Good Morning Friends,
Maybe you have been thinking about the current war in the Middle East and the role of the United States in the conflict and how it relates to our faith and the nature of war. The Bible’s first ongoing war began around 1880 B.C. A King named Chedorlaomer who ruled over the people of Elam located in modern southwest Iran started the conflict by taking his coalition to battle with the primary mission of punishing five wealthy kings who rebelled against him after having served him for 12 years. You can read about the war in Genesis 14. Chedorlaomer’s army has a series of five victories over people living near modern day Israel. The war is impressive in its size, planning and display of military prowess. Its impact on the land of Canaan ultimately draws Abraham into the conflict. The unprotected cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are completely looted with many of the inhabitants (including Lot and his family) taken captive. Abraham, who is between 80 and 85 years old, is informed of Lot’s capture through a survivor of the war. According to the Bible, his immediate response is to arm 318 of his trained servants (roughly the size of Gideon’s army) and pursue, along with some Amorite allies, those who have taken Lot. They finally catch up with the enemy while they are camping near the city of Dan (called Laish at this time), located 140 miles from where the pursuit began. Abraham then divides his men into small groups and, catching Chedorlaomer’s troops by surprise, carries out a successful nighttime attack. His unexpected strike causes the enemy to retreat to Hobah, a city roughly 100 miles further north that is a short distance from Damascus. The father of the faithful follows the enemy to Hobah and continues his attack. Ultimately, Lot and his family, as well as all their possessions, are recovered. The attack also recovers all that was looted from Sodom and Gomorrah along with saving the people taken captive. Abraham’s forces then make the long journey home after their first war victory. Abraham’s stunning victory in war, when so many others had failed to defeat the enemy, was clearly aided by God. Sodom’s king, as well as the rulers of his three allies, is the first to congratulate him for slaughtering Chedorlaomer and his army. Another individual, the mysterious priest and king of Salem named Melchizedek, also congratulates him on overcoming the enemy. Jesus provides a solution to so many of life’s problems for us as individuals and as a people group. But believing is not so easy. Our best laid plans go wrong. We need help and must be elected to the post as Abraham was in today’s test from Genesis if we seek the blessing to be a blessing. We need help to call Jesus Lord and not just Savior. The challenge is to be all in and not a hypocrite when interacting with others especially when it comes to war against sin. The thing is that when we see a person in sin, we do not know how hard they have tried not to sin. We do not know the power of the forces that are prompting the sin and we do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances. With that in mind it should be difficult for us to discriminate against a person based on the behavior we see. Thankfully, God has set forward rules to guide behavior in a better direction and nudges us through the Spirit to love people into turning direction before undesired consequences result. Still, disapproving in a disparaging way of another’s behavior is typically seen as being problematic even when turning to a different way is clearly wisdom. Being critical of others has consequences too. Still, Can We Judge Without Hypocrisy To Show Others We Are Christians?
Scripture: Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
Genesis 12:1-9 (NRSV)
“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.
Matthew 7:1-5 (NRSV)
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.
John 7:24 (NRSV)
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
James 1:1-4 (NIV)
Message: We all know that self-righteous moralists are no better than sinners. Few experiences get our blood to boil more than seeing the actions of a hypocrite who needs their comeuppance…especially so when they are successful. Unfortunately, two-faced protagonists are often of the religious variety. But what if we are hypocrites? Sometimes we miss our own hypocrisy. So, we need to watch where we point the finger. We need to watch our heroes. Friends, religion can get pretty sick. People in the pews and even the pulpit need to realize that judging other people is dangerous because it lulls us into a false sense of security, blinds us to our own faults, and usurps God’s role as judge. Of course, God sees right through the smoke screens. There is nothing that God does not see. But until a person recognizes that he stands guilty and condemned before God and that he is a sinner who does not meet God’s standard of righteousness, there is little possibility of them seeking salvation and acting on faith. We need to submit to God. Perhaps the evilest of sins is the pride that blinds the unrighteous to despise mercy. The lack of the law or provision of the law is not the problem; the issue is sin. And all can have inner knowledge of God’s law, and some have the external law. But it is not so much which law you have, for all have sinned. The Bible is full of hypocrites and our churches are as well, but it does not mean we cannot be saved. Friends, there is no escaping it. No one today is always obedient to God’s law of love. Especially loving our enemies. One day all our secrets will be exposed, and we will have to face Christ. It is all laid out as plain as it can be. We will not be able to blame anyone for our sins and decisions. Forcing a perspective is not the Christian way. Yet when we feel something, it is hard to deny it. Still, maybe if we can judge without hypocrisy, then such judging is allowable, as long as we try not to stand in the place of God. In general, we need to worry about beams in our own eyes. But it can be appropriate to judge others at times, as long as we do so with love, even tough love. There is a massive hypocrisy with those who claim not to be judgmental. But this is not the same as saying that all judgements must be hypocritical. The stakes are high when we consider the fate of a nation, a community, a family, a friend. But as soon as we take a stand on any issue, we risk being judgmental. Productive discourse is difficult in this kind of environment. And we face it today. But as Christians we are not to be just spectators. We are not required to approve of what other people believe and do. We are to love the sinner and hate the sin. When it came down to people’s lives Jesus was ready to ruffle a few feathers. In community as Christians, we walk a fine line between making judgements and not being judgmental. For there is a higher call than pointing out people’s sins. If we have too rigid a belief system, we may have trouble loving God and others. We are therefore to judge our beliefs because others will judge us for ours, and ultimately, we must face God for the decisions. We are not to pick nits. We are to use our heads and hearts. Yes, we are to judge the sin in a person’s life and maybe even a nation and lovingly and gently restore them. But first we must judge our beliefs and motivations to see clearly. We are to test everything and hold fast to what is good. There are some things more important than the laws we make to rule our lives. The governments of nations need to guarantee everyone freedom of conscience and religion, as well as the ability to express their faith publicly. Here the scriptures explain the witness which Christians are called to give by their lives. But it is to be done in love as we help create the conditions of peace.
