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Published: 28 June 2013

The passage we are going to study on Sunday is a practical guide to effective prayer but it is more than that...it is a description of the way things get done in the Kingdom and the way life could really work.  In Matthew 7:1-12 Jesus is teaching us how to live and love in community and honor God.  Learning how good life in the Kingdom can be will make us want to share this with others.  The problem is our bent.  Our bent is toward self-righteous attitudes.  Self-righteous behavior always ends up condemning and where condemnation doesn't work, we often think manipulation with words or deeds is sure to help!  Jesus has a better way.  The way of the Kingdom is the power of the request.  Ask.  Seek.  Knock.  This is the approach we should take with others and with God at the same time.  If we are trying to help someone live in the Kingdom, we should ask God for help and appeal to the person we are trying to reach with questions rather than commands and condemnation.  Seeking and knocking may be required but the extra initiative is the way of God not the way of man.  God seldom (if ever) forces Himself, He is almost shy at times.  He asks us to come to Him but He doesn't drag us.  He asks us to draw near but doesn't put us in a death grip!  Being like God to others means demonstrating His nature.  He will actually let us say "no."  Imagine that!  The God who holds the physical matter of the universe as dust in His hand, will let us say no!  Are we prepared to do the same with others?  The forceful people among us often even say..."I will not take no for an answer..."  In most cases, that is not a very Kingdom like attitude.  Being an apprentice of Jesus is filled with "ifs".  Jesus will let us walk away but He would much rather have us follow and take His advice.  Respecting an image bearer's capacity and appetite and honoring the power of the request are important life skills for Kingdom work.  Just think about it, would you rather have someone condemn you and then tell you what to do or bless you and make a request with the genuine freedom to say no?  "Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them for this is the Law and Prophets." 

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Published: 20 June 2013

This week's text is often used but far more often misunderstood.  Even people with little to no faith connection or knowledge of the Bible like to believe they are quoting Jesus when it comes to the matter of judgment.  "Who are you to judge me?"  "Jesus said not to judge people."  "If we loved everybody like Jesus taught we'd never judge anyone."  Those are a few variations of the theme but there are many more.  The basic idea is often a reaction against the ditch on the other side of the road.  Some church people judge everything and in reaction others judge nothing but "tolerate" everything.  What did Jesus mean when He said, "Judge not, that you be not judged?"  Obviously He was not suggesting that we turn off our brains.  He was not saying we should never help anyone.  If you read the whole story, Jesus Himself sounds a bit judgmental at times.  We don't have to be Greek scholars to figure this out, the paragraph surrounding the statement will give us what we need.  The real problem Jesus was addressing was the pattern of the Pharisees and others afflicted with self-righteousness, that judged other people before self-judgment.  It is almost always easier to see the sins of others before we see our own.  Remember David's visit from Nathan the prophet?  The truth is, when God has judged something, it is judged.  Since God told us to not steal but trust Him and work, I am not being judgmental if I exhort you to stop stealing.  "What God hath judged, let not man put asunder."  However, that does not mean that I can make things up, stamp God's name on my preference and then make myself judge and jury.  The hyper-critical spirit is not of God.  It mis-represents Him.  It is not loving.  It violates the teaching of Jesus.  If someone we love has a speck in their eye we should help them get it out but not until we have removed the plank of condemnation and judgment from our own eye.  Jesus knows how things work in the real world.  A life of condemnation and judgment will be treated in kind.  It is a form of natural judgment for those who ignore the Teacher on this matter.  The way Eugene Peterson paraphrases this makes me smile, "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults--unless of course you want the same treatment.  That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging."  Jesus wants us to have life; a critical spirit spirit is not the path to life.  See Matthew 7:1-6