Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Spirit of Love the Opposite of a Censorious Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:5) | Jonathan Edwards

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The Spirit of Love the Opposite of a Censorious Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:5) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to reformed thinking. It's good to be here.
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  We are, well, just two friends who hold fast to the Reformed
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  tradition. We love the Westminster
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  Confession, we love the old pabs and we love talking about
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  theology. We do.
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  Not as some, you know, dry, dusty academic game, but as the
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  very lens that helps us see our lives clearly.
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  It's the air we breathe. Or it should be anyway.
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  And today we have a text on the table that I think is going to
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  make breathing a little difficult for some of us.
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  It might tighten the chest a bit.
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  I suspect you're right about that.
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  It's a heavy one. We are looking at a treatise by
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  Jonathan Edwards. Now, whenever I bring up Edwards
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  to people, even people inside the church, the reaction is
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  almost automatic. They hear the name and they
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  immediately picture a spider. Sinners in the hands of an angry
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  God. Right.
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  They see the pit of hell, the fire, the brimstone, and this,
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  you know, very stern man, just dangling a spider over the
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  flames. That's the pop culture image of
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  Edwards. It's the caricature, really.
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  And look, don't get me wrong, that sermon is necessary.
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  It's biblical. The holiness of God is a
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  consuming fire, of course. But if you stop there, you miss
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  the heartbeat of the man. I mean, Edwards was arguably the
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  theologian of love. He wrote more about the actions,
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  about beauty, and about the nature of true Christian charity
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  than almost anyone else in his time.
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  He wasn't just a fire and brimstone preacher, he was a
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  surgeon of the soul. And the text we're looking at
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  today absolutely proves it. It's titled The Spirit of Love,
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  the opposite of a censorious spirit.
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  And it's actually based on a very famous verse, First
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  Corinthians 13.5, the love chapter.
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  Which we almost always hear at weddings.
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  We do, yeah, But Edwards isn't really talking about marital
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  bliss here. He just zeroes in on that short,
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  punchy phrase. Charity thinks no evil and he.
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  Flips it. He takes that positive idea that
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  love thinks no evil, and he uses it to take apart a specific
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  vice. A vice he calls censoriousness.
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  That is a word you just do not hear everyday.
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  No, if I walked into a coffee shop and accused someone of
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  being censorious, they'd probably think I was talking
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  about banning books or something.
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  That's true. We hear censor and we think of
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  black bars over classified documents or, you know, bleeping
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  out curse words on TV. But that is not what Edwards is
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  getting at. So.
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  Let's clear the deck right away. What is a censorious spirit?
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  It's an old fashioned term for a timeless sin, and Edwards
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  defines it with his razor sharp precision.
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  Censoriousness is a disposition to think or judge uncharitably
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  of others. A.
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  Disposition. Yes, it's the direct opposite of
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  Christian love. So it isn't just a one time
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  mistake, a bad day. No, and that's a key
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  distinction. We all have moments where we
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  snap at someone or make a snap judgment, but a censorious
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  spirit is a posture. It's a leaning of the heart.
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  So your default setting. Your default setting when you
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  look at another person is to interpret them negatively.
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  It's a harshness of spirit. It's like wearing tinted
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  glasses. Then everything you see is
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  colored by this uncharitable assumption.
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  That's a great way to put it. And Edwards wants to smash those
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  glasses. So our mission for this deep
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  dive is to really unpack this. We want to understand how this
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  mechanism works in the human mind, and Edwards breaks it down
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  into three specific areas where we tend to judge people, we
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  judge their spiritual state, we judge their qualities, and then
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  we judge their actions. And we can't miss the
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  theological states here. This isn't just about being
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  nice. As we go through this, we're
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  going to see that censoriousness is actually a form of blasphemy.
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  It's an attempt to play God. That is a terrifying thought, so
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  let's jump right into the first segment.
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  Edward starts with what I think is the heaviest 1 judging the
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  spiritual state. This is where the rubber really
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  meets the road. In a reformed context, he's
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  talking about the tendency to look at another person, someone
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  in the pews next to you, a neighbor, a public figure, and
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  determine in your own mind whether they are a true believer
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  or a hypocrite. I think we have all done this.
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  You see someone who claims to be a Christian, maybe they post
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  something on social media you dislike, or you see them behave
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  in a way that just annoys you and the thought just flashes
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  into your mind. There's no way that person is
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  actually saved. Edwards calls this being
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  positive about someone's state, and by positive he means
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  certain. He warns against being positive
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  that someone is godly. Based on small things, sure, but
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  his real target is the person who is positive or certain that
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  another person is graceless. Why is that such a problem?
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  I mean, aren't we supposed to be fruit inspectors?
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  Doesn't the Bible say by their fruits you shall know them?
