Paul says that we must all, preachers and other people alike,
“appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” But if you will learn here
and now to live under the scrutiny of Christ’s pure light, your final
judgment will bring you only delight in seeing the work God has done in
you. Live constantly reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ,
and walk in the knowledge of the holiness He has given you. Tolerating a
wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of
the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment of
another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it
immediately into the light and confess, “Oh, Lord, I have been guilty
there.” If you don’t, your heart will become hardened through and
through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not
only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner
and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop
doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get
used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even
realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from
being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent
consequences of sin.
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light. . .” (1 John
1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to
the standard we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude
of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which
comes from unconsciously living a lie.
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