Clean and Unclean - 1

I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. (Romans 14:14)

After the last time I expressed my thoughts on this passage along the line of being fully convinced, I find it interesting that I find myself feeling less than convinced the more I look at this passage. That is not an invitation for zealous Christians to assault me with the purpose of convincing me that there is nothing wrong with eating unclean meats as many want to insist. That is almost always done with the wrong spirit which would only turn me off. In fact, that is one of the reasons why Christians in general have so little success attracting both Jews and Muslims to Christianity, because they mistakenly believe that insisting that converts must eat unclean foods is a supposed sign of true “freedom” in Christ. This is highly repulsive to people from those backgrounds and blasphemes the very Spirit of the One they purport to represent.

But I am praying to know the real meaning of what this verse is trying to convey. I am not very confident that I can unpack it completely even in the very near future, but like many other beliefs that I am no longer afraid to re-examine, I am asking the Holy Spirit to give me insight and understanding about the real issues and principles underlying this statement of Paul. At the same time I do not want to become too side-tracked by the simplistic, conventional arguments typically associated with this verse.

I am beginning to notice something here. Paul is not necessarily saying that nothing is unclean at all. That is not the distinction that he seems to be trying to make here in spite of the strong insistence of many teachers and preachers. He is saying that in itself nothing is unclean. The uncleanness that he is referring to here is not a physical contamination which is inherent in something that can cause disease or death when ingested. That kind of uncleanness is very real and should not be ignored by a foolish interpretation of this text. The uncleanness that Paul is referring to here is of a spiritual, symbolic nature and was very real in the minds of people in his day, particularly the Jews.

This uncleanness was due to violations of meticulous prescriptions, laws, rules and ordinances that were both spelled out in the Old Testament writings of Moses and the added restrictions accumulated over many years of tradition put in place by the teachers and elders of Israel. Their lives had become something similar, in a way, to the superstitious lifestyles of many tribes still living today in remote parts of the earth that are steeped in demon and spirit worship. Their whole daily life is filled with rules and restrictions dictated by their superstitions that seem strange and bizarre to people outside their cultures. But these superstitions are very real and pervasive in the minds of those who have grown up within that tradition.

So too, the Jews over the centuries have pieced together a whole, elaborate system of meticulous rules and inhibitions that govern practically every detail of life in an attempt to perfect a way of life pleasing (or appeasing) to God in heaven. This system was built up around the original system of laws and prescriptions first given to the Israelites in the desert just after they were delivered by God from slavery in Egypt. As a nation, the people at that time were extremely immature and typically acted and thought like little infants. Because of this condition God needed to provide for them very restrictive and detailed rules just as parents have to do for young children, in order for them to reasonably function as part of His family and to keep them from destroying themselves and each other.

Part of the meticulous rules and detailed instructions that were given during that time were a great deal of rules regarding things that were considered good or things that were considered off limits for them. The terms used for this was clean and unclean. It was a very simplistic way of setting boundaries that are very necessary for immature individuals who are incapable of making safe decisions or thinking in adult ways. And just like the way we have to oversimplify things when dealing with immature children, God had to be very restrictive and explicit and simplistic in the way he dealt with these people who simply did not have the capacity to enter into a more mature, trusting relationship with Him at a higher level.

But just as the principles behind our rules for children outlast the rules themselves, so too the principles embodied in the clean and unclean dictates given to the Children of Israel remain valid long after the simplistic restrictions may no longer be needed. But part of our problem yet today is that if we view God's dealings with men through the lens of an authoritarian and control mentality instead of God's family model, we will come up with very confused notions of why He gave many of His instructions and what His purposes were for doing so. We will fall right into the same trap that the Jews did in the days of Jesus and Paul by clinging to the rules more that clinging to the One from where the rules originated and were given to describe.

Just as we would become distraught and terribly concerned if our grown children were still trying to live under every detail of every rule ever given to them in our home from the days of their infancy, so too, God is very disappointed when we place so much emphasis on rules that He designed to restrain and protect highly immature people until they should grow up into a more mature love relationship with His heart. But at the same time, He is also very disappointed when people try to claim that since the rules were designed primarily for children that we are now free to violate both the rules and the principles underlying those rules. That is not a sign of advanced maturity but a sign more along the lines of rebellion and insubordination. Principles are eternal in nature and God's rules are more descriptive than prescriptive. It is important to understand this distinction if we are to ever begin to grow up to a level of maturity where we can enter into a deeper level of intimacy with our Creator and Lover and Redeemer.

