Uncomfortable (S1) - Day 27
1 Corinthians 3:11-15
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. 12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. 15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. 12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. 15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
Judgment, no one likes this word.
But if they do like it, they seem to like it a little too much!
Sometimes, we as Christians don’t deal with judgment too much because we are not comfortable with the judgment that is coming, and we feel like we will not fare very well. But the opposite is true.
The text above us reminds us that if we have built our foundation on something other than Jesus, then we are in trouble as the consuming fire will burn up what we thought was foundational. But the good news is that Jesus is both your lawyer and your judge. God is for you, not against you, and it isn’t even you who is being judged once you accept the grace of Jesus into your life. Our lives are not our own, it is Jesus who now lives in us.
With this knowledge, the uncomfortable truth of judgment ceases to be so uncomfortable. We begin to understand that is a natural outpouring of God’s love and justification of and for us. We actually need this judgment to know we have built this life of faith on the right thing, on the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So we begin to cease to worry about judgment but begin to know that it means we are about to see a different kind of life, a different kind of world. A world made right, with love and compassion being those things that we see above all else.
So we don’t have to be too uncomfortable when it comes to how we see judgment. Truly, because of Jesus, that discomfort is taken away and we are shown what it means to have God be for us and not against us.
But if they do like it, they seem to like it a little too much!
Sometimes, we as Christians don’t deal with judgment too much because we are not comfortable with the judgment that is coming, and we feel like we will not fare very well. But the opposite is true.
The text above us reminds us that if we have built our foundation on something other than Jesus, then we are in trouble as the consuming fire will burn up what we thought was foundational. But the good news is that Jesus is both your lawyer and your judge. God is for you, not against you, and it isn’t even you who is being judged once you accept the grace of Jesus into your life. Our lives are not our own, it is Jesus who now lives in us.
With this knowledge, the uncomfortable truth of judgment ceases to be so uncomfortable. We begin to understand that is a natural outpouring of God’s love and justification of and for us. We actually need this judgment to know we have built this life of faith on the right thing, on the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So we begin to cease to worry about judgment but begin to know that it means we are about to see a different kind of life, a different kind of world. A world made right, with love and compassion being those things that we see above all else.
So we don’t have to be too uncomfortable when it comes to how we see judgment. Truly, because of Jesus, that discomfort is taken away and we are shown what it means to have God be for us and not against us.
Question:
- Has Judgment ever worried you?
- What did you first think it was and how did that affect the way you saw God?
- Why do you think judgment has been such an effective way for people to scare others into the church?
- Isn’t the New Testament pretty clear that judgment is for us and not against us?
1 Comment
If judgement has been an effective way to scare others into the church, and I'm not sure it has, at least not long term, it's not effective in bringing them to the Kingdom. Someone said: "Only by love can love be awakened. To know God is to love Him."