Jury Duty
Blue v1-5 Ch 7 MtHad Jury Duty today. During the processing where the Judge and Lawyers are allowed to question the jurors to make sure nothing is clouding our judgment, the Judge shared a story to clarify another point because in some cases jurors may be dismissed if they are sick or have legitimate reasoning for not being able to serve. He shared that in his experience some have asked to be removed from duty because of their belief system, using the Bible Scripture, "Judge not lest you be judged." The Judge was merely stating a fact, i did not perceive he hates Christians, or God, or is only an arrogant empircial data atheistic fact-finder. He was simply doing his job with an unbias fairness while recounting the story from that experience. The Judge came across likeable, fair, easy to get along with, one who seems to really care about fairness, and hates wasting time. I liked him. Do wish i could have stood up to explain that Scripture because people are on different levels. It is actually good not to jump the gun and judge prematurely but in Matthew 7:1 Jesus is revealing what will happen if we do judge yet by the time we get to verse 5 we clearly see He was not saying we cannot ever judge because already He said to obey the governing authorities and the only way governing authorities can govern is to have some laws to do it with... Moses judged cases all the time! Then he got some lawyers added to his bar association to help out as the cases multiplied
. Authorities are put in place by God and we are told not to resist (Ro 13:1-2). In baby Christian zeal, we are trying so hard to be good and do what God says that you can see sometimes our zeal without knowledge just like the zeal that was shown to this Judge because also he was questioned as to what right did he think he had to be judging. We must remember that even with the Scriptures, just as with Words of Knowledge, Dreams, Visions, or Prophetic Words, that there will always be the Revelation first, then the Interpretation, then comes Application. Zeal without knowledge leaves out the interpretation so the application inevitably messes up. God saves messed up people. He saves high-end intellectuals, he saves dumb people, but He saves them and will bring them all through a process until balance and humility reaches the surface and is given to give and share with others, so whoever told this Judge about Matthew 7:1 using zeal without knowlege, be expecting God to bring the zeal into useful knowledge because Father is a Good Father and He will get rid of the lack of knowledge that was displayed before the Judge. Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that you be not judged.
Judge=Greek Word=#2919=Krino
Krino = to decide mentally or judicially by implying to try to damn or condemn.
v2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
Jesus is actually teaching the "If you can dish it out but not take it" principle, then you may want to reconsider since you don't like it being done to you, so then don't do it because here is what will happen.
Jesus addressed qualification issues:
~you don't qualify if you do the very thing you are accusing someone else of doing.
v3 And why do you look at the speck (problem/fault) in your brother's (anyone) eye, but do not consider the plank (bigger problem/fault) in your own eye?
e.g.
~you hate politicians for lying yet don't report special income on your taxes.
~you hate lawyers for being crooked yet sue McDonald's for the coffee you spilled on yourself.
~you hate doctors for charging so much yet sue them in the field where only they can "practice" medicine... doctors sit on boards with other doctors to help each other figure out more and more about our bodies so they can help each other while they help us, this is not a "one size fits all" because God created the human body very complex and no one human is exactly the same because just our eating habits alone throws that all off. Yet we accuse them of messing us up when without their help we would be stuck with whatever sickness we got and without hope at all unless to believe in a straight miracle from God. Besides, are they really responsible for what "we" did to "our" bodies? We should probably go after personal choices and iniquity sin first, that would be a better place to start.
~you do qualify if you've overcome and can now see clearly to affectively help someone else.
v5 ...First remove the bigger problem (plank) from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the smaller problem (speck) from your brother's (anyone) eye.
Jesus obviously didn't have a problem with judging but as always He has "The Way" it should be done. That Way is Love. People still trapped by their own problem are usually bitter about it so will still have the desire to want to punish and that punishment is always without mercy, meaning, you love that someone else is worthy of getting spanked and rightly so but that is all you love. Freed people will give mercy to someone trapped in a problem that they are not trapped in themselves because of being so grateful that it's not happening to them. Jesus not only qualified to condemn the world of it's sin problem but was not bound by anything so could spend all that positive energy on fixing the problem.
Great insight, great article, and thanks for sharing it.
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