When Jesus came to this earth, the Jews were still deeply entrenched and absorbed in the rules designed for infant and child level maturity given by God for His chosen people. They had unwisely also added many more rules in a mistaken belief that God was more interested in performance and external “perfection” than in anything else. They had almost totally lost sight of the fact that God was more desirous of a personal connection with them at the heart level than He was in their meticulous performance and alignment with every detail of every rule ever given to them throughout their growing up years. But they refused to accept this important facet of God's desire for them and so forced God to divorce them, to relinquish them as His priority people and form a new entity from all those who would accept His offer to participate in what was called the body of Christ on earth. This new body or entity was made up of both Jews and non-Jews without discrimination based on previous distinctions prescribed in the Old Testament.

This new body of believers was to be a more mature and advanced body than just infant or child where the Jews had remained stuck. The Jewish nation had become so entrenched in a juvenile mindset that God had to let them go in order to achieve His original plan to grow up a people to a level of maturity where He could interact with them like a marriage partner. This is almost astounding even to think about but is true according to the message of the Bible. God desires to draw us into a marriage relationship with Him after getting us grown up enough and matured so that we can have a healthy, dynamic life that measures with the life of God.

It is important to have this context in place when trying to understand the issue of clean and unclean and God's purpose for instituting these restrictions in the first place. Good parents still do the same thing today with their very young children and infants. We may have extremely simplistic rules like insisting that certain things are off-limits to children simply because they are “yucky”. The child is too young to understand or grasp the complex reasons and dangers behind why they should not play with something or put it in their mouth; so parents simply make seemingly arbitrary rules about those things in order to protect them from harm until they are mature enough to understand the real reasons and they have enough self-discipline to make wise choices.

That second point is also a very important part of the mix. It is not enough to just know the deeper reasons for some arbitrary rules if one does not have the internal discipline needed for self-control and self-regulation. In order to live in a healthy society successfully, we need adults who are self-restrained, thoughtful and considerate of others, who can reason from cause to effect and can have healthy, mature interactions with those around them. One cannot have a satisfying marriage to a person who is highly immature, undisciplined and irrational. That is a very tragic relationship and is due to failure of one or both partners to mature properly before entering into this kind of relationship.

Just the same, God knows that we must mature much more and internalize the principles embodied in the rules originally given to us as immature children so that our lives will become reflective of those principles, not just complicit with the external details of simplistic rules. As the true principles are more and more internalized, the outward expressions of those principles will be seen naturally. They may vary according to taste, personality and uniqueness, but the basic principles will never change.

If I am to properly understand this issue of clean and unclean, I need to grasp the underlying principles behind those early restrictions and then understand how they should be incorporated into a mature mind and heart. Many of the teachings in the New Testament are designed for the more mature, but they can also be easily misunderstood and misapplied by anyone who has failed to mature to the level needed to relate to them properly. We must understand the eternal principles behind the rules and instructions or we can easily be deceived and thwarted from entering into the relationship that God desires us to have with Him.

(next in series)

Convictions and Conflict

Something I am beginning to see in my study of this chapter of Romans is the need to live in peace while properly relating to the potentially tension-creating situation described here. In this chapter (14) I am instructed to accept, even embrace as family, others in the body of Christ who believe differently about certain things than I do but at the same time be fully convinced in my own mind and heart about what God has revealed to me about those same issues.

This is a relatively new concept to me and is almost foreign to my thinking. What was modeled for me most of my life was quite the opposite of this teaching. The people who mentored me tended to play up their differences with other people and intentionally pointed them out and made that a reason to criticize and find fault with those who didn't agree with them. Thus pride was fostered in the heart and a system of comparing ourselves with other people became deeply ingrained in my life.

