1 Corinthians 4:3-4 – 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
When writing to the Corinthian church, a body that had been playing favorites among different teachers, Paul is clear that he does not find their opinion of him to be a big deal. Their judgment is not how he evaluates his spiritual life before the Lord. And then Paul says something very helpful. The Apostle tells us that he also is not the one to truly evaluate his spiritual life. It is the Lord who judges him.
In our world today, we often will talk with people who will be quick to tell us how good they are. There are many who will tell us of the rightness of their choices, even choices that go against the word of God. And they will tell us that what they choose to do is OK because they feel no particular conviction regarding the issue.
Perhaps, however, we should take a lesson from Paul. Perhaps we should not think that we are the ultimate determiners of whether or not our thoughts and actions are righteous. Instead, perhaps we should hold our lives up to an external standard, an unchanging eternal standerd. Perhaps we should weigh our actions, our choices, our hearts against the holy word of Almighty God. The Bible will help us to know if we are doing and thinking things that please the Lord. The Bible is far more stable than our wavering emotions or society’s shifting standards. I am not my own judge. You are not your own judge. The Lord is the only judge.
I do not judge myself. It is the Lord who judges me. And, thanks be to God, he has caused to be perfectly written down for me what his standards of righteousness are . May I love the Lord and live under his word. And, thanks be to God, he has provided Jesus Christ to fulfill on my account the commands of God and cover my guilt for falling short of God’s glory.
Pastor Travis Peterson 