"Judge with righteous judgment.”

John 7:1-30 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible (link on links page)

Jesus Teaches at the Feast

7 After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. ² Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. ³ Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ⁴ For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even His brothers were believing in Him. ⁶ So Jesus *said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. ⁸ Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰ But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. ¹¹ So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?” ¹² There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.” ¹³ Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴ But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. ¹⁵ The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?” ¹⁶ So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. ¹⁷ If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. ¹⁸ He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

¹⁹ “Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” ²⁰ The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?” ²¹ Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, and you all marvel. ²² For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. ²³ If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? ²⁴ Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

²⁵ So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? ²⁶ Look, He is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to Him. The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they? ²⁷ However, we know where this man is from; but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where He is from.” ²⁸ Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. ²⁹ I know Him, because I am from Him, and He sent Me.” ³⁰ So they were seeking to seize Him; and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.

There are several places in scripture where we see, as in today's text, that Jesus own family did not believe in Him. In Mark 3:20-21 it says:     ²⁰ And He *came home, and the crowd *gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. ²¹ When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”         In today's text it says:  Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ⁴ For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even His brothers were believing in Him.    His brothers challenged Jesus under the pretense of making Himself known to His disciples in Judea. Their challenge though was really not that different than what the devil himself had tempted Jesus with in the wilderness. Many of the devils temptations of Jesus began with the words, if you are the Son of God.

Matthew 4:1-7         Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. ³ And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” ⁴ But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

⁵ Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ and *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,

⁷ Jesus said to him, “^]On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

We, like Jesus will also be tempted, challenged and chided, both by the devil and those who know us and where we have come from. We need, like Jesus, to stand on the truth of God's word and to seek the Father's will, recognizing that nothing we say or do will convince the doubters or mockers other than a revelation of Jesus in their own lives. Jesus never felt the need to prove or defend Himself to doubters. We need to live and walk in that same kind of confidence of who we are in Christ.

In verses 14-16 we see something that is a great encouragment to me and should be for others who have not had formal religious education.    But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. ¹⁵ The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?” ¹⁶ So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.    The Jewish religious leaders took their education very seriously. The training that they went through started when they were young. They took offense at the fact that Jesus was teaching without having gone through the formal education process. Personally, I wish I had more formal education and training, but that's not the direction my life has taken.

John 14:26 says: "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

John 16:13 says: "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

1 John 2:27 says: As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.

Each one of us, who is in Christ, has the Holy Spirit to teach us and guide us. It is important that we always rely on the witness of the Holy Spirit, even as we follow the teaching of even the most educated men or women. As John says in the verse above:  His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie. Acts 4:13 is an encouraging verse we should all hope could be said of us ordinary people God has called to His work.

Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.       Should that not be all of our hearts desire, that others would not recognize us with the recognition of man, but that they would recognize that we have been with Jesus.   

One final thing from today's text comes from the following verses:    “I did one deed, and you all marvel. ²² For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. ²³ If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? ²⁴ Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”       Jesus is speaking here of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. They were critical of Jesus act of healing a man on the Sabbath. Yet in other things they allowed and made provision for actions on the Sabbath. When we focus more on the law and the rules and regulations of man than we do on the one who cames as the fulfillment of the law, Jesus Christ, we can fall into the same type of deception or judgment. Jesus says we are to judge with righteous judgment. The only way we can truly judge righteously is to know the mind and will of the Father. One of the ways we know the will of the Father is through His word. We need to be careful though not to haphazardly apply the isolated portions of the word of God to create our own doctrines or rules. We need as Paul says in Acts 20:27, the counsel of the whole word of God.

For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.

2 Timothy 3:16 says:    All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

The word all is significant, it means more than that we should apply isolated verses or portions of scripture to judge situations or circumstances. Jesus says we are to judge righteously. In order to do that we need to take every scripture in context and to balance all scripture with the rest of God's word, so that we have an understanding of the true heart of God. Once again the Holy Spirit is our teacher and guide. It is only through the wisdom of God given to us through the Spirit of God that we can accurately discern the will of God. 

 In essence the entire Bible from Genesis to revelation is the story of God's plan for the redemption and restoration of man and creation. If we are judging righteously that should be the key to our application of scripture. That doesn't mean that we compromise our values and embrace the sin and the ways of the world that we see in our culture today. It simply means that we see the sin in the world as Jesus saw our sin when He was on the cross. We don't embrace sin we seek the redemption and restoration of all sinners.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, my teacher and guide, thank You Jesus, that You loved me enough to come and pay the price for my sin. Thank You Holy Spirit, that You have come to abide with and in me through the redeeming work of the cross of Christ. Guide me and teach me all things. Lead me so that I might know the ways and the will of the Father, so that I might as Jesus said judge righteously. I desire to join You Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in Your work of redemption and restoration for all.    Amen