But I am now seeing that this way of relating to other believers is just the opposite as taught in the Bible, despite all the “proof texts” assembled to justify the actions of those who believe in amplifying differences. Is this a recipe for compromise and dilution of truth in the church as many are sure to claim? Well, I have to first of all be accountable to God for the truth as it is shared with me by the Holy Spirit directly from the Word of God. So I have to unravel this issue enough to see what the real purpose of God is for my life and listen in humility to the convictions of the Spirit.

Notice the verses in this chapter that highlight this important point.

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

...Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. (Romans 14:5)

I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus... (Romans 14:14)

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he (violates his internal belief about some issue), because his (action that violates his own conscience) is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin. (Romans 14:22-23)

Now that I think about this a little more, I wonder if part of the real problem is that when someone else presents beliefs or doctrines that differ from my own, that secretly I feel threatened because I am not really fully settled in my own heart about that particular issue as much as I think I am. Oh, I may be a strong defender of that particular belief or doctrine even to the point of fanaticism, but that may be because I have only embraced it with my head (and a great deal of prejudice as well) but have not really had my heart transformed by the underlying truth of that belief, if indeed it is true.

If that is the case then a certain amount of tension or even guilt will be sensed whenever someone brings up that hot-button issue and to avoid feeling that sense of internal condemnation I may react in very strong opposition to that person believing that the real problem is in them and not in myself. This is a very common problem with humans, much more than most people ever care to admit or even believe possible. But whenever I find myself blaming others repeatedly for something it is a sure indicator that something inside my own heart is unresolved and needs to be exposed and faced much more directly.

It is a common reaction that whenever someone triggers a subject or unresolved issue in our own heart that we will tend to blame the ones who “caused” us to be triggered instead of taking responsibility ourself. But blame never resolves anything, it only attempts to mask the real problem and prevents us from achieving the healing that God wants to accomplish in our life and is so necessary to prepare us to encounter His dangerous presence.

It is equally true that whenever a person is fully settled in their mind and in their heart about a certain issue that when they meet others who believe differently than they do that there is no longer any intensity stirred up within them, no feelings that need to be suppressed or dealt with, no internal twinges of condemnation that create unease. This is the peace that comes from a settled mind and heart that has been healed by the truth and a gentle spirit that is synchronized with God and does not feel any need to justify itself.

As I have pointed out before, the examples that Paul used here in this chapter were some of the biggest “hot-button” issues in religion that caused the greatest conflicts in the church of his day. But they have lost most of their edge for people today and so their impact to convey the real message of this chapter today no longer illicits the explosive potential reactions in our thinking like they would have in the minds of those he was originally addressing. So to really get the strong emphasis that Paul intended this passage to have, we might do well to insert our own hot-button subjects into this passage in place of the ones he used to allow the text to speak its truth more forcefully to us today.

Those potential subjects will vary widely depending on the church, the culture or even the particular sub-group that you may find yourself in. But it is not really that hard to find something to bring this passage to life for us. Just think a little bit about what triggers you the most, what makes you feel defensive, what makes you feel an intense need to protect the religion or beliefs that you strongly believe in and you will likely have a good candidate for plugging in to this passage and seeing how the conviction of the Spirit of God can bring this truth to life in your own experience.

I know that in the culture and religion that I am most familiar with and the one that I grew up in around my own family that there are a number of hot-button topics that would easily fit this description. It takes very little to start up an argument around some of the people I know on certain subjects. But the real question that needs to be faced is, how can I relate to that trigger for conflict to examine the root cause for dis-ease in my own soul? If I feel intense about anything then assuredly there is a root of bitterness or a lie-based belief that still lies buried and potentially undetected in my own heart that God wants to expose and remove. But He can only do this with my explicit permission.

This is where I am reminded of the instruction from James, the brother of Jesus who wrote:

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

We typically view this verse as referring to other kinds of trials, but anything that arouses tension and conflict in our hearts is a trial. What is important is that we learn to view trials as opportunities to have the root causes inside our heart that are triggering us in our trial to be healed by God. If we relate to these situations in this way then we will find ourselves engaged in the process described here that produces better faith and more endurance and greater maturity. I believe this is a good parallel to what Paul is referring to in Romans 14.

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he (violates his internal belief about some issue), because his (action that violates his own conscience) is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin. (Romans 14:22-23)

What I find fascinating here is that Paul seems to be implying that different people can hold very opposing views compared to each other about the same doctrinal issue and yet both parties can be in right relationship with God. What seems to be more important here to God is that we are at peace about it in our own conscience and in our personal accountability to God more than He wants our being technically correct about some divisive issue.

