Soul... Smug, Complacent, and Judgmental (continued)

Ok, so I admit that 2 months is a bit long to wait to continue something, but we've been pretty busy lately (no new kids joining our family, but we do have a new roof and a newly-borrowed tandem bicycle, along with some new responsibilities for our oldest son). And now I realized that in typing the first entry on my "smart" phone I made some typos -- I think I found and corrected them now.

Most non-Christians (and quite a few Christians, I'm afraid) have gotten their idea of what it is to be (negatively) judgmental from the world, and its twisting of Matthew 7:1 ("Judge not, that you may not be judged").

Good practices in Bible study once more steers us clear of the pitfalls of a world that screams "don't you dare judge me!" when confronted with its sin and depravity. For the rest of this passage on both sides (don't forget that the chapters and numbers were added after the original inspiration) gives us our marching orders (look to God and His sovereignty in Chapter 6) and puts the first verse in context (FIRST take the beam out of your own eye, in verse 5, and THEN you will see clearly to cast the splinter out of your brother's eye -- Jesus never for a moment asks us to assume that we are to leave it there!)

Speaking of the world, most of our modern "enlightened" society has decided that Paul's letters are far too confusing to be taken seriously (and why wouldn't it, since Paul presents so much truth in one chapter of Romans as to insult most American Christians if they really read and believed it, rather than trying to pass it off as "simply" meaning something different than it says, which can either be explained away or glossed over?). But Paul is to be taken seriously, as God's vessel for expounding upon much of His revelation to us (J.I. Packer calls Romans chapter 8 "the high point of Romans", which book he calls the "high point of scripture"). In First Corinthians chapter 5 and 6 Paul makes it very clear that it is our RESPONSIBILITY to call those around us to account for their lives and actions -- first Christians, to whom it is given to "keep the feast" of the sacrifice of Christ (5:7-8), then to those who would call themselves Christians but their actions betray them as otherwise (5:1-13), and then the world in general (6:2-3).

One of my favorite speakers once gave a sermon in which he several times over made the comment that truth is found most accurately in scripture when we use "Biblical terms with Biblical definitions" (comment on this entry if you are interested in the source of that quote, and I will look up that sermon and see if I can find a link to it in SermonAudio). And that is exactly what is needed here -- for just as the world cannot understand the difference between judging in righteousness and "being judgmental", neither can it understand what true love is. For God does not display (nor does He call His children to!) the sort of puny "love" the world preaches, that "forgives and forgets" the immense destructiveness of sin. The Son paid a price too huge for us to understand in atoning our sin and purchasing our justification (if we are His, or are to be), to deliver us into His forgiveness. How then can we disobey God by being too "non-judgmental" and/or "loving" to warn those around us of the consequences of their sin?

For as Paul says in First Corinthians 6:9-10 (in a set of verses that "could curl your toes", to borrow a phrase from one of my mentors), "Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor abusers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God"!

To those of us who seek God's glory as that of our Father, through obedience to His Word, how can we fail to bring glory to God by being clear (not harsh, but clear) about the sin around us? And for those few (OK, maybe there aren't any!) Armenians and man's-free-will thinkers who for some reason have continued reading this long, if you truly believe that the destiny of someone's soul somehow depends on your actions (it does not, though by no means will any of us be absolved of responsibility for all of our words and actions!), how could you fail to warn those around you of the cost of their sin, if they remain slave to it?