Canceled Record of Sins
When you read Colossians 2:13-14 it may not hit you right away. It may take a couple of reads as it did me. It reads "...God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." The point is for people to understand that through Christ, our sins are forgiven if we accept him through God's grace. You do not have to carry the burden of your sins around with you for the rest of your life. Imagine a judge telling a criminal who is repentant that he doe snot have to pay the penalty or fine or serve a jail term for his criminal activity. That's huge. And even more important than that is our forgiveness through accepting Christ so we do not have to pay the penalty of our sins (separation from God).
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Legality and Immorality
Paul confronts the church on trivial lawsuits. Church members were suing other church members over trivial issues. Paul asks if there is no one wise enough among them that could handle the small stuff instead of going to the outsiders/unbelievers. His point is if we cannot handle the small stuff with each other (other believers) then how can we be entrusted to judge angels. Paul even suggests that let yourself be cheated in examples like this rather than going to the courts. This does not mean in all situations we should just let others cheat us and take advantage of us. That is not God honoring, but in trivial things do not go to the courts, just let it go. We need to change the focus from what is happening to us and remember what Jesus went through so that we could be reconciled to God. He was tortured on our behalf. He could have stopped it but knew that the prophecies would be invalid and God's will would not be done. God sacrificed HUGE for us. It is time for us to start sacrificing for His glory (Romans 6:1-8).
In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Paul really breaks it down for us telling us/the Church in Corinth who will not inherit the Kingdom of God. He tells that neither the unrighteous (those not submitted to God's will) nor the sexually immoral, nor those who have false idols, nor those who practice adultery, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers (criticize in an insulting way) nor swindlers (scammers) will inherit the Kingdom of God. That is a long list? Why is it so long? I think it had to be because at the beginning of the section Paul says "do not be decived" which leads me to believe there were those who believed that they could do all those things and still get into Heaven. But I will take it a step further and say, if you do all of these things or even just one as a regular part of your life as an adopted practice, then is the Holy Spirit in you? The Holy Spirit will not lead you to scam people or cheat on your spouse or lead you to have homosexual relations. It is one thing to slip up, it is another to adopt it as part of your life and accept it and leave it for light (God) and dark (sin) cannot exist in the same place.
We are to flee sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18) and treat our body as a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). That person you have been having sexual relations with, that isn't God honoring. Those drugs you have been doing are not doing anything good to your body. That is not God honoring. That food you have been eating and the exercise you have not had is not good for your body. That is not God honoring. One day we will leave this earth and we are not to ride our bodies into the ground full force but treat them well while we have them in order to show God we are thankful to him for what he gave us.
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Corinthians and Sexual Immorality
Paul also calls out another problem. Paul brings forth the issue of sexual immorality. He says even the Pagan don't practice this and here a church was welcoming a man who was engaged in sexual activity with his father's wife. Now, this could be a step mother or it could have been the man's birth mother, but either way, it was not his wife and was the wife of another man. Paul says that this person should be removed from the church. Many today would say "don't judge" and misquote Jesus and the meaning of what he was saying. We are to judge in the right spirit for those within the church.
Even though Paul wasn't there, he already passed judgement on the one who did this and said that person should be delivered to Satan. That does not mean that person needs to be a human sacrifice as per a ritual, but they need to be put out into the world which is Satan's domain.
Paul calls them out for being boastful about their ignoring this man's sin. His point is that it is not loving to accept sin of this kind into the church. We are all sinners, sure, but we cannot collectively as a church just accept sin as a-ok and ignore it like it isn't there. Paul warns us about associating with fellow Christ followers who indulge in sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, etc (1 Corinthians 5:11). We are not to judge those outside the church, but those on the inside.
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Be a Living Sacrifice & Marks of a True Christian
There is so much in this chapter that we can pull out and apply to our lives in order to serve the Lord and serve others. Romans 12:1-2 tells us to be living sacrifices for God by being holy and acceptable. That is how we can worship God by not conforming the world's ways and doing what they think is okay, but by doing what is pleasing to God. We need to be transformed by renewing our mind. Then we can test that and see what the will of God is and what is perfect to Him.
