Holy Boldness

chapter of Romans. “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and the foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they blame fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the image in the form of corruptible man…” (Romans 1:21-23) The darkness of someone who thinks they are doing right is the worst kind of darkness. The darkness is all the more tragic for failure to recognize it for what it is. When pleasing God is the motivating factor, issues get clarified. But when men become self-centered, even religion becomes a cover for darkness. Jesus faced this issue head-on in dealing with the religious leaders of the day who were full of judgments against others but who were them selves full of darkness. Jesus’ ministry functioned as an expose’ of darkness posing as light . He exposed the religious fallacies that were so prevalent in His time. Pride, arrogance, and bitterness are heart attitudes that cloud a person’s judgment. These taint a person’s ability to rightly judge a situ ation. The Psalmist once prayed, “Keep back your servant from presump tuous sins, let them not rule over me.” (Psalm 19:13) Presumption makes many broad and far-reaching judgments based on limited information. A person thinks he has an issue figured out before he has searched its depths. Typically, when people make quick judgments, they are walking in presumption. The ability to discern good from evil is not a quick study but grows with time and patience. James exhorted, “Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19) The author of Hebrews wrote that discerning good from evil is for the mature “who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:14). Humility of heart, singleness of devotion, transparency before the Lord, these are the virtues that keep a person from running ahead of God and being confused. Once again, it’s the fear of the Lord that keeps a person from living presumptuously. An evil eye sets a person up for failure from the start. Taken as a whole, the pharisees were a group of people who judged quickly, rashly and indiscriminately. Committed to certain

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