Matthew 7

We do flatter ourselves. We imagine that we are great imitators of Jesus Christ. When I consider some of the sentiments of holiness, concern, humility, and generosity that I have professed, I am no longer sure how true they actually were. Do we really wish that we could take away the physical, emotional, and relational pain of others by having it fall on us? Are we really as content with things in our lives as we say we are? Is it possible that we really don't think of others as better than ourselves, and that we may have falsely convinced ourselves that we forgive those who have done us wrong wishing them only the very best? We know the Christian answers to some degree, but it is not clear that we fully live up to our own words.

It is quite a thing to consider that our Savior actually was faithful, not only to all of His own words, but to all of the great demands of God's Law. Because of this, He is surely the one who is capable of righteous judgment. The rest of us would do well to avoid premature pronouncements of personal victory in our battles against sin, and especially that we would be careful in our judgments against others. Too often it may be the case that in the very area where we would judge another, we may find ourselves just as guilty of that same offense. The answer is not for us to simply settle on lawlessness, but to actually turn away from sin, to avoid hasty assessments of our own Christ-likeness, to be extremely careful concerning our thoughts and words against others, and to be very appreciative that our great Messiah not only claimed to love and serve His Father with a full heart. He actually did it. It is a good thing for us to take the speck out of someone else's life, provided that we have taken the log out of our own.

All of this is enough to make those who have teaching duties within the church simply stop speaking. (Well, maybe not.) The fact is there are many occasions when it would be best for us to say nothing at all. Then we will not only be following our Lord's advice, we will also be doing what He Himself did in certain situations where speaking would have done more harm than good. It is not wise to throw pearls at animals that don't have a taste for fine jewelry.

The problem with all of this is that there actually are times when we simply must speak the truth in love, even though we may find ourselves in the dangerous situation that Stephen faced in Acts 7. What this means is that we need wisdom from above in order to discern those times when we should speak, and those times when speaking the truth may be immoral speech, unwise to blurt out and perhaps even callous defiling of the truth that works against the One who is the Truth. We need not only courage from God; we also need His gifts of wisdom if we are to speak the truth seasonably. For this and for all the gifts that would enable us to be truly more like Christ, we need to ask the right being, seek the right path, and knock on the right door. God will give us good things. He is a Father who truly loves His children.

We live in a very challenging age since the resurrection of Christ. The things that we desire are not always holy, and we actually know this, though we do not like to admit the truth. The ways that we would walk are often laced with secret sin, and may lead to a trap that will be hard for us to get out of. When our conscience keeps on bothering us about something that looks outwardly holy but we inwardly suspect it to be less than holy, it may help to look at the matter from another angle. Is the thing that we want to say or do in accord with what we would like others to say or do to us if we were in their shoes? Jesus says this kind of thinking really is the Law and the prophets, rather than just an outward display of superficial holiness.

The kind of living that Christ shows to us in Matthew 5-7 is kingdom living, even resurrection living. It is the real way, and only our Savior has done it in the way that it needs to be done. That does not excuse us from loving this beautiful way of life and truly seeking this righteousness as we should. There is a sense that the gate of true perfection is so narrow that only one Man could enter through it. Yet because our King has successfully gone through the gate of the Law and the Prophets, and because we are united to Him, we are counted as righteous, and are given powerful help from on high to live in this way of righteousness. There may be few that travel that road, particularly in times of what societal disintegration, but the rightness of any path has never been based on the number of people travelling it.

True godly living has always been challenging, especially for those who would speak for God as His ambassadors. There have been many false prophets throughout history, just as there are many false teachers in our day. It is a wonderful thing to consider that there is one genuinely solid Cornerstone on which The Lord's church has been built. He is solid in His righteousness and gentle and merciful in His regard for those whom He has called. Not only has He provided us all the holiness necessary for our right standing with His Father, He has also taken away the weighty debt caused by all our hypocrisy and lawlessness through His death on the cross. His resurrection insists that He has not only journeyed into harm's way for us; He has actually come out on the other side of that ordeal victorious and alive. We would do very well to receive Him, to truly hear His words, and to follow them by the grace that He supplies.