Romans 12:3-8 reminds us that we are not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. We are to have sober judgement (not drunk with misconceptions or misunderstandings). We need to see ourselves as who we really are and that will keep us from being prideful or boastful in our work for the Lord. Even our being saved is a gift from God so there is no sense in being prideful in that. And we must understand that we are all (those who submit to Christ) in the body of Christ (the Christ follower community/the church) and we all have different roles and need to respect the roles others have.
Romans 12:9-13 tells us to hate evil and love genuinely (don't fake your love for God or others). There is a focus on true humility when we are to out do one another in showing honor and contribute to the needs of the saints. We are to rejoice in our hope and be patient and prayerful in our tribulation (trials/problems/situations).
The final section of the chapter tells us, in Romans 12:14-21, that we are to bless those who persecute us. We are to show empathy by weeping with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. we need to live in harmony with others and not seek revenge on people. We have to remember that God will have his vengenace to those who do us wrong. We are to take care of our enemies because all that we do is to be done in love for God and for his creations.
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God's Righteous Judgment and the Law
It is all too easy to hear what someone has done or see what someone is doing and judge them for it. Not just judge the action, but judge the person as a whole. I know it is hard to stop doing for some or even many of us, but it happens. We hear that someone got a DUI, we judge them and call them a drunk. We see people who get into trouble and label them thugs. We judge all the time and it seems like people can never shake that label that we place on them. But, God has not labeled people thugs and drunks. God's righteous judgment is not based on following rules. That is the earthly way of thinking. We follow God's laws based on our love for him.
In Romans 1 we read about the types of people and the characteristics that will bring on God's wrath. For Paul's audience, they have had heard what he said and read what he wrote and found themselves to be very proud that they were not those people who were gossips, prideful, homosexual, heartless and ruthless. But, Paul seeks to set them straight by pointing out that the same ones who are proud to not be "like the others" are just like the others. Paul says in Romans 2:1, "For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things." If you know the law and do not keep it, then you have no right to tell someone else that they are wrong for not keeping it. If I stood before the judge for a speeding ticket and that same judge tried to maximize my fine and give me jail time while having a speeding issues of his/her own, then I would not respect that judge because they too know the law and have to uphold it while holding me in contempt for my mistake or bad decision. This is what the Pharisees did. They knew the law and help people to that standard while over looking their own failures.
We know in Romans 2:11 that God shows no partiality when it comes to nationality, race or color of skin or nation of origin. We also must know that if you have sinned without the law (God's law of love Him and loving others and being redeemed through Christ) then you die without the law. And if you sin under the law, you will be judged under the law (Romans 2:12).
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Righteous Judgement
Many people say "don't judge" or "judge not lest thee be judged." They take a Bible verse and misinterpret it by not reading the whole context of the verse, the section of the chapter or the Bible as a whole. The words they quote are from Jesus, but how it is often understood is different than how it is used.
Jesus saw that many judged based on appearance and not on what was the below the surface truth. Have you ever seen a homeless person and thought that they must have done that to themselves? People jump to conclusions and think the person must be a drunk or drug addict. They don't know that there are people with mental issues that have been left to fend for themselves. God knows the context for all of our situations. Just because you see someone at one moment it does not mean that the person is that person overall. We don't need condemnation for our mess ups, we need compassion. Christ was full of compassion whether you were blind (John 9:1-7), and adulterer (John 8:1-11) or a tax collector who was known for taxing too much (Luke 19:1-10).
Jesus was known to also respond accordingly when God's house was disrespected (Matthew 21:12-13) or religious leaders were misleading people (Matthew 23). We cannot judge on appearance and what we think unless it is in line with what God wants from us. We are not judging on personality and fashion sense and character. We don't know why people do what they do. Maybe they weren't raised well? Maybe they were abused? Do you really want to condemn an adult who may have been abused? We don't know motives. We don't have the full picture. I make mistakes and bad decisions just like you do. We can love each other through our sin and help one another with mercy and compassion, or we can condemn and keep reminding people of what they have done wrong. I don't need all of my sins brought up over and over again just like you don't.
