We are Near!
We are Near!
Who and what can we judge?
"Judge not." "If we judge ourselves, we will not be condemned".. "I do not judge myself". "Can't we judge the smallest matters?" "Don't you know the saints will judge the world?" "We shall judge angels" So many Bible verses. So many seeming contradictions.
How can a Christian operate in this confusing set of principles?
In Episode 4 of We Are Near we take a stab at sorting out the confusion. To do so, we revisit Romans 12:2, a pivotal verse discussed in Episode 2. The Greek word used in this verse is dokimazo.... a key concept we need to understand to be successful and consistent as a Christian.
Dokimazo is a command to both test or discern, and then approve the "golden" portion of what we find. Much more than a critical or fault-finding, skeptical outlook, dokimazo calls us to submit every issue and situation to a careful test of content and principles. "Just the facts, ma'am." But it doesn't stop there. Once the "golden" thread of principle and ethics can be seen clearly in contrast to the perfect divine standards of love and justice, we are then tasked with acceptance, active submission, patient participation with imperfect people and situations in the process of finding the best outcome possible under the circumstances we have been presented with in the providence and grace of God.
This is heavy lifting. It is the attitude that can write a hymn, "It is well with my soul", after losing loved ones in a tragic disaster. It is the strength we find to go on in the face of health problems or personal loss.
There are always people who can point fingers and say "I told you so." What Christians are tasked with learning, is how to live with tragedy and look forward to the time when God will show us how to forgive, show love toward the offending person, and continue fighting for what is good and noble, without disillusionment.
This new podcast is meant for serious Christians -- people who are focused on following Jesus faithfully, until death. The trials are real, but the joys are beyond expression. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard ... the things God has been preparing for those who love him supremely.
The more we pay attention to the terms of discipleship and predictions of the actual deeds of Jesus' truest followers, there have not been many humble, meek Jesus followers who made it into the pages of history. Most genuine, obedient Christians have been laboring in anonymity, ignored or even hounded by the powerful forces of the outwardly respectable, "orthodox" Christian geopolitical system.
For the most part, the true followers of Jesus were not famous, they did not have official recognition, they did not seek or gain political power, and often they were oppressed, persecuted, neutralized in this life. Probably, few made their living as "ministers of the gospel". They were like the ancient prophets of old
-- men and women who suffered for their faithfulness-- "of whom the world was not worthy."
But the future era will be different. Jesus will exalt his obedient followers. They will be revealed by him as having been victorious in his eyes. He will promote them to places of power and influence in his future "government of the world, when the times are ripe for it." (Ephesians 1:9,10 -- Weymouth translation.)
Welcome to We Are Near. This is episode 4, and we're still in Romans 12 2, and I want to focus now on a question that mature Christians, I think, often ask themselves. What exactly are we supposed to do about judgment? It's Jesus said in Matthew 7 1, Um, he said, uh, judge not, that you be not judged. And yet, um, we are told that, um, he said, he said that, uh, Christians should be able to judge, um, small matters. They should be able to judge things among themselves. He, in fact, he said that the judgment of Christians ought to be more, um, Reliable within spiritual matters, within the church, I think he's speaking of, than, uh, than going to a court of law. He criticized the Corinthian brethren for taking their disputes between themselves to a worldly court. He said, no, work those things out yourself. Those kinds of issues need to be weighed by people who have spiritual discernment. He also said, I judge not myself. In other words, we are in danger sometimes if we try to, um, look at ourselves critically. Um, we might judge ourselves too leniently. We might judge ourselves too harshly. It's only the rare person who can be objective when looking at themselves. And so he's, Paul says, I don't even judge myself. He says, I have one that judges me. And he knows that his, his life is safe in the hands of God and of his, uh, elder brother Jesus, who, um, see him for what he is. They see where his deficits are. They see what his weaknesses are. They understand what his liabilities and his, Things that he'll never overcome are. And they understand what, um, what they need in order to become victorious. And the truth is that every single person whom God has called and brought into his family as a spiritual son, as a son, um, you know, a Christian disciple, every single person in that category is, um, can have full confidence that they can be successful at the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment of the followers of Jesus, Paul says, uh, has already begun. And, uh, we are going through a time of judgment. And why? Well, he says, so that we can be useful in judging others. He says that we will be, he says, don't you know that the saints will judge the world? Don't you know that we will judge angels? That sounds crazy. That sounds What in the world is he talking about? He's talking about the disciples of Jesus who are being trained to be