Monthly Archives: May 2022

JESUS AND JUDGING

Christian Life, ,

JESUS AND JUDGING

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Matt. 7:1)

Firstly, as Jesus’s disciples, we must differentiate between making judgments on people based on our own behaviour and discerning by an objective standard. The issues are: “Is it legitimate to judge?” and, “By what standard do we judge?” There is a difference between judging and discerning as Jesus showed in the following verses.

“Don’t judge. Don’t throw pearls to pigs. Watch out for false prophets.” These are not contradictory but complementary statements.

Our judgment of other people comes from our expectation of them which is often based on the standards we apply to ourselves. How often I have found myself measuring another by my own attitudes and behaviour and finding that they fall short! Included in this kind of judging is the attitude of condemnation. Jesus made clear that judging another in order to condemn is not in keeping with the mercy which is the basis of God’s dealings with us, and which reflects the spirit of Torah.

This kind of judging is what the hypocrite does. He sets his standard – himself – and forgets that he does not measure up to his own standard but is eager to condemn another for his failure to measure up. Underneath the judging, once again, is the attitude of contempt towards a lesser person, which is abhorrent to God.

Does it mean that all judging is wrong? If I mean judging to condemn because I think I am better than someone else even though I do the same things as they do, yes, it is wrong. Jesus condemned this kind of judging.

However, we are not to be mindless in the way we relate to other people. There is a form of judging which is both legitimate and necessary to protect us from people who have no intention of obeying the truth.

Do not give to dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. (Matt. 7: 6)

Jesus’s reference to dogs comes from Proverbs 26:11.

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

Peter used the same illustration to show that people who have heard the gospel but choose not to believe it and who return to their evil ways are like dogs that return to their vomit and pigs that go back to wallowing in the mud after they have been washed. Not only do such people return to their evil ways, but they also reject and ridicule the gospel, persecute those who preach it and teach false doctrine to lure people away from the truth.

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves . . . Of them the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,’ and ‘A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud’. (2 Peter 2: 1; 22)

Discernment is judgment, based not on ourselves but on the objective standard of God’s Word. It is legitimate to check on the validity of a prophet’s words. In the early church, the standard was based on the disposition of Messiah, not on the validity of what the prophet said. If a prophecy was delivered in the disposition of Messiah – that is, in keeping with His yoke of humility and gentleness – the prophet was judged to be a true prophet. If not, he was dismissed as a false prophet. What was the standard of judgment? The fruit of his life. Did his life exhibit the disposition of Messiah? Did he live and speak in the spirit of Torah?

Jesus condemned the hypocrites because their profession contradicted their fruit. A diseased tree cannot produce healthy fruit. A thorn bush cannot produce grapes or figs. A person who claims allegiance to Jesus, and even does miracles, is not necessarily a true talmid of the rabbi. Fruit is evidence of the nature of the stock from which it comes.

Jesus vividly illustrated the way in which true fruit is borne in the life of His disciples.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing. (John 15: 5)

The way we judge people can be very subtle. Take for the example the godly father who disowns his daughter for wayward behaviour. She comes home pregnant out of wedlock or is busted for doing drugs and he reacts with “righteous” anger. He kicks her out of the house because she has brought disgrace on the family name, and he believes that he has done the right thing.

Wait a minute. Has he not appointed himself as a judge? By what standard is he judging her? Is he acting in the spirit of Torah? Has he forgotten that God has already taken care of her debt? Has he the right to inflict punishment a second time? Where is the mercy which is the weightiest in God’s character?

When we judge, criticise, and condemn, we make our home or our church a dangerous place for sinners. The home and the church ought to be the safest place for people to fail because it is the environment where God’s Word is put into practice in the spirit of Torah. If we or our children cannot be safe at home or in the church, where will we or they find safety?

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2: 12-13)

If mercy does not temper our attitudes towards people who fail, we will ourselves fall into the “sin” trap, adding our sin to theirs by what we think of them and the way we treat them.

Let’s paraphrase Jesus’s words:

When you judge, criticise, or condemn others for not measuring up to your standard, you place yourself in danger of receiving the same judgment as you pass on them. Make your world a safe place for others to fail by extending mercy and forgiveness instead of building a “holy” wall between yourself and them.

Be careful whom you trust. Measure people by the standard of God’s Word. Don’t waste the truth on those who have no intention of believing the good news. They may turn on you and throw God’s gift back in your face. Don’t follow those who lives don’t match their words. They are false prophets, and their intention is to destroy you. Use God’s Word as a measure, not yourself because you are as fallible as the people you condemn.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

JESUS AND MONEY

Christian Life, ,

JESUS AND MONEY

Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven (Matt. 6:1).

