Following the Spirit - To Act or Not to Act? Judge or Not Judge?

A large part of being a follower of Christ is appealing in humble spirit to those in need, not to enforce tyrannical dogma. For the law never made anyone righteous and works against the Spirit. We live by the Spirit, not the letter. Each of us must follow the Spirit as God allows us to. That is not to place all the responsibility on God, for we have our part. But in all honesty, there IS a time to judge, a time to exhort, a time to rebuke and a time to walk away. It is all at His leading, for each of us must learn to hear the voice of God and follow.

God not only reached out to me in the darkest hour of my life but He allowed me to walk into that dark place to begin with. He brought me to my knees to show me the truth, many times, and His righteous, fiery judgment showed me the error of my ways over and over again until I finally got it. He gave me ears to hear when I needed it most. He chose me out of the muck and raised me from the death I so longed for. So I have mercy on those I see walking in unrighteousness but it does not mean I embrace them at every turn. Again, it is at the leading of the Spirit we must do all things. God often leads us to places we'd never presuppose or expect in our doctrinal beliefs, and He challenges us to see beyond our limited scope of perception in order to learn how to serve Him. For this reason I take the supposed "contradictions" of The Bible in this light. I ask God in every situation (hopefully!), "How should I proceed? Whip the moneychangers, call out the hypocrites, appeal in all gentleness, remain silent or shake the dust from my sandals?" All are viable options used and exemplified by God Himself. The challenge for us is to choose wisely which one applies to any given circumstance. Our decisions are a reflection of our spiritual maturity and if we are to grow from children to heirs of God then we must have spiritual maturity. This comes only from constant training by the Spirit of truth and the exercising of  the truth in love.

One of the most common arguments I hear against pointing out error in others is, "Only Jesus knows the heart of another person" and "Judge not lest you be judged yourself." It is not true that only Jesus knows the heart of a person. Scripture states, "From the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks," (Luke 6:45) and therefore our words and actions reveal what is in our hearts, ie; you will know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:15-20). We can know what a person's heart is but we can't always see how God is working in that person's life (unless we are given ears to hear and eyes to see). So we must be sensitive to where other people are in their walk in order to best serve them. But it does not mean we do not use our judgment. Mercy and grace are just as important as judgment, for without judgment we can easily lose sight of the whole truth. The truth is this: If you are following the Spirit your fruits will indicate it. If the Spirit is not convicting you then what does that mean about your committment? Are you lukewarm in your faith? Is that why you can't claim the power of Christ in you and have the hope of glory to overcome?

In my experience, once I received the Holy Spirit I didn't want to do anything that would potentially offend God, and I listened (and still listen) diligently for His voice and His leading. In my walk of faith I have seen that evidence of the Spirit is in the fruit. And that fruit does not always taste sweet to others. In fact, in The Bible it says that the fruits of the Spirit will be rejected and hated by the world as well as those who bear them (John 15:18-19, Matthew 10:22, 24:9, 1 John 3:13). Do not think for a moment that the world has not influenced the church. Modern Christianity has taken leaps and bounds straight into apostasy, and I don't just mean megachurches. I mean even most of the little churches who have not been diligent to maintain proper doctrine, nor have listened to the voice of God over the traditions of men. There are many who know what I am talking about. They sense there is something wrong in the church program but maybe can't quite put their finger on it. Well this is probably because the Spirit is working in them to expose the error of modernized Christianity.

Our culture is force-feeding a philosophy of tolerance. Is this too not tyranny or oppression by coersion and peer pressure? God wants us to have discernment according to His Spirit - to raise us up to be righteous sons and daughters - for us to grow in our knowledge of Him. In order to do this we must be able to recognize unrighteousness and address it appropriately in our lives and in the lives of others. To say that we should not judge others because we can't know their heart is a cop-out and fuels the fire of moral relativity. It fans the flame of blasphemy and false doctrines. And it sets in stone the hearts of men who refuse to receive the love of the truth so as to be saved (2 thesalonians 2:10). Part of the job of the ekklesia is to keep each other in check - to exhort, edify, encourage and if needed rebuke and separate from wickedness. Let us not give in to the milieu of mass hysteria proclaiming that everyone should give up their freedom of speech in order to avoid offending someone. We all have the God-given right and responsibility to work together to share the truth God has given to us - to hang our light high for all to see who enter in. For in the light all thoughts and deeds are shown in their true colors (John 3:20-21, Ephesians 5:11-13). In addition to this it is wise to always be open to being proven wrong, to have humility and not believe you have the whole truth in view, for getting to know God is an endeavor without foreseeable end. Hopefully in doing this we will arrive at greater spiritual understanding, and our sons will grow into tall oak trees, and our daughters into bright flowers.