|
|
Welcome to our blog page. Here you can find Ministry Leader blogs (often also found on their ministry page), youth blogs, Pastor's blogs, and pretty much anything. We keep an eye on content but don't restrict good discussion about our world, our God, our church, or whatever topic we hit upon.
|
Location: Blogs Strange Land |
 |
| Posted by: Paul Graham |
Saturday, October 21, 2006 |
Well, teaching from Jude 1:5-7 was interesting this past Sunday. It was probably a little different for you too. Since we are teaching through the whole book, I didn't want to stray too far ahead in the book, which leaves us with those three verses and one topic... judgment.
Like Jude, we often wish we could write a different kind of letter, or preach a different kind of sermon, but the Word of God confronts us, and we cannot pick and choose what we prefer to know about the Truth, we accept the Truth as a whole.
The difficulty in teaching Jude is similar to the difficulty we may face in reading or studying Jude. What is the Word telling us? What is the intent?
As I teach Jude I do not want to shake the faith of true believers, coercing them into believing that they deserve and will receive judgment in a final sense (like the Angels, or Sodom), nor do I want to provide unbelievers with a false security... that they should count themselves as those who "already know these things". Perhaps they don't, or they do. When you're preaching you have a variable audience.
The purpose of Jude's hard teaching is to test us all. We must not forget what we already know, and we must not avoid it for long periods of time. If we do not contemplate the judgment, it is easy to become lazy in our discipline, weak in our morality. But as those who know the truth, the message of Jude is an affirmation of our transformed lives. For those that are as yet transformed, it is a clear warning that there are no exceptions to God's holiness.
In Him,
Pastor Paul
|
|
| Permalink |
Trackback |
Comments (4)
Add Comment
|
Re: Hey Jude |
By Mike on
Monday, October 23, 2006 |
| God has called us to "Love" not "Judge" and what God teaches about judging and forgiving is simply this. God forgives us if we forgive others, God judges us based on how we judge others. What we sow we will reap. Take a minute and think about your attitude towards somebody who aggravates you or you can't stand, then look at how you treat them and then based on your actions and how you have judged or not forgiven them, picture yourself standing before Jesus on the day of judgement and giving your defense for your attitude and treatment of that individual. Jesus knows your heart. You can't lie. Standing before Jesus may be a lot more painful than what your anticipating. God has called Christians to love not judge. Jude is an excellent reminder that Christ is continually with us watching how we deal with those he brings into our lives and if we fail to love as Christ has called us to that there will be a day of reckoning. |
|
|
Re: Hey Jude |
By paul on
Monday, November 13, 2006 |
| Just to add a little clarity for myself, because as I read your reply I read the word judge two different ways. We are called to love, and not to judge (in a final sense)... judgement belongs to the Lord. But Jesus, and Paul, etc.. recognize that we must make judgments.. we must be discerning and take action based on what we discern. And in that meaning of "judge" then as you say, we will be judged as we have judged (not that we are not to judge at all). Therefore we would be wise to judge with mercy and with love. Regardless of what conclusion our judgment of someone may arrive at, our actions towards them are to be goverened by Christ's action toward us. Love because He loved us first, forgive little because He has forgiven much, serve because He came to serve us, etc. - Thanks for the insight Mike. |
|
|
Re: Hey Jude |
By Mike on
Monday, November 13, 2006 |
To clarify the terminology
I believe we are called as christians to hate the sin but love the sinner.
The issue here is in relation to the heart or more specifically the attitude of the judger
Judgement when applied to this situation would be subjective.
The result would be the judger would view the judged based on their sin and would condemn both the sin and the sinner.
Discernment applied to this situation would be objective.
The result would be the discerner separates the sin from the sinner. Although the discerner cannot agree or support the sin, the discerner does not judge the sinner.
When christians judge it puts up walls to those they have judged and ultimately can result in Christ's judgement because they were never exposed to the love of Christ through a christian.
When christians use discernment they cannot support the sin, however because they have separated the sin from the sinner, they can still show the grace and love of God to the sinner in hopes that Christ will open their hearts in repentance and come to a saving knowledge of Himself.
Hope this clarifies the difference of my understanding between judging and discerning. |
|
|
Re: Hey Jude |
By paul on
Monday, November 20, 2006 |
This is just a reply, further thoughts on the topic, not a response to anything Mike wrote.
I am very sensitive to the use of words (semantics) - sometimes I wonder if I am too sensitive.. but on such a regular basis I find that words used imprecisly create confusion and misundertanding. In my own experience I would guess that about 70% of the time people think they disagree, they actually find out that agree when they clarify how they are using certain words.
"Judge" is definately one of those words that needs lots of clarity, because it comes bundled with so much meaning. It needs to be unpacked like a suitcase.
A simple phrase like "We should not judge people" is both correct and incorrect in probably a dozen different ways.
When we make a simple statment like that, I think what we may at the surface mean is "people should not act in a judgmental manner toward others" (because acting that way will put up barriers, we are instructed not to act that way (for the most part) in the Bible, etc)
We probably also mean "We should hold off making quick judgments, and make sure that what we are not just bringing our own cultural or personal baggage into something and creating a false judgement" (the classic - I don't like electric guitars, therefore you can't worship God (and God is displeased) with playing an electric guitar.)
What we have to becareful we don't slide into though is "we should never judge, we cannot judge, judging is wrong" - because a) we can judge, if we judge properly from the proper source, and b) its self denial anyway... we all judge (discern) and we all act toward people based on those judgments. Its better to acknowledge the proper role our judgement is to play then pretend we never judge.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|