Great comfort? Terrible Threat?

Justice is a double-edged sword.  We tend to give ourselves an exception when it comes to justice, don’t we?  Who among us has not said something like this: 

• His anger is so destructive to his family; mine is just what I have to do to get my kids to fall in line. 
• His bitterness is so toxic to relationships; mine is understandable given the awful way that my boss treats me. 
• He is greedy; I’m just trying to make a living.
• He is selfish; I’m just taking care of what belongs to me.
• He’s an idiot; I’m just a ‘work in progress.’

Jesus humorously called this way of thinking ‘plank in the eye’ syndrome.  He tells us that before we go after the speck of sawdust in our fellow Christian’s eye, it would be best to take the plank out of our own!  (Matthew 7:4-5) Maturity of faith and character should bring about an honest estimate of ourselves, a working knowledge of our strengths and our foibles, and a willingness to apply the same measure to our own actions that we so quickly apply to others.    

Robert Burns, the Scottish poet, sat in church behind a lady finely dressed and saw the lice in her hair.  In his oft-quoted poem about her social pretensions, he comes to this closing stanza.

O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us

To see oursels as others see us

It wad frae monie a blunder free us

An' foolish notion

What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us

An' ev'n Devotion

The translation is -
Oh, that God would give us the gift
To be able to see ourselves as others see us
It would save us from many mistakes
and foolish thoughts
We would change the way we go about so proudly

and the things to which we apply our time and attention.

Why is this important? What’s the harm in a little self-deception? 

If we refuse the Truth, we can only slip deeper into sin.  Our desire must be to close the gap between who we really are and the image we project. A ruthless commitment to the Truth allows us to walk in the will of God, to grow out of self-love and into love for others.  As we live authentically in the Spirit, He will keep us from judging others unfairly and make us into people of mercy.

There is a passage that is of great comfort to those who live in Truth and long for justice.  It is a terrible threat to those who turn a blind eye to reality.  It is God’s promise that one day who we are what we have done will be perfectly revealed.  Christian, this is not about some scale that determines our eternal destiny, whether we go to Heaven when we die!  That salvation is secured through Christ, alone. It is about justice.  My prayer is that what we learn in this passage will both keep us faithful in obscure service and move us to deal with secret sin.

Spend some time with the word from the Word.  "The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." (1 Corinthians 3:8-15, NIV)