Category: Mercy

How Should We Judge Our Neighbors?

Who we judge and how we judge are keys to how we will be judged.

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Many things are said about judging, and confusion persists about whether Christians are to judge or not to judge. I wrestled through the seeming conundrum a number of years ago and came up with 8 Important Points About Judging and Judgment. I didn’t realize, then, how these principles tie into the way we should look at immigration.

In very brief summary, Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matt. 7:1), and followed immediately with the statement, “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” (Mt. 7:2) He was not telling us not to judge; he was telling us to be careful how we judge. This is critical.

The statements in Matthew 7 cited above are the set up for the short parable of the person with a log in his eye trying to take the speck of his brother’s eye. The parable ends with Jesus telling us first to take the log out of our own eyes; then we can see accurately to help take the speck out of our brother’s eye.

Paul riffs on this theme Jesus preached when he said, “If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.” (1 Cor. 11:31 NKJV) Paul also picks up on something I missed for years in the log and speck parable. In that parable, Jesus is talking about “judging” our brother (by helping take the speck out of his eye, after I have taken the log out of mine).

Who we judge is just as critical as how we judge. When I first discovered this, I was surprised. I and most Christians I know had it all wrong. Paul says:

 “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?”

1 corinthians 5:12

Jesus only talked about judging our brothers, and Paul makes it clear this means people in the church. We have no business judging people outside the church. “God will judge those outside.” (1 Cor. 5:13) (This is why we need to preach the gospel to them!)

One take away from this is that any time we feel compelled to judge someone else, we should always first examine ourselves. We should always be careful how we judge, because we how we judge others is how we will each be judged. We should never judge people outside the church – because Jesus came not to condemn, and neither should we; he came to save them.

Notice these themes that Jesus preached:

  • We will be shown mercy as we show mercy to others (Matt. 5:7)
  • We will be forgiven as we forgive others (Matt. 6:15); and
  • We will be judged as we judge others (Matt. 7:2);

Consistent with what Jesus preached, the themes of judgment and mercy are tied together by James:

 “{J]udgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”  (James 2:13)

When James adds that “mercy triumphs over judgment,” he is highlighting a standard that is based on God’s character. God desires mercy and not sacrifice (Hosea 6:6); God desires mercy, which is why Jesus came to call sinners to himself (Matt. 9:13); and God desires us to be merciful as He is merciful. (Luke 6:36)

So many people view God as an angry God who is full of wrath and judgment. Nothing could be further from the truth. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” (Psalm 103:8) “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.” (Lamentations 3:22)

God is just because he is merciful! Biblical justice is characterized by mercy. Thus, justice without mercy is not biblical justice:

“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” 

Isaiah 30:18

But what does this have to do with judging neighbors? Why did James ask the rhetorical question: “Who are you to judge your neighbors?” This question ripples back to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” The context in which God told us to love our neighbors is a good place to start with answers to these questions.

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A Christian Lawyer’s Thoughts on Rights, Law & Justice: the Orientation of a Believer

Biblical justice for the common person is more about what you do than about how you are treated

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We live in a world punctuated with individual rights and laws that allow redress for nearly every possible wrong that might be conceived under the sun. American litigiousness is notorious, perhaps, because of this expansive construct of individual rights.  

Laws are intended to set parameters on human activity according to a basic set of societal values that are calculated to promote human flourishing. When we feel we have been unjustly or unfairly treated, we have the authority granted by our laws to assert our rights to obtain justice.

We roll our eyes at the frivolous lawsuits held up for the amazement and ridicule of a curious public, but many real injustices and real wrongs still occur in our modern world. People are still people, and we don’t always do right be each other.

Actual malicious intention is exhibited in the never ending scams perpetrated on elders and other unsuspecting victims. They get more and more sophisticated as time goes by. These scams target the most vulnerable people in our community, and these scammers intentionally rob people of millions (maybe even billions) of dollars every year.

People also do wrong against others less intentionally. Either through negligence (not caring enough to protect others from our actions or failures to act) or through protecting ourselves to the detriment of others. Injustices and wrongs are a part of every day life, unfortunately.

The legal systems of civilized societies exist to provide recourse in a controlled way that preserves order and achieves some measure of justice, however slowly those wheels turn. The alternative is the wild west where justice happens as quickly as a finger on a trigger or the time it takes to tie a noose. Such “justice” is often little more than a power wielded by the strong over the weak.

We are sometimes conflicted by these things, especially in the circumstances of egregious injustice. Hitler is the ultimate example. We want justice to be swift and unforgiving. We are willing to forgo the protocols intended to safeguard our system of justice when we feel the ends justify the means.

We would never want to be on the other side of that equation, though, especially if we didn’t do it! Beyond that, I like to say that no person really wants justice when we stand before God, because God’s strict justice would be unrelenting and unforgiving. It allows for no mercy, when what we really want (and need) from God is His mercy!

