A NEWSLETTER FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE GREENWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

VOLUME 1 NO. 37                                         OCTOBER 31, 2004

“DENYING SELF”

PART V
BY STEVE NIEMEIER

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24).  This statement also applies to us today.  The question that we must answer is this, “Am I willing to deny myself and take up my cross and follow after Jesus?”  Unforunately many are not however getting us to understand that we are not doing this is very difficult.  We deny ourselves in some things and believe that we are fulfilling this statement only to deceive ourselves as we fail to deny ourselves in other areas.  Last week we discussed the subject of hypocrisy, this week let us look at the first cousin of hypocrisy and that is “unrighteous judging.”

Jesus instructs His disciples in Matthew 7:1-5 the principles of righteous judgement.  He states that we must first look at the plank in our eye before we can remove the speck in our brother's eye.  As a result of this teaching many today will try to state that we are not to judge.  Yet we know that Paul made a judgement in I Corinthians 5:3 as it pertained to sexual immorality in the congregation at Corinth.  Many say that Paul was an apostle and therefore has the right to judge even though we do not.  We say the New Testament has no contradictions, if that is so then Jesus and Paul were both doing what is right and Paul did not violate the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 7.

No doubt we will all agree that “human judging” has its weaknesses.  Just look at some of these:  Often circumstantial (Josh. 22:10-34); sometimes wrong (Gen. 39:10-20); usually hasty and revengeful (I Sam. 25:20-35); many times full of conceit (Eph. 5:11-14); prejudicial (Luke 7:38-50).  It is not hard to see that many of us make improper judgments because we are not willing to deny ourselves and follow after the example of Jesus.  However if we would take the time to follow some of the “rules” that are laid out for us in the New Testament concerning judgment we would find ourselves following the plan for righteous judgment.  Let us begin with self-judgement (Matt. 7:1-5); we need to be spiritually minded (I Cor. 2:12-15); we must abound in love (Phil. 1:9-10); we must remember that we will give an account of ourselves to God (Rom. 14:10).

Jesus stated in John 7:24, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”  This is what Paul did in I Cor. 5:3, he made a judgment because of a transgression against the law of God not from an appearance stand point but from an unrighteousness stand point.  Today, do we make judgments because of our traditions and opinions that lead us to make a judgment because of clothing or social standards or color of skin?  Upon being questioned about eating with sinners and tax collectors in Matt. 9:11, Jesus made this statement in verse 12; “Those that are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”  Is it possible that we have failed to apply righteous judgment in our human judging and have left many that are “sick” still in need of the “Great Physician?”