23.Nov.2007 The Kingdom of God – Part III – Judge Not
Matthew 7 – A lot of people think that God is angry, judgmental and tired of humanity. But Jesus did not come to the Earth with a big stick. He brought grace, love, and compassion.
Obedience on the outside is RELIGION. Real obedience is about the heart. We cannot judge people by what we see on the outside – that is the mistake of religion. God wants us to choose to follow him. This is the point of a free will. This ensures that we are obedient on the inside…where it counts.
Verse 1 – Stop Judging Others! Start worrying about yourself. Don’t be critical of others, or God will hold you to His standard. Matthew threw a party so that he could get his tax collector friends and other people that the Bible called “notorious sinners” to meet Jesus. Jesus went to the party to teach these men and show them the true nature of God.
In the midst of this party, Jesus said, “Judge not.” We need to stop going to a sense of Judgment in our view of the world, and start defaulting to GRACE, as Jesus did. At some point, the Church thought it would be a good idea to let the World know that they weren’t living up to God’s standards. But, we cannot live up to our own standards, let alone God’s….this just makes us hypocrites.
The message in a judgmental attitude is that we are better than someone else. The Church has been judging the world. Now, they judge us back. This result is the OPPOSITE of what we need to do to change the world. Jesus brought GRACE, COMPASSION, and FORGIVENESS to the world.
The church needs to be more like Jesus and give grace. What does God think about homosexuals, drug dealers, prostitutes, etc.? He loves them and wants to see them healed of their pain. Jesus would not have told them that they were bad people and going to hell. The Bible is full of examples of Jesus showing these people a better life in him….through grace not judgmentalism.
So much of our society is based on some form of judgementalism and what is happening on the outside. How nice is your car? How big is your house? What do you do for a living? People should be measured by what they carry on the inside, integrity, character, honesty, love…. The Church cannot change the world unless we stop operating in Judgment. In order to change the world, we need them to stop judging us. This begins with us not judging them. We must break the cycle.
We are not better than the world. The ONLY thing that makes us great is the Spirit of God working through us. Without God, we are NOTHING. We are NOTHING without Jesus and the grace that he showed us by dying for our sins. We must reciprocate this grace. Jesus said that the world would know that we are different by our LOVE.
People can’t change people. Nothing that we can say or do can change someone’s heart. The only way to change someone’s heart is through the Spirit of God.
