These Sayings of Mine – Judge God’s Way (Part 2)

One of the most devastating failures of church leadership in my lifetime has been our refusal to judge God’s way. Our lack of understanding, obedience, and diligence has led to a compromised message and produced a hypocritical body of believers. We condemn the world – something we are commanded not to do (Matthew 7:1-2) – while neglecting our responsibility to lovingly help our sister and brother identify and remove the sin in their life.

We will have to answer for our failure at the judgment seat of Christ. I wish I could say with some certainty that we will not be shown the consequences our disobedience has had on God’s kingdom and His children.

These are hard words to write and read. I am just the pen, and just as convicted by the truth. We cannot go back to correct our mistakes. We must trust God’s grace and mercy for those we have betrayed, and commit ourselves to God’s way for judging the brethren.

Even now, I suspect someone reading this will find issue with this matter of judging. Please read our article on Jesus’ “Judge Not” saying, as well as the first part of this one. I believe you will discover that:

1. Jesus’ “judge not” refers to condemnation: the pronouncement of guilt, sentence and punishment for the sin in our sister or brother. Such condemnation is reserved for God.
2. Identifying and addressing the sin in a sister or brother is not condemnation. It is an act of love, that they might not face the judgment of God (1Corinthians 5:1-5; James 5:19-20). Conversely, to ignore or accept sin in a sister or brother is failure to love them.
3. To hold our tongue when God has made us aware of sin makes us guilty of that sin and subject to God’s judgment (Ezekiel 3:16-21).
4. God’s children are to be His instruments of sanctification for the church.
5. There is a process for helping our sister and brother – and ourselves – find the grace of God to live a life without sin.

The Part 1 to this article introduced God’s process (aka, way) for restoration from sin. For your convenience, here is a summary of the first five steps:

1. Ask God to search our hearts, to see if there is any wicked way in us (Psalm 139:23-24).
2. Repentance: to think differently about ourselves and our sin (Luke 5:32).
3. Confession: to agree with or concede (1John 1:9).
4. Allow the Holy Spirit to remove anything from us that would inhibit His gentleness (Galatians 6:1).
5. Focused our minds against the real enemy (Ephesians 6:12).

Now (and only now) are we prepared to meet with our sister or brother. If their sin is against God or someone else, our responsibility is to encourage, to find restoration, and to walk with them as they desire. We must never abandon them in their time of vulnerability to the enemies’ attacks.

For sins directed towards us personally, the following represents the continuance of God’s way for restoration with them.

These Sayings of Mine – Judge God’s Way (Part 1)

In our last article on the sayings of Jesus, we discovered that His “judge not” is the pronouncement of guilt, sentence and punishment for the sin in our sister or brother. Such condemnation is reserved for God.

We also learned this “judge not” does not excuse us from our responsibility to lovingly help our sister and brother identify and remove the sin in their life. We know this in part because Jesus followed His “judge not” with the first step in the process of our restoration from sin.

Here we will learn the process for helping our sister and brother – and ourselves – find the grace of God to live a life without sin, for their and our benefit, and for that of the church. As we begin, it is important to recognize a few things:

1. Identifying and addressing the sin in a sister or brother is not condemnation. It is an act of love, that they might not face the judgment of God (1Corinthians 5:1-5; James 5:19-20). Conversely, to ignore or accept sin in a sister or brother is failure to love them.
2. To hold our tongue when God has made us aware of sin makes us guilty of that sin and subject to God’s judgment (Ezekiel 3:16-21).
3. The primary meaning of krinō is “to separate, put asunder”. This is very similar to the meaning of sanctify: to cleanse, purify and separate from profane things; and dedicate to God. God’s children are to be His instruments of sanctification for the church.

This may come as a surprise to you. You may be experiencing a resistance to it – even a strong one. Be encouraged to prayerfully consider your responsibility to your sisters and brothers, your church fellowship, and to God (most of all). One of the primary reasons for the spiritual weakness of the church in America is our failure in this area.

These Sayings of Mine – Seek the Kingdom of God (Part 2)

In many respects, this saying of Jesus is the core message of His Sermon on the Mount. After all, He came to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15) and to establish its beginnings (Luke 4:18-21). What we know to be “at hand” spiritually will be our physical reality when this age ends (Revelation 21).

Lest we forget, seeking the kingdom of God is very simply what devoted Christians do. The normal Christian life is fundamentally characterized by steadfast and diligent seeking. The kingdom we seek will not be found haphazardly, for it is on the other side of the narrow gate and down the difficult way (Matthew 7:14).