Fortunately, we have a God who is merciful and slow to anger. (Exodus 34:6) He is “compassionate and gracious … and abounding in mercy.” (Psalm 103-8) God desires to be merciful to us rather than to demand our sacrifice (Hosea 6:6), and He desire us “to act justly and to love mercy”. (Micah 6:8)

When we think of justice, we might immediately think of criminal justice and the punishment for committing crimes. We might immediately think of God’s justice and punishment for unrepentant sinners.

Biblical justice, however, focuses more on doing right by people (acting justly), and it is intimately connected to loving mercy. In the biblical system of justice, judgment without mercy is meted out only to the one who has shown no mercy (James 2:13), and that should change the way we view justice.

Continue reading “A Christian Lawyer’s Thoughts on Rights, Law & Justice: the Orientation of a Believer” →

To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice

What is the obedience God desires from us?

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I became a follower of Jesus in 1979, though I was a wild, untamed stallion when I was first confronted with the Lordship of Christ and verbally submitted to him. I wandered down my own paths in the year that followed, leading me to a breaking point and more complete surrender. (A cycle I have unfortunately repeated more than once.)

Over the following two years, I was about as surrendered to God as I have been my whole life. I was all in – or as all in as I was capable of being at that time, perhaps. During that time, I became a big fan of Keith Green. I even saw him in concert in Des Moines Iowa in 1981 or 1982. He died in a place crash within a year or two after that, and his impact and memory has faded.

When I saw him in concert, though, his radical Christian commitment had been a huge impact on me, and that impact carried with me beyond his death. Thus, my daily reading today recalls to my mind these lyrics by Keith Green: 

To obey is better than sacrifice
I want more than Sundays and Wednesday nights
If you can't come to me every day 
Then don't bother coming at all

Keith Green was a musical child prodigy who was radically saved by Jesus. He used his great musical talent and platform to become a prophet of sorts to young Christians at the time who wanted an authentic faith.

I was very drawn to a monastic, cloistered life at that age. The truth is that I had long been drawn to that kind of thing going back to the book, My Side of the Mountain, that I read in grade school (about a boy who leaves his parents to hollow out a summer home in the trunk of dead tree in the Catskills). I was already bent that way in my personality.

In a poignant moment in my senior year in college, I faced up to that longing and desire that ran deep in me, and I turned to follow Jesus into the messiness of human society. Jesus escaped to the mountains and the wilderness to be alone with God, but he always returned to the highways, and byways, and the public squares where people live.

Still, the Keith Green spirit of uncompromised obedience to Christ and Christ alone left an imprint on me. His prophetic insistence on radical commitment carried me forward in those early years of my journey with Christ.

Now, I find myself some 40+ years down a road that has taken many twists and turns. That road has taken me through long and winding wilderness areas that were darker than I care to dwell on. It has taken me to the other side of those dark times into the light of a new day, more weary and (hopefully) wiser for the experience. I am still following Jesus as best as I can, but I have a slightly different view of Keith Green’s words today. I hope I can give this the nuance it deserves.

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Ode to the Church and to God Who Watches Over the Foreigner

O Church, remember who you are,
Called to love, to heal, not to bar.

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Once, in Eden’s light, they walked,
In fear, mistrust, and pride they balked.
Their own way looked better than God’s,
So He cast them out to the odds.

Though God walled them out, yet He stayed near,
He watched them roam this earthly sphere.
He clothed their shame knowing His plan,
To redeem them from the dusty land.

When Abraham heard the voice divine:
“Go to a land that I’ll make thine.”
He wandered there, a stranger still,
Seeking the City of God’s will.

From Abraham’s loins a nation grew,
In Egypt enslaved, four centuries through.
Bound and broken, crushed and torn,
Yet God’s eye watched, where hope was worn.

And when they were freed by God’s hand,
The law that God, would make command:
“Be kind to the stranger, love them as you—
For once you were aliens too.”

The psalmist sang of a just cause
To guard the stranger one must because
God watches over the oppressed and poor,
His mercy flows to the foreigner.

The prophets warned with fire and might:
“Do not oppress, do not fight
The alien, the widow, the orphaned heart—
Deprive them not, lest from God you part.”

Then Jesus was born, in flesh, divine,
Refugee Son, in a troubled time.
To Egypt He fled, a stranger, a child,
God in the dust, both meek and mild.

He preached a kingdom for all men,
Every race and tongue and kin.
That he would save from cursed yeast,
According to how we treat the least.

And John envisioned a great throng,
From every tribe, with one great song.
Before the Lamb, all men unite,
Bathed in mercy, robed in white.

Yet now, the largest Church on earth,
Wielding wealth, claiming new birth,
Builds walls to keep strangers away,
Turning the poor from its doorway.

Refugees wander, oppressed and unseen,
Deprived of justice, crushed between
A gospel of love and hands that deny,
While heaven looks down, and angels cry.

O Church, remember who you are,
Called to love, to welcome, not bar.
For the walled-out Christ still calls to you,
“Whatever you’ve done, you’ve done to Me too.”

Come, O Church, to the narrow way,
Where love shines bright at break of day.
Lay down your walls, take up your cross,
And count the cost, not gain or loss.

