Letting God be the Judge

1 Corinthians 4:3-7

3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

6 Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. 7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

This section of Paul’s writing has always been very striking to me. He points out that our true judge is not other people or ourselves. The only adequate judge of human beings is God as he sees our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7), and since our definition of good comes from his character He is the only one who understands true goodness. We are inadequate to judge ourselves because often we are plagued with blind spots and we are inadequate to judge others because we have a very limited and purely external understanding of them. We certainly do have a role in discipline which Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 5, this is when there are clear biblical principles that someone is acting against. We are called to lovingly correct people appropriately for an offense, this is in hopes that they will see the error in their ways and repent (change their minds).

When Jesus came down from heaven and dwelled among us the people he spoke most harshly with was not the obvious sinners (prostitutes, drunkards, and tax collectors), but the Pharisees who felt they had earned their own righteousness. In Mark 2 Jesus said he came to heal the sick (sinners) not those who were righteous. In Romans 7 Paul clearly states the law was given not to lead us to righteousness, but to show us that we were sinners. We all recognize that we have screwed up, we struggle with selfishness, we lie, and we hurt each other. There is nothing that we can do to atone for all of our mistakes, unfortunately life isn’t an episode of My Name Is Earl. Rather God came as Jesus to die on the cross to atone (pay) for our sins. For our sins to be paid for we must humble ourselves to ask Jesus’ death to apply for us. Without our own righteousness to stand on who are we to judge anyone else? We are not good on our own, no one is. How can we look down on people that we are no better than? Unfortunately it’s really easy, I look down on people who think they are better than me. I feel like that’s a real mind fuck, however it’s true.

It’s God’s role to judge, so what are we called to? Love! we are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind; and love our neighbor as ourselves. Love is a very big and abstract word, so what does that mean? Well in Matthew 28 Jesus tells us “Make disciples of all the nations; baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and the holy spirit.” Paul adds clarity in Ephesians 4:15 when he calls us to “speak the truth in love.” This sentiment could manifest itself in preaching the gospel, encouraging one another, or correcting/disciplining in love. We can pray for one another, serve one another, or invest time in one another in fellowship also. (This isn’t an exhaustive list of ways to love one another)

The burden of judgement is not ours to bear, and it shouldn’t be. Instead we are called to count our blessings because ultimately what do we have that we didn’t receive; our righteousness, our lives, and every good thing we have experienced here on earth has it’s roots in the Creator of the Universe. Instead of judging one another we can set our focus on loving people. Again this isn’t saying we should ignore all offenses, we may have to take appropriate action; but let God be the judge.