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Righteous Judgment
RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT
“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24).
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In recent weeks, we've seen much wrangling over the appointment of a new Supreme Court justice and it looks like there is more to come with the recent nomination of Harriet Miers to the court. Everyone is seeking a judge that will favor their particular positions - whether liberal, moderate or conservative. No one really seems to be concerned whether these judges are just in their judgment - even though a synonym for our word “judge” is “justice” - obviously derived from the word “just” or “righteous.”
No one is concerned about the good of the nation and its people - only with their own selfish, self-serving programs. Certainly, they aren't concerned with righteous judgment! God instructs the saints to “judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24). Strong's defines the word “judge,” as “to pronounce sentence, to govern, to defend, to execute, to reason.” So, how do we measure up, when it comes to judging righteous judgment based upon, not man's ever changing law, but God's eternal, holy law?
In 1 Peter 4:1-15, the apostle contrasts two opposite ways of life. In vs. 1-7, we're told to not live according to our former way of life, but according to the will of God. Peter admonishes us in vs. 8-11 (from NIV), “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” Peter goes on to tell us that we are to glorify God in all we say and do. In these verses, Peter contrasts the two different ways of life: the way of unselfish, outgoing concern and love for others, and the way of selfishness, or get.
Then in verse 17, Peter says, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” This judgment is a time of trying and testing to see whether we are going to be found innocent or guilty. It is not the sentence or final condemnation. That comes after the trial. But right now, the trial is going on. And we are being judged to see what we are going to do with this life! Peter even tells us in verses 12-13 to “think it not strange when we suffer or endure fiery trials.” That's because we are on trial! We are being judged now. We are not going to get another chance.
When Christ returns, our judgment will be over and we will reap what we have sown in this life - whether to eternal shame or eternal glory. So God expects us to take this matter of judgment seriously right now, in the time leading up to Christ's return. God is going to judge us according to works - what we do with what we know. But it is always based upon law. Romans 13:8 tells us, “Own no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.” There should be no confusion about which “law” Paul is referring to: Verse 9, “For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet.” These are some of the specifics of the law. We find them recorded in the Ten Commandments.
You cannot administer government without a basic, fundamental law - a constitution so to speak. All lesser points of the law must be based on the one constitution. Look at vs. 10: “Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” The basic law, or constitution, of God's government is love! His whole law is summed up in that one word. It describes a general principle, which, in its spirit, covers every thought and act. There is not a specific law written for every possible act, even though Rabbinical Judaism has tried. But there is an overall constitution that covers every act - God's 10 Commandments!
Notice that last part of Romans 13:9. After listing several of the Ten Commandments, Paul then says: “And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Every other act not covered in a command or statute is covered by this law of love. God expects us, with His Holy Spirit, to apply this principle to every circumstance, act or question. God's law of love is an all-encompassing way of life. Love is at the very heart and essence of God's way of life.
Though God's written law does not cover every possible human act, He says we will be judged according to every act. That's because His spiritual law, the principle of love, does cover every act. And we will be judged whether each act was good (based on love) or evil (based on selfishness). God's law is all-encompassing. It has to be, if we are being judged according to every act. And since God's law is a principle that doesn't list every single detail, and yet we will be judged according to every detail, that means we must become experts in applying the spirit of that law! Every day, we are confronted with dozens of decisions and judgments that we either base on God's law of love, or Satan's law of selfishness and vanity.
In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses wrote of the difficulties of leading the rapidly growing nation of Israel. Deuteronomy 1:12 notes that Moses realized he needed help. He goes on in vs. 15-16 to describe what action he took: “So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you - as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials. And I charged your judges at that time: Hear the disputes between your brothers and judge fairly, whether the case is between brother Israelites or between one of them and an alien.” These leaders were told to listen to problems and execute just judgments. But Moses warns them in vs. 17: “You shall not respect persons in judgment; but you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it to me, and I will hear it.” They were not to judge according to appearance, as we are also reminded in the New Testament: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24).
God made that lesson abundantly clear to Samuel, when He sent him to anoint the next king of Israel. David wasn't Samuel's first choice. In fact, he wasn't even in the running! He was tending to the sheep while his seven brothers were vying for top spot in Samuel's eyes. God told Samuel, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature for I have refused him: for the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7).
You may have noticed, there is a statue, I believe in the Supreme Court building, which is of a woman with a set of balances in her hand. She is blind folded - implying that justice should be blind - not based on appearance. Unfortunately, man can't even do that. Judgments today are not based on God's righteous laws, but on appearance and political expediency.
There is a spiritual lesson for us in the verses we looked at previously in the book of Deuteronomy: Like Moses, Jesus Christ is going to need help in the World Tomorrow. He has selected a few wise men (and women), to be judges skilled in applying the constitutional law of God. Those judges are in training now - learning to judge according to God's law of love, not by appearance. Those judges are us, brethren.
The New Testament continues the theme: “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons” (James 2:1). With God, it doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, how much talent or money you have, or what you look like. We are all judged according to the same law. James goes on to say in vs. 4, that if we pay more respect to the rich, because of their wealth or appearance, than we do the poor, we become “critics and judges with evil thoughts or wrong motives.”
