Judge Me!

I Kings 8:31-32 “When anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, 32 then hear in heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked, bringing his way on his head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness."

Ezekiel 18:30-32 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord God. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”

Dear God and Judge of all, both living and dead,

I live in a sin-cursed world.  Lives are broken, shattered by sin and rebellion against You and Your moral law.  I grieve the brokenness around me.  

Even in my grief, some would declare that I have no right to mourn.  They quote a twisted distortion of Your Son's mandate:  "Judge not!"  They accuse my sorrow over the harmful effects of sin as an act of reprehensible judgment!  Incongruous.  To redefine compassion and concern for a soul, broken by sin, into an act of judgment is testimony to the darkened thinking of a mind dulled and distorted by sin.

William Barclay wrote: "Judgment is the inescapable consequence of sin" (Barclay in The Revelation of John, vol. 2, 1959, pp. 218-219).

The church and the world have adopted a carnival caricature of Jesus and His command that bears no resemblance to His teaching.  If I embrace our world's definition of "Judge not," a teacher could not grade a paper, a parent could not correct a child, a law enforcement officer could not make an arrest, and a driver could barely decide when to pass another car on the interstate!

"T. S. Kepler comments: 'The moral law can no more be broken than the law of gravity; it can only be illustrated.' It is said that the judgments of God are true and just. God alone is perfect in judgment for three reasons. First, He alone can see the inmost thoughts and desires of any man. Second, He alone has that purity which can judge without prejudice. Third, He alone has the wisdom to find the right judgment and the power to apply it" (Barclay in The Revelation of John, vol. 2, 1959, p. 219).

I open myself to Your judgment.  Search me, try me, know me, discern my deepest motivation. Transform my character through Your imparted righteousness.  Make me holy.  Fit me for heaven. May Your perfect love penetrate every aspect of my motivation.  Make me a winsome example of Your grace.  May the beauty of Your holiness glow in me and through me, attracting others to You!

In the Name of the Judge of the Universe, 

Amen.