Judge not!
NB. Sermon preached at Mid-week service Stanley 17 October 2001
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You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life.
8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favouritism. -
Judging Others
Setting the Scene
It is useful to set up this passage with a bit of background to this letter to the Romans. It would seem (from Romans 15:24) Paul is writing to The Christians in Rome (who he had never met) before embarking on a mission to Spain. Paul would have known that his letter would be read and re-read in many house churches in Rome in those early risky days of following Christ (25 yrs after the death and resurrection of Jesus).
In this letter, Paul is speaking to the Jews (the previous passage spoke of God judging the heathen and can imagine the Jews nodding in agreement as the letter is read out around the house churches there in Rome). Then he turns on the Jews…they never imagined God would judge them that way…they believed they held a privileged position in God’s family - "loves Israel alone of all the nations of the earth." Here Paul is saying the Jew is as much a sinner as the Gentile and that when the Jew condemns the gentile he is condemning himself. Being a Jew (by racial heritage) will not save them. It is the Lord they followed and the life they lived that mattered.
When Justin Martyr was arguing with the Jew about the position of the Jews in the Dialogue with Trypho, the Jew said, ”They who are the seed of Abraham according to the flesh shall in any case, even if they be sinners and unbelieving and disobedient towards God, share in the eternal Kingdom." Those Jews believed that everyone is heading for judgement except the Jew. It was not because of grace or any special holiness or goodness which kept him immune from the wrath of God, but simply the fact that he was a Jew.
To combat this situation Paul reminded the Jews of 3 things.
God’s mercy is not a licence to Sin
In Romans 2: 4 Paul uses three great words He asks them:
" or perhaps you despise his great kindness, tolerance and patience”
1. The fact we are not punished is not a sign of a powerless God but a patient merciful God. But the Jew regarded the mercy of God as an invitation to sin rather than as an incentive to repentance. When someone (Heine) was asked why he was so confident God would not punish sin. His answer was, “God will forgive." He was asked why he was so sure of that, and his reply was:
"C'est son metier "
" It is His job, God’s business."
Illustration - There are two attitudes to human forgiveness. Suppose a young person does something which is a shame, a sorrow and a heartbreak to their parents, and suppose that in love he or she is freely forgiven, and the thing is never held against him. He can do one of two things.
[a] He can either go and do the same thing all over again, trading on the fact that he will be forgiven all over again; or
[b] he can be so moved to to gratitude by the free forgiveness that he has received that he spends his whole life trying to be worthy of it.
It is a terrible thing if Christians use mercy and love's forgiveness as an excuse to go on sinning. That’s where those outside start to say those lot in the church are all hypocrites do one thing on a Sunday and another on the next 6 days. That is what the Jews were doing. That is what so many people still do. The mercy of God, the love of God, is not meant to make us feel that we can sin and get away with it; it is meant so to break our hearts in love that we will seek never to sin again.
God has no favourites
Paul insists that there is no favouritism with God. In God's economy, there is no most favoured nation clause. There may be nations which are picked out for a special task and for a special responsibility, but there are no nations which are picked out for special privilege and special consideration. Illustration - The pecking Order - My Grandad McMurray took me into his farmyard and scattered some seeds. The hens came running and in a short time the larger ones had established a pecking order and the smaller ones had to wait.
The whole of the Jewish religion was based on the conviction that the Jews held a special position of privilege and favour in the eyes of God. We may feel that that is a position which nowadays we are far past. But is it? Is there no such thing nowadays as a colour bar? Is there no such thing as a conscious feeling of superiority to what Kipling called "lesser breeds without the law"? Disability is still a barrier to many things.
This is not to say that all nations are the same in talent, in genius, in ability. But it is to say that those nations who have advanced further than others are not to look down on the others - like in the Third World…cancel the debt campaign and the ..Jubilee Year campaign.
The West is under a responsibility to help the others, give a leg up to their own standards and provide for them out of out of their plenty.
Look at the example of Food Aid and Water Aid programmes.
Faith and works is relevant
It is often argued that Paul's position was that all that matters is faith.
A religion which stresses the importance of works is often contemptuously waved aside as being quite out of touch with the New Testament.
Nothing could be further from the truth. "God," said Paul, " will settle with each man according to his deeds."
To Paul, a faith which did make an issue of deeds would be a shallow faith (Possibly not a faith at all).
Paul would have said that the only way in which you can see a man's faith at all is by his deeds.
One of the most dangerous of all religious tendencies is to talk as if faith and works were entirely different and separate things. There can be no such thing as a faith which does manifest itself in works. Works and faith are bound up together. We cannot say," I have faith," and leave it at that. That faith of ours must be seen in deeds, for it is by our deeds we are accepted or condemned.
Those deeds flow out of our love for God in response of His love for us. They are not deeds which earn us heavenly Brownie points.
In dealing with matter s of faith and works, Matthew 7:1 gives a warning, ‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged.’ Christians can judge on the basis of visible faith and visible works but don't know the circumstances, nor a persons motives, we cannot see what is going on in the heart, God alone knows the heart. God is aware of all the facts. Let us be cautious about judging others friends.
Illustration - John Wesley told of a man he had little respect for because he considered him to be miserly and covetous.
One day when this person contributed only a small gift to a worthy charity, Wesley openly criticised him.
After the incident, the man went to Wesley privately and told him he had been living on parsnips and water for several weeks.
He explained that before his conversion, he had run up many bills. Now, by skimping on everything and buying nothing for himself he was paying off his creditors one by one. "Christ has made me an honest man," he said, "and so with all these debts to pay, I can give only a few offerings above my tithe. I must settle up with my worldly neighbours and show them what the grace of God can do in the heart of a man who was once dishonest." Wesley then apologised to the man and asked his forgiveness. Daily Bread, July 20, 1992.
