Who Are You?

Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. (Romans 14:4)

I sense a little intensity in these words that brings conviction to my heart on a regular basis. I suppose that I could just classify this as another rhetorical question but I don't think that is as helpful as facing it head-on. I see it more as an invitation to deeper honesty, to self-examination, to confession of what the Spirit is trying to expose that is so deep-rooted that I have not noticed it before. Just who do I really think I am whenever I judge someone else?

Implied very strongly in the text is the idea that just maybe I am trying to act like or induce them into thinking that I can be their master. That squares very closely to the observations that I have made for some time about the craving for control that most of us possess. It may come out in all sorts of ways in the how we treat others or even ourselves, but our desire for control is so pervasive and familiar that we don't even notice it most of the time, especially in our own lives.

But judging is definitely a means of trying to control someone else. It is using many of the favorite tools of Satan, the chief accuser, to try to manipulate others and bring them under my influence. I don't like the sounds of what I am perceiving here, but I have to admit that it is true all too often. Judging inherently has built into it the spirit of accusation which is the number one activity of Satan, the greatest accuser the universe has ever seen. Satan's chief desire is for control of everything and everyone he possibly can, and his level of desperate activity is ramping up the closer he gets to the end of the great war. (Rev. 12:12) He induces everyone he can to help him in this activity and uses them to discourage others and skew everyones picture of God by this means.

God never, ever accuses anyone. Our own hearts may often accuse us whenever we encounter the presence of God, but that is not because God is accusing us but because our flesh is resonating with the spirit of Satan and that is what Satan always does. Judging, condemning, accusing, fault-finding, etc., all play into promoting the kingdom of darkness and drive the heart away from its attraction to its Creator. No wonder Paul takes on this issue so strongly here and exposes it for the danger that it is.

I do well to meditate on the implications of this question – Who am I, really, who do I think I am to judge the servant of another? I must be willing to be more honest about my true motives and strip away the excuses and nice-sounding facades used to cloak the real nature of false judgment. I have so many nice-sounding reasons why I can dwell on other's faults without feeling guilty. I may at times feel more advanced or spiritually superior to them. I often feel very angry that they are still indulging in the sins that have held me in bondage for so many years and that I am becoming more aware of lately. I feel angry that they seemingly refuse to see the truth about God as revealed in the life of Jesus and cling instead to legalistic notions that have suffocated all of us for so long.

But then I have to ask the question, why does this make me feel so intense inside? I have pondered that question many times and it honestly does seem baffling to me. I am sure that is because of a major blind spot in my own heart, but asking the question does move me toward allowing light to enter into that dark area of my own thinking. Understanding what is triggering my anger, resentment and self-righteous feelings will help to begin to unmask the answer to this question put to me by Paul. Who do I think I am, anyway?

The very presence of a judgmental spirit betrays the existence of a false identity claiming to be me and dwelling inside of me. I, like Paul in Romans 7, find myself wrestling with a superpower inside of me asserting itself as the real me but in constant conflict with the new heart that Jesus has implanted within me. This causes a great deal of frustration at times when I confuse the two and wonder myself who I really am. There is no shortage of others willing to point their fingers at me and tell me who they think I am which also becomes a source of confusion as to my real identity. The whole controversy going on in the great war has a lot to do with whom I choose to believe as to the makeup of my true identity.

This question by Paul also reminds me of a very similar question posed by Jesus to His disciples. Jesus went out, along with His disciples...; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, "Who do people say that I am?" ... And He continued by questioning them, "But who do you say that I am?" (Mark 8:27-29)

I really don't believe that this question by Jesus was just to satisfy His curiosity. I believe that there was a very intentional and purposeful reason that Jesus chose to ask these questions and they still apply to us just as strongly as they did to the disciples. It is a question that goes much deeper than simply identifying the external label that a person wears or the occupation that they may engage in. It is referring to the gut-level sense of how we perceive a person's identity, not just what label they may have on the surface.

I believe Jesus was trying to reach deeper into the hearts of the disciples in His quest to get them to think more with their heart instead of just their head; to utilize their right brains and get it up to speed instead of playing it safe in the left brain. I think to some extent the disciples responded to His question that way but not to the extent that Jesus longed for. It was not until some time after Jesus left this earth that the disciples really began to catch on to what He was trying to accomplish in their hearts. But the resulting fire of passion for God ignited in their souls then began to turn the world upside down.

I also think that these two questions may well be closely related to each other. Both questions need to be asked and examined on a regular basis in order for a person to begin to grasp a true sense of reality. If I have very confused or distorted notions about who God is – and all of us do – then I certainly can never properly perceive my own true identity because I am created in the image of God. Instead, I often project my own opinions, feelings and faults into my perception of God and end up forming a picture of Him more reflective of my own image than the other way around.

