Seeing clearly
by Rosemary ~ June 22nd, 2007I’ve prided myself that I’m a nice person, a kind person. Catch that word, prided? In comparing myself to a lot of folks I encounter and observe, my thoughts run this way: how can they do that; I would never think of doing that! What follows, then, is an increase in my esteem of myself. Self-righteousness, it’s called; an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who do such things. Do you suppose, O man–you who judge those who do such thing and yet do them yourself–that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance (Rom. 2:1-4)?
I’m caught. This passage doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize sinful, unlovely actions of others and urge them toward repentance. It means that I’m not to hold myself above them, disregarding the same sins in me, or the potential of those sins were it not for the grace of God, that I see in them. Sinner to sinner, needing grace. Having experienced the rich kindness and forbearance and patience of God toward me, I am called to extend the same to another. My vision is far different if I look at others through the lens of the Atonement rather than through my imperial, prideful distortion.
How I judge them is exactly how God will judge me. Horrendous thought, if the measure I use is my own. I desperately need the kindness of God obtained through the Cross to bring me to repentance, and so do those who sin horrifically or annoy or hurt me, or otherwise fail to do what I think is right.
So this is clear: if there be any recognizable kindness in me, any patience or forbearance, (and there better be!) it flows from the grace of God. Apart from Him, I have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Keeping that in mind, my response to others will be guided by grace and might be the very thing that is used by God to lead them to repentance. Imagine that.
June 22nd, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Rosemary, the Bible study I’m doing this summer is called Self-Confrontation, a manual for in-depth Biblical discipleship. It is truly an evaluation of self for repentance and sanctification. Whoo doggie! The humbling, the mortification, the “I am really a worm!”, all true and necessary in this ongoing process of being made completely His. The prevailing principle of the study is that God’s solution and principles for true and lasting Biblical change center on the person of Jesus Christ. Amen! For that is the hope that I press towards. Great and convicting post.
June 22nd, 2007 at 7:54 pm
“The prevailing principle of the study is that God’s solution and principles for true and lasting Biblical change center on the person of Jesus Christ!”
Amen, indeed! Being made into the the likeness of Christ really does require our gaze to be upon Him, and as you said, Elle, a pressing towards Him. Thank you for your comment, and may God bless your study of Him!
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:30 am
Rosemary,
You continue to be a sharpening blog read…thanks and blessings on what we are all being taught. Hopefully each day we see our Savior and what He did for us more clearly, realizing that we all are in a dire need for a Savior.
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Ellen, thank you; I’m so glad that what I write serves to sharpen your love for Christ. And a hearty Amen to your last sentence!
June 24th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Came back to read this again this morning, Rosemary.
The whole thing is going in my collection of quotes. This is a post to be read and re-read.
Blessings, from one saved by grace worm to another,
K
June 24th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Kim, this is something I have to go back to again and again, and have recently been in God’s Woodshed about, hence the post.
So thankful that God has used it to bless you too!
June 26th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Rosemary,
What a lesson that I have been learning over and over the past 18 mo. and will still continue to learn. When God shows us the log in our own eye it can be painfull, but through repentence and abiding in him for his grace and love to others, it can bring such healing. The healing that comes helps us to love the ones around us and we start to see them how God does. Just getting a glimpse of how much God loves me, a sinner, makes me see how it is possible to truly love others without judgment, even those who have hurt us. What a Savior we have who is long suffering and does not treat us as our sins deserve!
Jennifer
June 26th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
What a Savior we have who is long suffering and does not treat us as our sins deserve!
Yes and amen, Jennifer!