God has chosen the poor of this world - those rich in faith (vs.5). If we show partiality in judging, we end up opposite God! God wants us to be so grounded in His law, that we will hear the weak, ignorant, and poor, just as readily as the well-known, wealthy, and attractive. God's law if fair; and so will our judgments be, if we base them on His law. God has a higher law: “If you fulfill the Royal Law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, and do well” (vs. 8). We are God's future royalty and we have a royal, family law - love! Every judgment, if it is just, must originate from this royal law. Too often, however, it doesn't. “But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (vs. 9). This kind of sinful judgment is based on selfishness - the way we see it, not God's principle of love given in His 10 Commandments.
Matthew 7:1 says, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” This doesn't contradict John 7:24 and others which say we should judge righteously. It means, don't condemn or sentence another. That is Jesus Christ's responsibility. In this life, God expects us to judge or evaluate matters in a righteous and fair manner. After telling us not to “judge,” Matthew goes on to say in vs.5: “You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother's eye.” God says we still can go to our brother to assist him in overcoming a fault, but just make sure we have removed the beam in our own eye first! Why is that? “For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged” (vs.2).
God wants us to understand that in this life we are on trial - we are being judged by how we judge. We certainly should never write someone off to eternal condemnation. But neither should we eliminate righteous judgment from our Christian living. We have to judge righteous judgment based on God's law to determine what is right and wrong. If we can't judge in little matters now in this life, how can we ever expect to be judges in the World Tomorrow?
John 5:22 tells us that God has committed all judgment to His Son. The Father has the authority to give Christ the responsibility of judgment. He is the lawmaker or lawgiver in His government. But He has made Christ the executor or enforcer of that law. Christ heads the “judicial branch” of God's government. Just as our Supreme Court justices are supposed to do with our constitution, Jesus Christ's job is to interpret God's law; to try, and eventually sentence all mankind. “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28-29). Jesus Christ will be their judge. Christ judges righteously because He always seeks the Lawgiver's will. He never judges according to the way He sees things! He is in total submission to His Father (vs. 30) and that's what God expects of us as future judges called to assist Christ; to help Him interpret the law, to try and eventually sentence those who come to God in the World Tomorrow, as we saw at the Feast. And frankly, brethren, these are skills God expects us to be learning now!
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul corrected the brethren for taking their brothers to court to be tried before worldly judges. He begins the sixth chapter by saying, “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to the law before the unjust, and not before the saints?” They were more prone to settle disputes with other members before the unjust courts of this world, than before the Church - led by the law of God! He continues in verse 2: “Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?” We're being judged brethren, because we are destined to judge the world! If we cannot make proper judgments based on the royal law of love in “small” matters - like disputes with a brother, a mate, or a family member - how are we ever going to resolve conflict and settle disputes in the World Tomorrow?
The apostle Paul drives the point home with this warning in vs. 3: “Know you not that we shall judge angels? How much more thing that pertain to this life?” If judging the world seems too fantastic to imagine - what about the resurrected saints judging angels? That word “judge” in this verse can also mean “manage,” or “rule over,” but there is another scriptural passage which suggests that we may even take part in sentencing fallen angels: “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Greek word “tartaroo”], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment...” (2 Peter 2:4). That's the only place “tartaroo” is used in the Bible. Evidently, it's a place where angels are reserved for their judgment.
Mr. Armstrong commented on that passage in an article in a 1981 “Worldwide News,” “Now stop and think a moment. Have we considered or thought that the angels are all judged and condemned already? I think Satan is, but that verse does not say Satan. It says the angels that sinned. Maybe some of them were deceived by Lucifer, the great archangel who became Satan. That's something for you to think about. We are to judge angels. Angels are yet to be judged. There is a time when judgment is coming on the world and it has not come yet. The world as a whole is not being called.” You can detect a tinge of speculation in Mr. Armstrong's comment, but the main point of his statement is: Are we prepared to judge this world and even fallen angels? As we saw at the Feast, that's the awesome responsibility Jesus Christ will soon hand over to His faithful saints.
Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 6:4-5 (Moffett): “And yet, when you have mundane issues to settle, you refer them to the judgment of men, who from the point of view of the church, are of no account. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?” Paul is saying, why settle for inferior, unjust judges, when we can settle matters with the highest judicial branch there is: God's! God's law says to love Him above anyone or anything else, and love your neighbor as yourself. In fact, Christ commands us to even love our enemy (Matt. 5:44)!
When we judge unjustly or by appearance, decisions are made, but not in God's best interest; nor in the interest of those being judged. Those are selfish judgments, and that travels in the opposite direction of God's law of out-flowing love. It is plainly called sin, as James wrote in James 2:9: “But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.” There's no room for that kind of perverted, biased judgment in the World Tomorrow. Christ won't have it. Christ says with what manner we judge now, we shall be judged.
The final sentence is almost here. Will we be able to stand at the final judgment? If we do, then along with Christ, we will judge the world with righteous, just judgments. We will even judge the angelic realm. That's how awesome our judicial authority will be!
Be faithful brethren, in the smaller matters of judgment each day and Christ will make us rulers and judges over all things in the World Tomorrow!
Pete Fleming
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BE A LONG TIME LEARNER
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Are you set in your ways? If you are, you might want to shed that personality trait and take a class in something you've had the desire to learn, but never have. Take piano lessons, a knitting class or a foreign language course. Why? Because cultivating the mind cultivates flexibility. And having a flexible mind is a good thing. Research has shown that learning new skills or indulging in interests throughout life helps build brain connections-and that keeps the mind sharp. So go ahead and sign up for a class and be a lifetime learner.
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