Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

I love this passage. God does both, to will and to do of His good pleasure. I cannot wait. When is it going to happen?

Let me put it another way. Do you have to witness God at work in you or else it doesn’t happen? Even worse, do others have to see God at work in you before you will believe it?

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Did Paul feel this way from the very moment he met Christ and on the road to Damascus? None of his writings indicate that. Even if Paul felt it, he didn’t pen it until this letter to the Galatians. Now mind you that Galatians is the first of four epistles to the early churches. The next three are deemed to be the prison epistles. Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are great instruction books of the bible for the structure of the church and personal behavior of believers.

Do you think that Paul could have written such powerful messages if he had not believed that God could use him, even more powerfully while in chains? Paul wasn’t living out his life in the free exercise of his legs. He was living out his life in the free exercise of his faith. Paul didn’t get to see his faith played out in the churches, as much as he would have loved that. He trusted God to do the work.

Can you trust God to use you, even if you don’t get to see it?

Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

This is the quick summary of judging. God said don’t, so don’t. There is more that goes with this in Matthew chapter 7 but I want to speak to a more practical and personal application of judging.

The closest I can come to an example of my thoughts here is a jury trial. As a juror you have the duty to sit and listen and view evidence for as long as the lawyers care to present their case. It could be weeks before you get to sit down and deliberate the evidence and then apply the law to only that which has been presented. How you personally feel about the evidence is irrelevant, the evidence and the law are your only guides. That could take hours, days, and yes, maybe weeks to deliberate.

You have to put your life on hold to serve on a jury. It is your civic duty to stop everything and give your life over to this one thing. You have to sacrifice yourself.

Now consider this about judging others. You are not on a jury and you do not have to put off your life to judge another. No time wasted, no emotional stress, and no sacrifice on your part. Aside from God’s commandment “don’t” why would you put yourself through that emotional wringer when you don’t have to do it?

So why do we do it?

This is where we get in trouble. It is always easier to look at other people’s actions and justifications than it is to do a close self-examination. We err in allowing other peoples judgments be a substitute for ours. We err if we judge ourselves alone.

Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

If you see and accept this, then I ask you to consider the verse which led up to this fine point.

V22 I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.

An honest confession of condition.