“He hath not slandered by his tongue, He hath not done to his friend evil;
And reproach he hath not lifted up Against his neighbour.^a
Despised in his eyes is a rejected one, And those fearing Jehovah he doth honour.
He hath sworn to suffer evil, and changeth not;^b
His silver he hath not given in usury, And a bribe against the innocent Hath not taken;
Whoso is doing these is not moved to the age!^c”

A) Verse 3 of this psalm shows a principle that Jesus taught regarding our thoughts and our actions. The verse is broken up into three parts, the first two of which deal with our thoughts and actions. Jesus told those around him that even if we think anything slanderous, hateful  thoughts towards our neighbor, we might as well have committed murder. (Matthew 5:21-22) When the psalmist says, “He hath not slandered by his tongue”, this is showing that as a Christian, a righteous man or woman of God, he has nothing on the tip of his tongue that is derogatory or evil inside of him. Often when we have suddenly forgotten the answer to a question a common phrase we use is, “It’s on the tip of my tongue.” If we have slander on the tip of our tongues, even if the thought of slander is not there but the feeling of it, the emotion of something negative towards your brother is consuming you even though you can’t pin it down, that’s still sin. We are to be free from all malicious thought and any accusations against our brothers. The Apostle John reminds his readers the same thing that Christ said; he also reminds them that the love we are to be clothed in is a self-sacrificing love. (1 John 3:15-16) Let our feelings, thoughts and actions be not on belittling those around us, but on how we can serve each other in thought and deed. Resist Satan, and he will flee, for we are not called to be anywhere near the evil of this world. (James 4:7) So let nothing but the Spirit itself dwell in us, may we submit to Him and let him do what He wills in us. (John 14:23)

B) This verse has two ways of being interpreted. One way is to say that the man of God holds in contempt those whose actions are wicked, while still being able to be free from the presence of evil thoughts or words. The second way is that the Christian is to find himself rejected and worthless in his own eyes. Both are great ways to read this verse. The first way of interpreting the verse we see a very godly man who is able to rightly judge his brothers, yet has an undying love for them. He sees their actions and knows the wicked things that they have done, yet he can only think of how he can build them back up. He holds them in contempt, at a distance, not because he views himself as more, lest he sin, but a distance so that he does not fall into the same snare. This idea is echoed in Paul’s writing in Galatians when trying to restore a fallen brother in Christ. (Galatians 6:1)

The second way of reading this verse actually comes from a translated version by Aben Ezra, “He is mean and contemptible in his own eyes” which is also a valid translation from the original, “ נבזה בעיניו נמאס, nibzeh beeynaiv nimas”. I don’t know which I like more because I stumble continually with trying to separate the sin and the sinner, and yet there is something so glorious and redemptive in the second way this verse is interpreted. We are to never put ourselves on a high pedestal, or think anything great of ourselves. We are to serve each other, and view ourselves as nothing. (1 Corinthians 10:24) Just as Christ came to wash our feet and save us from our sins, we are to have the same attitudes towards our brothers. As Christ humbled himself, and by taking on the form of man, not grasping at the being of God and took on our form, there shines something beautiful in that. (Philipians 2:6-8) How can someone so holy, so perfect in every way become lower just to serve, just to save us while we were sinning against Him? (Romans 5:8) This is the God we serve, we serve a God who has given himself to us, saved us and given His Word to use, so that all who believe in Him are saved. (2 Corinthians 11:4)

When was the last time that you lowered yourself, humbled yourself not to those who are close to you, but to those who despise you? Sinners show love to those who love them, so shouldn’t we do more? (Luke 6:32) If Christ showed the standard for living on Earth, and His whole time He spent humbling himself, putting those who had no right to be near the living God ahead of him, why are we not doing the same? Christians often use the term, “taking up the cross” as an expression about dying to ourselves, but I do not see many dead men or women around me. I don’t see people who gasp for breath, who are begging for a drink of water or a piece of bread, I see people who are healthy and do not have any thirst or hunger. Do I see a generation of dead men and women as we are called to be? I am the first to admit as I look in the mirror I do not see a dying man, and for that God convicts me. But let this be a note to anyone who reads this, if you look in the mirror and see an emaciated man, do y0u not also see the light of Christ in shinning through your life?

