Israel and the Heart

I just can't say enough about how God sees people so much differently than how people see people. It's like God told the great prophet Samuel when he sent him to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his sons to be the next king of Israel: "... for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (I Sam. 16:7). People truly do look on the outward appearance, and God alone knows the hearts of men, as the scripture again clearly tells us: "Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)" (I Kin. 8:39). Looking on the outward appearance goes beyond just seeing what someone looks like, or their size, etc. Looking on the outward appearance includes seeing what people are saying and doing, and what kind of spirits they are influenced by. This where a lot of God's people miss the mark in their estimation of one another, as well as their judgments of people around them in general. This is also where the biggest difference between God's view of people, and man's view of people, exists. Jesus cautioned us to not make the mistake of being hasty to evaluate something or someone by what seems to be going on: "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (Jn. 7:24). You may note that Jesus did NOT say "don't judge," but rather to "judge righteous judgment." So then, just what is righteous judgment? Jesus showed us which 'judging' not to do, and which 'judging' TO do, in the following passage: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye" (Mat. 7:1-5).

So again we see that judging someone while not 'seeing clearly' is always going to be the wrong judging. That is what we call being judgmental. But if our own heart is pure from every hindrance to God's love in us, then we will be able to "see clearly" as Jesus said here, and thereby we will be able to "judge righteous judgment." Judging righteous judgment simply means that we are able to see someone the way God sees them, and when that is the case we will usually do the right thing in dealing with them. When we see people the way God sees them, we almost will always feel his love inside us toward them, because that is most likely what he is feeling. God wants us to keep our hearts in a pure condition so that we can be in tune with how he feels about people, and deal with them accordingly. I've learned by long experience that no matter how annoying, outrageous, or even wicked a person may be; when God lets us see them the way he sees them there will almost always be some room for sympathy and compassion. When we see someone doing something wrong, or maybe even particularly evil, what we are NOT seeing are the circumstances of their lives and upbringing that led to that kind of behavior. I've felt some real compassion and sympathy in my day for some seriously bad folks, simply because God allowed me to see and feel a fraction of what he sees and feels about them. None of this is to say that anyone gets away with any evil doing, or that anyone should be excused from any evil doing, and not held accountable. God is perfectly just and all of his judgments against evil are a projection of his perfect justice. In the end we will all be judged according to what we did in this life, and there will be no excuse for reasons and causes that led to any manner of evil doing. Nonetheless, for now there is always some space for sympathy, hope, faith, and love, as the scripture says (I Cor. 13:13). As the saying goes, "Where there's life there's hope:" to which the scripture also attests: "For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die" (Eccl. 9:4,5).

I'm certain that the core of having righteous judgment in ourselves lies in the fact that God sent his only begotten Son to suffer and die a cruel death for ALL MEN, for all time. Jesus died on the cross of Calvary for every kind of sin or atrocity that could ever be committed by any man or woman that has ever lived, or ever will live. Period. That means that the scripture is absolute truth that says, "[God] would have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (I Tim. 2:4). So when we see someone sin a sin, or when we see someone dominated by a demon of some kind, we should always have in mind that Jesus died for them at the same time that he died for us, with the same exact suffering. We may be redeemed, but maybe their time of redemption will come as well. One thing is for sure, as long as they are alive, in almost all cases anyway, it is God's will for them to be redeemed. Jesus did NOT die for the demons that are vexing people's lives, so we should be watchful to not mistake the person for the demon that has deceived them and is using them. I hope no one misunderstands this to mean that we should make excuses for the evil that someone does, or that anyone should not be held accountable for wrong doing. Such is not the case, and such is not God's way either. I believe I have detailed that already. Nonetheless God has "no [more] pleasure in the death of the wicked," than he has pleasure in the wickedness of the wicked. Everyone who dies in their wickedness is a tragic waste of the suffering, the blood, and the death of God's only begotten Son. On that basis he would far rather someone be redeemed from their wickedness by that same suffering, blood, and death; than to waste it. I believe if we keep that in mind we will be more likely to judge more slowly, and with more righteous judgment, like Jesus told us to do. One more thing: To say that we are not supposed to 'judge' at all is ridiculous. If we are alive and have ears, eyes, and a mind, we ARE going to judge, whether we want to admit it or not; so let's not play that silly child's game. So once again as Jesus said, "Judge not according to the appearance, but [do] judge righteous judgment." Amen.