A couple thoughts I wanted to write down about something God has been teaching me…

John 7:24: Look Beneath the Surface so You Can Judge Correctly

The problem:

We look at the surface and made incorrect judgments:

• I’ve been written off and written others off as unable to speak into one’s life for being too traditional,  not traditional enough, too charismatic, not charismatic enough, too successful, not successful enough, too risk-taking, not risky enough…
• I’ve been judged and I’ve judged others inaccurately for how they talk, how they do church, what they do or don’t drink, where they work, and on and on
•  We can incorrectly assessed people as “bad guys” by their actions, or incorrectly assessed people as “the good guys” by judging from the surface.*

Just like the people in Jesus’ time, I have a history of making assessments without getting to the heart of the issue (or person).  But Jesus calls us to look deeper into things so we can “judge with right judgment”; get to the root of something so we can properly assess it.

The solution:

1. Get to know the heart of God. I’m learning that God cares about actions only inasmuch as they are the outpouring of the heart. But when we love who He is, we will care about the right things, rather than just caring about behaviors (both good and bad). The more I fall in love with God, the less I am obsessed with the actions people make, and the more I long to see our hearts to be near to Jesus’.

2. Ask “Why“. If someone does something that makes me want to make a snap assessment, it helps to ask WHY they did that. Not because I’im looking for an opportunity to condemn them, but so I can get beneath the surface to assess correctly. I know I’ve been surprised at the findings when I take the time to understand the root of some actions and the heart of the person taking those actions.

The result:

2. Freedom. The more I understand God’s heart, the more I realize that He truly desires freedom for those who trust Him, not bondage from His perfect Law. It almost seems like Jesus went out of his way to heal people on the Sabbath. He could have saved himself a lot of trouble by simply taking the day off from healing, and gotten to those people the next day. But by healing on the Sabbath he shows the immense freedom that exists when we are in step with the Spirit. I used to obsess over “is ____ a sin or not?” That was always the wrong question anyway.

The solution:

I want people to look deeply into my actions so they can point me to Christ; out of love, I want to point others to Christ as well. But things are not always as they seem on the surface, and we need to care about the heart. My prayer is that we learn more each day to live by Jesus’ words and care enough about each other to “look beneath the surface and judge correctly.” Then, perhaps, it will be easier and more natural to live by Paul’s exhortation to “always be humble and gentle.”