day of judgment – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

Paul says something very interesting in verse 4.

For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. It is the Lord who judges me. (1 Corinthians 4:4)

I think Paul would say that it is important to keep a clean conscience before God. That is what he strove to do.

But he also realized that the human heart can be deceitful. We can fool ourselves into thinking we’re okay, when in reality we’re not.

In fact, when he wrote these words to the Corinthians, Paul seemed to be thinking of what God had said through the prophet Jeremiah.

The heart is more deceitful than anything else,
and incurable—who can understand it?

I, the Lord, examine the mind,
I test the heart,
to give to each according to his way,
according to what his actions deserve. (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

Compare those words to what Paul says in verses 4-5.

So what am I saying? Should we always be worrying about whether we are clean before our Lord?

Should we always be thinking to ourselves, “Is there some hidden sin that I’m unaware of? Is there some wrong motive that I haven’t noticed in my own heart?”

No. I don’t think God wants us to live in a state of perpetual fear and guilt.

Nevertheless, it is good to have a heart of humility before God.

It’s good to pray each day as David did, “Search my heart. Show me if there’s anything wrong there.” (Psalm 19:12-13; 139:23-24).

If God shows you something, then confess it and ask for forgiveness.

If not, then thank God for the grace you stand in.

The truth is, if God were to show us all our sins at one time, we’d be overwhelmed.

But by his grace, he will strengthen us until the end, and we will stand blameless before him on the day of judgment. (1 Corinthians 1:8)

Facing our Judge

It’s so easy as we go through life to forget that this life is not all there is.

There is a life to come after we pass out of this one. And on the day that we leave this life, we will face our Judge.

Solomon wrote,

The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out. (Proverbs 20:5)

If a man of understanding can draw out the purposes of another’s heart, how much more can God?

Solomon goes on to say,

Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find? (20:6)

There are many people in this world who claim to love God, but there are so few that actually live that way. And Solomon warns us,

When a king sits on his throne to judge, he winnows out all evil with his eyes. (20:8)

Solomon is talking specifically about human kings, but one day, the King of all kings will sit on his throne to judge the earth.

But while human kings are flawed because they lack perfect judgment, knowledge, and wisdom, everything will be laid out before God, and he is perfectly just in all he does. As a result, all his judgments are perfect.

As Solomon points out,

The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being. (Proverbs 20:27)

And again,

All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. (Proverbs 21:2)

Because we all will stand before him and be judged, Solomon reminds of how we should live.

We are to be honest (Proverbs 20:10, 16, 23). We are to leave judgment in his hands, rather than taking revenge into our own (20:22).

We are to be more interested in living righteous lives every day, than making the occasional sacrifice to appease God (Proverbs 21:3).

Finally, we are to remain humble before God. (21:4)

If we do not do these things, Solomon warns us,

The Righteous One takes note of the house of the wicked and brings the wicked to ruin. (21:12)

And again,

When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.

A man who strays from the path of understanding comes to rest in the company of the dead. (21:15-16)

But let us also remember something else that Solomon said.

Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”? (Proverbs 20:9)

This of course is a rhetorical question. None of us can stand before God and claim to be without sin. None of us can stand before God on the basis of our works and say, “I deserve to go to heaven.”

All of us have failed. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. That’s why we all need a Savior, and that’s why Jesus came.

So let us make our hearts right before God, first and foremost by following his most important commands. What are they?

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. (1 John 3:23)

How about you? Are you ready to be judged?