I Cor. 4:5 So be careful not to jump to conclusions before the
Lord returns as to whether or not someone is faithful. When the Lord comes, he
will bring our deepest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives.
And then God will give to everyone whatever praise is due. NLT
It is so easy and
tempting to jump to conclusions about another person's faith or lack of it. As
long as others fit into our notion of what they should be like, we are
comfortable with believing they are one of us. However, if someone breaks the
mold and lives (or looks) differently than we do, we are quick to question the
rightness of their life before God. Let's admit it. We are all guilty of
judging by appearances.
Only God knows the
heart of man. God knows whether or not someone is among the faithful. We are
very poor in our assessments. We are easily fooled. We are given certain
criteria to live by in the Scriptures and we can be reasonably sure that if
someone is not even trying to live by God's standards that they are not among
the faithful. But, only God knows for sure. We progress in faith at different
rates and so we must not be quick to conclude that people who are acting in an
ungodly way are truly ungodly in heart.
When the Lord comes,
He will bring every heart to light. He will embrace those who are in the faith
and reject those who aren't. We will be surprised by some who will be embraced
and by some who won't be. God knows the motives of the heart and will do what
is right. He will reveal every motive and it will be quickly understood why our
judgments failed us.
If anyone deserves a
pat on the back on Judgment Day, God will do it. We are prone to praise people
quickly, whether they deserve it or not. We like to be praised and seldom
reject it. But, when God dishes out the praise, it will be a time of great
rejoicing. All heaven will rejoice with us, for we will have come home at last.
God's acceptance is
all the praise we need or should ever want.
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