Romans 14:10-12—You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God.” So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
So what’s wrong with trying to help someone else when their conduct or circumstances are questionable? Or they don’t know how to act? Or they seem clueless about key issues? Well for starters, we ought to think about our:
¨ Motives—perhaps I challenge what I perceive to be selfishness in the way you handle money when really what I would like is for you to be generous to me.
¨ Methods--Jesus never shared the gospel the same way twice. Some people want to take the Four Spiritual Laws or “hottest” tract and train everyone to use them correctly so people will “get saved”. This causes Christians to focus on the tool instead of the Holy Spirit. He may not want us turning pages but rather praying for discernment as to what is preventing a person from finding salvation. Our training can actually be counterproductive to spiritual growth!
¨ Presumption—We don’t like what we see in someone else’s life so we jump in and push our solutions. The Bible teaches that God tests us and often allows us to suffer in order to build our character or teach us valuable lessons. Premature intervention on our part presupposes that we know what is best. Only God knows what is best.
¨ Pride—Before we judge others with capricious diagnosis we ought to carefully examine ourselves. A consistent habit of looking to “fix” others may actually be an escape to hearing what God wants to do in me!
Don’t be a junior Holy Spirit! The first thing to do before intervening is pray. The second thing we ought to do is pray some more!
Inspiration