C) The last verse in Psalm 15, ties everything together. We have a man who does not take advantage of those who are innocent, for he is ultimately a man who fears the Lord. This whole psalm is also to point out that these things are only accomplished by those who fear God. These are the standards and the rules that he has given us that we need to keep. We are to abide in Him daily, and have the Holy Spirit convict us of the truths that He has already spoken. (John 14:26) When a Christian neglects these truths, he is not abiding close to Christ, and the fear of the Lord is not in his eyes. (Romans 3:18) I think that is important to look around and see anyone else that isn’t living up to this psalm. When we see a brother or sister in Christ who is not abiding in Christ, we are to restore them and pray for them. (Galatians 6:1) Let us not forget though, that it is a sin if we know we are to be praying for someone and fail to do so. (1 Samuel 12:23) Restore and pray for those who are shaken, help them see the truths of God and the love He has shown us. Be certain that you don’t have a log in your eye before you go to your friend with the speck, but be prayerful of those who you can help.

The psalmist ends with a promise, a guarantee that Christ gives to his followers. Those who keep God’s commandments and abide in Christ are on solid foundation that is unshakeable. When we start studying the Word, we find more about God and see more of what He has done for us. Too many people neglect to study the Bible, and are seeking experiences only. This is one of the most dangerous things possible because your foundation is going to be based on moment to moment feelings rather than everlasting truth. This is why we study God’s word so that we may pour more concrete on our foundation. Knowing who God is and what He has done for us is the concrete that we build our lives on.

“He who is walking uprightly,^a
And working righteousness,^b
And speaking truth in his heart.^c”

From the last post on Psalm 15, it becomes clear that to be able to dwell with God and live with him is one of the greatest gifts that we receive through the Holy Spirit. This is also something that we should remind ourselves not to forsake and always remember God as our Lord and Savior. David describes the type of man, or Christian who is able to dwell with God. Just because the Holy Spirit dwells in us does not make give us an easy ride to talk with God, in fact it may make it more difficult in some aspects because Satan will try doubly as hard to try and ruin us by sin. If we do not possess the characteristics of Psalm 15, we quench the Holy Spirit within us.

A) When David says, “He who is walking uprightly”, the word for “uprightly” in Hebrew, tamim, literally means perfectly, complete in all its parts. What is the Christian walking in though? Each day we walk along the thin line that is the will of God. The will of God when described by most commentators is not an individual plan for your life, though there is one for all of our days are written in His book, but one that is the moral will of God. (Psalm 139:16) This moral will is described perfectly in Colossians 1:9-13:

“Because of this, we also, from the day in which we heard, do not cease praying for you, and asking that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, to your walking worthily of the Lord to all pleasing, in every good work being fruitful, and increasing to the knowledge of God, in all might being made mighty according to the power of His glory, to all endurance and long-suffering with joy. Giving thanks to the Father who did make us meet for the participation of the inheritance of the saints in the light, who did rescue us out of the authority of the darkness, and did translate [us] into the reign of the Son of His love.”

Paul clearly lays out the will of God for every believer. The will of God is never directed towards the individual, but for all God’s children. (Though God has a will for the individual, this is seen in retrospect when we see God’s hand on our lives) We are to walk in these things daily if we want to be able to walk with the Lord. These are the things that David says we have to walk in all parts, we cannot skip one and go to the next. When you read 2 Peter 1:5-8, these are all the characteristics that a Christian should have, this is what God wants for your life, what the will of God is for you. Do not be ignorant, may the Holy Spirit convict you on what you are missing from your walk with the Lord. Like David, let the Lord search you by His Spirit and show you what is missing. (Psalm 139:23) In fact, there is a complete list of all the things that God hates in Proverbs 6:16-19. (The Seven Things God Hates)

B) Going into the Hebrew again for the 2^nd part of this verse, the Hebrew word for working, paw-al, is something that should be translated as, “systematic, habitual work.” This is not a type of work that every once in awhile when God smacks you over the head to do something good. You will know when you are doing this when you never receive a rebuke from God about doing works of righteousness because you are always doing it. I think that Christians are way too lazy and need to actually start getting out there and working. One of the best descriptions of work and labor is in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, when Paul says to “labor in love.” This type of labor is work that breaks you down and is merciless. This is not something you can do each day without it crushing your spirit and building it back up. Did you not know that God always called Israel out on the lack of care for the poor and widows? What are you doing this week to help those who need it and feverously work righteousness? This is not something you take your time and say, “not now, maybe tomorrow or the next day.”Maybe your worldy needs are being met and you have no reason to seek out the hungry and poor. Will God still answer your prayers? Of course, but to what extent? Will your lack of fervor for His will hold back or delay an answer?

