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BASIC HUMAN NATURE - SELFISHNESS

This very sense of selfishness creates strife amongst mankind. We expect others to behave a certain way and when they do not, we become judgmental. We speak of love but we judge without thinking. We are the source of conflict, we are the source of war, when we level our expectations and standards on others with no consideration of mercy, love and compassion.

When Jesus addressed the multitude, He also purposefully spoke to His disciples, those who believed in Him. These are the people who has given their lives back to Jesus, they are the ones who have been born again, who trusted Jesus with their lives. No one can truly identify with all that Jesus has taught in their lives until we truly believe in Him and let the Spirit do His work in us – so that we can be like Him.

How can we not be judgmental? When we are so busy in our lives today, we spend more time judging others in the course of our lives than to spend time in quietness to reflect and judge our own selves. Honestly, how much time have you spent in the last year thinking about yourself than you have spent judging others? Perhaps, we have already come to the point where we don’t even think of ourselves but purely look at others and leveling our expectations and standards upon them.

But you may think that you don’t. Check the following about yourself and you will see why Jesus is teaching this to us:

* are we continuously doubting people around us?
* are we suspicious of people?
* do we always second guess them?
* do we always conclude negative things about them?
* do we pass remarks that are not positive about people?

It doesn’t matter if we are conscious of it or not. These actions are a reflection of what is inside. These actions are the result of an internal condition of the heart. It is when we think we are better than others, when we think we are right, then the external actions of judging will occur.

Whenever something occurs, we usually come out with the conclusion and pronounce a judgment. We frame people by our own standards and expectations and jump to the conclusion based on our own world view of people. We never look at the other person’s view point, we never consider the possibility of other reasoning, we never look at various perspectives, we never think that there will be reasons beyond our comprehension, we only think that we are right and that’s that.

Did you realize that nobody ever fought when they exchanged positive and good words to each other? It is only when we are judgmental, then conflicts occur. We will want to defend ourselves, we protect our interests, our pride, our ego, our self esteem, whatever we think is precious, with all our might. In so doing, conflicts will arise as we trade blow with blow.

TRANSFORMATION - NOT DISCIPLINE

When Jesus commanded us to love one another as He loved us, this is actually going against the grain of human nature. As we have seen, we are sinful creatures who are judgmental, we think we are always right and the others are always wrong. We are selfish in nature. But when Jesus would rather we love one another as He loved us, He is teaching us what the spiritual nature ought to be.

We cannot change ourselves, just as much as a leopard cannot change its spots. Only when we are born again can the Spirit work in us to transform us to be like Christ. Loving one another is not a matter of discipline. Not judging is not a matter of discipline either. It is a transformation of self by the Spirit of God. It is not about changing the leopard’s spots. It is about changing the leopard to a lamb.

Continued ...