Judged For A Good Reason

Have you ever felt like you always have to perform or be something your not, depending on where you are at? This can be especially on roles that hold more importance in our lives, like how we portray ourselves at work, or in school, a kind of appearance we have to upkeep with our boss, colleagues, teachers or friends. It can even be so with our relationship with people in church or with Jesus. “Oh I got to show that I am more faithful, more joyful in serving, have more bible knowledge.” I am saying all these because I am very much struggling with this myself at times. I might get affected or keep thinking back on how people might judge my speech, my thoughts or my character as a whole. Now, people would usually say, “Don’t care about what others think of you. Just be yourself.” But is it really true? Does what people think about me matter or not? Now the answer to this question is not so straightforward. You see, in the bible, there are parts that tells us what others’ think are not important, while on other parts, it states that, it matters. So where does this lead us? What does God want us to make of this? Here is the thing, both parts are needed. But let us break it down first.

Firstly, let us understand what God does not want us to focus on.

1. The first thing is, God does not want us to focus on men’s praises or approval. This can be seen in Luke 6:26. It says, “Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” Now in the Old Testament times, there were many false prophets and they were greatly praised by kings and crowds because of their predictions, of prosperity and victory in war. Why? Because these were exactly what people wanted to hear. But popularity is no guarantee of truth and human flattery does not bring about God’s approval. So that is why Luke says that sadness lies ahead for those who chases after the crowd’s praise, rather than God’s truth. At the end, we only satisfy ourselves, bringing glory to our deeds. But very quickly, when things go offtrack someday, we will develop disappointments, discontentment, complaints and hurts. Thus, causing rifts and cracks in relationships.
2. Next, God does not want us to focus on pleasing people. In 1 Thessalonians 2:4, it says, “On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.” In our interaction with others, we may be tempted to alter our position just enough to make our words or actions more palatable, or we may even use flattery and praise. However, in this context, Paul never changed his message to make it more acceptable, but he did tailor his methods to each audience he spoke to. So, although at times we may have to be appropriate to the situation, the truth that guides us must never be compromised, as we live as righteous and blameless representatives of Christ. Like not taking part in gossiping just to join the majority, or overpromising things to avoid conflict and such. If not, the one whom is miserable will be ourselves, constantly putting up a facade and making it even harder to be a gospel deliverer in our roles.
3. God wants us to examine our own hearts.
   In fact, because God loves us, He has already approved of us and He can satisfy our hearts. When we value God’s praises and want to please Him as our utmost priority, we will gradually see the actualising of God’s delight and works in our hearts, making us more genuinely contented and assured in how we portray our true self. My daughter, she is at a phase now where she is more conscious of how she looks. So if she knows we are heading out to meet her cousins or friends, she would request for a dress, for her hair to be tied up a certain way and she gets particular even about the shoes she wears. But at home, with just me, her dad and brother, she is fine with wearing her old, ragged pyjamas and happily going about her activities. Why? Because she is so assured we are far from judging how she looks and we love her despite whatever hairstyles she have or if she has glitter on her shirt. And so, assurance of love comes a long way in making us become more genuine as a person. So when we examine our hearts today, are we assured of God’s love and perspective and the makeup of how God has created us, to be less and less affected about how others might judge us?

But of course, we also talked about the other side of the coin, where we cannot be totally nonchalant and dismissively indifferent to how others view us. But how do we differentiate this? Firstly, when we care about how others view us, it is not because of fear and self glorification, but because we want to win over souls of men. In 2 Corinthians 8:21, it says, “ For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.” And in 1 Peter 2:12, “ Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” In the case of Paul, he actually values how other people see him because he sees himself as a walking testimony and witness of God. And portrays himself in a way so that Christ may be glorified through his life and people may come to be interested in his faith-sustaining God, not him. So let us not, on the contrary, dim down God’s name and works, because we want to please others for ourselves.

Also, we care about how others view us because we want to bring our Christ’s love. God does not want us to live a life of fearing judgement, but with a motive to bring out Christ’s love. If we do good deeds out of fear, this comes from our own strength. But this is also very limited and when we are weak or unable, we will receive a lot of accusations within our hearts. But when we act on the intentions of seeing Christ’s love upon us and loving others, this is definitely brought about by the Holy Spirit’s leading. So even if we are in weakness or we fall, we can continue to rely on God’s grace and amplify God’s power to aid our limited self. In Philippians 1:20, Paul says, “ I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” Here, we can see that Paul cares about how others view his deeds, because of the way Christ is portrayed,  not how he is. Therefore, his life is to demonstrate God’s truth and goodness. Brothers and sisters, let us be encouraged by Paul’s example today. The Lord has given us His love, His wisdom and courage. So no matter how people look at us, let our hearts be purified to do all things for the purpose of glorifying Him, so that our hearts can be upright and blameless as His beloved children. If we are to “perform”, let it be for the sake of Christ and the gospel. God bless.