An Audience of One

One of my favorite passages of scripture is 1 Corinthians 4:3-5.

It says, “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.”

I don’t have Paul’s perspective yet, but this is where I aspire to be. What I hear Paul saying is because all of us have such limited perspective and information, we can’t take other people’s judgements too seriously. In fact, Paul takes it a step further by saying he doesn’t even take his own perspective on himself that seriously.

A day is coming when all secrets will be revealed and we’ll all stand before God, as we are. On that day we’ll know where we stand but until then, we have to be content with just glimpses. I’ve received my fair share of judgement from others in my life; some of it may have been accurate and some of it wasn’t. While people’s judgements can sting, we would do well to remember Paul’s perspective, here.

People don’t get the final say on who you are and neither do you. Especially in today’s day and age, when judgements fly constantly in every direction, we could all use a deeper dose of humility. We need to take a step back from all the people we judge, including ourselves. We may be accurate with some things but there is SO MUCH we don’t know and SO MUCH we don’t understand. This goes for our positive and negative judgements, too. If we put too much stock in the praise we get from others, we’re setting ourselves up to get rocked when the praise turns into criticism.

I want the freedom Paul demonstrates in this passage and if you’re reading it clearly, you do too. Deceased author and pastor Timothy Keller wrote a great book that covers this passage called, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. It’s a short, but powerful book I highly recommend for those who want to dive deeper. Have a great week!