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  We are called to discern fruit, yes, but Edwards is pointing out
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  a massive theological boundary that we are not allowed to
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  cross. God has reserved the
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  determination of men's hearts to Himself.
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  This goes right back to the invisible versus the visible
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  church. Correct.
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  In our tradition, we make a distinction.
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  The visible church consists of everyone who professes the true
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  religion, along with their children.
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  We can see them. We can count them on the church
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  roll. But the invisible church.
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  The invisible Church that consists of the elect, those
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  whose hearts have been truly regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
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  And the point is, we don't have the membership list for the
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  invisible church. We do not.
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  That list is kept in heaven. God is the searcher of hearts.
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  That is His title. So when we try to peer into the
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  soul of another person and make a final ruling on their standing
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  before God, we're trespassing. We're breaking into the archives
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  of heaven and claiming we can read the files.
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  It's a jurisdictional violation. Spot on.
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  We simply do not have the eyes to see the root of the matter in
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  another person's soul. We can see the leaves, maybe we
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  see some fruit, but we cannot see the root.
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  Edwards lists some specific improper evidence that we tend
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  to use when we make these bad judgements, and the first one he
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  mentions is judging based on affliction.
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  This is the oldest mistake in the book.
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  It is the error of Job's friends.
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  Let's talk about that for a second, because we often gloss
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  over how brutal Job's friends actually were.
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  They were devastating. I mean, think about it.
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  Joe has lost everything. His wealth is gone.
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  His children, all of them are dead.
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  His health is ruined. He's covered in sores.
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  He's sitting in an ash sheep, scraping his skin with a piece
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  of pottery. And his friends show up, Elfa,
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  Zazz, Bildad and Zofar. Right.
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  And they sit there and they do the math.
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  They have this simple theological equation in their
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  heads. God is just.
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  God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked.
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  Job is being punished on a scale we've never seen before,
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  therefore. Therefore, Job must be a secret
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  monster, a hypocrite of the highest order.
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  Precisely. They were censorious.
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  They judged his spiritual state based entirely on his
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  providential circumstances. They looked at his suffering and
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  decided it was evidence of God's wrath against him.
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  And they were just dead wrong. Job was actually the most
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  righteous man on earth at that moment.
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  He was, and that is the warning, Edwards tells us.
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  We cannot look at the tragedies in someone's life, their
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  illness, their poverty, their run of bad luck, and conclude
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  that God is punishing them or that they aren't his children.
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  Affliction is not proof of a lack of grace, as Edwards would
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  say. It's often the very school of
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  grace whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.
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  So judging by affliction is out. Then he talks about judging
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  based on failings. This is the gotcha moment.
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  This is when we see a Christian stumble.
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  Maybe they lose their temper, maybe they make a bad business
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  decision. Maybe they get caught in a lie
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  and the censorious spirit just jumps up and says aha, I knew
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  it. A real Christian wouldn't do
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  that. It's this expectation of
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  perfection. It is, and Edwards is very
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  pastoral here. He reminds us that we are
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  condemning people for flaws that are common even to God's
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  children. If you look at the biblical
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  record, it's just full of Saints who stumble badly.
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  David committed adultery and murder.
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  Peter denied the Lord three times with a curse on his lips.
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  Noah got drunk. Moses lost his temper and struck
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  the rock. I mean, if we saw those
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  snapshots, just the sin without the repentance, without the rest
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  of the story, a censorious spirit would write them all off
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  as reprobates. David, that adulterer?
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  No way. He's a man after God's own
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  heart. That is humbling because we
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  judge them for flaws that we probably have ourselves.
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  Or at least we possess the seeds of them in our own heart.
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  Then there is the third type of improper evidence and I think
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  this is maybe the most common 1 today judging based on non
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  fundamental differences. This brings us to what I call
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  the standard of self. I love this concept, can you
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  break it down for us? This is the arrogance of
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  assuming that my Christian experience is the only valid
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  model for all Christian experience.
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  So if I experienced God in a certain way, everyone else has
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  to experience Him in that same exact way.
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  Correct. Let's say I had a very dramatic
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  conversion. I hit rock bottom.
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  I wept for three days. I felt a physical weight lift
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  off my chest. That's my story.
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  But then I meet you, and your story is different.
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  You grew up in the church. You gradually came to understand
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  the gospel, and one day you just quietly trusted Christ.
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  No fireworks, no tears. And if I am censorious, I look
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  at you and say, well, he doesn't have the spirit.
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  He didn't even cry. Right.
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  It's all in his head. It's not in his heart.
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  Or you can flip it. Maybe you're the intellectual
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  type who loves doctrine and I'm the emotional type who loves
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  loud worship music. You look at me and say that's
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  just emotionalism. That's not real faith.
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  We make ourselves the yardstick. We do, Edward says.