It is okay to evaluate and confront a sinful brother/sister in Christ. That takes a judgment. It is a judgment call. We must use proper judgment when seeing who are the false teachers and false messiahs. We must use right judgment in order to serve God and encourage others, lovingly.
To hear a sermon on righteous judgment click here for John MacArthur
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Throwing Stones
Isn't interesting that when we see someone doing wrong we want to jump down their throats and tell them how wrong they are for what they did? Why do people get so angry about the sin of others? Do they get that mad at your their own sin?
In this John 8:1-11, we see a woman brought before Jesus. She was caught in the act of adultery. They were asking what should they do with her as the law of Moses said that she should be stoned. Jesus knelt down and wrote in the dirt and told them that whoever was without sin should be the first one to throw a stone at her. We don't know what Jesus was writing. He could have been writing the sins of the men who brought her to Jesus or he may have been writing the names of the men she had been with that could have included the accusing men's names as well. We don't know. But we do know that Jesus did not want us to throw stones (physical or verbal) at people. After each man left, Jesus asked her where the accusers were and then he told her "Go and sin no more." He did not say "let and let live" or "to each his own." He said go and sin no more. Gentle. Direct. Compassionate.
We can learn from Jesus in this example as well. When people sin by lifestyle or by slip up, condemning them is not the way to get them to turn their life around. The don't need to be reminded of their sin. They need a scriptural response to their sin and compassion. If they mess up, that is not your job to fix them. It is your command from God to love them the same way Jesus loved us by dying for us selflessly. Think about that the next time You get outraged at a sin. Maybe that person just need a Christ like hug and God given direction. Try it. Condemnation turns people away from God.
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Judging Others
We have often heard that we should not judge and people will quote Matthew 7:1-3. They understand the quote from Christ but think that is the end on the subject of judgement. Jesus says "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you." This is from the sermon on the mount and then goes in to the practice of unrighteous judgement where we see specks of dust in one person's eye and overlook the plank sticking out of our own eye. Jesus was not saying never judge.
In John 7 we see the subject of judgment come up again. Jesus is confronting those who think he has a demon in him and thought he was paranoid about him knowing that the rulers wanted to kill him for healing a man on the Sabbath. Jesus gives them an example of their false judgment. He said that people would ensure that the law of Moses was fulfilled by circumcising people even on the Sabbath, but they look at Jesus's miracle of healing a man on the Sabbath as sinful. They put their man interpretation of laws over what's God's will is. Jesus told them in verse 24 that they judge by appearances and not by righteous judgment. In other words, is what you are judging in accordance with what God's will is?
Lastly, there was division among the Pharisees, chief priests and officers. The Pharisees and chief priests wanted the officers to capture Jesus but the officers did not. There were discussions/arguments about whether a prophet could ever come from Galilee. Nicodemus (from John 3:1-15) tried to warn the religious leaders about judging Jesus wrongly. He said in verse 51, "
Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" In other words, if our human law gives people a chance to explain themselves, then why is it that they weren't applying the same thinking to Jesus.
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The Authority of Jesus
Jesus really wanted to validate his presence and who he was. He was not a stand alone guy just doing stuff because he wanted to (verse 19). If that were the case, then would he have been the Son of God and the Son of Man? No, he would have been like a cult leader who do things on their own accord for their own purposes.
Jesus did as he saw what God doing (verses 19-22). Jesus did what God did because whatever God does, Jesus would do. God raised the dead and Jesus did so as the God did. God stopped judging and gave all judgement authority to Jesus. That further supports the understanding that denying Christ is denying God.
Jesus received his authority from God (verse 27). Jesus was sent by God to do a job or in other words fulfill a purpose. Those who witnessed what Jesus did and said and still denied him were denying God. With all that we know of Jesus and can test his existence with the prophecies he fulfilled, you cannot overlook Jesus as God in the flesh.
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