Jesus had more to say about money and possessions than about anything else. Unlike church people today who get hot under the collar when the preacher speaks about money, Jesus understood how big a role money plays in the lives of people, including those who claim to follow Him. In fact, it is true to say that money controls our lives. The way we use our money is a mirror of our hearts. The way of the world can be summed up in two words – selfishness and greed.

Jesus had a lot to say to the Pharisees because they used every opportunity, including their so-called tzedakah – their righteous deeds or generosity – to get attention from the public. They did not give out of love for or duty to God but love of themselves. They wanted people to praise them for their “holiness”. 

It is one thing to do one’s duty to God and another to do it in a way that draws attention to us. Jesus spoke often of money and possessions because it played as important a part in the lives of His disciples as it does in everyone’s life today. Money drives the world. Even the most humanitarian professions such as medicine and law are money-driven in our modern world. There are few by comparison who will use their profession to serve, without remuneration, those who need it.

What did Jesus have to say about our attitude towards our money and possessions? To understand the background to His teaching, we must go back to the Torah.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD you God for the good land He has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe His commands, His laws, and His decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied . . . then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

. . . You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is He who has given you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to you forefathers, as it is today. (Deut. 8:10-12a; 14; 17-18)

God, not their skills or abilities, was the source of their wealth as a sign of His covenant; therefore, they were accountable to Him for what they did with it. Giving to those in need was to be their response of gratitude to God for His mercy and goodness to them, not out of any feeling of benevolence towards those who had less than they had. This wrong attitude would put them in the limelight rather than God.

Everything we do must be based on what God has done for us. The Israelites were to remember that it was the LORD their God who delivered them from slavery in Egypt. They were to receive His gifts with gratitude, not with pride for what they had, and to be continually grateful for His goodness. 

How tragic that there is a world of people with talents and skills which they flaunt as their own, and play to the world instead of acknowledging God as the source and using what they have for His glory. His own people are not innocent of this either.

Jesus had no problem with wealth per se, but He did have a problem with those who used it to get honour and accolades from the admiring crowd. Once again, He connected this life to the life to come. It is the disciple’s responsibility to garner wealth for the life to come by using what he has to meet the needs of others in this life. It’s about attitude and motive. Giving to the poor is not about getting attention for being generous. It’s about expressing gratitude to God by showing mercy to those in need.

Giving from a grateful heart has eternal benefits. There is a spiritual dimension to the way we use our money. “Laying up treasure in heaven” is not a literal deposit in a heavenly bank account. It is a way of expressing what we have already learned of God’s ways. When we do the right thing by taking care of the needs of others, whether it be the need for comfort, mercy, or reconciliation, or to meet material or physical needs, God reciprocates by meeting our needs.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? . . . For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matt. 6:25; 32-33)

How many of God’s people do I meet or hear about who are in financial difficulties, who claim to be disciples of Jesus but who do not understand or follow His simple prescription for financial security? They pray for relief instead of obeying Jesus’s word, as though God were some benevolent grandfather who dishes out money every time they run out through their unwise spending. 

Jesus gave us God’s way in a few simple words:

Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6:38)

Worry is not being responsible. Worry is a slap in God’s face and evidence of both ignorance of God’s Word and ways, and unbelief in His promises. God is a loving Father who would never permit His children to starve. However, for us to benefit from His faithfulness and generosity, He asks us to be generous by taking care of the needs of others. It is both an act of faith and of obedience when we do the right thing by giving, even out of our own need. God always responds to us as a Father who cares for His children.

When we “deposit” our “treasure” in heaven, instead of hoarding it for ourselves, it can never depreciate or deteriorate in condition. It is there for us in a time of need because God reciprocates with generosity to those who reflect Him by being generous.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

JESUS AND PRAYER

Christian Life, ,

JESUS AND PRAYER

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray: Matthew 6:5-9

Prayer was another subject to which Jesus gave a fair amount of attention. Why was prayer much more important to Him than it often is to us? Prayer was His lifeline to the Father. It was important that His disciples understood that prayer was the way that human sons and daughters communicated with their unseen heavenly Father.

Prayer as the Bible presents it, does not exist outside of this relationship. People may “pray” to their gods, but it is nothing more than babbling to something that does not exist. The God of the Bible is the only one who responds to prayer. Oh, some may call it coincidence but when people pray, coincidence happens. When they don’t, it doesn’t!

You who answer prayer, to you all people will come (Psa. 65:2).

Jesus took time to teach His disciples about prayer and He often prayed in their presence. For Him, motive and attitude was as important as the prayers themselves. In His first teaching session with them, according to Matthew, He set the scene by warning them about wrong attitudes and motives.