reliable, fair minded, merciful, uh, encouraging judges. Not the kind of judges that point fingers and say You're guilty here, and you're guilty there, and you broke this law, and you, you did this thing, and you were short tempered, and so forth and so on. That's not the kind of judgment he's talking about. He's saying, I believe, that, um, we will become judges in the way the ancient leaders of Israel were called judges. They were called judges because they, They brought salvation to the nation. They brought deliverance to the nation from outside enemies. They stabilized their food supply. They, uh, solved the problem that they were having with the theft of their, uh, agricultural, um, uh, uh, products that they were growing. The judges kept them safe and allowed them to live. harmoniously with each other. They resolve disputes that arose between individuals and families and tribes. Those are the things that judges do in ancient times. And Isaiah, when he looked forward to the time when, um, the Messiah would be reigning, he said, with my soul I have waited through the night. And he says, um, Uh, in my spirit, I will seek you early, that is early in this, in the new day, the, what we would now call the day of the millennium, the day of the, of, of the return of Christ, the reign of Christ, the Messiah's reign. It's the, it's the time, the golden age that the Jews looked forward to and can still look forward to, and the time when the Christians look forward to. Uh, um, um, back when most Christians believed that the purpose of Jesus return was to bless the world. So that time of looking forward, that is the judgment day, and it's the day when the weak of the world are given strength and the powerful and authoritative and selfish The oppressors of the world will be restricted and eliminated from their power of, uh, their usurped power against the human race, against the meek of the earth. The meek are going to inherit the earth under Christ's kingdom and the, um, in the time of Messiah's reign. And The, those who are not meek, well, they will, um, they will have some learning to do. And that's what judgment is. It's, it's, it's, it's, uh, encouragement, if you need it. It's correction, if you need it. It's discipline, if you need it. And, uh, ultimately, it's, um, whatever you need in order to become, um, safe to yourself and to the rest of the world. That's what is promised. That's the opportunity that the future holds for all people as I read the Bible. Okay, so now, for Christians right now, um, how are we supposed to judge ourselves? Well, Paul says he doesn't judge himself. Well, then what should we do? Well, we can look in the law. James said, look in the mirror. Look in the law of liberty. And don't forget what you see. You read the Bible, you look at your activities today, and you say, hmm, I see something that I did that doesn't quite measure up. That's judging yourself. Not judging yourself harshly, but judging yourself realistically, and saying, Lord, please help me to learn what I need to learn, uh, to be more of an overcomer tomorrow than I was today. Please help me, uh, to become, um, more helpful to my wife. Help me to be more patient with my child. Help me to be more diligent with my boss. And, uh, less sensitive when people, um, you know, rub me the wrong way or criticize me. Help me to be, uh, able to rely on the standing that I have in Christ and not be Irritable when things, uh, don't seem to, um, reflect well on me in the, you know, in my day to day activities. So, um, the latter part of Romans 12. 2 helps us with the right balance of activity when we're doing this discerning, judging kind of thing. Um, So let's read that. We're going to go back to, uh, Romans 12. We've been in Philippians here, so now I'm going to go back over. Where'd I, there's our cursor, okay. So, let's see, we're in Philippians, let's go to Romans. Alright, here we are. Okay, so Romans 12, Let's look at this again. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that by Testing you may discern. What is the will of God? What is good and acceptable and perfect, okay, so What we learned the first two episodes ago was that That that word, um, the word is documadzo. That that word documadzo involves two parts. It involves a judging or discerning, and it involves a, uh, an approval process. And we discuss about the fact, let's find it here, it's, uh, the you may prove, here it is. Uh, Docky Madzo. It's, it's Strong's 1381. Um, King James says you may prove. Um, ESV that we were just reading says that you may discern. And, um, that we looked at it, when we looked at it two weeks, um, two episodes ago, we saw that, um, there is the discernment part of this, and then there is the approval. And the agreement with the part that we see that's good. And it likened it to the idea of taking a piece of gold and um, taking that gold and smearing it Striking it, um, across a black basalt stone. If we were to go to a market in the ancient Near East, we would find a, uh, this black basalt stone, and upon that stone there were marks made with, with, there was one mark that was made with pure gold, 24 karat gold. And, um, then, um, there would be many marks under it that were alloys of gold that came from different coins from around, um, You know, the Mediterranean area, probably so based upon the color that you would see in, um, in those, uh, marks that were made, you could, you could make a decision. You could discern, um, how much alloy was in that, that darker shade of gold that was that came from a coin from Saudi Arabia or, um, um, Crete or something. And you would be able to tell what the value of those coins were. And if you were selling