Now that it has been established that we all deal with sin within, be it with or without religion, with or without being caught, with or without good home rearing - be it lying, stealing, wanting what’s not ours, hating, murderous deed or thoughts, using drugs or alcohol, gossiping and thousands of other things we are ever guilty of before the creator who made us. Just because someone does not believe they are sinful, or have sin in their life, doesn’t’ mean they aren’t or don’t. They are either in denial or simply, truly believe it to be true. Again, sin is simply doing what it does, deceiving it’s host.
Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” I expound it further with, “Not even the one within whom’s chest it beats.” We will never know how our heart will react in any given situation. See for a person to accept they are sinful, they must then accept that they are guilty of something, and to be guilty means you have been judged to be wrong But what about, “Only God can judge me”, or “Don’t judge me” or even, “Who are you to judge?”
Sound familiar? Perhaps you’ve even used one of these terms to defend yourself in one situation or another, whether you verbalized it or said it in your heart, people do not accept critical judgment calls well. Good judgment they accept very well however. Judgment keeps order, and when judgment leaves — order leaves. Paul told the Church he planted in Corinth: 1. If they would judge themselves then, 2. They would not be judged, but 3. When we are judged then, 4. we are chastened (or disciplined) by God that we would not be condemned (or judged) with the world.
Judgment keeps things in order. We must withstand judgment either by our own self-judgment (the best kind) or, judged with the world, if we are too proud to accept the judgment of guilt upon us for being the sinful creatures we were born as. Paul goes on to make it known that he fights with himself.
Wanting to do the righteous and good thing, he finds himself not doing that but he finds himself instead doing the unrighteous and bad thing HE DOESN’T WANT TO DO, and that is the very thing that he finds himself doing. He knows what’s right and wrong, yet choose to do wrong, not right. Paul cries out through the pages in frustration of his own self, questioning, “WHO SHALL DELIVER ME FROM MYSELF?”
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