Judging Rightly

This morning I read an article in the National Post about a fellow in Montreal being ordered by a Human Rights Tribunal to pay 12000$ to his gay neighbors.  This because five years ago one of these neighbors drove down the street recklessly and almost hit his son who was playing street hockey.  The man in question subsequently and allegedly called them a ‘homophobic’ name.  It is important to note that the man in question was acquitted of all charges in a court of law, yet in spite of his legal innocence  and what appears to be (at the least) mitigating circumstances, the tribunal obviously felt they had to punish this individual severely.  All for calling someone a name.

Jesus said that whoever is angry with his brother will be guilty before the court, and whoever says ‘you good-for-nothing’ will be guilty to the supreme court, and whoever says ‘you fool’ will be guilty enough to go to hell (Matt 5:21-32, my paraphrase).

Of course, Christ was telling his disciples (and the crowd that was following Him) that what the lawyers were teaching them about the interpretation of the Mosaic law was missing the point of that exact same law.  While the Pharisees and teachers of the law were busy focusing on of the actions of a particular individual to ascertain guilt, Christ was saying that the important thing was the choices that person was making (including those choices made long before murder or adultery physically occurred).  If the choices of an individual were away from God’s righteousness, then the righteous requirements of the law were broken.

Choices to stew in your own anger (turning it into hateful speech, etc) or to hesitate in your appreciation of beauty (turning a look into lust, etc) are choices made to turn away from God.  They may not be the end action, but they are the beginnings of murder and adultery, and they break the intent of the Law just as the actions do. The Lord sees the inside and judges accordingly.  But because we can only see the outside we tend to focus only on the outside (and the obvious end result). 

Right use of God’s Word (reading, meditation and memorization/recall) allows us to see our own choices in the light of His eternal and correct viewpoint.  We can choose to do that, or we can choose to nitpick His Word and define by human standards just where the dividing line is between right and wrong.  The former leads to right choices, right decisions and right judgments.  The latter always leads to relativism and distortion, and we then miss the whole point.  Taken to extremes, it often results in teaching others to ‘major on the minors’ as some would say.  This in mind, one can only look at the story I read this morning with disbelief at the sad irony of it all. 

“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”   Amen.  And soon, Lord, because it isn’t being done in Montreal.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Homophobic+comments+cost/4112393/story.html