I had been thinking about it so much lately… this idea of finger pointing and fault finding. It can be so easy for us to do… but I wonder what might be possible if we shift our focus for a moment from refusing to find fault in others to refusing there to be fault found in us.
We read about it in Romans 14… this idea of not causing your brother or sister to stumble.
Verse 13 says this, “So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble or fall.”
And upon immediate glance we may consider the ways we “cause another believer to stumble or fall.” Things that involve me disrespecting convictions you hold in high regard in your life. For instance… if I believe smoking cigarettes is not wrong, but you strongly believe it is, and I smoke around you, you, perhaps you may be tempted to fall, in effect, from what moral or spiritual code you adhere to.
But I wonder if there’s more we do to “cause other people to stumble or fall” that is less obvious and yet even more dangerous.
Old Testament King David is such a beautiful example for us.
One look into his journey and it doesn’t take us long to see that the highest concern of his life was that he would always possess an intimacy with God. It seemed to be the chief interest of his life to have the presence of the Lord and to represent Him well.
In Psalm 25 he says this 4 different times when praying to God regarding his enemies, “Do not let me disgraced.”
I remember reading that and at first glance thinking, “David was only concerned about himself. He was only concerned with HIS reputation.”
But I am not so sure.
The word disgraced means this, “loss of respect and honor, being out of favor, to be dismissed or discredited.”
Ahh… and so could it be that this King David… the one considered, “A man after God’s own heart”, was just that, after all? A man who’s primary employment was the desire to not be “dismissed or discredited.”
Perhaps David knew that his good reputation carried significant weight, and that when HIS reputation was disgraced, the reputation of the good Father He committed his life to following, was dismissed.
If David lost respect and became, “dismissed with discredit”, others would be tempted to disbelieve his claim of a good God and ultimately reject Him for themselves.
It’s interesting to note that one of the highest qualities required for a leader in the church of Ephesus, according to Paul in 1 Timothy 3:7, was that, “… people outside the church must speak well of him so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the devil’s trap.”
Perhaps my reputation is more important than I ever thought before. And I return to Romans. Verse 16 continues on with this in the King James Version, “Let not your good be evil spoken of.”
And I wonder… how in the world could what we consider “good” be considered by others, “evil?”
Maybe we do the right thing… we look the right part.
We go to church, we praise and we worship, we engage in the big bold prayers, we listen to the sermon, we take notes, we write the check for weekly tithe, and we serve with our best smile.
All good? Yes!
But then maybe we get home. We become frustrated. We yell at our spouse, we belittle our neighbor, we gossip about family, and we tear apart the country’s leaders with our tongue.
All the while our newly believing spouse, our impressionable children, our unbelieving friends, and/or our disenchanted family member who was hurt by the church years ago but is now considering giving it another shot because she “felt something stirring” inside of her by observing what seemed to be authentic worship while watching an online service earlier that day, are all confused by our behavior.
Not only have we unknowingly eradicated the sincerity of our worship, now we have compromised the effectiveness of God’s reputation by wrongly demonstrating the Lord’s impact and influence in our own life. Now this… this may be considered “evil” and likely be rejected by those who may have been radically persuaded into transformation and salvation.
It’s a sobering thought.
But one worth considering if we are serious about changing the world we live in.
Oh that my heart would be open to all He wants to do, not only IN my life, but THROUGH my life. May I forever consider the divine impact I have been invited to participate in for His purposes! And may I live in such a way that no one can find fault in me.
The consequences are absolutely too dangerous.
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