God is my judge

“For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord.” – 1 Corinthians 4v4

We can sometimes take something of a spiritual pride in how much we, as the body of Christ, have advanced as we approach our 2000^th birthday. However, I think, on closer examination, that we are hardly a good advertisement for any kind of “spiritual evolution.”

Let’s take today’s section of scripture, 1 Corinthians 4v3-5 as an example. We love to stand in our pulpits and condescendingly refer to the church in Corinth as “the carnal church.” True, there are some very carnal things that we are going to read about later, but here we find ourselves in chapter 4, roughly a fourth of the way through the book, and Paul is still addressing one aspect of their carnality.

We have read over and over about petty divisions and sectarianism. Paul continues this same general train of thought. “Listen folks, it doesn’t really matter who we are. I want you to see us simply as faithful servants of God. That’s all God really wants, and yet you are judging me and judging each other based on your own ideas. At the end of the day, God is my judge and one day His judgement will be revealed. Let’s just leave it until then, will we?”

I am not talking about exposing false teachers here. The word of God is clear on that. We have a responsibility to protect the church by exposing and warning against teaching that is contrary to the word of God. The context of Paul’s letter is judging men based on non-essentials and our opinions. We are also not talking about totally disregarding what other’s think of us. We need to be sure that we don’t use our liberty to serve the flesh. Our testimony is important; there are areas where we need to be aware of how others might take a situation or an action.

Having said that, we can be far too concerned about what others might say about our ministries, whatever they might be. I have heard of churches criticised because they had too many or too few standards. I have heard churches attacked because their music was too traditional or too modern. I have heard church attacked because their dress was too formal or too casual. I have heard churches attacked because of who they would or would not have speak in their pulpits.

What are we on at? Are we not just as bad as the Corinthians? Who is the judge of all these things? When it is all said and done God is my judge, and yours, and all of my brothers and sisters whom I may be so quick to judge.

What do we do about the non-essentials, the abiblical issues that we come across? What if God’s word does not address the issue in precept or principle?

“Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”

Maybe its time for us to learn the lesson that the church at Corinth was called on to learn.