No Shame

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

NO SHAME

Prov 25:7-8

What you have seen with your eyes 8 do not bring hastily to court, for what will you do in the end if your neighbor puts you to shame?

NIV

We cannot be sure why the first portion of their saying is part of verse seven of the past saying. Does is belong with the invitation to dinner with the King, or does it belong to this idea here? Does it tie the two sayings together as one? First we should consider if this is speaking about earthy matters or heavenly ones. Is this truly about testifying about what we saw someone do and taking them to court, thus making an adversary of them? Then to only find out they return the favor and bring us to court over something we have done thus putting us to shame. On the other hand, does this actually deal with some heavenly matter? Could this speak to the matter of us judging others, who we think are not truly believers as being terrible people, sinners in the worse degree, but in the end they are in heaven seated with Christ and we are not, because of our horrible judgmental attitude. Could this speak about us who think we are believers judging the condition of the world? There is but one judge, he is the Lord. We have no right to bring anyone to the court he holds, as a sinner, as a criminal worthy of punishment. We are the same sinner worthy of the punishment of death. Our sin has condemned us already, but through faith and faith alone we have been declared innocent by the Judge of all judges. This is the stand we must take in this world. Each person has that opportunity as we all are the same mankind the Lord has created. There is no difference between Jew or Gentile, free or slave, white or black, brown or yellow or red. The color of a person’s skin or the nation a person is born into has no effect on their right to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and thus be at the wedding feast of the Lamb. We cannot judge any other persons heart or their actions for it is up to God to do that. We can only observe the outside or the outward appearance of a person and their lifestyle while God examines each person’s heart, which includes ours. Let us not be put to shame by bringing another person’s sin forward while having sin within our own lives. Let us not compare ourselves to someone we think is a sinner, thinking we are better off than they are. Let us only compare ourselves to Christ, he is the mark we press toward. He is the place we run the race to. In Christ no one has any shame.