Eph 3:4-6
Until Paul's generation; the Gospel
truth remained a mystery. Paul’s generation and we have been fortunate because
the Gospel is no longer a mystery but revealed in Jesus Christ. As Paul and the
Apollos let us be faithful and careful in how we share it with others.
Preachers, teachers, and anyone else
who talks about Jesus Christ must recognize that we stand in the presence of
God and are fully accountable to Him. Our job is to share the good news of the
Gospel without compromising it. As faithful stewards, let's be bold in
proclaiming all the truth without distorting or conveniently avoiding certain
parts of the Gospel message.
II.
WHOSE REPORT WILL YOU BELIEVE?
Vs-3-4, "As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or
by any human authority. I don't even trust my own judgment on this point. My
conscience is clear, but that doesn't prove I'm right. It is the Lord himself
who will examine me and decide."
The keyword in these verses is
evaluation. No one particularly enjoys evaluation, yet it is essential in life.
To evaluate is to judge the value or worth of someone or something. It looks
like these verses indicate that the Apostle Paul was going through a
self-evaluation process. He had a sober judgment about himself and his ministry
to the Corinthians and to everyone else.
Let me bring this into our
context. Self-evaluation has become
popular since Abraham Tesser created the self-evaluation maintenance theory in
1988. It is the way people view themselves. It is the continuous process of
determining personal growth and progress, which can be raised or lowered by the
behavior of a close other (a psychologically close person).[2]
Self-evaluation can be good and at
times is dangerous. For example, I have a good friend named Benny Prasad from
my time in YWAM. He is a gospel musician and instrumental guitarist from India.
He designed the Bentar, which is the world's first bongo guitar. He also holds
the world record for being the fastest man ever to visit all 257countries around
the globe.
When I view myself in the light of
Benny, I could either be overjoyed because of my connection with him as a
friend or become depressed because I could not achieve what he succeeded at in
life at such a young age. Therefore, Self-evaluation is not accurate and
reliable.
In the eighties, we used to sing a
praise song by Ron Kenoly, titled, "Whose report will you believe? Let me
ask you the same, whose report will you believe today? Will you believe your
own report of yourself, the popular opinion of others, the devil's or God's
report? Jer 29:11
The crowd would respond and sing to
Ron's question, "we shall believe the report of the Lord." When we
evaluate ourselves, we can either overestimate ourselves and want to overachieve
in the process we may burn out. Or we underestimate ourselves and underachieve.
But if we see ourselves in the way God sees us, we will have a realistic
picture of who we are.
The Apostle Paul understood this
reality when he said, "it matters very little how I might be evaluated by
you or by any human authority. I don't even trust my own judgment on this
point." Paul was neither arrogant
nor saying that he is above fellow ministers, other Christians, or even unbelievers.
He is saying that he couldn't trust anyone else's evaluation, including his own
except God’s. Paul was only God's steward; hence, the Lord "judges"
him and his service.
Jesus Christ is the Lord of everything, including our conscience, and He is the one who evaluates our lives accurately. Therefore, we would rather pay attention to what the Lord says of who we are, how well we do than what others say about who we are, or our self-evaluation. After subjecting himself to God's judgment, Paul urges the believers not to make judgments of others.
III.
DON'T MAKE JUDGMENTS
Vs.
5, "So don't make judgments about anyone ahead of time before the Lord
returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our
private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due."
If we care to admit it, we are quick to judge people often.
For instance, we look at someone who
might have tattoos all over their body or face piercings; by looking at their
outward appearance, we might quickly pass a value-based judgment, saying they
are so lost and dammed to hell. But how does God look at and Judge people? I
Sam 16:7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for
I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People
judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” What does he see
in the hearts of humanity?
While people judge you based on what
they see on the outside, God judges by what he sees in your heart. His judgment
of our hearts is always accurate and reliable. When God looks at you, me, and
the world, what is His assessment, and how is He motivated?
John 3:16-17, “For this is how God
loved the world: He gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in
him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not
to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”
If Jesus did not come to condemn the
world but to save it, then what business do we have to condemn people? God loves
people unconditionally, no matter who they are. It doesn’t mean that He would
never judge them. That was what the Apostle Paul was saying to the Corinthians.
God has set a future date for judging
the world; it is called “The Day of The Lord, The Last Judgment. On that day, he
will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives.
Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due.
Therefore, until such time let us
hold our judgments and proclaim God’s love and forgiveness to undeserving
people just as we once were. Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners.
Romans 5:8, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for
us while we were still sinners.” Our job is not to judge others before the time
but to love them as Christ loved us. Leave the final judgment to God, the
righteous judge who is full of love and mercy. Amen!
