Judgment

 My prayer partner Nan would tell me about the trouble she had controlling her tongue.  She was concerned about being judged by God for every careless word. (Matthew 12:36 says “But I tell you, on the day of judgment people will have to give an accounting for every careless or useless word they speak.") So Nan spent a lot of time biting her tongue so she wouldn’t say something she shouldn’t.  She said her sister, Alice, would encourage her to keep her tongue in back of her teeth!

So now I am contemplating my words.  Will I give a soft answer or a harsh one? (Proverbs 15:1).  James tells us in 3:8  “But no one can tame the human tongue; it is a restless evil (undisciplined, unstable), full of deadly poison.” It is an impossible job for a human to control the tongue.  

Therefore, if we will be judged for what we say what about these verses—Matthew 7: 1—5?  “Judge not, that you will be not judged.  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.  Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is a log in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye."Now this tells me that I should take the speck out of my brother’s eye that is after I take the log out of my own eye.  Wow!  Very difficult! 

Next, what about the judgment at the great white throne that Nan was worried about?  Very soon we will be studying this in Revelation chapter 20 in our BSF class.  Last week I was interested in listening to a podcast of the sermon given at Capitol Hill Baptist church in Washington D.C. entitled “Don’t Judge Me.”  The speaker, Jonathan Leeman, covered the entire book of Ecclesiastes in 50 minutes.  (His voice sounded to me like Sterling Holloway’s voice when he narrated Peter and the Wolf.  Click here to listen.)  Leeman was very dramatic and kept my attention.  Click here if you would like to hear the sermon. 

What struck me as interesting is how he explained the books that will be opened at the great white throne judgment. There will be measurements and judgments. With judgments, every moment of our lives and of history counts.  If you take the judgments and measurements away nothing counts.  Life would be meaningless.

In the end, if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, Jesus takes the responsibility for all of our bad words and He gives us credit for all of our good ones.  We have a choice—we can take the free gift of salvation or we can pay for our own sins.