OUR JUDGE IS NEAR

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

James 5:9

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I hate to say this but I think too many Christian believers have become comfortable with what they would consider smaller, less significant sins.

Anxiety is one of them. We all tend to allow life to pull us away from simply trusting God as we should and, in doing so, violate His command to “not be anxious about anything” but “in every situation” bring our petitions (which include our problems) to Him, the only One who is capable of doing all things (Philippians 4:6-7).

Pride is another one. We seem to have a difficult time adopting a constant attitude of humility, even when we say we believe and follow Jesus, the perfect model of humbleness. God’s word has this to say about pride and yet we continue to exercise it:

The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. Proverbs 16:5

Did you catch the surety of punishment part?

More on that in a moment.

In a recent message, we saw the scriptures speak out about slandering others. We could add gossip to that discussion, the intentional talking about someone behind their back transgression. Both of these would fall under the category of what the Bible would consider “unwholesome talk” and here’s what the Word says about people who choose this kind of speaking:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29

What part of God’s command to “do not” are we not understanding?

Now, I could go onto talk about lust, gluttony, coveting, hatred, selfishness, or self righteousness but I think you have the point. We need to sharpen our sensitivity to all sin so that’s its razor sharp and acute because I’m afraid we have allowed our self reflected and self regulating tools to become dull and rounded off.

Toward that end of resharpening our awareness of what we are doing, God offers us a reminder in the ninth verse of James, chapter 5. There we read this:

Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

Here we find another simple act we commit all the time, even though the Lord tells us not to. For we are not supposed to complain about one another. Period.

God gives us no caveats here, no exception clauses but He does offer us an assurance and this same assurance applies to all sins we commit to include the ones mentioned earlier in this message.

What is God’s promise?

It’s a promise of His judgment and this isn’t something that anyone should ask for by flippantly violating commands He has given. The Bible is full of examples of what God’s judgment looks like and it should be completely frightening to us, so much so that we would cower in fear of what He would do if we violate just one of His orders.

But I would say that a majority of Christian believers don’t even give this judgment a thought and they do so creating their own peril.

Friends, this message from the Lord and His Word intends to convict us all and make us uncomfortable. It has made me this way just writing it as I know I failed many times over in not being compliant where I am called to be. I am reminded that I can’t afford to relax in my self awareness of what I am doing, and even more so, my need to seek God for direction on the way I should behave, allowing Him to dictate my every thought, every word, and every deed.

For His Word is truth and His Word tells us here that He is not distant but “standing at the door” and ready to judge us for our sins. We may be saved through our belief in Jesus but as the scriptures make clear, this doesn’t give us the license to sin without God taking action while we’re in this human existence. Like a parent corrects his or her children, so too does our Heavenly Father correct His.

The time is now to repent of all sins we have committed, rather sins of commission or omission, and then start fresh with this message in mind, adopting a hyper-sensitivity to avoiding behaviors that God calls sin, choosing instead to follow His will and live in a way pleasing in His sight.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.