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  We are ready to reject people as carnal just because they differ
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  from us on minor points or have a different personality, and he
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  uses this brilliant analogy to show how absurd this really is.
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  The analogy of the human body. Yes, he says.
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  It's like refusing to call someone a man just because they
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  aren't the exact same height as you or they don't have the exact
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  same nose or complexion. That sounds ridiculous.
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  You aren't a human being because you're 3 inches shorter than me.
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  It is biologically absurd, but we do it spiritually all the
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  time. You aren't a Christian because
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  your prayer life doesn't look exactly like mine.
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  You aren't a Christian because you don't dress for church the
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  way I do. It's so restrictive.
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  It's incredibly limiting. It assumes the Holy Spirit is
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  limited to working in only one way.
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  My way Edwards reminds us of the vast variety and liberty of the
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  Spirit. God works in mysterious ways to
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  make us new creatures. We can't demand that everyone's
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  experience quadrat. That's his word to square up
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  perfectly with our own. So that covers judging the
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  state. We shouldn't be in the business
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  of deciding who is saved and who isn't based on our flimsy
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  evidence. But Edwards doesn't stop there.
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  He moves into Segment 2 judging qualities.
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  This is what he calls the bias of the eye it.
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  Really does feel like a visual distortion, doesn't it?
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  When you're in a censorious mood, your eyes actually seem to
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  function differently. They do.
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  Edwards talks about overlooking the good.
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  It's a selective blindness. How does that work in practice?
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  OK, let's say you have a colleague at work and you don't
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  like him. Maybe he just rubs you the wrong
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  way. Now let's say this colleague is
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  incredibly organized, very punctual, and brilliant at
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  spreadsheets. If you have a censorious spirit,
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  you literally cannot see those virtues.
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  You pretend they don't exist. You won't admit it.
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  If someone else says wow, he sure is good with data, you'll
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  just grunt and say yeah, well he's a robot.
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  You spin it. You deny the grace of God in
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  him. You can't bring yourself to say
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  he is smart or she is kind to her children.
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  You just gloss over it. It's like you have a blind spot
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  that just covers up anything praiseworthy in the person you
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  dislike. And on the flip side, of course,
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  you magnify the bad. Yes, this is making mountains
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  out of molehills. You take a small personality,
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  Kirk. Maybe they talk a little too
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  loud, or they're a bit forgetful and you inflate it into a
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  massive moral failing. He's not just loud, he is an
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  arrogant, domineering narcissist.
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  Right. You charge them with evil
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  qualities they don't even have. Edwards talks about how
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  prejudice works here. Through deep prejudice, we might
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  decide someone is proud. We just decided.
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  Look at the way he walks. He holds his head too high.
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  He's arrogant. But in reality, he might just be
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  trying to fix his posture, or he might be shy and trying to look
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  confident. Precisely.
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  But the censorious spirit reads pride into the data.
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  We charge them with being spiteful or malicious, when in
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  fact they haven't given us a second thought.
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  We're just projecting our own narratives onto them.
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  And then we share those narratives.
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  Edwards calls this the despicable view.
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  This is the social part of it. We represent them to our friends
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  as low, contemptible people. We paint a caricature of them.
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  Oh him, he's just a greedy ladder climber.
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  We strip away all the nuance, all the complexity, all the good
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  qualities, and we present this one-dimensional monster.
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  It's character assassination. It is, whereas A charitable
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  spirit would do the exact opposite.
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  So how does a charitable spirit handle flaws?
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  Charity looks for palliations. That is a great 18th century
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  word palliations. It means mitigations, excuses,
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  reasons to soften the blow, Charity says.
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  Well, he was short with me today, but I know he's under a
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  huge deadline and his wife is sick.
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  Charity balances the Ledger. It says he struggles with his
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  temper. Yes, that is true.
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  But look at how generous he is with his money.
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  Look at how he serves the poor. So charity looks at the whole
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  picture, Censoriousness just zooms in on the pimple.
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  That is a vivid way to put it, yes.
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  So we judge the state, we judge the qualities.
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  Now we get to the third area, and this is where I think
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  Edwards gets really psychological judging actions.
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  This is where he tackles evil surmisings.
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  He quotes First Timothy 6.4. He does evil surmisings.
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  It basically means suspecting the worst without any evidence.
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  This is the suspicious spirit. It is the paranoia of the
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  censorious mind. It's when we assume people are
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  doing bad things when we aren't looking.
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  You see two people talking in the corner of the church lobby.
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  They look over at you, then look back at each other.
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  And the censorious mind immediately thinks they're
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  talking about me. They are gossiping.
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  Or you see someone who looks very pious and holy, and the
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  censorious spirit thinks he looks too perfect.
