Romans 10-11

(July 14, 2015)

                I am always nervous when I read a scripture and I think to myself “this is perfect for such-and-such – if only he’d read this he’d understand how he was wrong!”  That is a dangerous sign for me, as it places me in the role of judge of someone else, blinds me to my own sins, and presumes to receive light and knowledge for someone else, rather than myself.  That isn’t the way the Lord’s Kingdom works.

                That happened to me as I was reading these chapters.  Particularly in Chapter 10, I was reading of those with the zeal of God (but not according to knowledge), and I had a particular person in mind that I thought that it perfectly applied to.  I had to catch myself, and remind myself that I am not in the position to be receiving revelation or judgment of anyone else.  Only myself.

                Armed with that new perspective, I reconsidered the scripture with a determination to apply its message to me and to no one else.  Once I did that, I began to realize that my very act of attempting to apply it to others was showing the zeal of God (but not according to knowledge).  It was yet another reminder that the things that we most likely condemn in others are those things within ourselves that we do not like (and why, when we are forgiven, we tend to be far more forgiving).