Prejudice and Judging

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. (Romans 14:1)

For about the past week, every day I have been reading over and around this verse and chapter trying to get a sense of the context and the general gist of what Paul is trying to convey in this passage. It looks to me like many of these verses are in great danger of being misunderstood and misapplied if the context and main purpose of the text is overlooked, which seems to be often the case with many of these verses. So I want to be careful not to bring an agenda to my study and have it color the conclusions that I may find here as I often see others doing, because I want to hear clearly the messages that God has for me without any unnecessary interference.

One thing that seems very clear to me so far is that this chapter is very much about judging. And judging is certainly one of the most misunderstood words and concepts in the world that there is. As I mentioned before, I am currently unpacking a series of very insightful teachings by Jim Wilder and taking meticulous notes on them for my own study about this very issue. It has opened my eyes very much to the issue of true and counterfeit judgment and I feel that God has been leading me into this crucial study for a number of months now, long before I knew I would be studying this in Romans 14. What I am learning and being convicted of in this ongoing study is both very exciting and alarming as I begin to catch a glimpse of reality from God's perspective instead of the way I am used to seeing things through worldly perceptions. What I am learning is also crucial to having the right perspective especially in the intense times that we are about to experience as the history of this world comes to a climax.

One thing that comes to my thoughts this morning as I meditate on these verses is the word “prejudice”. Years ago I was startled to realize that the real meaning of this word is easily seen by simply taking it apart. It means to pre-judge. Now I suspect that in at least 99% of the applications in which it is used it is referring to the kind of judgment that is the counterfeit and not the true. And I believe that there is a very great deal more prejudice in all of our hearts than we can realize unless it is exposed by the light of the true Spirit of Judgment otherwise known as the Advocate. He is the agent that both brings the true kind of judgment into our hearts and is also the necessary empowerment for anyone on earth to be able to exercise the true type of judgment.

This means, however, that in essence all earthly judgment is tainted with prejudice. Prejudice implies imposing our own opinions, context, emotions and suppositions onto the actions and words of others and deciding what their motives are based on our own opinions. Prejudice is the same thing that Jesus was talking about when He commanded us to not judge others and what Paul is talking about in this chapter as well. False judgment fails to take into account that only God can read the heart and therefore only God has the ability to judge properly. There is much more along this line that needs to be understood but that I will have to unpack later.

This first verse of chapter 14 is really a summary for all the rest of the chapter. From this point on Paul tries to explain more explicitly what he means by this first statement of truth. Another important aspect that I see in this verse is the stark contrast between accepting a brother in the faith and prejudice which involves some degree or other the element of condemnation.

God, His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit never engage in the false kind of judgment called condemnation. Jesus made that explicitly clear especially in the writings of John. Jesus declared that He did not come to condemn the world but to save it. He also pointed out that condemnation is something that happens naturally inside a person's heart when they are not in tune with the Spirit of God or aligned with the principles of reality as described in God's laws. Condemnation and counterfeit judgment are pretty much synonymous as far as I am able to tell from my study over the years.

But while I may think I am making great progress on avoiding condemnation of others, it is a poison that is extremely subtle and deceptive that can operate undetected like a computer virus until its ill effects suddenly become tragically exposed. It seems even more pernicious and repulsive when it shows up in the life of a professing believer in God, but unfortunately those are the people most targeted by Satan to indulge in that sort of thing. This is because Satan has such intense hatred of God that he wants to discredit His reputation by distorting the witness of those claiming to be His representatives on earth. In so doing he hopes to repel anyone and everyone from desiring to come closer to God who longs to restore and save them to intimacy with His own heart, not condemn them.

One of the prejudices that almost always shows up in the study of Romans 14 is the focus that is put on the external examples that Paul uses as illustrations for what he is trying to get across. Too many people get so fixated on the details of the examples and jump to conclusions that favor what they want to believe that they often miss the main point of this whole passage and end up indulging in the very thing Paul warns against here. I am very susceptible to the same weakness and I pray that God will guide me and cleanse my heart and mind of all prejudices so that I can be free to receive the real truths that will transform my life and align me with the truth as it is in Jesus about what God is like.

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Transition to Judgment

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. (Romans 14:1)

I am moving through a transition area in my study of the book of Romans at this point. While it is certainly not disconnected from the previous passage there is a definite shift of focus here in chapter 14. And interestingly the main subject of this chapter is the issue of judgment which has been something brought strongly to my attention in the past few months. I have already written several pieces about judgment that I have not finished yet because I wanted to have them more fully developed. It looks like it may be time to revisit that as I will be immersed in this subject for awhile now.

