Yank the Plank
According to 2 Timothy 1:7, God has not given us a spirt of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. In Christ we are complete…. He is our sufficiency in all things. Colossians 2:10 says, We are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power.
God gave us his word so we would be furnished… through and throughly furnished for all good works. Jesus Christ himself is the word of God made manifest. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he has before ordained that we should walk in them.
Jesus continued his Sermon on the Mount In Matthew 7. Jesus said, Judge not lest ye be not judged….. Take the log out of your own eye so that ye can see clearly to take the speck out of your brtother’s eye. The problem is not hte speck in your brother’s eye. The real problem is the log in your own eye. The log is the two by four of judgementalism. A critical spirt will kill any relationship. When we criticize, condemn, and complain, then we are in the devil’s ball park…. We are not in hte sphere of God’s will. The devil is the deceiver and the accuser. He fills the hearts of our fallen nature with a critical spirit.
To see clearly you need to “yank the plank.” The plank is the critical spirit. We cannot judge righteously if we’re looking down on another person from a position of so-called self righteous indignation. This is the problem with the Pharisees. They thought they were superior to others and could judge others according to their own self righteous standard. However, only God is the righteous judge. To judge others is the height of blasphemy, inserting ourselves of judges of righteousness where only God himself has the right to judge.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? When we speak with a heart of vengeance and vindictiveness, then we’re not spokesmen of the One True God. Instead we’re spokesmen for the god of this world, the devil himself. He is the accuser…. He’s the one who declares us guilty as charged.
However, Jesus Christ who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. In the spiritual battle, we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness from on high.
The devil’s ploy is to set our hearts in the affairs of this world instead of in the kingdom of heaven. We often have a good plan to do good unto others with good intentions. However, as Mike Tyson said, “everyone has a plan of action until he gets punched in the mouth.” Then when blind rage takes over, you’re out of control. You’re in the ring with the devil himself.
A critical spirt is a spirit of condemnation, of focusing on sin, iniquity, guilt, and shame. It’s easy to find fault. When we’re acutely aware that someone has offended us, we fall into the trap of a victim mentality. A critical spirit kills relationships. It builds a resentment bank against the other person… after all, they’ve offended me by violating my so-called right not to be offended.
In counseling sessions, Pete meets individually with husbands and wives. He asks them to list the offenses of the other spouse. Often women will fill up three pages of offenses their husbands have committed. In one such session Pete said to the wife, I’m sure what you said about your husband is true, but I’m more concerned about you. I’m concerned about your critical spirt.
Jesus said, blessed are they when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, for great is your reward in heaven.
Pete recalls that he stopped illegally to drop off his son at Jr. high school. A woman in the car behind him honked and gave him a one-finger salute. Pete was about to return the salute when he felt God’s hand on his and heard the voice of God. It said, we need to talk. “When you break the law, I give pagans the right to correct you.” You don’t know what that woman was going through. Maybe she just had an argument with her husband and was late for work. You need to learn to recompense no man evil for evil… but to respond to others with a heart of love.
Pete’s son Chris is a missionary in Scotland. Even though he pastored a church there, his wife knew he had fallen into a season of depression. He was always angry but he and his wife couldn’t uncover the root of his anger. She asked God to intervene and then enrolled her husband in a Pastor’s retreat. At the Pastors’ retreat, Christ was instructed to make a list of everyone who had made him angry. Then his assignment was to write a letter of forgiveness to each person on his list. While Chris was writing the third letter, he heard God’s voice: “They didn’t do that to you, I did.” Chris was convicted and prayed, Father please forgive me. At that moment Chris felt as if the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders. He felt the chains that had weighed him down drop to the floor. He could suddenly see and perceive clearly from a spiritual perspective. At that moment he understand Jesus’ model prayer, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
When we discern in our own hearts, God’s grace and mercy toward us, then we will have no problem forgiving others. He forgave us when we were unforgivable. The wages of sin is death. But even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
Without God’s mercy and grace resulting in our salvation through Jesus Christ, we would not have the capacity to forgive others. Jesus said, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24)
From a heart motivated by the love of God, we can forgive those who have wronged us…. Even when we’re maligned and mistreated, Jesus said in the last beatitude: Blessed are they when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
From a pure heart we can love God above all. Through the pain and affliction of this world and despite unjust and unkind treatment from the unsaved, we can pray for them as Jesus prayed for the soldiers who nailed him to the cross, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Then we can be a living epistle showing them the example of Christ’s unconditional love. mercy, goodness and grace. For it is God’s goodness and kindness that calls a man to repentance unto salvation… For Jesus with a heart of love, came not into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
Therefore, judge not lest ye be not judged…. Yank the plank of judgementalism, for in Christ we have been judged righteous, not because of who we are but because of who he is…. Because In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly….
…That in forgiving others we may be witnesses of God’s grace and mercy to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
