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Ten years ago as I was writing a new curriculum on holiness, I was thinking about how many revivals throughout church history have ended up in legalism. They started out as genuine moves of God but ended up as a list of rules to follow.

I didn’t want this new curriculum to become a teaching on legalism, so I asked the Lord, “What is the difference between holiness and legalism?” This is how He responded.

“Holiness is judging your self and legalism is judging others.”

Jesus tells us, “Do not judge others and you will not be judged”

Paul tells us, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.”

The bottom line is the Lord wants us to judge ourselves but not other people. If you stop and think about it you are the only person who can correctly judge you. The reason for this is that we are all at different places of spiritual growth.

I grew up in a very dysfunctional home. My Dad was a single parent who raised four boys by himself. I didn’t have a lot of supervision, so I got into trouble in high school. I developed a lot of bad habits. I was a teenage alcoholic. I got high on the way to school with some frequency. I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day.

I was born again on September 12, 1976, and my life started to turn around. The first thing I did was quit drinking. I was still getting high and smoking cigarettes, but I was headed in the right direction. I used to sneak outside between Sunday school and the worship service for a smoke break.

See Others As God Sees Them
I’m sure there were people in the church who looked at me in a judgmental way. “What does that punk kid think he’s doing smoking on the church property?” But my Heavenly Father was not looking at me that way. He was just glad that I was at church. Sure, I still had some bad habits to break, but I was making positive changes.

Most of us have many bad habits that we need to deal with. I find that God deals with me about one thing at a time. This is why it is foolish for me to try and judge other people by things that are in my heart. When I get to Heaven, God is going to judge me by things He put in my heart, not what He put it your heart.

If you judge others it can cause damage to you and to them. If judge yourself, you draw closer to the Lord and you help yourself.

Have you ever felt judged by somebody? Let’s face it. Nobody likes to be judged. The good news is that you have the option of judging yourself. The bad news is that judging yourself is really hard to do.

One of the signs of a mature Christian is that they have an internal compass. They have the ability to judge themselves. Think about it. A young toddler does not have the ability to judge himself. He doesn’t know that it’s wrong to throw his toy truck at his sister.

The key to spiritual growth is the ability to do self-examination.

What Would The Lord Say To You?
About fifteen years ago I was asking the Lord about some things I had in my heart that were not coming to pass.

I was hoping the Lord would say something like, “In a few weeks someone is going to give you a million dollars and you will be able to accomplish your vision,” but that is not how He responded.

This is what He said to me. “If you don’t judge yourself in your weight and diet you will not see your vision come to pass.”

Ouch! That really hurt.

At first I thought the Lord was telling me that people won’t follow a fat guy, but then I realized what he meant. “If I don’t judge myself in this area I won’t live long enough to finish my course.”

At this point in time I was up to 350 pounds and it was affecting my health. I made some really hard decisions, changed my eating habits, starting exercising, and lost 150 pounds.

Did the Lord tell me to judge myself just to put me down? NO! He wants me to live a long time on the earth. I had to make some big changes in my life in order to judge myself in the area and I am still continuing to judge myself.

Sometimes I eat something that I shouldn’t. Do I feel guilty about it? No. How do I judge myself then? By hitting the treadmill. Judging yourself is really hard to do, but it is always in your best interest.

The lord challenges us to “Be holy for I am holy.” Holiness is a matter of the heart. You can do the right thing for the wrong reason and it is displeasing to the Lord. Aninias gave a big offering to the church but his motives were wrong and it brought judgment.

Jesus is the one Who made us holy, but we still have the flesh to deal with. My challenge is to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. One way that I accomplish this is judging myself.


Copyright ©  Mark Harper Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Author Biography

Mark Harper
Web site: Mark Harper Ministries
 
Pastor and Leadership Coach, Mark Harper has 35 years of experience in the local church. He is the creator of the Super Church 2.0 Curriculum, which is used in over 5,000 churches worldwide. The focus of Mark's ministry is helping leaders build strong churches and helping parents build strong families. Not only has Mark served in the local church as pastor, associate pastor, and family ministry pastor but he is also a certified coach with the John Maxwell Team. He also recently released the Amazon Best Selling book The Red Book: The Lifeblood of Children's Ministry.
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