This might seem to open the door to excuse deliberate self-deception when a person chooses to reject truth that is undesirable, but this is not the case. That is another issue that needs to be addressed separately. But that is the excuse that is often used for us to attack others who differ with us. Instead of looking within to see why we feel so defensive and intense about our favorite topic that we desire to champion, we accuse others of insincerity and go on the offensive to force them to come into alignment with our opinions. But this is in direct contradiction to the clear instruction in verse one where we are told to accept others without passing judgment on their opinions.

This is a very hard teaching for many of us. It runs directly across our natural ways of thinking and relating to others. But it is also a revelation of the kindness of God in His dealings with us. If God related to us based on the accuracy of our knowledge about factual and doctrinal truth we would be in a hopeless situation. What I am seeing here is a clearer revelation of the importance of focusing on the heart issues above the external, factual-based issues that we so often use to distinguish ourselves from others.

At the deeper level the real problem that is being exposed here is the deep reservoir of pride that still remains hidden in our hearts and minds. Until our pride is exposed for what it really is we will continue to have great difficulty properly understanding these instructions from the Word of God. True humility will lead to true unity in the body of Christ. And the closer we come to each other at the heart level the more we will be amazed at the ease with which God can correct our doctrinal conflicts and bring us into unity in those areas as well. But if the heart is not open and in the healing process, no amount of doctrinal correctness will prepare us to enter into the unity of spirit that God says is a much greater priority in His estimation.

(next in series)

Ruining the Heart

For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. (Romans 14:15 NAS95)

If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. (Romans 14:15 NRSV)

If your brother or sister is being injured by __________, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let __________ cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.

If we think that the only thing Paul is referring to here is meat vs. vegetables or opinions about the importance of feast days we have completely missed the whole point of this passage. For the principle that Paul is presenting is far greater than the illustrations that he chose to convey it. The bottom line issue that is so important to grasp is that the effect of my spirit and my choices and my actions on others is a very high priority in God's opinion.

I don't think that this to be extended to mean that my life must be dictated by the prejudices and misconceptions of everyone around me or anyone who might happen to be passing by. My Christian life cannot be shaped and determined solely by the bigoted, narrow and fear-based beliefs of those with very messed up pictures of God in their minds.

But on the other hand I am not to ignore the potential strong reactions in the minds and hearts of others with whom I may have significant influence. If someone is looking to me to be an example of what it looks like to be a Christian and they are still locked in bonds of ignorance and superstition about things that I have long since become free from, it is not O.K. for me to just think that I can live free from all responsibility for the effect my actions have on their heart. In other words, it is clearly my responsibility to do everything I can to protect the reputation of Jesus by carefully avoiding unnecessarily wounding a person's heart who is trying to struggle through issues and confusion that are no longer a problem for me.

Listen to the description of Jesus and the way He relates to people as put forth by Isaiah the prophet:

"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice." (Isaiah 42:1-3)

I have thought about alternative issues that Paul might have used if he were writing this passage in today's world. Try some of these out for size:

If your brother or sister is being injured by your music, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let your music cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.

If your brother or sister is being injured by you raising your hands during worship, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let your expressive worship cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.

If your brother or sister is being injured by the things you do on the Sabbath, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let your freedom from legalism cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.

I know what kinds of triggers these examples can immediately stir up in many people. The same things rise up in me as well. I feel a sense of resentment and irritation that my relationship and freedom to worship my God in ways that are “more advanced” and connect me with Him in a deeper way than I used to feel safe to do are now somehow off-limits to me under certain situations simply because someone else's narrow thinking extends into my personal space. It just doesn't seem fair or right! Why do I have to be dragged back into the environment of legalistic, rigid dark emotions and restrictions because of someone else's immaturity? Something inside of me strongly rebels at such a suggestion.

But then I have to suspect that it is precisely this spirit of rebellion and resentment that Paul is talking about right here in this passage. The rest of this chapter intensifies the message of this verse and becomes unavoidable if I am to be honest in listening to the conviction of the true Spirit of God. If I do not want to distort the message of God to my heart, which is always an extremely dangerous thing to do, then I have to face squarely the “religious” spirit of rebellion inside my flesh and allow it to be exposed for the counterfeit that it is and be crucified.

