To What Purpose are the Powers of Observation Given?

When I afford myself the luxury of mere observation, I afford myself the sin of criticism.

We never really know the depths of a man’s heart – we judge by external appearances. Do we really know good from evil, just by observing the actions and appearances? Who is more righteous, Neil Armstrong or Morgan Freeman? Margaret Thatcher or Rowan Williams? Nelson Mandela or Pastor Fred? Barack Obama or Ellen Johnson Sirleaf? Let’s face it, the 24 hour news channels play a big roile in shaping our definition of righteous and wickedness....and of giving us over to quickfire judgments with an uncanny sense of our own accuracy.

But I have come to realize how inaccurate we can be, and often. Like all of us, having experienced situations where my actions are assessed before my intentions, I am softened to the idea that only God knows the heart and motive, and thus only God is the one who does not play judge.

But what if the Spirit within also allowed us to see within another? Under what circumstances would He do this? Would He give us such wisdom without purity? Would He grant us such insight to fuel our competitive advantage? Can God be inconsistent within His own nature? The answer is self-evident.

I well remember a great pastor in my life, whose greatness was in his love and meekness. He preached fervently, but in love. When Jimmy Swaggart fell in 1988 and the knives were sharpened, my pastor preached on love believing the best and love never criticizing nor tearing, even when the worst is proved. He smashed into the right to gossip. He tore at our claim to righteousness apart from grace. He asked the question with a face full of pathos, “Did Jimmy have one good friend? Could he be honest? Do you? Can you?”.

What am I saying with regard to the Spirit revealing men’s hearts to me? Simply this – that he does it when we are moving in agape love towards others. If you have not love, you gain nothing - including wisdom. You are left to your own devices, opinions and powers of observation. And that is terrifying, for at least three reasons

• You will be wrong most of the time
• Even when you are right, you will be wrong, because a lack of love leads to a lack of action or good intention. If you find out that your worst enemy’s wife has had an affair, does it motivate you to grieve and pray or to gloat and party inside your head?
• You are found to be a hypocrite. Do you want people to believe the best or the worst of you? Do you want semi-blind friends or forensic associates? Do you like your actions being reverse-engineered to your motive, or your motives being assumed as good?

The transforming power of love is amazing! It is way more than a feel-good moment on a Helen Steiner Rice floral card. When you meet someone you don’t like, but there is love, it holds huge transforming power for the disliked person. “At last! Someone who loves me”. And the strange thing is the cranky behaviour dies down. You see, the vicious circle is complete when a man gives up on himself because of outer hostility or frigidity, and believes the worst of his OWN motives. Then he caves in to the anger he has nursed, as a fruit of injustice and self-righteousness (fruits we all carry the seeds of). He realizes somewhere that the world is a cruel place, and learns not to tolerate himself too. And so, without the power of love, he gives way to sinfulness. And thus can his enemies and observers note finally, “You see, we were right – he is a bad man”.

Am I saying there are no bad men? Should we entrust our children to any stranger? Of course not. But I am saying what Jesus said, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. And we might just find other scriptures coming true in our lives…ones such as: “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7).

In conclusion, as Christians we can take the easy route of loving and greeting those who love and greet us. We can join with the world in rolling out judgments and observations about anyone and everyone who flashes across our TV screens. Or we could reclaim the sanctity of love and the power of heaven’s fellowship by meditating again on one of the most powerful verses in all the Bible: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. And love of God’s type requires faith to receive it and faith to love loveless people who won’t thank you for it in the short term. But people notice everything. We have such a knack of determining who is for us and who is against us…and who is just plain neutral. We judge others for being insecure and over-sensitive, but the truth is it is barefaced hypocrisy (and we are filled with a “hypersensitive Spirit”, according to the Christian author RT Kendall).

Even better than being sensitive towards ourselves however, is developing a new level of sensitivity for others. Mercy triumphs over judgment, so the way to defeat judgmentalism in your mind is to have mercy flooding your heart once more.

I close with two profound revelations God dropped into my heart a few years ago – if only I could keep observing it – “Love is viewing others relative to God, not relative to yourself”. And the second is similar: “Maturity is not about how much we observe, but how much we choose to overlook”.

Love

Nick