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  I bet he has a secret life. I bet he's admitting all kinds
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  of secrets in. It's a refusal to take things at
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  face value. It is, and Edwards is very
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  strong on this. He says judging without evidence
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  is contrary to the very nature of Christianity.
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  But then he deals with the issue of rumors.
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  Because usually we don't just invent these ideas out of thin
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  air. We heard something.
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  We heard a flying rumor. A flying rumor.
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  I like that. It implies speed.
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  It implies something that's hard to catch.
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  It does, and Edwards takes a really hard stance here.
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  He says hearing a rumor is not evidence.
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  Just because someone said it doesn't mean it's true.
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  That is a hard pill to swallow for our culture today.
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  We live in an economy of rumors. We do, but Edwards reminds us of
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  who runs this world system. He points us to the devil's
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  title. The God of this world.
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  And the father of lies. So if the ruler of this world is
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  the father of lies. Then we should expect that the
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  air is filled with lies. Edwards argues that in a world
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  ruled by the father of lies, many, if not most of the flying
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  rumors we hear are probably false.
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  They're manufactured to destroy. So if you believe every rumor
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  you hear, you are essentially letting the devil dictate your
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  reality that. Puts a different spin on
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  scrolling through social media, doesn't it?
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  It certainly does. And then Edwards uses this
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  really visceral image that is always stuck with me.
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  He compares the censorious spirit to a carrion bird.
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  Like a vulture. Yes.
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  Think about a vulture. It flies over a beautiful
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  landscape. There are green meadows,
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  blooming flowers, fresh streams, grazing deer.
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  It's a scene of life and beauty. Does the Vulture care about any
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  of that? Not at all.
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  It ignores the beauty. It ignores the life.
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  It scans the ground for one thing, death.
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  It looks for the rotting carcass.
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  And when it finds that dead stinking thing, it lands and it
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  feasts. That's disgusting.
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  It is. And Edward says that is exactly
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  what the censorious heart does. It has a hunger for bad news.
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  It feeds on the reported failings of others.
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  When we hear a scandal, when we hear that a leader has fallen or
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  a neighbor has cheated, do we grieve or do we feel a little
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  spike of satisfaction? Do we want to consume the
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  details? Doom scrolling impulse.
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  We want to see the car crash. We have an appetite for the
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  ride, and Edwards contrast this with Psalm 15.
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  The citizen of Zion, the one who dwells on God's holy hill, is
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  the one who takes not up a reproach against his neighbor.
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  He doesn't take it up. Right.
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  It's lying there on the ground. A juicy rumor, A reproach.
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  The citizen of Zion just walks past it.
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  He leaves it in the dirt. He refuses to pick it up.
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  He refuses to feed on the carrion.
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  That is a high standard. Now, what about when the action
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  is visible? It's not a rumor.
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  We actually saw them do it. Can we judge them?
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  Even then, Edwards warns us about putting the worst
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  construction on. It this is judging motives.
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  Yeah, exactly. Let's say someone does a good
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  deed. A wealthy man donates a huge sum
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  of money to the church building fund.
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  Visibly, that is a good action. A charitable spirit says praise
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  God for his generosity. But the censorious spirit says
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  he's just doing that to buy influence.
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  He wants the elders to listen to him.
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  He wants his name on a plaque. It's all just vanity.
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  You've taken a good action and assigned it a bad motive.
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  And Edward says this is a high crime against God.
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  Why? Because the moving design and
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  end of an action is secret. It is confined to the recesses
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  of the actor's own bosom. Only God sees the bosom.
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  When you say he did it for flattery, you are claiming to
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  see what only God can see. You're claiming omniscience.
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  You are. So we have covered judging the
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  state, the qualities and the actions.
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  And at this point the listener might be thinking OK guys this
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  sounds nice, but am I supposed to be an idiot?
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  Am I supposed to be blind? Or do I just smile and nod and
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  pretend everyone is a St. That is the natural objection,
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  isn't it? Is Christian charity just
• 17:41
  naivety? And Edwards anticipates this.
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  In Segment 4, he clarifies the role of reason.
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  He has a great line. Christian charity is not founded
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  on the ruins of reason. I love that line.
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  We don't have to lobotomize ourselves to be Christians.
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  Faith and reason are friends in the Reformed tradition.
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  Edwards outlines specific exceptions where judgment is not
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  only permissible but actually necessary.
• 18:06
  OK, so first he mentions those in office.
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  Right. If you are a civil magistrate, a
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  judge, a police officer or governor, or if you are a church
• 18:13
  leader, you have a duty to judge.
• 18:16
  An elder board must determine if a member is an unrepended sin.
• 18:20
  A judge must determine if a crime was committed.
• 18:22
  That's part of their job description.
• 18:24
  It is not censorious to do your job impartially.
• 18:26
  So if a jury finds a man guilty, they aren't being censorious.