Does this mean that I have to give up all the wonderful freedoms and insights and joy that I have been increasingly experiencing in my growing intimacy with God because other more immature people condemn these things? Not at all! That is not the point here at all. Paul never wavers in his own personal belief about the rightness or wrongness of the particular beliefs in dispute in these illustrations. In fact he goes to some length to emphasize that he personally is not bothered in the least by things that are a really big issue for others who are so easily offended.

So this is not an instruction to revert back to old legalistic patterns of thinking or adopt the prejudices and bigotry of those we are not to offend. We need to see these problems clearly for what they are and continue to become more free from them ourselves, but never with any trace of a spirit of contempt. But in the process there is something even more important that is not to be missed. It is the issue of the condition of the heart and the spirit, both ours and theirs. For in God's eyes it is never right to have the right facts but carry them around with the wrong spirit, a spirit that wounds the hearts of other honest seekers after God.

But really now, this is a principle that is almost easier to accept in the secular world for decent, polite people than it is to accept in the spiritual realm. If we go to another country with radically different customs and norms we usually, if we are a considerate person at all, will try to find out ahead of time how to adjust our behavior and speech and how to relate to people in a way that is not unnecessarily offensive to them. It is simply common courtesy to try to adapt our ways and suspend our usual behaviors that they might find offensive while we are around them so as not to insult their sensitivities.

But when it comes to spiritual politeness, why is it so hard to have that same attitude? Why is it that it is so easy to overlook the sensitivities of someone who does not see God or worship Him the same way that we do right now? Why do we think we have the right to just do whatever we want without reference to offending the feelings of others and arousing suspicion and prejudice in their minds?

I don't have all the answers for these questions. I do appreciate the newfound freedom to be able to pose real questions without feeling obliged to have them resolved immediately. I know that God is faithful and will bring more insight and resolution as I rest in His tutelage. But is it becoming rather clear in my marination in this passage that it is clearly my responsibility in God's opinion that I need to avoid as much as possible unnecessarily offending others spiritually whenever possible. When I am not around them I can still enjoy all the freedoms that I have been learning to accept myself and even desire to have much more.

On the flip side of this I am also aware at times of the offended feelings that sometimes stir up in my own heart whenever someone else does or says things that I feel are too liberal, too conservative, too radical or whatever. At those times I am reminded that maybe they may not even know that I am being offended or maybe they have not been convicted of the message from this passage. But one thing is for sure, they are not my project to fix or reprove. They are accountable to God personally just as I am, and my responsibility is first and foremost for my own attitude and spirit in the presence of God. I am the one who has to give my account to God for my choices and attitudes.

I also remind myself that years ago if I had met a person like the person I now have become that I would have been very offended by some of the things that I now so much enjoy and thrive on doing. Things that now deeply enhance and enrich my intimacy with God I would have found quite offensive and repulsive in previous years. Ironically some of that previous “person” still lurks inside of hidden, dark corners of my mind yet today and is still secretly offended by some of the things I so much enjoy now.

I have seen some of the damaging effects of the behavior and spirit of people who put far more emphasis on being right than on being gentle and accommodating in the spirit of Jesus. These kind of people usually declare that accommodation is nothing but compromise with evil and they will have nothing to do with it. However, that spirit and way of relating to others is in direct contradiction to the real lesson of this chapter. God clearly puts far more priority on the choices and actions that affect the heart than on how right or wrong we are factually or in our success at rule-keeping. This is demonstrated in the illustration Jesus told about the final day of exposure.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:21-23 NIV)

And just what is the will of the Father in heaven?

So then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of (food, music,worship style, clothes – you fill in the blank). (Romans 14:19-20)

(next in series)

Judgment and Worship

It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'" (Romans 14:11 NIV)

I am starting to see more clearly now that the choices I make about what I believe about God and what He is like determine the outcome of my own salvation. The Great War between evil and good, between Christ and Satan revolves around the opinions of all those caught up in this battle about what God is really like. We are all trapped in this war and have no option to get out of it. We can only go through it to the very climax. But each one of us has the freedom to chose which side we will believe and that choice will determine the results that will be seen worked out in our life and our eternal destiny.

