Discernment

Now accept the one who is weak in faith...

One person has faith...

he who is weak...

God has accepted him...

To his own master he stands or falls;

and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand...

Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind...

...observes it for the Lord,

...does so for the Lord,

for he gives thanks to God;

...for the Lord...,

and gives thanks to God

...if we live, we live for the Lord,

or if we die, we die for the Lord;

therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. (Romans 14:1-8)

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, ...for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.

...regard with contempt the one who does not

...judge the one who eats...

Who are you to judge the servant of another?

...lives for himself...

...dies for himself... (Romans 14:1-8)

Is the point a little bit more clear? There are two ways to live in relationship to religion and to others in the body. One way is to compare ourselves and our beliefs with theirs in a critical spirit, to discredit their beliefs while thinking we are more valuable, more “saved”, more righteous than they. In some sort of subconscious, twisted way we somehow think that condemning what others believe in contrast to our own set of doctrines or practices will somehow cause them to want to switch over and believe like we do.

But condemnation is yet another counterfeit that simply does not accomplish what we think it might. Condemnation is the counterfeit for conviction which is only the job of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said very clearly that He was not sent into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. Only the Holy Spirit can perceive clearly and relate to the heart properly and we have absolutely no business attempting to “judge” others no matter how many proof texts or quotations we can compile in our defense. The kind of judgment referred to here in this passage is the counterfeit kind of judgment, not the true form of judgment that takes place naturally in the presence of the real Spirit of Truth.

This lesson is so tangled in our thinking – mine included – that it is difficult to unpack it without participating in the very activity warned against here. But it is also important that I must be insistent in understanding it thoroughly and absorbing its reality into the deepest part of my thinking and relating. Any discussion of this topic can quickly sink into practicing the very thing we are talking about in this case – passing judgment on each other's opinions. This is an important lesson that must be applied first and most intensely to myself before I can be useful in sharing with anyone else this most important truth about relational attitudes.

This is one of those passages where I feel it is helpful for me to literally separate the opposing descriptions so that it can become more clear what the unique elements are involved on each side as I have done at the beginning here. There is evidently a way to accept others without slipping into the trap of pride and comparing their faith and beliefs with mine. There is evidently also a way of “accepting” others in a body of believers while thinking that I need to point out their errors and make sure they know that their opinions and beliefs are inferior to mine.

I am painfully aware of far too many people who fit this last category all too well. In fact, they build much of their theology around honing this practice to an art form almost. They compile texts to reinforce their feelings of guilt, their fear that they will be condemned themselves if they do not pass judgment on anyone in the church whom they believe is harboring heresy or sin in their lives. I have seen this practiced much and for many years in the example of people very close to me, and the results are sickening to my heart. Even in the past couple days I heard about one of my classmates from many years ago who is right now very offended because someone in the local church passed judgment on them in an attempt to intimidate them into coming to a series of “evangelistic” meetings designed to increase the membership of the church.

When are we going to listen to these warnings from the Word of God that expose our own pernicious practices that tear down so much of what the Holy Spirit works to build up? He is constantly working in the hearts of hurting people who have left the church because of our false representations of God, but our callous words and thoughtless comments can cause immense damage that we never even realize while we glibly go on in our self-righteous arrogant thinking that we are the chosen people of God with all the truth and that others must conform or be lost.

It makes me start feeling very angry whenever I think about these kinds of situations. But then the Spirit gently moves in to remind me that what irritates me most is very likely because it resonates with some deep flaw in my own life and I know that I also am very capable of doing the very same things to others. In the past few days I have felt the need to practice full identification with these sins of the church, take ownership of them for myself and confess them before God with intense emotion, pleading with Him for healing, for forgiveness, for the light of truth to bring conviction to our own hearts and to shine much more light into our own thinking. I pray intensely that we will see the ugliness of our own supposed righteousness and judgmental spirit and that the kindness of God will be seen clearly enough to induce repentance in our own hearts.

I plead with God to not only show me my own habits of judging others much more clearly but that I may also begin to see others, in and out of the church, through the eyes of heaven, to hear their words through the ears of heaven, to feel their pain and longings and dysfunctions through the heart of heaven instead of my own judgment, condemning-prone heart of flesh.

For whenever I sense the slightest spirit of contempt for anyone at all, then I have spotted the infection that has deep roots that cannot be seen in the open but that thrive in the selfish soil of my soul. Whenever I am tempted to evaluate whether someone else is saved or lost based on my opinion of their apparent beliefs and practices, I am being tempted to usurp the job of the Holy Spirit and am in reality acting as an anti-Christ.

I have felt convicted repeatedly lately by these words, Who are you to judge the servant of another? I have felt the Spirit impress these words on me as I am tempted to analyze someone else in the church with a critical spirit. And I will say that I am glad for these warnings so that I can be reminded that I can choose not to go there. I am finding that the more I fill my mind and heart with these warnings and instructions from the Word of God that it is easier for the Holy Spirit to remind me of them and utilize them internally to warn me when I am in danger of hurting yet another person.

I pray for God to transform me into the kind of person described in this passage who will accept others – with my heart and with sincerity and genuine love – without the urge to compare them to myself spiritually. Yes, I may be able to clearly see that they are weak in faith, but that is not the problem pointed out here. There are certainly differences between the levels of faith between people in the same body of Christ and there is nothing bad about that. We are all growing in grace and the body is supposed to a safe place where we can assist and encourage and nurture each other. But it is far too easy to move past the observation of differences in the amount of faith we think someone has to forming value-based opinions about their relationship with God.

If we are not heedful of the way the Spirit of God works in us, we shall become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other folks are failing, and we turn our discernment into the gibe of criticism instead of into intercession on their behalf. The revelation is made to us not through the acuteness of our minds, but by the direct penetration of the Spirit of God, and if we are not heedful of the source of the revelation, we shall become criticizing centres and forget that God says—“. . . he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death.” Take care lest you play the hypocrite by spending all your time trying to get others right before you worship God yourself.

One of the subtlest burdens God ever puts on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning other souls. He reveals things in order that we may take the burden of these souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them, and as we intercede on His line, God says He will give us “life for them that sin not unto death.” It is not that we bring God into touch with our minds, but that we rouse ourselves until God is able to convey His mind to us about the one for whom we intercede.

Is Jesus Christ seeing of the travail of His soul in us? He cannot unless we are so identified with Himself that we are roused up to get His view about the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so whole-heartedly that Jesus Christ will be abundantly satisfied with us as intercessors.

Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. March 31

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