John 10:37-38 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

I have tried to express an idea for a week now and have failed to get the point across. The essence of the thought is found here in John 19:38. Jesus is perfect in word and deed. I am not.

I am not what I do. I am not what I say. If I get anything right by obedience of faith, praise God not me. If I fail, know that I am man, fallible yet forgiven, do not see that as God’s failing, it is mine and mine alone to own.

The world loves to scream hypocrite. That is a nasty word. No one wants to think of themselves as a hypocrite not even criminals. They lie cheat and steal but they are not hypocrites, they are true to what they are, criminals who act like criminals. Christians on the other hand, now that is another matter. We carry the cross of Christ, we carry His name, more is expected of us.

Psalm 4:6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.

That is a heartfelt prayer and God will honor it, because that is also His will. But will the many recognize His light and His countenance? That is not within my control. I can only own my own failings and hope that my honesty will sway opinion away from hypocrisy.

I am not perfect.

I am forgiven.

Romans 14:16 Let not then your good be evil spoken of:

Labels come easy don’t they? Adjectives come so easy. It is almost as if a thing cannot stand by itself with either some sort of approval or disapproval. Those are judgments. Even high praise is a judgment. For the most part we think of good and evil as being adjectives. If that should be the case here, where is the noun? Are you the noun? Are you good? Are you evil?

Mark 10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

Jesus tells us by this verse not to use the word good as an adjective. So how should we see good?

Nehemiah 13:14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.

That prayer works fine before God but we live among men. It is not God that judges our deeds here, it is mankind. If I had to break down the actions spoken of in Romans 14 to the most simple element for understanding man’s action it would be this. Is what you do the result of obedience of faith?

It is only in obedience of faith that we find God at work. His will, His work, His faith, our love response. Anything less than that is human effort.

Romans 14:13-14 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

This we can only do for brothers and sisters in Christ, the world does not know the truth and judges everything we do as evil. We must treat all as one for we do not know who in the world may step out of the world and into the Kingdom.