The Balance of Judgment

As time goes by i find that i am more a man who likes balance.  So often i hear people talk / preach / teach about something and my gut reaction is, "but what about!".  

For instance this past Sunday at church the pastor and people were discussing how we are not to judge one another.  People brought up stories about how either they or people they knew stopped going to church because other people judged them unjustly, and that we should accept people as they are and let God judge and convict them.  When we judge them we drive them away.  I kept telling my wife that this line of thinking was really grating on me.  Finally, i found the passage in I Corinthians 5 that instructs the people of the church to judge a man that was knowingly living in sin and remove him from the church.  The princple is that the responsibility of the church is to be judge over themselves and that when we allow sin to pervade the church it will tend to spread through the church.  There was quite a bit more to the conversation than that, but you get the gist. 

It's funny because about 4-5 months ago i was in a group discussion among other pastors in which i defended the other side of the argument talking about how when someone comes into the church we can't automatically judge them, but we need to let the Holy Spirit convict them.  The point was that when we judge a new Christian and place a whole bunch of rules on them, we are doing the Holy Spirit's job for Him and we tend to drive people away rather than help them to grow.  

So the question is, why the change in views?  What changed that caused me to go to the opposite extreme?  The answer is... nothing.  My view did not change.  In both discussions there was an imbalance.  Both arguments, are valid and understanding both sides of the argument is imperative to making the right choices and reacting properly to sin that is in the church.  If one extreme is taken without regard for the other, the church tends to be unhealty and self-destructive.  Balance is a very difficult thing to learn. 

Ecclesiastes 7:18 It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.

Image from aliceinpoetsheartlandonsabbaticalleave used under cc license.

Help & Hindurance

I have been working on a lesson for the Jr. High youth this past week. I am finding that curriculum's over all to me tend to be more limiting than necessarily helpful. They have some good ideas for games and such, but when it comes to the lesson, especially in this one we are using right now, it tends to be a little simple minded and milk minded rather than meat minded. It's the kind of lesson i would expect from or for a pre-school and elementary level youth, or for someone who is brand new as a Christian. Not necessarily what is appropriate or best for those in the stages of becoming young adults.

The lesson that i was given for this week talks about the part of the fruit of the Spirit that is faithfulness. As soon as i was assigned to this topic, in my mind i put some ideas together as to what i wanted to touch on. When i read the lesson in the book my reaction was that half of the youth could do this lesson from years of experience in Sunday School. It's a simple concept, Christ is faithful. He is faithful to us as evidenced by scripture. Don't get me wrong. It is a very true and real concept, but at this stage in their life, the youth should be working on applying and bringing these concepts into fruition not just learning that Christ is faithful. If anything, at this age the young adults should already know how to do this and be teaching others to do the same. Yet the core of this lesson is; Christ is faithful, so what does that mean to you?

I guess that this bugs me because it simply reinforces this concept that Jr. High youth are nothing more than bigger kids. Sure they act like little kids quite a bit, but they have so much untapped potential that with a little bit of hard work and effort, they could easily become spiritual powerhouses... well, maybe not necessarily "easily" since becoming a spiritual powerhouse is far from easy, but you get my drift. If they are not trained at a young age to become powerhouses, chances are they may not reach that potential. I guess that this kind of thing just really frustrates me because i see it as being more of a hindrance than a help.