Honor Christ With Our Right Judgments And Protect His Name In This World
Honor Christ
(Video and Audio are available at the bottom of the page.)
To honor someone means to show or give them the respect and esteem that they deserve. I want to live my life to honor Christ, but I also recognize that I fall short in giving Him the respect and esteeming Him to the degree that He deserves. However, I believe we can grow and develop in this area. The more I want to honor Him, the more I must know Him and know what He values and esteems.
My personal desire to honor Christ is the very thing that set me on a study through biblical tensions that I see in God’s word. As I shared in past blog post, I struggle with how to stand for truth and walk in love. And when someone says, “The Bible says, ‘Don’t judge,” I want to respond with, “It also says, a spiritual man judges all things.” Once again, my wrestle within screams, “How do I honor Christ knowing that His word tells us not to judge and affirms judging at the same time?”
The only way I know how to deal with these seemingly opposing elements in the Bible is to lay them out on the table before me and examine them until I find some framework to work within. I am simply not the person okay with turning a blind eye to one aspect of God’s teaching to maintain the status quo of my previous biblical understanding or interpretations. I want God’s illumination and revelation of Himself. My desire to grow in my relationship with Jesus compels me to go deeper which set me on this journey of delving into biblical tensions.
Biblical Tensions Of Judging
Let me start with a two-sentence summary from my previous teaching for us to work with from here.
The biblical teaching that directs us not to judge also highlights the need to stay focused on evaluating oneself rather than evaluating others because we will also be judged by the measure we use to judge. However, as true Christians, filled with and led by the Holy Spirit, we are called to make righteous judgments.
If you still need to clarify the details we covered from 1 Corinthians last week, go ahead and read that now, Rightly Judging All Things Only Happens By The Power Of The Holy Spirit.
Moving forward, remember that Paul addressed issues in the Corinthian church. This church was filled with problems and sin because they were not walking in the wisdom, knowledge, and power of the Holy Spirit. Instead they walked according to their own weak, carnal flesh.
In 1 Corinthians 4:3-5 Paul talked about human judgments. He recognized when judging ourselves or others from our human intellect our judgments will be off base and that right judgments only came from the Lord. i.e. why we need the Holy Spirit… Now take notice of what Paul said to them next.
Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other.
1 Corinthians 4:6
Learn Not To Think Beyond What Is Written
Paul pointed them to use the written Old Testament Scriptures as their standard and boundaries for the context of their lives lived out and the judgments they made. For us the Old and New Testament give us a framework to function within. The concept of the Bible as our guidelines, standards, and boundaries reminded me of a study I did on Psalm 119:105.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105
The Hebrew word for path means navigable pass or trail. My husband was raised in south LA and fishing was normal life for him. He explained navigable to me from his perspective. He said:
“You have to think in Nautical terms – a ship in a river navigating through the river. There are red and green signs marked with triangle signs as indicators of a channel that act like lines on a highway. Someone has already charted the course and proved it to be navigable. At night in the dark, the boat is not like a car with head lights but with a spot light. The beam shifts from one sign to the other. Without light at night they aren’t going to know where to go. Without markers, they must have an experienced pilot to navigate through the unmarked channel.”
Isn’t that amazing and isn’t that exactly what Paul wanted Christians to know when faced with issues and the tensions of judging. They/We need guidelines and boundaries in how to walk out our faith in a way that honors Christ. Jesus already charted our course. He proved our course navigable.
Two Clear Directives Regarding Judging
When we wonder how to walk within the framework the Bible gives us about judging and not judging, Paul gives us two very clear directives.
Be filled with, led by, and walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Stay within the boundary lines God set for us in His Word.
Because, God’s Spirit and His Word make our paths navigable..
Now let’s turn our attention to 1 Corinthians 5.
Paul addressed the issue of sexual immorality in the church. He talked about it from the standpoint that someone in the church lived in a way that even non-believers knew wasn’t right. Yet they allowed the sin of a man in a sexual relationship with his father’s wife go unchecked. Yet, Paul filled with the Spirit and within the boundary lines of God’s Word made a righteous judgment.
For I indeed, as absent in the body, but present in the spirit, have already judged
(as though I were present) him who has done this deed.
1 Corinthian 5:3
Moving on to 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Paul talked about how the leaven (of sin), leavens the whole lump. In other words, sin taints the whole church. Why is that a huge problem? Because the very world God called the church to reach, looks inside the church and sees nothing distinct or different.
This similarity of the church and the world puts the reputation of the church at risk. The church was created by Christ. It belongs to Christ, and it was meant to honor Christ. Our God ordained purpose as the church is to be the lamp-stand shining light in the darkness of this world, pointing people to a distinctly different way. The Way. The way that leads to everlasting life.
Do we judge or not judge?
The conclusion of the matter and how we answer the question is Yes!
We never make an absolute judgment. That role belongs to Jesus only. And we never judge lightly or casually because our degree of judgment shines light upon our own failures and inadequacies. However, as spirit-filled and spirit-led believers in Jesus we make right judgments always staying within the boundaries of the whole counsel of God’s word. If that last statement doesn’t cause us to realize the magnitude of a careful, thoughtful, prayerful examination and questioning to pass an accurate or right judgment, maybe we need to work on growing our own relationship with Jesus.
Much Love and Blessings!
