Do Right

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 4th of February, 2024, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Last week, James gave us a little lesson on humility.  He stated what should be obvious when he said that our conflicts between each other all result from our worldly desires and lusts.  Whether we’re talking wars on a global scale or arguments among ourselves, they are all caused by one party seeking to impose its will on another, wanting something that it doesn’t have, coveting another’s good fortunes.  And even if we ask God for what we want, we’re asking for the wrong reasons, for our own benefit no matter who else may be impacted, so God does not answer.

Our worldly desires cause our problems and make us an enemy of God.  Fortunately, James also provides the solution.  We must set aside our pride and humble ourselves before God.  For when we draw nearer to God, He will come closer to us.

In our reading this morning, James continues on this theme of our need to let go of the world and our worldly behavior.  We tend to acknowledge our faults and weaknesses by dismissing them as just a part of “human nature”.  And it is indeed in our nature to disobey God because we are a fallen, sinful people, beginning with Adam and Eve there in the beautiful Garden of Eden.  We are enticed by all the world can offer, all its charms and promises of happiness and fortune.  We ignore the words of our Bible that remind us that nothing on this earth can come close to comparing to what God has in His heaven.  And it can all be ours if we just do as He commands.

In our reading today we are reminded of some of what God expects of us.  So please listen and follow along as we finish the 4th chapter of James’ letter to the early Christian church with verses 11 through 17, and I’ll be reading this from the Living Bible version of our Holy Bible…

11 Don’t criticize and speak evil about each other, dear brothers. If you do, you will be fighting against God’s law of loving one another, declaring it is wrong. But your job is not to decide whether this law is right or wrong, but to obey it. 12 Only He who made the law can rightly judge among us. He alone decides to save us or destroy. So what right do you have to judge or criticize others?

13 Look here, you people who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to such and such a town, stay there a year, and open up a profitable business.” 14 How do you know what is going to happen tomorrow? For the length of your lives is as uncertain as the morning fog — now you see it; soon it is gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 Otherwise you will be bragging about your own plans, and such self-confidence never pleases God.

17 Remember, too, that knowing what is right to do and then not doing it is sin. 

--James 4:11-17 (TLB)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, thank You for taking on the tough role of Judge.  If we stop long enough to think about it, we are in no position to judge another.  We seldom know all the facts surrounding or leading up to another person’s actions, or inactions.  Only You know all, so only You can truly judge rightly.  Father, please help us be more compassionate when dealing with others.  Please forgive us, Father, when we judge them without taking the time to learn more about them.  Help us take these words James wrote to heart so that we can learn to be more loving, more forgiving.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand Your message today.  Help us be more obedient to Your commands and less judgmental in our dealings with others.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

The following appeared in the July 1992 issue of the little Daily Bread devotional:

We sometimes criticize others unfairly. We don't know all their circumstances, nor their motives. Only God, who is aware of all the facts, is able to judge people righteously. 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 criticized 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 neighbors and show them what the grace of God can do in the heart of a man who was once dishonest." Wesley then apologized to the man and asked his forgiveness.

If you don’t recognize the name, John Wesley was the English theologian and evangelist who was a leader of the revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism.  In other words, he was the father of the Methodist church.  But here we see this great evangelist publicly chastising a man for what Wesley considered miserly and covetous conduct.

As it turned out, the man – apparently a relatively new convert to the Christian faith – was trying his best to do the right thing in God’s eyes, to show the world what the grace of God can do to the heart of a man who was once dishonest.  He had been living on next to nothing for himself as he paid down his debts.  But get this…  He was still tithing to the church.  Wesley had criticized him for not giving more to a charity, but the man replied he could only afford to give a little above his tithing.

The man was doing right by God.  The influential evangelist John Wesley was not, for he was judging another.  Only God is aware of all the facts in our lives.  Only God is in a position to judge.

I bet we’re all familiar with the old saw, “judge not, lest you be judged”.  Or maybe you know it as “judge not, that you not be judged”.  But did you know that Jesus spoke those words?  This is the warning that Jesus gave us during His Sermon on the Mount.  The message goes on to caution that whatever measure we use to judge another will be used to judge us.  So before judging, we should stop and think if we are able to stand up to the same kind of judgment.

