There have been many, many scandals throughout the centuries
involving men and women of God who have fallen far short of their claimed
characters. Does this automatically mean
they were NOT true followers of God? Not
necessarily, as the Apostle Paul said we are still human, we will fall short of
our own expectations, let alone those of the Lord. We will sin, we will stumble. Yet the Bible also teaches us that 'by their
fruits you shall know them' - which very clearly shows us that we should be
able to judge a person's Godliness by their behaviours. And this is where the very fine line between
judgement and discernment comes into play.
God has told us through the inspired words of the Bible that
we are not to judge one another. This
means that we cannot condemn someone as being anything less than a child of
God. We are all His children, made in
His image. None of us has God's ability
to look into another person's heart and see their true self. Thus we cannot judge someone's relationship
or lack of relationship with God simply by looking at them from the
outside. It's impossible for any human
being to be able to make that kind of judgement.
So what about discernment?
Firstly discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit - it is a part of the
power of God that He bestows upon us in order to look at our fellow humans
through the filter of our Lord Jesus.
We've all heard horror stories about cults and other similar groups and
they are examples of the very people we should be asking for God's discernment
to determine whether they are truly from God or whether they are motivated by
some human sin. In many cases they
are not remotely Godly and you should move away from them immediately and find another
earthly instructor in the ways of God.
To give an example we'll tackle a fairly easy subject -
polygamy/fornication/adultery etc. The
Bible tells us clearly that these practices are condemned by God. Yes, it can seem confusing when you read of
figures in the Bible who have had many wives or concubines but you must
remember those behaviours were sins not approved behaviours of God. Through the example of Adam and Eve in the
book of Genesis God shows us that His approved model is one man and one woman
being united through God and becoming one in His name.
Yet there are many, many religious groups
where the leader promotes having multiple partners, or uses their position to
sleep with many members of their congregations.
We should, and must, know that any purported leader from God would not
be behaving in that manner. Thus you
have used Godly discernment to determine that in this case the leader does not
come from God and therefore his/her preaching and opinions on all matters must
be called into question.
This is what God means when He tells us that 'by their
fruits you shall know them'. That means
that we, as Followers of The Way, have a duty to read and re-read our Bibles in
order to completely familiarize ourselves with what is and what is not Godly
behaviour. We must, however, also
remember that our leaders, like us, are still only human. They will sin, they will fall but there is a
vast difference between someone giving in to temptation and stumbling into sin
and someone who is blatantly and repeatedly breaking the Word of God and
distorting the Scripture to suit their own purposes.
In this, as in all matters of life during our Christian
walk, you must be reading God's Word, you must be in a close, loving, prayerful
relationship with God to help you walk the fine line between judgement and
discernment. The closer we are ourselves
to God, the more familiar with His Word that we are then the better we will be
able to utilise the discernment gift of the Holy Spirit and make wise decisions
about who we choose to follow as an earthly representative of our Lord in
Heaven.
In God's Love and Mercy
Tracey
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