Who's Judging Me?

1 Cor. 4:3-5         

3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.

4  My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent.  It is the Lord who judges me.

5  Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes.  He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart.  At that time each will receive their praise from God.

To me, this sounds a lot like dying to oneself and putting on the new self in 2 Cor 5:17.  Most of us are our own harshest critic, and we can level that same standard onto another person.  However this passage says that I have to get to a point of not caring about what others think of me (v.3), but how God will judge me should weigh far more heavily than how others judge me.  Dying to myself goes beyond just listening to a well-thought out and doctrinally-correct sermon or Bible study.  It means putting my faith in action. 

Sometimes being in “public” ministry exposes me to people’s judgment about my teaching or singing.  It’s a hard place to be, yet the spiritual needs of the church calls for this kind of ministry.  Whether I’m teaching in women’s Sunday School or recording a new worship song, I feel the glare of people’s opinions and preconceived notions.  If I let the weight of people’s judgments press me down, then I will never go forward.  I can’t be preoccupied by other’s opinions of me, but rather ask myself, “Am I doing what God has called me to do?”  If God’s calling means being a leader, teaching others, having a ministry beyond whom I’m comfortable and familiar with, am I willing to accept all that it encompasses, including unfair criticism and judgment?  I have to keep in mind that it is the Lord who ultimately will judge me (v.4), and He will judge me fairly and lovingly.  That gives me confidence to go forward.

God’s wisdom, not mine

1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 3:12-13        

1         …When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

2         For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

3         I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.

4         My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,

5         So that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

Thank you for praying for me and Pastor Tim while we were in Malaysia and South Korea on our personal missions trip.  Indeed, it’s not by our own power or ability that we can minister God’s truth and love to others, but it’s God’s power residing in us.  One of my more memorable experiences was visiting a leprosy hospital in Malaysia and having a chance to do personal evangelism there.   Many of the men were only half dressed, and almost all were missing a foot, leg, or other body parts.  I was so reluctant to go inside the male patient ward, but the female evangelist who brought us there and my husband marched in without hesitation and started talking to the patients.  I decided to stand by the entrance and take pictures.  God saw my weak faith and moved a little old man in a wheelchair to come right up to me, talked to me, and invited me in.  I told him truthfully that if he didn’t invite me, I would not have gone inside.  We struck up a conversation, and I felt during the course of our conversation that God was telling me that this leper was very lonely.  Almost all the lepers were outcasts in their families due to the stigma of their illness, but one of the Chinese churches there visits them every week.  (How’s that for local evangelism?!)  Even though this leper did not believe the Bible is true, I told him that if he feels lonely, he can always talk to God.  When human relationships fail, he can reach out for God.  I asked to take a picture of him so that I can pray for him when I get back home.  Incidentally, my husband ended up leading the male patient he was conversing with to Christ!

How about you?  We cannot serve on our own strength, nor in our own timetable, and definitely not in our own past experiences or education.  Faith is not exercised in doing the things we’re good at or comfortable in (v.4-5), but faith gets stronger when we obey God in the things that test us and make us uncomfortable.  The longer I walk on this journey with Christ, the more I realize that God wants me to say “yes” to Him on harder, faith-stretching tasks and experiences.  If I had refused the leper’s invitation, I would have missed out on a memorable experience to bear testimony for God.  Even though it made me very uncomfortable, I’m glad I obeyed God.

Lastly, I’d like to leave you with this thought.  In the end, all of us will have to answer to God for how we live our lives and how we serve Him.  “If any man builds on this foundation [Jesus Christ] using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light.  It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.”  (1 Cor 3:12-13)