Excuses Are Like Elbows, Everyone’s Got Two Series

Satan was suggesting that the only reason Job was serving God was for what he got in return and from this we can see that to judge someone else’s motives is satanic!

Third, and here’s the danger of judging others.

Jesus says in Matthew 7:2, "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” If you want to judge others you will be judged by the exact same standard you use and since God knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, we need to realize that we are not God.

So, Paul was warning the Jews and us about hypocrisy and the tendency to judge those who appear to be more sinful than we are. I think to an extent, we all do this because we tend to use the way we see ourselves as the baseline for good or bad. Anyone who is better than us is good and anyone who is worse than us is evil.

I read about a psychology experiment where two people were given control to an electric shock machine and they were told to ask a question and if the other person answered wrong, they were to give that person a shock. This went on for a short time but eventually each felt they had been shocked more than the other and so the level of shocks escalated. I’m not sure what this experiment intended to prove but it showed me that any thing that happens to me will always be seen as worse than anything that happens to you. And so it is, “When we judge one another, we don’t define them, we define ourselves.”

Listen God saved and used a lot of people we might have questions about. I mean, stop and think about who some of the heroes of our faith were in the Bible.

Noah seemed to have a drinking problem which led to immorality; Abraham was too old to have kids and yet he did, Isaac was a daydreamer, Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused and rejected by his brothers, Moses had a speech impediment of some kind or at least he said he did, Gideon was fearful, Samson was a womanizer, Rehab was a prostitute, Jeremiah and Timothy both complained that they were too young, David had an affair and then had the woman’s husband killed, Elijah was suicidal, Isaiah preached naked, Jonah ran away, Job went bankrupt, John the Baptist ate bugs, Peter denied Christ, the disciples all fell asleep when they were supposed to be praying, Martha worried about everything, the Samaritan woman was divorced at least four if not five times, Zacchaeus was too short, Paul was too religious and Lazarus, well, he was dead. And yet, God used them all.

But people say, ‘You don’t know the things I’ve done’ and I always say ‘no’ but God knew us before He created us and He knew where each of us would fail even before He saved us.

So, Paul was saying that the Jews were hypocritical if they were judging others while they were just as guilty themselves.

III The rewards for those who just think they’re saved

In verses 3-5 Paul says, “If you think you can pass judgement on others or show contempt for the mercy of God you are simply storing up wrath for the day of judgement.