Judging the Law or the Facts?

After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. Judges 2:10-13

As I understand it, there are three primary duties of a United States citizen:
  • Somehow serve the country, state, county, and/or city in which you live
  • Vote in elections
  • Serve on a jury
This week, I had the opportunity to serve as a potential jury member. As with any government led activity, it was slow and tedious - and, I was glad to have followed the advice of my wife and brought something to read as I waited. While I was not seated as a juror, I did experience the jury selection process and learned something from the presiding judge regarding the duties of a juror and a judge.

The judge will judge the Law. The jury will judge the Facts.

Interesting.

In the same way, I thought that Christ followers are to look over the evidence and judge the facts. For example, how closely are we following the Law of Christ? Or, are we? How are we living our lives in response to what He has already done for us as Savior and Lord? What will the conversation be, in the end, when we meet Him face to face? Of course, as we "judge the Facts" of our lives (our motivations, thoughts, words, and actions), we recognize that Christ will be the final judge and His judgment is just and pure.

I also thought that what we are not to do, however, is judge the Law. Yet, we do it all the time. While the Bible is relevant for today - even though it is centuries old - we cast it against the common culture and diminish its significance. Gossip is an industry. Envy, jealousy, and coveting have become accepted and encouraged as normal. Parents are disrespected, dishonored. and disregarded. Relationships are redefined between people against the teachings of God.

The judge judges the Law.

What laws of God are we judging instead of simply following?

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” - John 14:21

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lessons of Trust

As promised, here are a few of the lessons learned after the challenges wrought in the experience on Thursday night's Living Last Supper: When we do something intentionally to God's glory, He receives the glory and protects us. Continue to put trust in God alone. As we trust God, if an outside organization desires access to the church, one must perform due diligence to verify who they are and what they intend to do. If there is no time to perform due diligence, then the offer remains unaccepted. The farther away an interviewer/videographer lives, the more due diligence is required. Interviewers or videographers rarely (if ever) pay you to do their work. If sufficient due diligence is performed, review ALL waivers before signing or making them available for signatures. If after due diligence, a group is allowed on site, increase security to ensure the group behaves as promised. And, the oldest lesson of all: people may not do what you expect them to do, but they will do what you...
Read more

When is the church, the church?

Image
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to help out with the Parking Ministry and rode around in a golf cart giving rides to folks who had some distance to walk from their cars to the church building. Then suddenly, I had to be careful not to be hit by those leaving the church parking lot after Sunday School. This leads to my question: If folks go to Sunday School but do not attend one of the larger congregational worship opportunities, are they fully a part of the church? While these folks typically attend faithfully and serve regularly within the constraints of their Sunday School class, here are some of the reasons offered for their departure: The time between the end of Sunday School and their preferred style of worship (more traditional) is over 30 minutes and, for some, it's physically too long to sit. Their preferred worship service is often longer than the planned 75 minutes and therefore releases sometimes closer to 12:30pm. While their preferred service is described as ...
Read more