By Your Own Words

"He said to him, 'By your own words I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow?'" ~Luke 19:22


The Lord spoke a powerful message to my spirit yesterday as I was reading Luke 19:11-27 that I think we should all take some time to consider. What stands out the most in this story is the attitude of the servant seen in verse 21 and his Master's response in verse 22. If you will notice, Jesus never describes the Master in any way - it is the servant who describes the Master in such a negative light. Most Christians will naturally assume that since these words are spoken by Jesus that the Master is a harsh dictator. Nope, that is what the servant thought.


How do you perceive God? Because that is how He will judge you. In Matthew 7, Jesus teaches us not to judge so that we will not fall under the same judgment; because the manner in which we judge a person or situation is the standard that God will hold us to (Matt. 7:1-2). We see that in this parable. The Master holds the servant to the standard that the servant had set through his own words. The servant is rebuked, because he did not operate in accordance with his judgment of his Master. Judgment does not always mean "prejudice;" it sometimes means to hold an opinion about something. This servant held an untrue assumption about the Master, and he was judged by the Master in accordance with his own opinions. The same is true with us. Which begs to ask...


Do you live your life as if everything you believe was actually true? For example, my wife and I were involved in a (brief) small group for married couples at our church. I would often hear my peers using phrases like "we are servants of God" and "we should be giving up everything to serve Him all the time." OK, but do you do that? Nope. Most Christian people will discuss how frail, imperfect and unworthy we are as people. Try telling them that anywhere but in a church. I guarantee you that you will end up with a broken limb. Christians talk about giving up all that we are to be "slaves" of Christ. OK, how much TV do you watch when you get home? How many hours of "service" do you dedicate to the Lord each week, outside of your 45-minute church "duty"? You see, we have a nice religious "lingo" going on in our lives, but do we actually live every moment in accordance with these confessions? No, we do not; we are not even close. 


I know in my own life this can be a struggle. I know I am branded with the "prosperity preachers," but do I really live my life in a way that reflects that? I preach (mostly to the curtains or the cat...) that God is a Healer, and that all the pain and death running ramped in the church is not of God. However, if something were to happen to my wife, how would I respond? Whenever the thought hits me, I am not sure if the I would ride in a on white horse, go all "first-century church" on the issue, rebuke the sickness and go home that day. My confidence is not quite there yet. The same is true where my finances are concerned. Do I really believe Micah 3:10, Matthew 6:33, Luke 6:38, 2Corinthians 9:8-10, Galatians 6:7, Philippians 4:19?? Sometimes; other times I sweat where the money will come from. If we just lived like everything in Bible were true our lives would look drastically different. And our conversations and confessions would be... unimaginably different. The power of confession is one of the most powerful forces God has given us to enact His Kingdom on the earth. If they do not line-up with His Word, then we will end up like that servant - operating in fear of the One who ought not to be feared. 


Most of the time, we live our lives - as this servant did - with gross misconceptions about God. The Master asked, "Did you really know...?" God is asking us the same thing today. "Do you really know I am like that?" God is going to hold you to the standard of your own confessions and judgments of Him - so it's imperative that we know Him and His Word; your words set the standard (Matt. 12:37). Are we living up to those? Something to think about...