Be Careful How You Speak!

 

 

We need to judge and to speak of others with great hesitation. We can only see the outer man, while the Lord can weigh the heart. Therefore, Jesus told this parable:

 

·       “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:24–30 (ESV)

 

Since we cannot see the inner person, we should not try to remove the unbeliever from our midst or condemn them to hell. Why not? Because we lack discernment. Therefore, if we try to do so, we run a great risk of injuring those who do believe or might be sincerely seeking.

 

We do not see as the Lord does. The Lord had sent His Prophet Samuel to the household of Jesse to anoint the next king of Israel according to God’s choice. However, once Samuel set his eyes on the oldest son, Eliab, he was ready to anoint him:

 

·       But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

 

David had been the least likely candidate in the eyes of his father Jesse. Samuel had directed Jesse to assemble all his sons. However, he left out one – David, God’s choice!

 

Many years ago, I had a friend who had washed his hands of me, claiming, “You are of the devil.” At the time, he might have been right, but fortunately, the Lord had other plans.