One of the important things to remember when seeking to understand these passages is to pay attention to the real meaning of the important words and realize that most of our assumed meanings are often decoys to keep us off target. Worship is one of those things that is little understood but is immensely significant and appears to be the real subject of this verse. One of the most important things about real worship is the spontaneous nature of it. Worship is not really worship if it is coerced or extracted. Worship is an activity of the heart and as such has it roots much deeper than our conscious activity or control. We may be able to perform outward acts of worship and appear to be worshiping, but real worship always springs from the affections of the heart at much deeper levels.

When God says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess to God, He is not describing any forced compliance with His demands that He has to be worshiped. That is never the kind of worship that He will accept or is interested in in the slightest. But God is so amazingly wise and patient in this very long and tragic experiment with sin that Lucifer started, that He knows that in spite of all the lies and deceptions and slander and distortions about Him, that in the end the lies will all come unraveled and the real truth about His perfect goodness, love, forgiveness and fairness will emerge above it all and will eclipse every deception of the enemy. This is the wisdom of God and this is the reason that every being that ever existed will one day unite in complete submission to the real truth about God and will willingly offer real worship to Him and acknowledge that His ways are right and fair and that there is no other way that can work. Lucifer's lies will be forever completely exposed and will never again have any power to deceive anyone. The light of the real truth about God will be clearer and brighter than at any time before in the existence of the universe and everyone will be permanently inoculated against ever desiring to rebel again.

It is this same truth about God that works in our lives today to attract us to prepare for this great day of real Judgment. For it is not enough to just be brought to the place of willingly acknowledging the real truth about God and giving Him the worship due to Him. All of the lost along with all of the fallen angels turned demons will also participate in this great day of real worship and confessional praise. But I certainly do not want to be in their midst on that day of worship. The worship that comes from those who are lost will not last very long because they have destroyed their capacity to love God in response to His love for them. And there is nothing more torturous than being intensely loved while being unable to love in return. That is the very essence of why hell will be so hellish.

What I noticed this morning was how closely the two quotations that Paul uses from the Old Testament are linked together. The previous one is found in 12:20 where Paul describes the essence of God's ways of dealing with sin and vengeance. It is in essence part of a definition of the wrath of God.

On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." (Romans 12:20 NIV)

Notice the clear results of these acts of kindness that we are commanded to use against those who are our enemies. The result of using God's kindness against those who abuse and hurt you is the producing of coals of fire. These are the very same coals of fire that constitute the fires of hell. And this is one of the best descriptions that can be seen as to how God is going to resolve the problem of sin in His universe. He will not eliminate sin by the use of force, through acts that are designed to instill fear in our hearts or through any other means invented by His archenemy. He does not have to adjust the way He deals with others and He did not have to come up with new ways to relate to His creatures when sin entered. It that were true then Satan's original charges would be proven to be true, for Lucifer insisted that there were flaws in God's ways of dealing with His created beings and that Lucifer had a better alternative. We can now see the results of his “better alternative” and it is quite obvious to most that it is not better in the least. But we are so blind to the better original plan and the character of God that we still refuse to believe that God's ways are really better and more attractive than the ways of this world.

The whole plan of salvation is the unveiling of the real truth about God in His attempt to attract as many as possible to become His experiments of grace. For if He is given permission by any individual, He will take them on as His unique and special project and will transform them back into His own image to reflect His perfect goodness, love and joy. As they allow Him to do His work in their hearts and minds by continuing to give Him ongoing permission, He will perfect His own character in their lives until they perfectly reflect His beauty and are filled with the passion that emanates from His own heart. They will glow with the spirit of love that is described in this verse and will be prepared to worship Him not only on the final day of Judgment but will be learning to truly worship Him more often even now.

Part of this transformation involves letting go of all judgment against those around me and embracing them as brothers and sisters in Christ. Chapter 14 is a description in part of this process of transformation and reveals some of the false ways of thinking and feeling that need to be let go of as the Spirit of God convicts me. As I focus my attention on God and the real truth about His character and the way He interacts with me, I will be more and more transformed into treating others the way God treats me and will lay aside all judgment and contempt.