Indeed, Jesus instructs His followers that many who seek God’s kingdom will not enter for lack of striving (Luke 13:23-25). This may be new and sobering news to some; and worth more than a moment’s consideration. Go ahead, take your time. Really.

In Part 1 we discovered that seeking the kingdom of God requires the exchange of our life for the life of Jesus Christ, and the exchange of worry for trust in our heavenly Father. Here we consider two additional exchanges that accompany our seeking after God’s kingdom.

Exchanging Our Kingdom for His

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:33-34

Here we come to the crux of the matter: Are we in the kingdom of God, or not? Are we seeking His reign over everything, or have we determined to reign and fend for ourselves? Are we first seeking His righteousness, or settling for some less?

These Sayings of Mine – Seek the Kingdom of God (Part 1)

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not [the] life more than food and the body more than clothing? Matthew 6:25

As you can see, the first verse of our next saying begins with the word “therefore”, meaning “for that reason or cause”. The Holy Spirit uses “therefore” often and strategically throughout the Bible to connect dependent thoughts and assertions into a pathway of truth and faith. Therefore, let’s quickly review the saying of Matthew 6:22-24 (Get Focused and Stay Focused):

1. Your heart will be drawn to the place where you have laid up your treasure.
2. Singular focus on God allows light to flood our entire being. Allowing distraction invites darkness and deception.
3. If you serve mammon (i.e., riches and its supporting systems), you will despise God.

This last point should be quite sobering (if not frightening) for all Christians – particularly for the 21^st Century Western church, where riches are abundant and abundantly deceitful (Mark 4:18-19).

Our omniscient God, foreseeing the dilemma, has provided the way for our deliverance and the key to our finding the truly abundant life of His kingdom. Spoilers: They are not the same.

Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10

At this point, a bit of confusion is understandable; along with a bit of resistance. How do you buy stuff without money? Isn’t wealth a measure of abundance? And why would someone exchange the abundance of this life for a life they cannot see?

Most of us are not risk takers, at least not with the abundance we have been taught to hold so dear. Better safe than sorry, right? “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” comes to mind (but that’s probably my carnal mind speaking).

These Sayings of Mine – Get Focused and Stay Focused

If you have been following along with this series, you have by now realized that the Sermon on the Mount is about more than following a list of do’s and don’ts. Oh, it could be understood and taught that way, but Jesus is after more than checklist obedience. He came to save that which was lost, to build His church, and to commission disciples. He intends to lead us, make us, and use us to make others.

Such a life requires more than passive or casual compliance. Disciples are disciplined, focused on the mission, and focused on one Master.

The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:22-24

Every once in a while, the translators get it wrong. Here in the NKJV, they have translated the Greek word haplous as “good”. Haplous is not translated as “good” anywhere else in the New Testament. It seems they chose “good” as the opposite of “bad”. This is understandable, but it does not do justice to the meaning of this saying.

The primary meaning of haplous is “simple” or “single”. The KJV uses “single”. On the surface, it does not make sense that the opposite of bad is single. However, it makes perfect sense in the context of the verse that follows (i.e., no one can serve two masters).

Jesus chose His words carefully. An eye that is not singularly focused is bad. Therefore, we can understand this passage to be saying, “If your eye is not singularly focused, your whole body will be full of darkness.”

These Sayings of Mine – Lay Up Treasures in Heaven (Part 3)

This saying of Jesus, now in its third part, has gotten more attention than most of the previous ones for a couple of reasons. Personally, this saying has been especially challenging in my life. I was raised to save for my retirement, and the world has only encouraged that approach for my future security. I am not suggesting that saving is wrong (we covered that in Part 2), but God is using this bit of writing to test my heart.

Secondly, I have a responsibility as a disciple of Jesus Christ to make disciples through my writing. I am hopeful that He is using this to test and prove your heart; for Satan, the world and our carnal mind have deceived us in regards to this matter of laying up treasures for ourselves.

If you have not explored the “do not” of part 1 and part 2, you should do that before proceeding here. The process and its order are important. Once we have dealt with the deception of earthly treasures, we can turn our attention to the second part of this saying – the part we are to do.

Again, for our reference:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

An Eternal Perspective

One of the greatest inhibitors to our hearing and doing this saying is our lack of faith and perspective for eternity. Let’s face it: Most of us spend the greater part of our lives laying up wealth so we can enjoy the last feeble portion of our seventy or eighty years here on earth. We are so focused on investing for retirement that we fail to lay up for that portion of our life that is immeasurable in its duration.