Follow the One who bore your shame,
Who calls you now by His great name.
For hope is found in His pierced hands,
Where grace flows wide for all the lands.

The stranger waits, the orphan cries,
Will you reflect the Savior’s eyes?
Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God
Love deeply, with the gospel on your feet shod.

For Christ alone is our living hope,
A lifeline strong, a Savior’s rope.
Come back to Him, and walk His way,
Till all are gathered on that final day.

Each: How to Be a Ruler in Your Corner of the Kingdom of God Today

We are vassals of King Jesus, a royal priesthood, ambassadors of Christ

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“Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.”

Isaiah 32:1-3 ESV

A king will reign in righteousness!

What king in the history of the world has ruled in righteousness?

Maybe there is one I don’t know about. If you believe the Bible, though, no man is righteous. Not one. (Romans 3:10-12)

Only one person in history might fit this description, and his name is Jesus. Pilate called him “king of Jews”, and Jesus didn’t deny it (John 18:33), but he died on a cross at the hands of the dominant power in the First Century: Rome.

During his life, Jesus predicted his death, but he said he would come again. (See, for instance, John 5:28-29, 14:1-3; Luke 21:25-28; and Matthew 24:23, 36-44) His First Century followers claimed that Jesus rose from the dead, and he ascended to the right hand of God. (Revelation 3:21; Matthew 22:44; Acts 2:33) They wrote about his coming back to rule the earth. (See, 2 Peter 3:10, 4:7: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, 5:1-3; Hebrews 9:28) In the vision John the Apostle famously saw, he says:

“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.“

Revelation 1:7

“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end….”

Revelation 12:12

During his life, Jesus said he came to preach the good news of the kingdom of God, (Luke 4:43), and he traveled around from town to town “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.” (Luke 8:12) He said the kingdom of God has come (Luke 10:9), and it is in our midst. (Luke 17:21)

From these things, we learn that Jesus claimed to have brought the kingdom of God to earth, but he also said he would die. He also said he would rise from the dead, and come again. His followers claim he did rise and return in the flesh, but only for 40 days. Then, he left and ascended into heaven.

Jesus said, and his followers claim, that he would come again (again), but that hasn’t happened yet. In the meantime, Jesus claims he introduced the kingdom of heaven on earth. So, where is it?

Jesus told Pilate his kingdom is “not of this world.” (John 18:36) And, he said this right before he was crucified We might write Jesus off as a lunatic except for the fact that he seems to have risen from the dead according to hundreds of his followers (1 Corinthians 15:3-8), and he spent time with them over 40 days before he reportedly ascended to the right hand of God. (Acts 1: 3–4)

Even for people who have difficulty believing these claims, no one can deny the lasting influence Jesus has had. One has to wonder how such a person who was not born into nobility, who was not even a ranking religious leader in his local community, who worked with his hands, who never had political power or influence, who was poor, and who is more famous for dying than living could have become the symbol and hope of Western Civilization. Not only that, but he is revered, followed and worshipped in every nation around the world.

Paul called followers of Jesus “ambassadors” with a “message of reconciliation”. (2 Corinthians 5:18-21) He says this because Jesus came to reconcile the world to himself – to God the Father, with whom Jesus called himself one. He cam to reconcile the world to God, and we who follow him are commissioned to share the same message.

This is the good news of the kingdom of God: freedom for people who are imprisoned and oppressed, recovery of sight to the blind, and an invitation to enter into God’s favor – His kingdom. (Luke 4:18-19) Jesus is the king of this kingdom that is not of this world.

But, we are to be despised of all people on the earth if we have nothing but a kingdom that is not of this world (and nothing beyond it). If Jesus was not raised from the dead, we have nothing, and our faith is less than useless.

Thus, the testimony of those early followers who watched him die on a Roman cross and be buried and who claimed that he appeared to them, sat with them and broke bread with them, and taught them for 40 days before he ascended into heaven is the foundation of our faith. (1 Corinthians 15:3-7)

Because of their witness, we believe his promise that he will come again to bring his other-worldly kingdom to this earth in a final resolution and redemption of all that God created. If we trust the Bible, we find that his coming was foretold centuries before he was born:

“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.”

Isaiah 5:9-7

“One like the son of man” was also foretold by Daniel, a person who would be “given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him….” (Daniel 7:13-14) Jesus claimed to be this “Son of Man”. (See, Matthew 16:13-20 and Luke 22:48) Indeed, Christians believe Jesus is this Son of Man who was foretold, and that he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Jesus is the “king who will reign in righteousness!” And Isaiah says that “princes [rulers, officials, captains] will rule in justice.” Among the meanings of the Hebrew word sar (שַׂר) is a vassal (a protected servant of the king), who has power and authority under a king. As followers of Jesus, that is us!

We are all vassals of King Jesus. Peter calls us a “royal priesthood”. (1 Peter 2:9) Isaiah says that each of the vassals of the king of righteousness will rule with justice. Each of us!

How do we do that today in the kingdom of God that is not of this world?

Continue reading “Each: How to Be a Ruler in Your Corner of the Kingdom of God Today” →