This also makes more plain the truth that God never indulges in any of this counterfeit activity of judgment either. God does not tell me to not judge others and then turn around and do it Himself. God is my perfect example, not the exceptions to His requirements for me. It is a tragic mistake to believe that we are never to judge each other but that it will be O.K. for God to do it. God never employs the methods of His enemy and neither should I. The true kind of judgment that God uses is radically different than the condemning kind of judgment that I am warned against here. Counterfeit judgment involves shame and fear and condemnation. True judgment is the natural process of revealing what is hidden by simply introducing light and allowing the real truth to be seen as a result of that light.

This is precisely why God knows that at some point in time every person will willingly worship and confess to Him. (Remember, confession simply means agreeing with.) That is because light always ultimately wins over darkness. Darkness simply does not have what it takes to keep things hidden. When light is increased enough the darkness simply has to evaporate in its presence. But God values freedom so obsessively that He allows all the time it takes for every person to make up their own minds as to whom they will believe. And the issue that this belief is about is what we are going to believe about God.

I used to be very confused and frustrated when I read the books by the apostle John. He repeatedly said that Jesus' response to people looking for truth or eternal life was to tell them to “believe”. But often it was not clear at all to me what He was asking them to believe. He might say something like, believe on the Son of Man, but that still did not really make sense to me.

Then a few years ago it began to dawn on me what this really meant as my own picture of God began to radically shift. One of Jesus' claims was that He was the perfect representation of what God is like. So when He told people to believe in Him, He was really asking them to believe that the way He treated people and related to us is exactly what God is like and demonstrates the real truth of how God feels about us. He is really begging us to let go of our many lies about God and to believe the truth about God as revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus.

Jesus came to expose and challenge our terribly distorted ideas about God. We still cling to many of those false ideas and He is still pleading with us to let go of these lies. The more clearly I perceive the real truth about what God is like and how He feels about me the more attracted I am to wanting to know more about Him and to become like Him. This has certainly not been my experience for much of my life. I spent a great share of my life living in fear and hidden hatred for God while desperately trying to perform good enough to stave off as much of His wrath as possible. That was a very exhausting kind of religion that I want to become totally free from as soon as possible.

I am now beginning to experience a new kind of Christianity, a very personal and intimate relationship that is growing, interactive and uncomfortably out of control at times. I have to remind myself that I am His project and not the other way around. Therefore it is not important for me to be in control but to simply listen and cooperate with whatever He wants to share with me at the moment. I am experiencing much more peace in this relational-based spirituality than I ever dreamed possible in my performance-based religion in which I spent so many years. I am learning to overcome fears instead of looking for more. I am slowly (way too slowly) learning to lighten up and try to allow my heart to breathe and thrive and blossom in an atmosphere of love and safety in the presence of God. As a result I am starting to understand more of the true meaning of worship.

As I see more clearly the real truth about God, that He treats everyone with love and respect, that His wrath is radically different than our assumptions about that word, that He loves His enemies and never reverses that love – ever, then my desire to bow my knees in willing worship becomes more real and my willingness to confess and agree with the convictions of His Spirit becomes easier. As I immerse myself in His Word and fill my mind with His truths I find my heart becoming more alive and more synchronized with His ways and with His true family both in heaven and here on earth.

As a result I choose to continue to offer more praise to Him for the wonderful revelations He has been sharing with me. I chose to honor Him by allowing Him more access to my heart and life so that He can more perfectly cause me to reflect His kind of goodness and character. I offer my praise and gratitude to Him for His amazing kindness, grace and unconditional forgiveness. And as I embrace that forgiveness and reflect it to those who have hurt and offended my own spirit, I experience more and more freedom from the heaviness that I have lived under for most of my life.

Thank-you Jesus!

(next in series) and also another post along this same subject.

Judgment, Relationships and Light

For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. (Romans 14:9-10)

This whole passage is a correctionary warning to avoid staying trapped within the false system of the world that I have called “hierarchy” or “kingship”. This is the whole, pervasive mindset of comparing everyone with each other or measuring people according to many and various artificial standards to determine their relative value. It is the acts of discrimination in all of its myriad forms that we daily practice all over the world. It is so ingrained within our psyche that it is difficult to even realize when we are doing it much of the time, but it is part of the problem of judging that is being addressed in this chapter.