These Sayings of Mine – Lay Up Treasures in Heaven (Part 2)

One way to avoid doing what Jesus is saying is to avoid hearing it in the first place. However, this avoidance strategy does not make us less liable; nor our houses less susceptible to the storms of life. God will not have us live this way. He cares too much for our salvation and well-being (Luke 6:24).

That seems to be God’s purpose in these articles: to encourage our hearing, that we might grow in faith, trusting Him to provide the grace for our obedience. So, let’s press in to hear, that we might do (and not do) according to Jesus’ saying about our treasures.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

What are Your Earthly Treasures?

Part 1 encouraged a pause for reflection and prayer, particularly around this question: What are the treasures you have laid up or treasured on earth? If you have not done so, please read Part 1 and invest the time necessary to hear from our Father in heaven.

As we press in to hear what the Father and Jesus are saying, it will be helpful to clear away the clutter. For example, you may say, “I treasure my wife and kids.” While that is a good thing to say, it is not the treasure Jesus is talking about. Wives and kids are not something that moths and rust can destroy, nor thieves break in and steal. Someone else may say, “I treasure the time I have with my wife and kids.” This too is off the mark; for time cannot be laid up for later use.

I bring this up to make a point: The meaning of “treasure” in our culture is not quite the same as the treasure Jesus is speaking of here. As much as we might prefer to talk about something else, the treasure Jesus is talking about is our wealth.

These Sayings of Mine – Lay Up Treasures in Heaven (Part 1)

Some sayings of Jesus are not very difficult to hear or do. For example, Do Not Swear at All. Others are easy to hear, but difficult to do (Be Extraordinary; Be Perfect). Then there are those that are difficult to do, simply because we have a hard time hearing them. All that Jesus said about treasure is a good case in point.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

This saying is particularly hard to hear for those in the church that are tempted – and even presently deceived – by the American Dream. Consequently, I am concerned that I may lose a few of you on this one. To be honest, I may lose myself. It is a hard saying; probably one that Jesus used to drive away those that were less than serious about following Him.

So, before you turn away, let me encourage you: We are all in process; and our heavenly Father is sensitive to our place in the race. Consequently, this passage may not mean to you what it means to me – but it must mean something. Rather than run away from its meaning, trust God to reveal what you are to hear, and to give you the grace to do what Jesus says.

These Sayings of Mine – Fasting to Please God

Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Matthew 6:16-18

The first eighteen verses of Matthew 6 speak collectively of our positioning as loyal subjects before our sovereign King. We’ve covered these in smaller bites, but together they make up an important course of the feast we know as the Sermon on the Mount. All that we do as kingdom citizens is to be done before God and – intentionally – not before men.

Importantly, Jesus did not say, “…if you fast”. Fasting is not an optional discipline for the serious Christian; it is assumed. Furthermore, Jesus speaks of fasting in exactly the same way He speaks of doing good works and praying, thus highlighting the importance of fasting in the normal Christian life. Lastly, we discover that the very same consequences are reserved for those who fast to receive worldly benefit: the charge of hypocrisy and loss of heavenly reward.

These are sobering considerations. The discipline of fasting has been lost to much of the church and confused by most of the rest (myself included). Frankly, I think we have made fasting too difficult, causing some to struggle unnecessarily and eventually give up on it altogether. We also have too many man-created prescriptions and plans for fasting. In my humble opinion, we should focus more on motivation than form and procedure, and trust the Holy Spirit’s guidance in the details.

These Sayings of Mine – Forgive Their Trespasses

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-15

This may be the most direct, easily understood and often taught saying of Jesus. So, why is the church so divided over the trespasses of others? How many Christian friendships have been broken and how many churches split apart over unforgiveness?

It is tragically ironic that such a saying – and the consequences of not doing it – has had so little response in the church. We have become too much like the world: quickly offended and slow to forgive.

Perhaps the easy “once saved, always saved” gospel has turned this saying of Jesus into an option. Ongoing forgiveness from our heavenly Father is no longer a matter of concern for many church leaders and their congregants, so why worry about forgiving others (or seeking another’s forgiveness).

So, let me ask you: What does it mean if the Father does not forgive someone’s trespasses? Will He allow such a person into His presence? Does the blood of Jesus somehow make this saying of His null and void? If so, then we would have to surmise that this saying is only for the lost. That is the only way it would make sense, but it doesn’t. The bad fruit is readily apparent.

Pride is not the only sin that our enemies leverage to divide the body of Christ. Unforgiveness has been used to drive wedges between and within fellowships for millennia. What seems like a slight offense often metastasizes into a deadly cancer: division in the church.