I also need to understand the truth about my own identity in the light of the real truth about God's identity. That becomes even more difficult because there are such conflicting indicators on which to base opinions about my true identity. But that is part of the problem itself. If I try to determine the truth about my real identity based on the evidence and behaviors of my past, then I am bound to come up with a pretty sad conclusion as to who I really am. That plays directly into the problem of judging that Paul is addressing here.

Judging then, may flow out of a life that is confused about its own true identity in Christ. A spirit of judging and condemnation very likely is a symptom of a person with false ideas about their real identity. That is why they engage in fault-finding and criticism of others – because they are trying to make themselves look better by contrast. That is always an activity of pride that dwells in all of our hearts.

Pride is the chief attribute of Satan. It was the ingredient that caused his fall in heaven and prevented him from being able to return in repentance. Pride is the underlying element behind all other sins and is the greatest obstacle to the process of salvation in the human heart. Pride lies at the root of all false judging, fault-finding and criticism.

But pride has an interesting twist to it. As the primary part of our sinful flesh, pride always asserts that it is just looking out for our best good and is there for us to provide all the things that our heart is missing. So when we sense low self-worth, pride quickly comes in to suggest ways to make us feel more important. When we feel empty and dissatisfied, pride comes up with all sorts of ways to make us feel better, more fulfilled and physically or emotionally pleased. The problem however, is that pride always provides solutions that are just a little bit off and never allows God's will and ways to take precedence in our life. Pride believes that given enough time and knowledge and experience it will be able to figure out the answers for itself. Pride refuses to be submitted to the authority of Jesus and instead claims that we are capable of fixing our own problems, even if that requires some outside assistance at times.

And this is where pride can become the most subtle and diabolical. Because most Christians – really most humans – believe that we can get our life sorted out if we just had some supernatural help to accomplish our own objectives. We believe that innately we have enough wisdom to figure out our own answers but we just need more power to implement them. This lies at the foundation of all humanistic thinking, all New Age philosophy and most of religion throughout the world.

So the question remains very urgent and persistent: Who are you...? Who do I perceive myself to be? For the nature of my perceived identity will strongly influence the way I relate to others. And parallel to that, the perceived identity that I have of God will dictate what I believe about myself that will in turn control how I treat others.

So it becomes more evident that at the heart of all the problems I face, the most important first step is to have my perceptions of who God is repaired and radically revised to get a clearer picture of how He feels about me. This will initiate a chain-reaction of internal beliefs that will result in long-term transformations of everything else in my life. It will change who I perceive myself to be and will empower me to relate to others as family under the kind and perfect parentage of the Godhead.

So if I find myself judging another person, I must see that as a symptom of a false sense of personal identity that needs repair in my own heart. It is also likely a symptom of the presence of false ideas about God that need yet to be corrected, because false notions about myself grow out of false ideas about my Creator.

One of these false ideas that poisons my relationships and causes me to judge someone else is the idea that God desires to control me and even uses force whenever necessary to bring about obedience. If I think God employs force to control me then I will do the same to someone else through manipulative means of judging, condemning, shaming or other similar activities. And that means that I very likely believe that God is doing those very things to control me.

I am starting to see that one of my greatest needs is to get a much clearer grasp of my true identity as God sees me as well as a much more accurate concept of who God really is. Instead of focusing on either other's faults or even dwelling on my own, I need to dwell on and fill my find with the truth about God's goodness and all the wonderful attributes of His character that will attract me to want to be more like Him. As I stay focused on the beauty and loveliness and truths of God's real character and His dealings with others, I will spontaneously begin to assimilate those attributes into my own life and will more often reflect them in the way I relate to others. By beholding I can effectively become changed.

I am now seeing that this question by Paul is best answered by asking a question of my own. If I launch into an attempt to answer the question of my own identity by looking around at my past performance or my inner feelings I am going to come up with skewed answers to this most important question. What I really need to do when confronted with the need to know my true identity is to immediately turn to the One who knows me far better than I can ever know myself, the One who has given me a new heart with which to live in proper relationships to those around me, and ask Him who I really am. Instead of trying to unravel the mystery of my own identity by figuring it out with my own faulty thinking or being influenced by what others say about me, it would be much easier and far more accurate to receive the answer repeatedly from the One who died to transform my picture of God as well as my perception of my own worth in His eyes.

So if I find myself judging someone else instead of loving them, I can know that I have forgotten my true identity and am operating under a false premise of who I am. As a result I am projecting my false ideas about identity onto another person and trying to confuse them. It is at those times of temptation that I need to turn to God and again confirm the truth about my true identity and value as He sees views it. As I realign my inner thinking to agree with God's revelations about my true self, I will then begin to see the fruit of the Spirit of God growing more readily in my life and the way I treat others. I will not have to work hard to keep myself from judging others because I will lose my desire to judge them. I will be empowered to see past their faults and begin to see their hearts as Jesus sees them and love them more the way Jesus loves them.

This is the experience that I want for myself today and that I choose to ask God for. I choose to accept God's version of the answer to my true identity in preference to my confused versions.

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