There were two groups of people whose example Jesus’s discipleswere not to follow, the hypocrites and the pagans, for very good reasons. Who were these people?

  1. The hypocrites

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. (Matt. 6: 5)

The first group were the “hypocrites.” The word “hypocrite” originates from classical Greek where the word was used of an actor who wore a mask to impersonate a character in a play. “Hypocrites” came to mean those who pretended to be who they were not. Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites on more than one occasion, revealing who the hypocrites were of whom He spoke here. These men exposed the falseness of their own hearts by their contradictory behaviour, doing the “right thing” but ignoring the spirit of Torah.

It was a common practice to pray standing in the synagogue with arms upraised towards God. Jesus did not condemn their posture since the Bible advocates different postures in prayer, including standing before the Lord. He drew attention to their motive – they wanted to be seen so that they could be admired by their onlookers. They chose the most visible and public places for prayer so that they would be noticed and admired for their piety and, of course, for their long prayers. Jesus was adamant that they were not the model to follow. Why?

The reward they wanted was not from God but from people. They wanted accolades so that they could be admired and applauded with no thought of seeking God’s approval and God’s answers. Prayer had become ritualistic repetition, mere religious exercises with no sense of need for God. Jesus assured His disciples that, if this was all the reward they sought, it was the only reward they would get.

Prayer is not about impressing people. It’s not even about impressing God. Prayer is about seeking the face of God out of weakness and need. God responds readily to those who pray for the right reasons.

The ordinary people were surrounded by self-seeking, approval “addicts” whose prayer model was reprehensible – despicable, inexcusable, and unacceptable – but His disciples were not to follow their example. Better to seek solitude and commune with God in secret where there are no watching eyes and listening ears than to pray in public, so that prayer can be sincere and real.

  • The pagans

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. (Matt. 6: 7)

The second group were the “pagans”. Who were the pagans? Jesus mentioned pagans on at least four occasions in Matthew’s gospel.

  1. Pagans only relate to those who relate to them (Matt. 5:45-47).
  2. Pagans mutter empty repetitive prayers (Matt. 6: 6-8).
  3. Pagans run after material things (Matt. 6: 31-33).
  4. Pagans refuse to respond to the process of reconciliation (Matt. 18: 15-17).

In Bible times, people who worshipped false gods were regarded as pagans. They were despised, not only for their idolatry but also because of what they did.

For you have spent enough time in the past doing what the pagans choose to do – living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. (1 Peter 4: 3)

Jesus warned His disciples not to allow their prayers to degenerate into “babbling”. Another word for “babble” is to “mutter”. Why did pagans mutter? They muttered because they wanted to be heard. Empty repetition was the hallmark of pagan “prayer”. They had no assurance that their gods ever heard them. The cry of the priests of Baal from morning until noon when Elijah challenged them to a contest on Mount Carmel was, “O Baal, answer us!” 91 Kings 18: 26). Elijah’s short prayer, by contrast, was answered immediately! (1 Kings 18: 36-38).

How easy it is to “babble” when we commune with a God we cannot see and hear! God is spirit. Our communion with Him takes place in the spirit, with or without words. We must keep in mind that God hears our hearts, not our words. We need to practise God-awareness which takes us beyond ourselves and our concerns into the realm where God is sovereign and knows and works far beyond our thoughts and understanding.

God-awareness will save us from putting our circumstances before God, and from being need-and-word orientated rather than God-conscious. Our Father knows our needs before we ask Him. When we concentrate on needs and words rather than on God and who He is, our prayers degenerate into “panic” praying or giving Him information or advice. This is not prayer. This is paganism – speaking to gods who must be informed or persuaded because they do not exist.

Prayer is essentially the interaction between a loving Father and His submissive and obedient child. It is the communion of heart with heart.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE SPIRIT OF TORAH

Christian Life, ,

THE SPIRIT OF TORAH

Unlike the other rabbis with s’mikhah (authority) who were permitted to make new interpretations of Torah, but who focused primarily on behaviour and actions, Jesus turned His hearers’ attention to the spirit of Torah, what He called ‘the more important matters of the law.’ (Matt. 23: 23). The Greek word translated “more important” has the connotation of “weight”, i.e., that which is heavy, which carries weight or is profound.

What is this “weight” of which Jesus spoke? To understand its meaning, we must go back to the Torah and look at its use there. Moses used the same word, “weight” (Hebrew kabod), when he asked God to show him His glory – kabod – Ex. 33:18. What was he asking? He was asking God to show him what was heaviest, weightiest, or profoundest in Him – in His character as God.