And So, early on God diagnosed the problem and designed a solution so we might appreciate the invitation to join Jesus in the Big Story of Holy History. I do not know what you want out of life. Maybe you want to be happy but that is so general a statement that it means very little until you pin it down to specifics. A more interesting question, a question that perhaps you have never considered before, is about what pain you want in your life. The issue is about what you are willing to struggle for, that is most certainly a greater determinant of how our lives turn out. Think about it for a moment and consider today’s scripture and meditate on what you are willing to give up achieving financial independence and an amazing job and a great marriage and great body, successful children or perhaps something more important than even those desires, peace. Friends, there is no reward without risk and delayed gratification. But we must be honest about what we want weighed against the cost of getting it. The choice is the pain of disappointment or the pain of discipline. Abram was chosen because he would be a great and powerful nation, he would instruct his children to keep the way of the Lord and do the right and just things. God elected Abraham to be his follower, chose him to bless, and assured him to be with him and to perform great things through him. He was called to follow God, and he became a dear friend of God. Abraham became a man whom God trusted, shared the secrets of life on the earth, and the future of the world and the universe. Because Abraham had obeyed God and kept his requirements, his commands, his decrees and his laws, Abraham was honored to be a great personality in the history of three religions. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam claim their roots in it and own him as the founder of their religions and the father of their nations. Today, this blessing belongs to everyone who believes in Christ and continues in faith. God has chosen you and me to be the giant of faith among the faithless generation. We are called to be giants of truth, justice, mercy, and love. We must become channels of mercy and blessings to others. You see people without integrity, love, care, and concern. We are called to exhibit those qualities which we receive from Christ and pass on to the people around us. Unless the Lord builds our name, nation, and career all our efforts result in vain. Friends, the war in the Middle East is a wakeup call to return to God and morality. It is a call to repentance. A call to humble ourselves and pray and turn from our wicked ways. Death is the enemy. War can be an enemy too. We must keep our heads on straight. God is not the author of war. War is the result of a fallen world where man is driven to kill when his passions are not appeased. There can be a noble war when it is the result of a noble cause of defense, liberation or if we are in fact executing the just judgement of God. For sure the Old Testament promotes the concept of a Holy War led by Yahweh. But War for Jesus is not of central concern to his ministry, surprisingly for the Messiah conceptually will be the one to lead the War to end all Wars. Jesus never spoke against war. As such the church’s struggle today is not against human beings but against the demonic powers that rule in this world.
Pray we show forth the faith of Christ in us. Pray that we realize that God is kind, but not soft on sin. Pray we are blessed to be a blessing. Pray that we realize that we are never going to get away with anything. Pray we realize that every refusal and avoidance of God and even playing the God card to get our way just adds fuel to the fire of hell. Pray we realize that religion cannot save us only Jesus’ mercy. Pray we realize that sin will take us further than we want to go; keep us longer than we want to stay; and cost us more than we want to pay. Pray that we are not deceived. Pray we realize that God knows we are ethically challenged people and still wants to save us. Pray God changes us from within. Pray we have full access to God’s presence even as we are transformed. Pray we are freed from sick religion and the bondage of being a hypocrite and instead embrace a relationship with the model of life and compassion shared in Jesus. Pray God’s Holy Spirit strives with us forever. Pray we realize that we need God’s mercy. Pray that we realize that being judgmental may not be just. Pray we realize that we see the outward person but not the inner life of others. Pray that we judge rightly and love compassionately. Pray that we do not judge a book by its cover but open it and read it. Pray we are elected by God for the blessings of God and not hypocrites in carrying out God’s plan as it relates to our lives and faith. Pray we show forth God’s faith in us to fight evil.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 