Our knee-jerk judgment and unforgiveness is the “log in our eye” making us ineffective

 

 

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

 

Our judgment and unforgiveness is actually the “dokos log/beam in our own eyes that has to be removed” before we can ‘see’ accurately to be able to give help to others with their “karphos splinter, dry stalk, or chip from a log/beam” issues (a).  We can’t give what we haven’t received from God (b) or others.  You can’t really counsel others effectively with “wisdom and understanding” unless you first get this from God (c).  How can you ‘minister’ to others unless you have been ministered to by God?  You really can’t ‘fake it until you make it.’  <Notes> a) Matthew 7:1-5; Luke 6:37-42, b) Matthew 10:8; John 3:27; 1 Corinthians 4:7, c) 1 Kings 4:29; Job 12:13-28, 38:36; Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 2:6, 3:13, 19; Isaiah 11:2; Jeremiah 10:12, 51:15; Daniel 5:11, 14; Colossians 1:9.

 

Judgment and unforgiveness is simply a knee-jerk reaction of our fallen, corrupted flesh.  Christians are called to “rise above” our auto-pilot reactions by the means of Christ’s “[singular] fruit of the indwelling Spirit that is unconditional-love,” further described with an unpunctuated list of adjective-nouns such as “joy, peace, patience, kindness, Godlike-goodness, faith/faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control/mastery.”  Instead of reacting negatively, Jesus calls His disciples to “pray/intercede for those who abuse us, unconditionally-love our enemies, free them from our judgments and the condemning-judgments of the Law, and hope God’s best for them by blessing those who curse us.”  Paul declares that “the only thing that counts is trusting-relying-faith working through unconditional-love.”

 

We should realize that we are just as ignorant as those we accuse are.  We may never know whether those who have wronged us really understood what they were doing, were on auto-pilot from their flesh, or demons inflaming it through the Law, or were just trying to fill some void inside.  Jesus was able to forgive evil people because He knew that they simply “didn’t understand what they were doing” (a), were common to man (b), were deceived by the world’s great deceiver and father of lies, and were looking for zoe genuine-life in all the wrong places.  <Notes> a) Luke 23:34, b) Matthew 20:22, 21:27; Mark 11:33; John 16:18.

 

We should also realize that those who sin against us are just as much a victim as we are, pawns or puppets in a “spiritual battle not of flesh and blood, but between 4 hierarchal layers of spiritual forces of darkness, rulers, principalities, and authorities” (a).  We are blaming victims for being victims of Satan and his angelic and demonic forces.  Shouldn’t we be interceding for them?  Shouldn’t we be taking authority in the name/authority of Jesus against the actual forces of evil instead of taking our fight to mere humans? <Notes> a) Ephesians 6:12.

 

Our merit-based, conditional favor shown to others through our judgment and unforgiveness blinds and blocks us from so much – from experiencing God’s unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace, His forgiveness, and His unconditional-love, but it also blocks all of this from coming to us – boomerang!   We get back what we send out, one way or another!  It keeps our aiteo asking-prayer from being answered because it distances us from God, grieves His Spirit, and is contrary to His nature, His kingdom, and His will.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, so many problems with wrong doctrine can be solved by just reading verses in context and comparing with other “like-things” from that author.  But even more can be solved by actually hearing from the Holy Spirit, our “One Teacher.”  So it is with the “log and splinter in the eyes.”  Judgment of others is a serious sin, a huge log that will blind you from helping others, so big that embracing the Law will keep you from the Grace that can save you!  The person “wronging us” was “in the flesh” and our knee-jerk reaction to be resentful is just as much “in the flesh.”  There may be a 100 reasons you will never know for why they sinned, but we don’t need to know this to be obedient to “the Law of Christ to bear one another’s burdens” or to the “New Commandment” to the saved Christians:  “to unconditionally-love one another just as I have unconditionally-loved you.”

 

If we want the unconditionally-loving-favor-of-grace, we have to “throw out the Law” and give them grace instead!  If we don’t, the Law we are appealing to in order to hold them accountable for their sin, points 3-4 fingers back at us and condemns us.  This is so serious that it blocks our prayers!  The only way out of us both being condemned by the Law is to take it ALL to the cross for Christ to forgive and cleanse us both from ALL unrighteousness.  This total-surrender to the Holy Spirit to “let go and let God” is the only way out from the power of the sin of judgment and unforgiveness, the only way to be delivered from the evil one, and for God’s kingdom to move forward!

 

Prayer:

   

 

Lord, open our hearts to feel Your unconditional-love towards others so we can also reject the judgment of the Law and show grace and forgiveness instead.  Holy Spirit, help us to see others the way You see them!  Be our “One Teacher.”  We surrender totally to You!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Unconditional Agape Love, Forgiveness instead of Judgment, Emotional Healing, Living like Christ, The log in our eye is our judgment of others, Judgment blinds us solutions, Judgment quenches the Spirit, Judgment blocks our prayers, Judgment and Unforgiveness is a knee-jerk reaction of our flesh, Unconditionally-loving others requires the Spirit’s power, We are just as ignorant and a victim as the one we judge, Forgiveness requires Spiritual warfare