Jesus was
before the Sanhedrin, “Then they spit in his face and struck him with their
fists. Others slapped him and said, “Prophesy to us,
Christ. Who hit you” (Matt 26:67-68 NIV)? Apparently these particular Pharisees
were not in the audience when Jesus said, “But I tell you that men will have to
give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have
spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your
words you will be condemned” (Matt 12:36-37 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Now that's interesting. I thought there was no hope for our doing anything that could acquit us on the Day of Judgment. I thought we were saved by God’s grace through Christ alone, that having sought forgiveness and found it, our sins were cast as far from us as east is from west, even our careless words. But our careless words must have strings tied to them by which they can be pulled all the way back from the west into God’s memory again, rewritten where they had been blotted out, beheld once again in the east when that Judgment Day rises.
-----And when those careless words are drug once again into His memory, they bring wicked relatives. Jesus also told us that if we did not forgive others, we would not be forgiven, although He said the only unforgivable sin was blaspheme of the Holy Spirit, not failing to forgive, or speaking careless words. Another wicked relative is the level to which our righteousness has not risen, for He told us also that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees or we would never enter the kingdom of heaven. The scribes and Pharisees pained their entire existence with effort to obey God.
-----Or so they thought. Truly our words do have strings tied to them, but not for being pulled back from the west into God’s memory. “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.” (Mat 12:34b-35) Those strings are tied to the core of what we are, which is what we treasure. So are our actions tied there. And our choices. What makes a good man’s treasure good when Christ Himself rejected being called good, saying, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone,” (Mark 10:18) of course knowing full well He was God. How can the rest of us have good treasure in our cores when we are not good? How can any of our words not be careless when the best we can see is dimly? We can and they can by the meaning of what it is to treasure. It is to desire. Truly desire. True desire treasures because it seeks till it finds, and then guards what has been found. We are not perfect, therefore we are not good, except that we are perfect by what we perfectly desire. Only Christ bringing His blissful blessing can be perfectly desired. All other desire has the taint of human error. Had the Pharisees realized this, they would have been close to perfect indeed, for they would have desired their righteousness through Christ.
-----So it isn’t that we are judged by our words, or any other deeds or thoughts or feelings regardless of having sincerely fallen before the Lord for forgiveness and new life. Peaches and plums are produced by the core of peach and plum trees. Poison berries are produced by the core of poison berry bushes. It is, like Jesus said, that these things bear witness to the condition of our core. Is our core plum alive and peachy? Or has it gone dead? Which do you desire? Then to whom will you turn for it, yourself, or Jesus? Therein is your judgment.
-----(Caution: some of these words may yet be found to have been careless.)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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