This is how God responded:

And the LORD said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass by in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ (Ex. 33:19)

It seems, then, that the weightiest part of God’s character is His goodness (functionality) expressed in His mercy and compassion. This was confirmed by the prophet Micah who asked the question:

With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (Micah 6:6-7)

All the things that Micah has mentioned were requirements within the Torah but taken to the extreme. But at the same time, all of these were useless without the “weightier things” of Torah.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6: 8)

In Matt. 23, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their attention to detail but the absolute neglect of their heart attitude of mercy. They did the right thing as far as Halakhah was concerned but they missed the point of Yahweh’s Torah completely. Whatever Halakhah demanded was to be fulfilled in the spirit of Torah – justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These “religious” Jews were so intent on gaining a reputation for their “piety” that they were completely phoney before God.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill, and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practised the latter without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. (Matt. 23:23-24)

What was Jesus saying? Wherever the prescriptions of Halakhah came into conflict with the weightier matters of Torah, i.e., justice, mercy, and faithfulness, Halakhah must give way.

Jesus’s many altercations with the religious leaders raged around the issue of mercy versus Halakhah. His call to Matthew to be a disciple and the subsequent banquet Matthew gave for Jesus with the disreputable element of society as his honoured guests, provoked a protest from the Pharisees.

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and “sinners”?’

On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.’ (Matt. 9:10-13)

A few days later the Pharisees went on the attack again. While Jesus and His disciples walked through a field of grain on the Sabbath, the men picked a few heads of grain and rubbed them in their hands because they were hungry. Always on the warpath, the Pharisees protested.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, ‘Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.’ He answered, ‘Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread – which is not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests . . . If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’, you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’ (Matt. 12:1-4; 7-8)

It is obvious that they had not learned the lesson. As far as Jesus was concerned, wherever mercy and Halakhah clashed, mercy took precedence, even when it came to the simple matter of hunger over what was lawful according to Torah. Every requirement of Torah had to be fulfilled in the spirit of Torah for it to be what God intended.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

LOVE REDEFINED

Christian Life, ,

LOVE REDEFINED

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matt. 5: 43-45)

There is no command in Scripture or record of hating one’s enemies in the Jewish writings. What did Jesus mean by the words “love” and “hate”? Was He using it in the same sense as His words in Luke 14: 26?

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his mother and father, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.

Here we have another problem of the Hebrew language. Biblical Hebrew has no way of expressing “more than” and “less than”. Instead, it uses extremes to express degrees of comparison, for example, “love” and “hate” to imply “love more” or “love less”. 

Was Jesus, in fact, saying that we should not love our enemies less than we love our neighbour or our friend? This does not have anything to do with the way we feel about our enemies but about the way we treat them.

If you love those who love you, what reward do you get? Are not even tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt. 5: 46-48)

What did Jesus mean by “love”? Does loving those who hate us and have ill-will towards us mean that we deliberately open ourselves to their abuse or, even worse, to the opportunity to do us harm in the name of love? That would be foolish and would accomplish nothing to restore broken relationships.

We have Jesus Himself to show us the way. How did He love His enemies? Strangely enough, He showed His love for them by telling them the truth. Why would His rather ruthless exposure of their hypocrisy be a gesture of love? Doesn’t it seem like retaliation for the way they treated Him? We could view His accusations as retaliation except for one thing. Jesus confronted them the truth so that they could make a choice.

We, so often, tell people what we think is the truth – in love, of course – to express our frustration or to retaliate against their treatment of us. Our accusations are most often a justification and comparison of us against them and their failure to live up to our standards rather than the expression of God’s standard. What made Jesus different from us?

His motive was not to justify or exonerate Himself when they accused Him of disregarding the Law. His motive was to open their eyes to their disregard for what God intended in the His Law – what Jesus called their blatant disregard for the “weightier matters of the law.”

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practised the latter without neglecting the former (Matt. 23:23).

By telling them the truth, they were given the opportunity to come back to God’s way and walk in the truth or to ignore Jesus’ warning and bring destruction down on their own heads.

If anyone hears my word but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day (John 12: 27-28).

Jesus also forgave those who mistreated Him. Love always forgives, no matter how another treats us. Forgiveness opens the possibility of the offender responding to God’s forgiveness. If we give hatred for hatred, we lock ourselves and our enemies into the brokenness that holds the world captive to Satan’s ways. Forgiveness frees us to breathe in the pure air (of the spirit) of God’s kingdom.   

As sons and daughters of God, our behaviour is to be above that of tax collectors and pagans of whom nothing more is expected than that they treat decently only those who reciprocate decently.

God is generous. He provides for those who never give Him a thought or offer Him any gratitude for His generosity. God acts in accordance with His own nature. His children are required to live up to the spirit of Torah just as He does.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.