Let me give you a slightly different take on this.  This comes from the Living Bible version of Jesus’ sermon in the 7th chapter of the Gospel account of the Apostle Matthew, verses 1 through 5…

1 “Don’t criticize, and then you won’t be criticized. 2 For others will treat you as you treat them. 3 And why worry about a speck in the eye of a brother when you have a board in your own? 4 Should you say, ‘Friend, let me help you get that speck out of your eye,’ when you can’t even see because of the board in your own? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the board. Then you can see to help your brother."

--Matthew 7:1-5 (TLB)

Have you ever thought of criticism being an act of judgment?  We’re quick to criticize – it’s part of that human nature we mentioned earlier.  And we’re quick to anger when we ourselves are criticized.  We even came up with a term for criticism that is meant for our own good: “constructive criticism”.  But it’s all a form of judgment and we are warned not to do it.

It boils down to being held to the same type of judgment or criticism that we hold others to.  Because we ourselves are indeed subject to judgment and criticism, for no one is perfect.  We all have something in our eye that keeps us from seeing the totality of another person’s life.

The Apostle Luke also reported on this warning from our Lord in what we commonly refer to as Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain.  In chapter 6 of Luke’s Gospel account, verses 37 and 38, Jesus cautions us…

37 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full — pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

--Luke 6:37-38 (NLT)

In this reading, Jesus adds that if we condemn another, it will come back against us.  Instead, we are to be forgiving so that we will be forgiven.  Give and we will receive.  Give forgiveness and receive forgiveness in return.

Looking at the very last of this morning's scripture reading, James reminds us that “knowing what is right to do and then not doing it is sin”.  If we know what is right in God’s eyes but we take no action on that knowledge and don’t do it, then we are committing a sin.  Likewise, when we know what is right and then ignore that knowledge and go ahead and do what is not right, we are sinning against God.

Since we’re all human, and subject to our fallen human nature, I’m pretty sure we all have done something that we knew was not right at some time or another.  Even the Apostle Paul had this problem.  In the 7th chapter of his letter to the Romans, verses 14 through 17, Paul writes…

14 The law is good, then, and the trouble is not there but with me because I am sold into slavery with Sin as my owner.

15 I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to — what I hate. 16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking. 17 But I can’t help myself because I’m no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things.

--Romans 7:14-17 (TLB)

The law is good.  It comes from God so it has to be good.  The problem is that we are born of sin, slaves to sin as Paul puts it.  We just can’t seem to help ourselves.  Even though we know what is right and we want to do what is right, we can’t always seem to do what is right.  We do what we hate, what our conscience – God’s Spirit within us – tells us is wrong, tells us that we are breaking God’s law.

It is the sin inside us that makes us do this.  But we can conquer this sin.  Jesus conquered death to forgive us our sins, and He will help us do what is right.  But we must do our part and repent of our sin, turn from our sin and turn fully to God.

We should really try to stop judging others, no matter the form our judgment might take.  When we criticize or speak badly of another, we are judging them.  All this runs counter to God's command to love others.  Remember that Jesus says this is the second greatest of all the commands in God's law, second only to loving God Himself, to love others.  When we judge others, we are, in effect, judging God's law and saying it doesn't apply to us.

We need to stop this.  We need to do what we know is right, and stop doing what we just want to do whenever we want to do it.  Let’s set aside our worldly desires and lusts and turn our attention to the things of heaven, focusing more on helping others, on loving others.  And let’s leave the judging to God.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who came to us to redeem us and to give us new life.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for reminding us of Your authority and of our weakness.  We truly do understand that we are not in a position, neither of authority nor of knowledge, to serve as a judge of someone else, to criticize them when we have so much wrong in our own behavior.  Thank You, Father, for taking on the role of Judge.  Too often, though, we think ourselves above Your law.  We refuse to love others and instead act judgmental toward them, criticizing them, speaking badly against them.  We forget that we ourselves have much we can be judged on and criticized for.  Forgive us those times, please Father.  Please help us be more loving, more forgiving.  Help us do what we know is right and stop doing what we know is wrong.  And please help us do a better job of sharing our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You cautioned us not to engage in judging others, reminding us we would be judged using the same measure that we use in our judgments.  You said that only God is in a position and has the authority to judge, and we know this is true in our hearts, but sometimes we just can’t seem to help ourselves.  Please help us do what is right in God’s eyes.  Help us be more like You in our actions and in our reactions to others and to what goes on around us.  Help us be more forgiving, and more able to forget harms done to us.  And Lord, please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us what to do to help bring the lost to You.

Lord Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.