Who did not feel 100% convicted in that first verse…I know I did.
After all Paul wrote in what we read yesterday, I am sure it was easy for some of us to pass judgement on people. That is a human thing to do.
As we talked about yesterday, the very first lie was that we can “be like God.” The only person that should pass judgement is God and Paul reminds us of this.
We can be very quick to pass judgement on others. To go…”Look at them, man they are just sinning left and right! I can’t believe that…they are going to ……” You get the picture. We have all had those thoughts in our heads.
Paul reminds us…hey you…you are just a guilty. If we pass judgement on others, we are condemning ourselves!
During the time Paul was writing this, the Jews felt superior to the Gentiles as they had the Law that God gave to Moses. They thought that because of that and because they practiced the outward sign of being in God’s favor (circumcision), they were good. They were going to be right with God. They passed a lot of judgment on the Gentiles (uncircumcised).
Paul exposes their self-righteous attitude. He explains to them that just because they outwardly showed they are “God’s People”, they were not living what they believed.
That absolutely translates into how we live our lives today as Christians.
We go to church, we show the world our “good Christian” family, we sign the songs, we pray, we listen to the sermon, we shake hands and greet friends as we leave…all the outwardly things to show we are a “good Christian”.
Then we step out the doors to the parking lot and by the time we get to the restaurant for brunch/lunch we are already in a argument with our kids or spouse, we have cursed out the guy who cut us off in traffic, we have forgotten the message and we go on living the rest of the week like nothing happened. Then Sunday comes along and we do it all in repeat.
Or we know we are sinning in some way, but we hide it secretly thinking no one will know. Guess what! God knows!
I know this because I have been 100% guilty of this.
So what do we do? Paul tells us that we need to examine our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to do work within us to change the inside to match the outside.
We need to remember that God is the ultimate judge of sin. That is not our job. While we need to spread the truth and Word, we also have to examine ourselves and make sure we are living in the way we say we believe and preach. Make sure to read verses 17-24.
I pray that you will take time today to find a quiet spot away from all distractions, quiet your mind and ask the Holy Spirit to come and be your guide to transform you heart.
Bible Study with Danelle 
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