Romans 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

If I asked around about what it takes to be saved, I would hazard to guess that I would get some foundational answers and some with a little more understanding added to the simple truth. Do you have to believe Jesus is God to be saved? Do you have to believe Jesus was sent of God to be saved? Do you have to know how to believe with your heart to be saved or is a mental acknowledgement sufficient?

I don’t like to ask questions upon which I do not already have an answer. In this one instance I find myself confessing without a doubt, I do not have the answer. Not for you anyway. I have an examined life experience that tells me that what I thought was true and sure in the past might have been fraught with error. Even my self-examination is flawed. Things might have been better for me than I remember, or worse. God only knows and that is the point.

God is the one who needs to be satisfied. Self-satisfaction is rooted in self. Many of us who witness to the lost seek signs of understanding, verbal at least, played out in changed behavior, and some confirmation that God is at work in those lives. Again that is self-satisfying. We like to know our efforts have not been in vain.

Do we really know what is in the hearts and minds of others? Not like God does, that’s for sure. Still we like to judge, not harshly, not unjustly, but we judge to see if anything else can or needs to be done.

Since only God saves, then His satisfaction is the only thing that counts.

Isaiah 11:1-4 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

This is Jesus Christ. While I abide in Christ and He abides in me, He does not act in this manner. I have the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, and He guides me in all righteousness, His testimony is not in all truth in all matters, but rather only that which is in Christ our Lord.

Having said that, it is so easy for my human part to judge quickly. It is my experience that even after coming to Christ, even after becoming this new creation, even after becoming familiar with the sound of His voice, and knowing Truth intimately, I still like to find fault. If I can find whose fault it is, then it isn’t mine. I am defensive, impulsive, and quick to judge.

Understanding that about myself, how does that affect my relationships? As I see it, Christ has asked two things of me, to love God and to love you. Knowing this about myself does not affect God in any way. He knows me better than I know myself. He is after all the one who has shed His light upon my imperfections. You on the other hand can only know me by word and deed, so it is my responsibility to love you without allowing that part of me to be at the forefront of our relationship.