Romans 1 & 2: Spiritual Warfare, Part III

It would so easy to just stop at Romans 1.  We could look around with great pride and check off all the things we don't do on Paul's mapping of a society steeped in sin and celebrating the darkness.

But that is exactly what Paul is trying to avoid in Chapter 2.  Here we go: 

"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?" (Rom. 2:1-4)

Uh-oh.  Paul's previous verses are not a free pass for those of us who do not battle with such sins to stand in judgment of those who do.  Someone could say, I don't battle with same-sex attraction, and I have no compassion on those who do.  I have the right then to pass judgement, because the Bible says it's wrong.  

I don't deal with disobedient children, or feel envy or greed, so I look down on those who do.      

But Paul doesn't allow us to stand there, haughtily condemning and judging.  Why? He says, "for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things."

Whoa.  "The same things"?  We may not do all of those things, or some of those things, but we do fall into sin.  

How many pastors condemn homosexuality, and yet have a porn problem?  No, they themselves do not feel a same-sex attraction, but they have a lust problem that drives them to addictively access porn, and commit adultery in their hearts.  

How many pastors condemn pornography and gay marriage, and yet are divorced?  They justify why their marriages failed, constantly deal with blended families and hostile stepchildren, yet extend no mercy or patience with those who have tried to create a new kind of family.    

Paul, like Jesus, is not minimalizing sin. Sin means "missing the mark" and Jesus saw that mark being missed all the time as He ministered: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” (Matt. 15:19-20).

It's not just sin itself that Jesus and Paul are focused on; how do we, as fellow sinners and members of the human family, deal with the sin and the sinner?  God's judgment is based on "truth"--His standards, His character and His design for us.  But our judgment is based on us--our truth, our standards, our character and how we think the world should act (like us, of course!)

Judgment is a serious thing.  No "mere human being" can look in and see all of what is going on in a person's heart. But then Paul turns the tables and says we who do the same things as those we judge are going to come under God's judgment as well--we are not perfect and our condemning attitude brings us right in front of God's throne.  The focus is now on us: "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?"

So, if He extends His kindness (He relentlessly pursued and still pursues us), forbearance (He paid our debt in Christ and loved us while we were yet sinners) and patience (days, months, years, decades--how long did He wait for us to grasp His offer of eternal life?) then that is way we came to repentance.  That is God's method.  

That is the very method Paul is advocating here and what Jesus modelled:  It is kindness that leads people to repentance, not condemning them, berating them and all the while hiding in our own sin, compromising our witness and making us like the Pharisees.

We all know how Jesus felt about the Pharisees.

How does this tie into spiritual warfare? 

Sin is Satan's playground.  He invites you in with promises of fulfillment, happiness and your every expectation being met.  He lures you in deeper to those things that are so promising!  It is only after a while you notice the barbwire fence around the playground. 

Pride, too, is the position we stake in defending God's law, but has Satan's fingerprints on our hearts.    We are saying, in essence, we have arrived spiritually and now can look at others with a discerning eye. We can see their behavior and know Scripture well enough to load our Bible 45's and shoot with accuracy. 

It's the spiritual equivalent of the gunfight at OK Corral:  We are the righteous lawmen who are going to bring to justice those bad guys who break the law with seeming impunity.  If there are bodies on the ground, so be it:  If we hurt those we condemning, well at least they know the truth.  

Right?

Wrong. 

The OK Corral of this world is littered with those who receive judgmental glances, harsh words and a sense they could never live up to the holy standard set before them, all done by Jesus' lawmen, who stood behind a sheriff's star and never saw any contradiction between how they lived their lives and who they viewed others. 

What if we just preached the Word in our services--the loving and edifying passages as well as those that convict us of our sinful predicament, and let the Holy Spirit do His job?  God's Word does not return void, and the Holy Spirit is consummately more qualified to show us and convict us of our need for Jesus.

I can tell you that you are wrong.  Only the Holy Spirit can go deep into your soul and stir you to see your sin for what it is:

"But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you." (John 16:7-14)

The Holy Spirit works in us and in "those people."  If we are refreshing rain and not thunder and lightning, wouldn't we be attractive to those who thirst and live in the desert?