C) The person who speaks truth in his heart does not make false promises or teaches lies. Whatever his heart convicts him of, he speaks it. He is a man who believes in the truth and makes it a practice of living by it daily. This truth can mean he speaks Gods word and that of the Bible, or that he does not let any falsehood escape his mouth. Solomon talks about this in Proverbs when he says that if we make any type of promise we cannot keep, we are to go immediately, forsaking sleep, and right the wrong. (Proverbs 6:1-4) Do we have the truth in us? Do we not hear from God every time we read His word? If we go against what He says, the truth is not in us, and we do not speak it in our hearts, let alone follow through and produce fruit from it. Are we slandering those around us, or are too promiscuous with our words? If all our words are played back before us when we stand before Christ, will we be able to stand on them or have them crush us? For a man’s words either condemn him or save him. (Matthew 12:37)

I often hear Christians saying in one form or another that “things are going well” and that they are “growing a lot”.  Or another way of saying this is that because they are “growing”, things appear to be going well.  Whenever I hear this, I always question why they think they are growing – never to discourage, but always to shed some truth.  Too often the response I get for why one thinks they are growing is because they are spending more time with God, receiving deeper convictions to their sin, have a sustained joy, etc.  In a little bit, I’ll explain why this is not biblical growth.

I’m not a pessimist, but I do lack confidence in another’s confidence for a few reasons, the primary reason being that there is an overall genuine lack of the fear of God in Christian churches today: we are quick to speak before the altar, quick to view God as the object of a sappy love song (thanks to modern pop-worship), quick to forget about the necessity of sanctification, quick to manipulate others into salvation by preaching topical messages (and not the deeper truths), etc.  And because of the lack of fear, they do not know what growth is.  Isaiah 33:6 says:

“He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.”

So let’s take a look at how the bible defines growth.  For it is one thing to spend more time with God when your spirit is strengthened, but what happens when your spirit is broken?  It is another thing to receive conviction, but another to respond to conviction.  To get a better understanding of what I’m basing this theology on, please read Growing from Faith to Love. In case you do not have the time to read that post, I will briefly sum it up.  From James 1:4-5, 3:13, and 2 Peter 1:5-9, we can define the biblical route of growth as follows:

Faith, Goodness, Knowledge, Self-Control, Perseverance, Wisdom, Humility, Godliness, Love

See also:

Goodness vs. Godliness

Knowledge vs. Wisdom

Humility vs. Love

This should give you a solid understanding on what growth as a Christian is.  But within the church, we judge others not on their heart, but on their fruit.  We cannot tell where one is in this sanctification process, but we surely can tell if one is going through it.  With that, take a look at Looking at the Fruits.  This post uses Galatians 5:22-23 and lists the fruit of the Spirit.  Notice that fruit is not pluralized and that it is referring to the Spirit, a singular subject.  To clearly illustrate this meaning, think of the Spirit as an entire grape vine and the individual grapes as the fruit.  Therefore, if we have the Spirit, we should posses all of the fruit – not acquire each quality individually and over time.  And through the sanctification process, we are increasing the measure of each quality.  The fruit of the Spirit are:

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control

Also, notice the parallel between the fruit of the Spirit and the steps in the sanctification process.  Pretty amazing!  The bottom line is that we grow through sanctification.  The key to sanctification is wisdom and knowledge, which comes from the fear of the Lord and letting God’s word do its work in your heart as you read, through reflection and meditation.  Let us all become a meditator on the Word of God.

I would love to hear your comments or answer any questions.

-Mark

One thing that has been convicting me a lot lately is speaking about what the disobedient do.  Such shameful things to speak about come up in conversations about a bad experience at a church or a disagreement among believers.  In the beginning, such shameful things are fruitful to talk about so we are called to expose these disobedient deeds.  But it is important to draw a fine line between unfruitful talking and fruitful exposing.  Take a look at the following verses:

“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.” Ephesians 5:11-12

This passage is tucked away yet infinitely important.  We are called to be children of light and walk as such.  The standard required of us is so great, but not heavy.  It is a matter of knowing light from dark and choosing light.  Here, we see that it is a shame to even mention the sins that are committed in secret.  There is a subconscious desire in man to sin in secret, outside of the public eye yet, never leaving the sight of God.  Such disobedience, although completely individualized and isolated from the body of believers, is just as reckless as sin that is not done in secret.  Concluding that all sin, whether secret or not secret, is so anti-Christ that to even speak of the sin is shameful for you.

