Leave the Judgment and Correction to God

I enjoy football, especially the NFL. I am an avid New England Patriots fan, and before you say it, I was a fan of New England back in the day when people didn't know there was a team in New England. This season did not start out well for the Dallas Cowboys. There was a lot of arm chair quarter backing going on and Monday morning second guessing. Much of the speculation was revolving around the coach. The team was not playing like a team. They seemed to be a lot of good individuals all playing their own game. Eventually the head coach was fired and one of his assistants moved into the job. Something changed. The Cowboys started to win. They didn't have a half bad second half of the season. The new coach did something the prior one didn't seem to do. He made them a team. They were no longer divided. They were no longer a group of individuals.

"Where are you going with this, preacher?" is what you're thinking right? It's actually pretty simple. We were made for relationship. We were made to work together. I've written and preached about that before. We were created with a sense to get something accomplished and the Lord gave us a mission. Go and make disciples. So why aren't we making much progress around the world? Why is Islam growing faster than the Body of Christ? Let's look at scripture for the answer.

"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand." Those are the words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 12:24. That is really quite profound even though we have heard it before. Most likely you heard it in U.S. History class (for my American readers that is) when discussing the American Civil War. It simply means when a group of people with a common goal are divided, or split over something, even something seemingly unrelated to the mission at hand, they will fail completely. Time, resources, and most of all attention are spent on the issues surrounding the division or split and not on the task at hand which leads to failure.

In 1962 Neil Sedaka recorded, "Breaking Up is Hard To Do" and it quickly went to #1 on the charts. You can thank me later for putting the song in your head. Too bad that song cannot really be sung and meant today. We see division in everything and have accepted it as common place. Our own elected government is split into two large pieces and then a number of smaller pieces, each threatening the other with filibusters and stonewalling legislation. Marriages are dissolving at a greater rate than they ever have before. And churches are splitting over seemingly trivial issues when observed from the outside looking in. We live in a society that has heralded strong debate. But strong civil debate has devolved into schoolyard bullying, infighting, and everyone crying unfair. This is happening all across society and points to our own selfish nature.

Jesus said a kingdom divided cannot stand. The Body of Christ today has gotten so fractured that it is no wonder the cause of Christ is losing around the world. We are not living examples of Christ's love and forgiveness. We have forgotten His principles of grace and mercy. We stand on pride and our own principles and are not afraid to "call a spade a spade". Matthew 7:1 tells us not to judge, unless we want to be judged. Friends, I do not want to be judged, especially with the measure that I have judged others with in the past. We've got to stop being so divisive within the body and start directing that energy to the mission that Jesus gave us. When the Apostle Paul lists the offices of the body, he didn’t forget the office of judge. He left it out because it’s not supposed to be there. The time for judges ended with Saul, Israel’s first king. The only judge now is God and we need to stop taking it upon ourselves and defer judgment to Him.

Satan is laughing at us as we tear each other down, doing his work for him. In the book of Revelation Satan is called the accuser of the brethren. How many times have we taken on that role ourselves? We often take that title from him for a time in the name of order and correctness in the church or while standing on a piece of doctrine. If we don’t get our way or like the way things are going we accuse folks of quenching the Holy Spirit. Don't misunderstand me. I believe there should be order in the church, both the body and the gathering of the body. We all have a place and a job and we need to stick to it, and not covet the gift or job of another. But while we bicker and point fingers and pout over dumb things in the church, Satan is laughing at us. He's sitting back because we're doing his work for him and the Lord’s work is sadly being neglected.

I know what you are thinking. Jesus gave us the procedure, so to speak, to approach a brother in the Lord when he or she has sinned against us in Matthew 18. Jesus said we should go to a brother if he sins against us, and if that doesn't solve the problem then we should go to a few elders and after that if he or she still fails to make things right we go to the congregation. After that, if the brother is still not willing to make things right, we are to treat them like a heathen or tax collector. You are correct. Jesus did say that and I believe it. Here’s what we need to keep in mind. He did not say we should stop loving or forgiving that brother. He did not say to turn your back on him or her. He did not say to stop trying to win them back to the kingdom.

There are members of the body today that are quick to point out perceived sin and perceived error in other members and in other church bodies. They spend so much time on this that they forget that the enemy of our souls is running rampant. They spend more energy policing the church than being fellow soldiers in the war against Satan. Come on folks, let's band together and stop bickering about music style, or whether miracles stopped with the Age of the Apostles. Let's stop arguing about speaking in tongues or the mission of the Holy Spirit. Let's stop looking for demons under every pew and behind every pulpit and start loving one another. Pointing out differences of opinion and judging one another, especially so publicly like we do these days, is only adding fuel to Satan's gas tank and keeping him going. If we focus on the mission Jesus gave us, and use the play book He left for us, and stop being arm chair quarter backs and be the linemen and backs and receivers he set us up to be, the church will thrive and we will grow like the church did in the days of Acts.

Let's stop destroying each other and start building each other up. My encouragement to you today is this; leave the judgment and correction to God. Trust me, you’ll sleep better.