something, you would figure that in to the price that you gave. You would say, well, With the kind of gold you've got, uh, I'm gonna need this many, um, whatever, dot denarii, or whatever the, the, the, um, um, whatever the value, you know, is it dollars, euros, what, it's, the, whatever the, uh, coinage of the realm that you're coming from would be, you tell them based on the, um, purity of your, of their gold, you tell them how much product they're gonna get. for that much gold. Figuring in the, the, uh, uh, value, uh, of the alloy, which lessens the value of the gold. Okay, so, this process of weighing something and then seeing, ah, This much of it is divine, this much of it is human. We can look at everything we see in our lives that way, can't we? We can look at our, we can look at the experiences we have, we can look at the way other people act, and we can say, well, this, that was, that thing they did, that was not exactly golden, but considering the amount of alloy that they have, we can, we can appreciate. That there was a, there was a core value in there that was good and we're going to approve that. And we're going to give them credit for that. It's a way of showing mercy to those who, um, have, who bring less to the table. And it's a way of, of, uh, holding those who have more capability and more privilege. Maybe it's a, including perhaps ourselves. It's a way of holding ourselves. to account or holding, um, our brethren who ought to know because they are studying the Bible, you know. It's, it's just a way of, of trying to grade on the curve, so to speak, when we look at the things in life. We can also use it when we Go through experiences in life that we're trying, we're struggling to understand. Why did God give me this experience? You know, why, why at this moment did I have to have a car wreck or did I, a cancer diagnosis? What is it that's going on in my life? Why did my child need to, uh, you know, break their leg? Why did my child get shot randomly by some, um, some, um, awful person with a gun? You know, those are the kinds of things that we, that we struggle to face, that we struggle to live with. And what we're asked to do as Christians, who are taught that all things work together for good to those who love God. If we are in that category as a Christian, sometimes it's really hard to understand why God would let things happen to us that way. So, What I would suggest has having, you know, spent something like, uh, the last, uh, what is it now? 54 years of my life as a committed Christian. I started when I was 17. And so in the last 54 years I've seen some things. And I've made some mistakes. I've gone bankrupt. I've, I've Um, I had another almost bankruptcy business failure. I've, you know, we all have stubbed our toe. We all have experienced things that we regret. We've all made mistakes that we wish we could take back. And, um, and there have been many things that have happened to us that have been outside of our control completely. Completely beyond our control, and yet, they leave, they leave, um, a mark upon us. Paul had a thorn in the flesh. We don't know exactly what it was, but it does seem, when you read about what he struggled with, that perhaps it had to do with his eyesight. Perhaps there was some kind of eye disease that he faced, that he struggled with. And he asked God, he told us, three times to have that removed, and God said no. He didn't maybe audibly say no, but he, he did not remove it. And after asking God three times, and it wasn't removed, he concluded, Paul concluded, that God was giving him a message, and the message, as he interpreted it was, um, my strength, that is God, this is the message from God, my strength is made perfect in weakness. That's what, that's what Paul learned from that experience. And so Paul came to the conclusion that he would start treating that setback, that circumstantial inconvenience. that thing that kept him from being as effective as he could be, you know, as a servant of God. He started counting that as gold. He started counting that as God's will. That was something that he, that somehow or other God was going to turn into a benefit to him, spiritually speaking. It might mean that it humbled him. To be so undesirable to listen to and to look at as he was speaking. Maybe that humility that he was forced upon him because of the, you know, awkward effect he had upon audiences. Maybe that was something that God wanted Paul to go through. Just as Paul took, just as God took two brothers. You know, from the same mom, both of them were partners in the family business, James and John. James, I think, was the older, John was the younger. Um, and yet, James was one of the first Christians who was martyred after Jesus died and ascended to heaven. That when the persecution came, James and Peter were thrown in prison, and James was beheaded. And John lived the longest of all of the twelve original apostles. He was exiled on Patmos. He lived almost until the end of the first century A. D. So he must have been in his 80s, 90s, perhaps as much as 100 years old when he died. And He is the only one of the Apostles, as far as we know, who did not die a violent death. We need to learn to accept the experiences, the vicissitudes of life, as something that is divinely designed for our benefit. And that's what, that's what this discerning the perfect will of God is. You know, there's another scripture that talks about patience. It says, Let patience have her perfect work so that we can be perfect and entire wanting that is lacking in nothing. What does it mean to let patience have her perfect work? I think what it means is patience has the ability to teach us how