• 18:30
  No, they're being just. And then there's the issue of
• 18:32
  flagrant proof. Yes, we are not required to be
• 18:35
  delusional. Edwards quotes First Timothy
• 18:38
  5.24. Some men's sins are open
• 18:41
  beforehand. If the man is openly drunk in
• 18:44
  the street, screaming profanities and throwing bricks
• 18:46
  through windows, you don't have to stand there and say, well, I
• 18:49
  suspect he has a sweet quiet spear.
• 18:51
  You can judge that he is drunk and violent.
• 18:53
  The evidence constrains your judgement.
• 18:56
  Reason demands you acknowledge the evil.
• 18:58
  So here is the $1,000,000 question.
• 19:01
  If I see a man robbing a bank and I judge him to be a thief,
• 19:04
  how is that different from being censorious?
• 19:06
  The difference is the heart. This is the crucial distinction
• 19:09
  that Edwards makes. It all comes down to what he
• 19:11
  calls, well, pleasedness. Well, pleasedness explain that
• 19:14
  for us. When a censorious person judges
• 19:16
  evil, there's a secret or sometimes very open Glee.
• 19:20
  They enjoy the scandal. They feel superior.
• 19:23
  They are forward to publish it. They run to tell the news.
• 19:25
  Did you hear what happened? But the Christian judges with
• 19:28
  grief. Yes, Edwards used the analogy of
• 19:31
  a parent. Imagine a father finds
• 19:34
  undeniable proof that his son has robbed a store.
• 19:38
  The police are at the door. The evidence is on the table.
• 19:40
  He can't deny it. He has to judge that his son is
• 19:43
  a thief. He judges it to be true, but
• 19:45
  does he run out and tell the neighbors?
• 19:47
  Does he post it on Facebook with a laughing emoji?
• 19:49
  No, he's crushed. He weeps, He wishes with all his
• 19:53
  heart it weren't true. That is the litmus test.
• 19:56
  When you see sin, When you see error, When you see a leader
• 19:59
  fall. What is your emotional reaction?
• 20:01
  Is it a dopamine spike, a little thrill of I knew it?
• 20:04
  Or is it a heaviness in your gut, a sense of Lord have mercy?
• 20:08
  If it's a thrill, that's censoriousness.
• 20:10
  If it's the heaviness, that's charity.
• 20:12
  That's it. That brings us to the root
• 20:13
  causes. Why are we like this?
• 20:15
  Why do we get that thrill? Edwards really digs into the
• 20:17
  psychology of sin in Segment 5. And he identifies 2 main roots,
• 20:22
  the lack of love and pride. Let's look at the love of
• 20:25
  neighbor argument first. He uses self love as the
• 20:27
  baseline. This is a brilliant application
• 20:30
  of the Golden Rule, he says. Look at how you treat yourself.
• 20:33
  We all love ourselves. Consequently, we are very
• 20:36
  backward to judge our own state as bad.
• 20:38
  When we mess up, what do we do? We immediately hire a defense
• 20:42
  attorney in our heads. Instantly we have 1000 excuses.
• 20:46
  I was tired, I was stressed, He provoked me.
• 20:48
  I didn't really mean. It we interpret our own motives
• 20:51
  in the best possible light. I wasn't lying, I was just
• 20:53
  trying to spare his feelings. Right.
• 20:55
  So Edwards argues, if you loved your neighbor as yourself, you
• 20:59
  would extend that same robust legal defense to them.
• 21:02
  You would be their defense attorney, not their prosecutor.
• 21:04
  You'd be the first one to say maybe he was just tired, maybe
• 21:08
  he didn't mean it that way. He also points out that we don't
• 21:11
  judge our friends or our children harshly.
• 21:13
  When we love someone, we naturally cover their offenses.
• 21:17
  Love covers a multitude of sins, so if we are quick to expose
• 21:20
  sins, if we are quick to judge, it is proof positive that we do
• 21:24
  not love, it is evidence of hatred, he says.
• 21:27
  Where ill will and anger prevail, like in party disputes
• 21:31
  or church splits, censoriousness just dominates.
• 21:35
  It's the exhaust pipe of a Loveless engine.
• 21:37
  But the deeper root, the real theological core, is pride.
• 21:42
  And this takes us right back to the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew
• 21:45
  7, the beam and the Moat. Which is such a funny image if
• 21:49
  you really think about it. You've got a 2 by 4 plank
• 21:51
  sticking out of your eyes, swinging around, knocking over
• 21:53
  lamps, and you're squinting at your friend saying hold on, you
• 21:56
  have a little speck of sawdust there.
• 21:57
  Let me get that for you. It's absurd.
• 21:59
  It's almost comical. But Edwards says the censorious
• 22:02
  person acts as if they are free from fault.
• 22:05
  It's a tacit claim to perfection, but the theological
• 22:08
  danger is even worse than just hypocrisy.
