Today's Readings - Job 31-32, Romans 2, Psalm 92:4–10, Proverbs 20:1–3
Devotional
God chose the Hebrews to be his very own people and he demonstrated his love to them over and over again, by blessing them, by disciplining them as a father would his errant children, by forgiving their sin and restoring and renewing them when they had turned from him to idols. But there was one part of being the chosen people of God that the Jews never quite got. They loved their special place in God's heart and in his plans, but they did not understand one simple truth.
All of God's blessings are designed to be passed on to others.
God told Abraham that he would bless him (with a nation of descendants) and through that nation he would bless all the nations. Israel chose a different path. They became inwardly focused and thought themselves superior to others. They forgot that God chose them as an act of grace, not because of any merit on their part, and they became convinced of their own moral and spiritual superiority.
Romans 2 is written to disabuse the Jewish people of the notion of their moral superiority. Paul is, in Romans 1-3, plumbing the depths of human sin. In chapter 1, he delineated all the disgusting sins of the pagan world. But in chapter 2 he turns his attention to the spiritual standing of the Jewish people, who looked down on and judged the pagan sinners Paul mentioned in chapter 1.
Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things. 2 We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth. 3 Do you really think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment?
These verses, 1-3, make it clear that no one is beyond the judgment of sin. We are sinful people touched by the grace and mercy of God. Jew or Gentile. Male or female. Rich or poor. We are all guilty before God. And none of us is less guilty than anyone else. Look at verse 11.
There is no favoritism with God.
Too often, we judge people based on outward appearances or other human factors. That is what the Jews did. They thought that because of their heritage, they were better than other people, less guilty before God, favored by him. But there is only one kind of human being in this world - sinners who stand guilty before God and need salvation from Christ.
Imagine two men walk into the church. One is dressed in smart business attire, clean-shaven, and respectable-looking in the eyes of man. The other is pierced, tattooed, dressed in dirty jeans and biker's gear. If the church treats either differently, then we are falling into the sin that Paul was trying to expose in Romans 2. If we think that we are better, than people who are like us are somehow more acceptable to God, we are missing the point. If we judge and show favoritism based on human differences, we fail to understand Paul's point.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
We are all, alike, under the judgment of sin and we all have only one hope, the work of Jesus Christ. A conservative, white, clean, neatly dressed person is no more worthy, no more righteous, no more free of God's judgment than a person of color, a street person, a criminal, a punk.
As long as we play favorites based on human factors, we will never truly be the church of Jesus Christ we were meant to be!
Father, forgive me when instead of calling on you for mercy, I have sat in judgment on others.
Think and Pray
Search your heart for any trace of that subtle sense that God loves "us" more than he loves "them."
Remember that the foundation of the doctrine of grace is that there is no worthiness in us - not in our nationality, our heritage, our culture, or any other human factor.
We are all sinners, guilty before God, needing his grace. Thank God for that grace today.
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