to live with things that are imperfect and the result of that is perfection and that's what this discernment and Of, you know, judging and then approving um, the experiences that happened to us. That's what this is designed to teach us. When we put up with somebody in our family that we're nursing, you know. I mean, imagine, imagine, our babies were as close to perfection as human beings get these days. You know, our four daughters, they were so Such good babies and such good people, uh, so bright, so fun to be around, so great to raise, uh, to have the experience of parenting. And yet, um, there are so many devout loving, wise Christian parents who have been called on by God to experience gut wrenching difficulties with their children. It might be a child that, um, you know, is born with a mental retardation or some kind of physical disability or mental disability. Um, I know in our case, our third daughter, I had just done a project where I interviewed a man, bright, Man, but he had cerebral palsy and he told me that the reason why he had, and he could, he, he, he spoke with a speech impediment and he, he couldn't walk well, is he couldn't, he needed help even buttoning his shirt. And, um, he told me that, uh, and he went to college and he be got a, he got a degree in, in, um, uh, psychology. And he, he was just the life of the party. It was a great interview. I had a great time with him. But he told me that the reason he had this problem was because when he was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck three times. And I went through that experience. It, it, it was gut wrenching. It was an emotional and effective video that I was able to do with, with his help. And then, um, not many months later, uh, our third daughter was born. And as she was coming down through, um, my wife's womb and entering the world, The, um, the gynecologist reached in and felt the umbilical cord and it was wrapped around her neck three times. And my wife and I were, oh my gosh, what's going on here? There was no evidence of strangulation, there was no evidence of difficulty in her birth, but it could have, if she had been, you know, just a little slower coming out. She could have had the same exact experience as my friend, the man that I interviewed years and years ago. Could have been the same thing. And, um, and, and Shelley came out with no problems. And we were blessed. We were grateful. But that doesn't mean that God loves us more than he loves those, those parents who go through the loss of a child. Or those parents who, um, go through a physical disability and spend They, from then on, have to spend and organize their life around taking care of a child with special needs. Those kinds of experiences are the kinds of experiences that teach us patience, and the work that the Bible says we gain from that is a perfect work. What it does to the spirit of the human being who lives through those things is it makes that spirit perfect. It makes, it makes us Superhuman, superhuman in our ability to understand, to sympathize, to empathize, to, to deal with stress, to, to thank God for the little joys in that experience, to thank God for the experience, to thank God for the blessing of the spiritual blessing that we gain from that trying. difficult experience. My heart goes out to the poor parents of children who are killed in these incessant school shootings again and again and again. And I'm not saying that that this is an act of God by any means, but God has permitted evil to happen in this world until the time that is near. When those problems are solved and thankfully, it's not going to go on forever and thankfully, there will be a reunion with all of those who are lost. They will come back. They will re enter the land of the living. They will be alive. And the better for their experience, as will their parents, and even as will the murderers who did their awful things. They will come back, will hate themselves for what they've done when they, when they, when their brains are working right and they see what they've done that was so wrong. They will have an opportunity to try to make amends, to try to express sorrow, to try to become better people, and to turn over a new leaf. Those are the kinds of things that I see happening in the very near future. But in the meantime, the grappling with evil and sin and human weakness is a blessing to each of us. And this is the Magic sauce. The magic stew that hu That, that the, the, that the relatively small number of Christians in the world are simmering in. They are learning, their characters are being transformed by these experiences of life that are, that are a, a result of the permission of evil in their lives. and in the lives of the people around them and in their nation. These are the things that the Jews are grappling with. These are the things that the Palestinians whose, um, uh, loved ones were, you know, perhaps involved in a war against Israel, and they're, they are suffering too. Everybody is suffering, but everybody is learning from these experiences. So Um, may it be that we will learn to discern and to approve the experiences that we have. In the next episode, we're going to look at other scriptures that use Documanzo and, and learn how to apply this throughout our Christian walk. And we're also going to look at how that word is used in the first chapter of Romans. to describe the attitude issues that the human race has had to deal with as a result of their, you know, kind of historical inability to practice Dakemadzo, which means to discern and approve the things that God does in this world. Thanks for listening, and, um, we'll be back with another episode of We Are Near.