• 22:10
  It's usurpation. Usurping God's throne.
• 22:13
  Yes, he cites James 4.11. He that speaketh evil of his
• 22:17
  brother and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and
• 22:20
  judgeth the law. How does judging my brother mean
• 22:22
  I'm judging the law? Because the law says love thy
• 22:25
  neighbor. When you judge censoriously, you
• 22:28
  are stepping outside of the law. You're saying I'm above this
• 22:31
  rule. You stop being a doer of the
• 22:34
  law, a fellow servant under the rules, and you appoint yourself
• 22:37
  as a judge of the law. You are setting yourself up as
• 22:40
  the standard. And Romans 14.4 backs this up.
• 22:43
  Who art thou that judges to another man's servants?
• 22:46
  That is the key. They are not your servant.
• 22:49
  They are God's servant. If you walk into another man's
• 22:51
  house and start firing his staff, you're out of line.
• 22:55
  You are claiming an authority you do not possess.
• 22:58
  Edwards is reminding us that by judging, we are trying to steal
• 23:02
  God's gavel. We are trying to be many gods.
• 23:04
  It's the primal sin of Eden. Ye shall be as gods, judging
• 23:08
  good and evil on our own terms. Now, Edwards is a good preacher,
• 23:11
  so he uses illustrations, and this is my favorite part of the
• 23:14
  treatise because he walks us through biblical case studies of
• 23:17
  false judgement. He shows us that even the
• 23:19
  spiritual giants got this wrong. These are fascinating.
• 23:21
  Let's look at the first one, the story of the tribes of Reuben,
• 23:24
  Gad and Manasseh from Joshua 22. Can you set the scene for us?
• 23:28
  OK so so the Israelites have conquered the land, these 3
• 23:31
  tribes. They decide to settle on the
• 23:33
  east side of the Jordan River. But before they go, they build
• 23:36
  this massive, imposing altar right by the river.
• 23:39
  And the rest of Israel sees this and just freaks out.
• 23:42
  They panic. They assume the absolute worst
• 23:45
  immediately. They are building a rival
• 23:47
  temple. They are abandoning the true
• 23:50
  God. They are turning to idolatry,
• 23:52
  the text says. The whole congregation gathered
• 23:54
  at Shiloh to go up to war against them.
• 23:56
  They were ready to start a civil war over this, oiling their
• 23:59
  Shields and sharpening their swords.
• 24:01
  Talk about being positive about a spiritual state.
• 24:04
  They were certain these guys were apostates, but then
• 24:07
  thankfully they sent a delegation first.
• 24:09
  Phineas the priest goes and asks, what is this trespass?
• 24:12
  And what was the real story? The three tribes were horrified.
• 24:15
  They said no, God forbid. We didn't build this for
• 24:17
  sacrifices. We built it as a copy, as a
• 24:19
  witness. We were afraid that in the
• 24:22
  future your children would tell our children that we aren't part
• 24:24
  of Israel because of the river. This altar is a memorial to
• 24:27
  prove we belong to Yahweh. So it wasn't an act of
• 24:30
  rebellion, it was an act of faithfulness.
• 24:32
  It was an act of piety. The censorious judgment their
• 24:35
  idolaters was 100% wrong. They assumed the worst possible
• 24:40
  motive when the true motive was actually to secure their
• 24:44
  heritage in the faith. If they hadn't asked, they would
• 24:46
  have slaughtered their own brothers over a
• 24:48
  misunderstanding. That's the danger.
• 24:50
  Then there's the story of Hannah in First Samuel 1.
• 24:53
  This one makes me angry every time I read it.
• 24:55
  Picture the scene. It's the Tabernacle at Shiloh.
• 24:58
  You have Eli, the high priest, sitting by the doorpost.
• 25:01
  He is the spiritual heavyweight of the nation, and in walks
• 25:04
  Hannah. And she is just devastated.
• 25:07
  She's barren in that culture. That's a source of immense shame
• 25:10
  and sorrow. She is desperate for a child.
• 25:13
  So she's pouring her soul out to God.
• 25:15
  The text says she was in bitterness of soul.
• 25:17
  She's weeping. Her lips are moving, but no
• 25:20
  voice is heard. She is in that deep, guttural
• 25:22
  place of prayer where words fail.
• 25:24
  It is arguably one of the holiest moments in Scripture.
• 25:27
  It is, and Eli watches her. He looks at the external
• 25:30
  evidence. Trembling, check.
• 25:34
  Moving lifts but no sound, check.
• 25:36
  Emotional instability? Check.
• 25:39
  And his censorious spirit connects the dots.
• 25:41
  He concludes she's drunk. He rebukes her.
• 25:45
  How long will thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from me.
