- For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? -
Perhaps you would expect me to touch on the short time we are given on this earth with a verse like this. Are we not vapor in the wind?
Perhaps you would have thought it sensible to discuss how the future will forget or move beyond us in a way that makes our lives meaningless. Carpe Diem anyone?
Instead, I’m going to focus on a different part of this verse, one that I think many Christians struggle with and attempt to explain away.
What’s that now? What would Christians do back flips to try and not follow? Why it’s nothing more than the very words of Jesus Himself.
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
The King James really adds some authority, huh?
Who knows what is good for a man. It’s a rhetorical question, but it strangely has an answer despite the way its presented.
God knows what is good. He declared that creation was a good, and explicitly tied man as being a part of that goodness.
Now, think about how we could answer the “good for man” question. We could say something like, “To know God, praise Him, and bring Him glory.”
It sounds nice. It sounds attainable. It sounds impersonal.
When those combine, we have discovered a platitude, something easily agreed to and requires little action to uphold.
Yet, it’s useful, because its generic enough to point us in the right direction. It is indeed the answer to the question!
It’s a platitude only if we don’t move it beyond the generic answer. It has to become true and actionable in our own lives throughout time.
Imagine two people. One has been in church his whole life, has a loving supporting family, and higher than average intelligence to boot.
The other man is the opposite. Never went to church (even on Easter and Christmas), raised in foster care, and struggles in reading comprehension.
Life continues, both find themselves saved and attending the same church.
What is good for the first man? What is good for the second? Can we conceive of victories the second man would have that would appear as failures for the first?
It’s easy with a stark contrast like this. In our fiction, the characters can match our black and white moralities easily enough.
The grey lines make everything harder to perceive. It is in the unknowns of our true world that it becomes beyond human reasoning to find the dividing lines.
Only with careful patience, time, and thoroughness can we begin to see what is right in our own lives, let alone that of another.
When Jesus said to judge not, he meant it. Why? Because that vision into every man’s soul that can weigh it perfectly is a right, privilege, and power of God.
Think your so righteous as to start throwing stones? To say you have no sin is to invite God’s judgement onto you, and rightfully so.
What can we do then? If we cannot distinguish, how can we encourage? How can we rebuke? How can we go anywhere?
It is better to ask then accuse. To ask is to come along side; it is to struggle underneath the burden of another’s sin.
In asking, we can find strength to love. That love does not abandon, does not lie.
It strives onward up the hill beside another, their crosses shouldered.
Share this post