Judge Rightly

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

JUDGE RIGHTY

John 7:14-24

14 Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews were amazed and asked, "How did this man get such learning without having studied?" 16 Jesus answered, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. 17 If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"  20 "You are demon-possessed," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill you?" 21 Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually, it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment." 

NIV

So now Jesus does come up to Jerusalem halfway through the feast of tabernacles or Sukkot as we saw before. He shows up into the temple courts. We wonder if he came by way of the southern steps on which we had the opportunity to stand on those very stones he may have used. The temple court would be on the temple mount which was built on Mt Moriah, the place Abraham took Isaac to sacrifice to God, but of course, we know God provided the sacrifice and Isaac went on to father Jacob who God changed his name to Israel. It all fits together perfectly and now Jesus is in that temple court on the temple mount atop Mt Moriah teaching, and although he does not say so yet, he is going to be the sacrifice God provides. He does however say where he comes from. He makes it clear that his teaching comes from God and not from himself. If a person speaks from his own life, his own education, or intellectual abilities, he only honors himself. This should give us pause to ponder why we spend so much effort in educating ourselves, even on biblical matters. Sure we should read the word of God, but we should read it with a heart to listen to the voice of God speaking truth into our heart and mind, into our spirit. Have we turned everything upside down? Do we give too much honor to those who can quote every chapter and verse? Do we attempt to bring honor on ourselves by quoting scripture, or looking as if we are holy? Jesus speaks directly to that issue of appearances. He tells the people to stop judging by mere appearances and to make the right judgment. We know the Pharisees were all about appearances. Having walked among the Orthodox Jews, and actually stayed a night in a hotel where many orthodox Jews spent the Sabbath, or Shabbat in Hebrew. At sundown, all the electric was shut off, except for our rooms. All the men were dressed in their black suits and having the tzitzit showing from there undergarments. This is four twisted braids hanging down. Many had their tallit or prayer shawl. There were many other traditional portions of their clothing, but the point is it reminded me of the Pharisees having to dress a certain way to identify themselves as holy men and observing the Law was to show their holy righteousness. Although we do not wear special clothing, do we judge spirituality by appearance? Do we attempt to present ourselves to others as being holy, or spiritual by our appearance? This is not our outward clothing or hairstyle appearance, but our actions, our outward behaviors. Do we think by observing a certain set of rules, such as the do’s and don’ts people will think us to be holy or righteous? Is it our words, how much we can quote scripture, or our education, our degrees, even in biblical studies, that we want people to think us holy and righteous? We think we have to get past all the appearances and judge what is right. This would be an introspective examination. We can only judge our own hearts. We cannot judge the heart of another, which is only for God to do. How does he judge our hearts? We know we are a sinner saved by grace, we know we have not yet attained perfection and never will as long as we are confined within this flesh. We know our heart is not as pure as the heart of Jesus and we are in desperate need of his righteousness, for we know we have none of our own. We judge ourselves with a sober mind, knowing, not trying to deceive ourselves, for surely we cannot deceive God. Our looks, how we appear is not the issue, it is the condition of our heart. Although we want to do that which is right, we do not, and as much as we do not want to do that which is wrong we continue to do it. How well we know our own self, and how well God knows us, and that is why he sent Jesus to die on that cross to take away all our sin, past, present and future, so that as we are in Christ, we stand before God without condemnation and he sees us, through the blood of Jesus, as holy and blameless. Praise God we have been able to judge rightly.