• 25:48
  I just can't imagine that you are bearing a broken heart to
• 25:51
  the creator of the universe and the high priest calls you a
• 25:53
  drunkard. It just shows that you can judge
• 25:56
  actions completely wrong if you don't know the heart.
• 25:58
  He saw the symptoms of spiritual agony and diagnosed them as the
• 26:02
  symptoms of intoxication. Then there is David and
• 26:04
  Mephibosheth. This one is a tragedy because
• 26:07
  Dave is usually so discerning. He's the sweet psalmist of
• 26:10
  Israel. But in Second Samuel 16, David
• 26:12
  is on the run from his son Absalom.
• 26:14
  He's vulnerable and Zeba, though the servant of Mephibosheth,
• 26:17
  meets him with donkeys and food. And David asks, where is your
• 26:20
  master Mephibosheth? And Zeba lies.
• 26:22
  He sees an opportunity. He says, oh, he's back in
• 26:24
  Jerusalem. He said today the House of
• 26:25
  Israel will give me back the Kingdom of my father.
• 26:28
  He paints Mephibosheth as a traitor who is celebrating
• 26:31
  David's downfall. It was a classic flying rumor.
• 26:34
  It was, and David in his pain and haste he swallows it whole.
• 26:39
  He believes the lie without verifying it.
• 26:41
  He says, Behold flying are all that pertained unto
• 26:44
  Mephibosheth. He gives the traders land to the
• 26:47
  liar. And later, when David returns,
• 26:49
  Mephibosheth comes out to meet him, and he's a mess.
• 26:52
  He hasn't watched his feet or trimmed his beard since the day
• 26:54
  David left. He has been in mourning.
• 26:57
  He was loyal the whole time. David judged him as a traitor
• 27:00
  based on a servant's slander. He was completely wrong.
• 27:04
  And finally, Elijah the classic. I alone am left.
• 27:07
  This is first Kings 19. Elijah is exhausted.
• 27:10
  He's running from Jezebel. He collapses under a juniper
• 27:12
  tree and complaints to God. The children of Israel have
• 27:15
  forsaken thy covenant, thrown down 9 altars, and I even I only
• 27:20
  am left. He judged the spiritual state of
• 27:22
  the entire nation. He did.
• 27:23
  He looked at the whole country and said there are 0 believers
• 27:26
  left, just me. And God has to correct his math.
• 27:29
  God says, actually, Elijah, I have left me 7000 in Israel all
• 27:33
  the knees which have not bowed unto bail.
• 27:35
  Elijah thought it was one. God said it was 7001.
• 27:38
  He was off by 700,000%. It just goes to show things
• 27:43
  often appear far better when the full truth is known, Edwards
• 27:47
  says. They're always two sides to a
• 27:48
  story. The censorious spirit rushes to
• 27:51
  the verdict before the defense has even entered the room.
• 27:54
  So we've seen the nature of the sin, the root of the sin, and
• 27:57
  examples of the sin. Now we get to the application.
• 27:59
  Edwards doesn't just leave us hanging, he gives us reproof and
• 28:03
  warning. He starts with evil speaking
• 28:06
  because thinking evil inevitably leads to speaking evil.
• 28:09
  Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
• 28:12
  Back biting. That's a word the King James
• 28:14
  used a lot. It is, and Edwards points to
• 28:16
  Titus three and first Peter 2. We are commanded to be no
• 28:19
  brawlers and to lay aside all evil speakings.
• 28:22
  If we're constantly criticizing others, especially those we
• 28:25
  disagree with politically or theologically, we are violating
• 28:28
  a direct command of Scripture. He also pivots us back to
• 28:31
  focusing on ourselves. This is the practical fix.
• 28:35
  Mind your own business, Edwards says.
• 28:37
  Our primary concern is our own estate before God.
• 28:41
  We have enough sin in our own arts to keep us busy for a
• 28:44
  lifetime. Why are we out gardening in our
• 28:46
  neighbor's yard when our own is full of weeds?
• 28:48
  He quotes First Corinthians 4.5 again.
• 28:51
  Judge nothing before the time. That phrase before the time is
• 28:55
  key. There is a Judgement Day coming.
• 28:58
  God has appointed a day. On that day the books will be
• 29:01
  opened. The hidden things of darkness
• 29:03
  will be brought to light. But we are impatient.
• 29:05
  We are censoriousness is at its core, impatience.
• 29:09
  We want the verdict now. We want to sort the sheep from
• 29:11
  the goats now. And God says, wait, I will
• 29:14
  handle it. Trust me to be the judge.
• 29:16
  And then the final threat. This is where Edwards, the
• 29:18
  preacher, really brings the hammer down.
• 29:21
  Judge not that ye be not judged. We quoted all the time, usually
• 29:23
  to defend ourselves when we're doing something wrong, But
• 29:26
  Edwards explains the mechanics of it.