1 John 1:6 says “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”  Thus, we are called to not even speak of darkness, whether committed openly or in secret.  True, this verse in 1 John is interpreted as our battle against sin.  But if to even mention what the disobedient do in secret is not of the light, then isn’t to do so not walking by the truth?

What deeds are darkness, disobedient, or sinful?  Deeds that are fruitless.  For further reading on fruits, check out Judging others by their fruits.  A fruitless deed does not just mean an outcome that produces no results.  A fruitless deed can be a deed which seems to produce positive results.  However, biblical fruit is mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Therefore, if the fruit from Galatians 5:22-23 is not produced, it is not fruit at all.  And if the deed is fruitless, we are told to have nothing to do with it.  In other words, separate yourself from the deeds that the individual performs, not the individual.  Why not the individual?  Because we are called to be fisher of men. (Unless the individual does not repent of their sin, we know that they have no place in the house of God and we are called to part ourselves from such spirits – 1 Corinthians 5:11.)

What is the fine line between exposing these fruitless deeds and mentioning the sin of the disobedient? It is at the point where exposing such darkness no longer bears fruit and at this point, you yourself are participating in a fruitless deed and becoming a gossiper and slanderer.  Again what fruit must exposing them bear?  Refer to the above – the biblical fruit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23.  At the point that exposing the fruit no longer becomes edifying, you are fellowshipping with darkness and not living by the truth.  Therefore, Ephesians 5:12 can serve as a warning; a warning to guard your tongue so that you can remain blameless, otherwise, you too will be cruising down a reckless path and branching off the sin of another.

-Mark

1 Corinthians 5:12:

“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?  Are you not to judge those inside?  God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked man from among you.’”

I decided to write an article on judging those within the church because this seems to be a forgotten message.  In fact, it has been twisted. Perhaps this is because the gospels create a tone of non-judgment upon others – who can cast the first stone if none of us is without sin?

In Matthew 7:1, Christ says “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”  However, if you read a little further down, at 7:15-16 Christ also says that you will know others by their fruits.  How can you know others by their fruits if you do not examine the product of their lives?  Therefore, Christ is not calling us to be universally and unconditionally accepting.  Rather, Christ is telling us not to be judgmental.

The difference between judgmental and mere examination of one’s fruits is that judgmentalism includes placing a verdict on the motives of someone’s heart.  Examining the fruits of one’s life does not place a verdict on their motives, but instead allows for correction due to the bad fruit.  The former does not spare room for correction, the later does.  Judgmentalism cannot be done through love, which when absent negates any good work that we are doing.  Examining the fruit of one’s life can only be done through love because we are expected to either encourage or correct based upon if the fruit was good or bad, respectively.

Therefore, to those within the body, we will know a tree by its fruit.  Matthew 7:17:

“So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.”

A fruit tree can produce good, bad, or no fruit. We will know fellow believers based upon their fruits. By knowing these fruits we are called to encourage or correct so that “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Provers 27:17).  Through this accountability system, the church helps us on our paths to sanctification.

What is the good fruit that we should be looking for?  Turn to Galatians 5:22-23:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Many misread this verse by pluralizing “fruit” and thereby, changing each quality and isolating it from the others.  This is outright wrong.  Paul does not pluralize “fruit” because each quality creates the fruit.  Think of it as a cluster of grapes and the cluster being the fruit.  Therefore, the fruit of the Spirit consists of all nine qualities.  Do you have seven out of the nine?  So to do those in the secular world.

As John 15:5 states “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”  Verse 6 shows that for those that do not remain in Christ, he is like a branch that is thrown away because it is dead.  Examine the fruits in the lives of those within the church.  Does one think he is fruitful because he counsels effectively, plays on the worship team, or speaks a message?  That is not biblical fruit.  You will know a tree by its fruit.  Next time I write, I will write on what each of the qualities of the fruit are.  But till then I will leave you with what a friend once told me:

“How can you judge someone by their fruit?  It does not always work like that.  If a man at my church is a drunkard and he came to my house for counseling and I told him he needs to repent completely or else he will die a sinner, then he angrily stormed out of my house, crashed his car and died, how can you say there was any fruit from that?”

Every tree produces fruit – whether good, bad, or none at all.  And that example is a perfect example of how fruit is produced even through our deaths.

-Mark