John Chapter Seven

What is happening? There seems to be a change of pace in the life of Jesus continuing on from chapter six. John in this chapter shows the contention and controversy surrounding Jesus. The question of the hour; "Do we believe in him or not?" The religious leaders for the most part want to get rid of him. All they see is a rebel, someone who is challenging their rules, their traditions, their customs. The people on the other hand, are split, not sure what to do, who to listen to. It is becoming not so popular to follow Jesus, so decisions are having to be made.

In the midst of all of this Jesus goes to teach in the temple, and what he has to say doesn't win over the crowd, it infuriates some and inspires awe in others. Me... I am confused, enlightened, and inspired. His words in verse 24 are what stop me this week, "Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgement." Judge righteous judgement...What does that mean?

I don't know why, but I immediately think of the story of when David was anointed by Samuel to be king over Israel. 1 Samuel 16:7, "...Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." So is righteous judgement just looking at the heart? But we are only human, we cannot see the heart, we do not know what is on someone else's heart. Only God knows, only he has righteous judgement. So how does Jesus expect us not to base things on the outward appearance; on what we see?

But wait, Matthew in chapter 7 talks about knowing whether people are truly of God, "real" Christians. Verse 20, "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." By their fruits? What fruits?

One other place in the Bible that I think of fruits in relation to people, and how they show themselves. Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

These are the things that matter. Because when you think about it, God judged David based on these things, but David wasn't perfect. Yet David was always searching and in the end completely yielded to God. God knows where our hearts are, he knew that David's heart was ultimately his, because he saw in David the fruits of the Spirit. So Jesus tells us if judgement is made do it according to the fruits of the Spirit, not according to the initial appearance that we see. Remember in John 5 Jesus was judged for not keeping the Sabbath, but if you look at what he did, aren't all of the fruits of the Spirit evident?

I know I'm not perfect and I have so much more to learn about Jesus. I have so much growing to do but through it all it is my prayer to strive for and have the fruits of the Spirit, because I just want to be what Jesus has been to me.