• 29:27
  It's the law of retribution. The measure you use will be used
• 29:31
  on you. Think about the implications of
• 29:33
  that. If you use a harsh, unforgiving,
• 29:36
  microscopic measure on your neighbor, if you demand
• 29:39
  perfection, if you grant no mercy, if you assume the worst
• 29:42
  motives, God says, OK, Is that the standard you want to operate
• 29:46
  under? Fine, I will use that standard
• 29:47
  on you on the last day. That is terrifying because none
• 29:50
  of us can stand under that standard.
• 29:52
  If God marks iniquities, who shall stand?
• 29:54
  No one. We need grace, we need charity,
• 29:56
  we need God to put the best construction on our feeble
• 30:00
  attempts at righteousness. So Edwards argues, if we want
• 30:03
  mercy, we must extend mercy. It's a strict warning.
• 30:06
  If we are found judging others, we invite God's strict judgement
• 30:10
  upon ourselves. So let's wrap this up.
• 30:12
  We have unpacked a lot. Here we certainly have.
• 30:14
  To summarize, censoriousness is a prideful, loveless
• 30:18
  disposition. It thinks the worst of people's
• 30:20
  spiritual state, It ignores their good qualities, and it
• 30:23
  assumes the worst about their actions.
• 30:25
  It usurps God's role as the only true judge.
• 30:28
  And in contrast, charity, true Christian love, hopes all
• 30:32
  things. It puts the best construction on
• 30:34
  actions until proven otherwise. It grieves over sin rather than
• 30:38
  celebrating it, and it focuses on its own repentance rather
• 30:42
  than the faults of others. You know, it's easy to see how
• 30:45
  this applies to the 18th century, but the relevance today
• 30:47
  is just staggering. Think about social media again.
• 30:50
  Social media is essentially an algorithm for censoriousness.
• 30:53
  How so? Well, think about the
• 30:54
  constraints. You have 280 characters or a 15
• 30:58
  second video. You cannot explain the secrets
• 31:01
  of your bosom in a tweet. You can't show your complex
• 31:04
  motives. You can only show an action or a
• 31:06
  statement. So the medium itself strips away
• 31:08
  the context that charity requires.
• 31:10
  Right. Charity requires time.
• 31:12
  Charity requires context. Charity requires knowing the
• 31:14
  person. The Internet gives us none of
• 31:16
  that. It gives us a disconnected
• 31:18
  action and asks us to react instantly.
• 31:21
  It encourages us to judge the state of a total stranger based
• 31:24
  on a tiny fragment of data. And it feeds that carrion bird
• 31:27
  appetite. The algorithm knows we will
• 31:29
  click on the carcass and knows outrage keeps us engaged.
• 31:32
  It does. So as Reformed Christians, we
• 31:34
  have to be countercultural here. To be a charitable Christian
• 31:39
  online is to fight the entire architecture of the Internet.
• 31:43
  We need to be the people who refuse to jump on the pylon.
• 31:47
  We need to be the people who say, wait, I don't know the
• 31:49
  whole story. I'm going to hope for the best
• 31:51
  until I know otherwise. It applies to church conflict
• 31:54
  too. I mean how many church splits
• 31:56
  happen because we judge motives? The pastor did this because he
• 31:59
  is arrogant. The elders did this because they
• 32:01
  are power hungry. Instead of saying maybe they're
• 32:04
  trying to be faithful in a very hard situation.
• 32:06
  Yes, charity would save a lot of churches.
• 32:08
  And political polarization. We don't even need to get into
• 32:11
  specific issues to see that we judge the hearts of the other
• 32:14
  side. We don't just say they're wrong
• 32:16
  on policy. We say they hate the country or
• 32:19
  they hate the poor. That is judging the secret
• 32:22
  recesses of the bosom. That is playing God.
• 32:26
  So as we close, I want to leave the listener and ourselves with
• 32:30
  a provocative thought. And this comes straight from the
• 32:32
  logic of Edward's warning. I want you, the listener, to
• 32:36
  think about the last person you criticized.
• 32:39
  Maybe it was a politician, a family member, a Co worker, or
• 32:43
  just someone on the Internet. Think about the level of grace,
• 32:47
  the level of charitable assumption, the benefit of the
• 32:50
  doubt you extended to them. OK, now imagine if God judged
• 32:53
  you right now, in this moment, using only that same level of
• 32:57
  grace you gave them. If he used your measure, would
• 33:00
  you be acquitted or would you be condemned?
• 33:03
  That is a sobering question if the answer is condemned and we
• 33:06
  have some repenting. To do Indeed we do.
• 33:08
  Let's pray for a spirit of charity.
• 33:10
  Thanks for listening to Reformed Thinking.
• 33:11
  Grace and peace to you.