Thoughts in Worship

Message Magazine's Online Devotional for Sunday, May 5, 2019

Audio Link: http://bit.ly/ThoughtsinWorship

This is devotional thought number 24 in our devotional series titled, “The Faith I Live By”

“For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you.” (Matthew 7:2, AMP).

What goes around comes around. Whatever you sow, you will indeed reap. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction; but that isn’t always a good thing!

It’s easy to see what other people are doing wrong. Especially is this true in the voyeuristic lives we now live, where HD smartphone cameras seem to always be capturing our worst moments. Camera footage abounds displaying hate spewing, bad words shouting, rant performing, and violence shooting behaviors. Before we get to the point of our thought for today, what makes this live streamed bad behavior so insidious is partially that most persons chronicling our character flaws seldom lend a helping hand. That said, we have ample footage to play “gotcha” with persons, of all strata in society. I suppose the question with which we all need to contend is, “What if the cameras were on us during our worst moments?” Would we be so adept at pseudo-analysis if persons popped-up frame-by-frame videos, criticizing us?

I do not want to give you the wrong impression here. I am not saying that evil behaviour is excusable. I am not saying that if one person has skeletons in the closet that it gives others pass when their bones are exposed in real-time. What I am saying, however, is that human beings who say we love God, must understand the human condition and provide solutions.

Here’s an example: How do you deal with someone who’s caught in a public fault in your faith community? Do not presuppose the type of fault I am referencing; any fault will do, for this example. We know we should not condone any unholiness. That is a given. But how do we handle the wagging tongues of the person’s critics? How do we handle the secret meetings scheduled to determine when to drag the person before Jesus in the temple shouting, “We have caught this sinner in the very act of [fill-in the blank]!”? Superimpose this example on your secular workplace. The setting does not matter. When people are seen at their worst, we need to remember our worst. If not that, we need to recognize that we might need some compassion some day. If not that, we need to be honest and remember our worst from just five minutes ago and judge the situation in a manner that would please God, be fair to those who have done wrong; all of this, while in no way being complicit in the wrongdoing. In short, seek God’s way of handling the situation while remembering your own flawed human nature.

Compassion, equity, appropriate consequences, and love can coexist. But it takes honest people who are willing to be vulnerable and attentive to God’s voice in complex situations. “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct.” (Galatians 6:1–5, NLT).


By God’s grace, this is the faith I live by, let this be the same for you, in Jesus’ name.—L. David Harris (