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John 7:10-24 – Going Deeper to Judge “Righter”
We are comfortably ready for the familiar non-contextual application of John 7:24 – judge according to righteous judgment – because we like to counterbalance it with Matthew 7:1 – do not judge or you will be judged. But are we ready for the immediate application due to the contextual interpretation? Frankly, it is frightening because I could be wrongfully condemning others and so could you. Read John 7:10-24, noticing all the observations being made, inaccurate and accurate. Notice the context of Jesus being condemned for healing an entire man while “breaking” the Sabbath compared to the Sabbath “breaking” of the Jews to perform circumcision. Notice Jesus saying He is doing exactly the same thing as the Pharisees, only they could not see beyond the obvious. Jesus went deeper than they. Both understood there was higher law of than that of keeping the Sabbath. For the Jews it was rightfully circumcision. For Jesus it was rightfully mercy. Judging righteously and not according to appearance means judging according to the deeper truths of God’s word, and not just what appears right on the surface. How deep are we willing to go? How accepting are we willing to be of those who go deeper than us? Or are we more like the Pharisees than Jesus?
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