But when we begin to measure others, or even ourselves for that matter, instead of accepting God's declarations about our worth and equality in His eyes, then we are indulging in the counterfeit system invented by Satan, the master accuser of the brethren. And in setting ourself up as judge we are also usurping the parental role of our Father in heaven and are trying to claim authority that does not belong to us.

In these verses we are reminded that we are all brothers and sisters in the family of God and as such are all equally loved, valued and cherished in His eyes. But we are also warned here that it is wrong to try to change that status by attempting to elevate our own perceived position and think that we are somehow better or more important than others around us. There is only one true Lord and we must remember that we are not Lord. In fact, whenever we attempt to lord it over someone by viewing them with contempt, criticism and judgment, we are really rejecting God and Christ from being our own Lord in the process.

I see these verses as a clear call to constant attention to realign ourselves to the position in which we are called to serve, as brothers and sisters to all around us with abstinence from trying to play God in their lives. It is a reminder to re-engage in filling our lives and hearts with the love that Jesus taught and to be filled with the servant-spirit that Jesus demonstrated.

When I really begin to be filled with a true spirit of humility as that that filled the heart and mind of Jesus, then I will have the joyful freedom in Christ that will keep me from wanting to judge my brothers and sisters and thus play God with their hearts. I will remember that we all have only one Lord and Judge and that it is never my responsibility to expose or point out the faults of anyone else, whether in an attempt to coerce them to change or to make myself look better by contrast. I am here to encourage, to lift up, to come alongside others who have similar struggles and temptations that I do and treat them as Jesus treated sinners when He was here on earth and still does yet today. I must leave all judgment up to God because God is the only one in the universe capable of exercising the real kind of judgment in a way that is most redemptive.

The problem with humans trying to judge each other is that we cannot be completely free of twisted views and ideas about judgment and so our selfishness and pride always contaminates our attempts in this arena. That is why Paul stated unequivocally in Romans 12:19 that we must leave all revenge in God's hands. God knows all about how to deal with sin and it is radically different than the way we think it should be done. But when it is all said and done every intelligent being throughout the whole universe will be completely satisfied that God did it fairly and in perfect love without any force or coercion of any kind.

And that is precisely what is wrong with our methods of judgment. The way we judge others is a subtle or not so subtle means of trying to coerce them into changing somehow. We use shame or imposed guilt, threats or all sorts of invalid means of trying to force others to change their ways and align themselves to be more like us (which is really the real purpose of judgment). But since we are all sinners and full of faults of our own, to pressure others into becoming more like us is only to try to get them to become more like our style of sinner instead of their style.

Instead, we must come alongside all of our brothers and sisters and together seek God's face and to know much clearer the real truth about God so that in being judged by Him we will be drawn to become more like His perfect character free of all condemnation and fear. When we choose to properly relate to God and to each other, then judgment will begin to lose its grip of fearfulness in our hearts and we will begin to desire to enter into true judgment for ourselves on a regular basis.

The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after. Likewise also, deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise cannot be concealed. (1 Timothy 5:24-25)

This is along the line of the true kind of judgment that is God's way. True judgment is simply arranging things in such a way that the true motives and secrets of the heart are revealed for all to see. It does not involve force or arbitrary pronouncements over groveling subjects. It is an inward conviction that can no longer be avoided and an enlightening of the heart and mind that exposes all the dark things of deception behind which we have hidden for all of our lives. Light always brings judgment, not through the means of force but by the principle inherent in light itself.

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. (John 3:19-21)

If we try to act as original light to expose someone around us by judging them or viewing them with contempt, we are trying to act as an Antichrist. Instead, we must focus on aiming our mirrors on Jesus and allowing His perfect light to shine through our lives and hearts and simply allow natural judgment to happen wherever God desires without any pressure from us. As the true Light from Jesus flows through our lives, judgment will begin to happen all around us. But we must always refrain from the temptation of trying to make it happen on our own. Only light from the sacred fire of God can bring about healthy, transformative judgment in the ways that God intends. We must never introduce strange fire into the work of God in our midst.

(next in series)