One thing that I felt impressed with as I read and meditated and listened on this idea of judgment this morning was the thought that Jesus is my example. So if I am to follow the example of Jesus and Jesus is our Judge, then why should it be wrong for me to judge?

The answer to that lies squarely in the middle of the common misunderstanding about the true nature of judgment. Like everything else in God's life, judgment has been faced with a diabolical counterfeit that has captured our attention far more readily than the real deal. Nearly everyone I know including myself have very distorted concepts of what is involved in judgment, and to complicate things, comparisons with human judicial systems are not very helpful. Human justice more closely parallels and follows the counterfeit concept of justice far more than the true way to judge in most respects. So for us to assume that God deals with His subjects similar to how we are treated by humans purporting to execute justice is very misleading at best.

What I am finding lately is that it is very difficult to easily discuss spiritual concepts with many people because in everything we talk about we always have many, many assumptions. This is completely unavoidable because of the basic nature of how we think and how language operates. We have to have a certain amount of assumptions about what words and phrases mean or else we can have very little communication whatsoever. But the problems with communication become more difficult to the extent that each person's assumptions about the words they are sharing are different given their own background and beliefs.

What I am finding is that as my understanding of words and spiritual concepts dramatically changes through my intense study of the Word and listening to the instructions from the Spirit, this process is transforming more and more of my assumptions about those concepts and their relationships to each other. Now for me this is becoming very exciting as I see more clearly the beauty and consistency and justice and sensibility and attractiveness of God's ways. There are certainly very many things I do not yet understand, but the tendency is toward a congruency and wholeness that is radically different than the arbitrary nature of much of the religion I was taught growing up.

But the more clearly things become for me and the more questions I feel free to raise and have answered in my personal experience with God, the more out of sync I find myself with those around me who still cling to many of the concepts and assumptions that I was raised with and believed for most of my life. Or they may have completely different assumptions about these words of which I am unaware. But the problem is becoming more evident that as I use the religious terms and descriptions of spiritual truths that have taken on a completely new meaning for me, others are still basing their hearing of these words from me on old definitions and entrenched concepts from years of tradition of how these things interrelate which presents great difficulty in carrying on a smooth conversation.

So I find myself needing to stop or interrupt myself to try to explain my new understandings of the words and concepts I am using. This sometimes happens so much so that I make very little progress in saying what I started out to say. It is almost as if I have to explain a whole new dictionary while at the same time using words that sound exactly like those from an old dictionary that is similar but deceivingly different but while much more familiar. Sometimes I wonder about the best way to handle this problem.

It is in times like this that I am reminded that it is my spirit that is far more important in the process of communication than the success of my words in conveying new principles of truth. While words are certainly important and need to be chosen carefully, a perfect arrangement of correct words will still convey wrong messages if my spirit is not in alignment and under the guidance and influence of God's Spirit. Conversely, a person who is very much in sync with God's Spirit may have very limited knowledge or ability to express themselves eloquently and may even sound very crude at times, but the effect of their spirit in their attempts to communicate with those observing and listening to them will have far more positive influence; their hearers will be deeply moved and far more truth will be received than otherwise would have been possible.

And that brings me very much back to the subject of Romans 14. I am beginning to see that Paul is squarely addressing this very issue now that I look at it again. All throughout this chapter he emphasizes the importance of attitude over factual correctness. That seems to be the main point of this whole passage and one that I very much need to learn at a much deeper level. It addresses one of the most slippery problems of Christianity, that of putting more value on being “right” than of giving priority to caring for another person's heart. And while I usually respond positively to being treated that way myself it is so easy for me to fail to treat others that way. Yes, just like the last chapter, I am beginning to see that God has some intense lessons waiting for me in the days ahead as I immerse myself in His life-changing instructions and open myself to the convictions from His Spirit.

I notice that this whole subject comes immediately after the admonition about putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provisions for my flesh. This is the context in which Paul addresses the problem of judging other fellow believers. It is, unfortunately, extremely common but nevertheless very destructive – this problem of judging. In judging and condemning others I am tearing apart what God is working to put together in the body of Christ described back in chapter 12. It also likely comes under the heading of making provision for the flesh and not behaving properly (13:13).

Judging others is not just primarily something that happens by the words I circulate about them but is much more a state of mind and a spirit that emanates from me. Judging can many times be such a subtle thing that it can easily be denied and discounted. I can be very careful to try and not say openly judgmental words about someone but still insinuate and create questions in other people's minds that are just as judgmental if not more so. But this issue of judgment and learning to be free from it has to be a personal learning experience and not something I try to force on others. As with nearly all truths, it must first begin in my own heart before the truth can have real affect on other hearts.

For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God.... (1 Peter 4:17)

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