COMMENTARY

Don Atkin

DON’T JUDGE BY OUTWARD APPEARANCES

In a Teaching by Barbara Atkin with the above title (posted Under "Teachings" at www.DonAtkin.com) she wrote:

While meditating on Matthew 12:1-14, I saw something that I had neither seen, nor heard before . . . in the word Pharisee is "I see!" They judged people and actions by what they could see with their own, natural eyes. Therefore, they could not comprehend the actions and teachings of Jesus.

This is why Jesus told them, "Do not judge according to appearance ("I see"), but judge with righteous judgment (John 7:24)."

This is good counsel concerning how we discern what is church, what we call church. We have been raised during a season in history when the church as we know it has adopted the ways of the world - bigger is better, Madison Avenue promotion, Hollywood performance, etc.

A. A. Hodge, the great 19th Century Princeton theologian, wrote:

"Wherever the true church is, it will be more or less visible; not in proportion, however, to the size or pretension of the organisation with which it may be associated, but in proportion to the purity of its faith and the spiritual activity and fruitfulness of its membership."

Can tradition and the familiar affect us in the same way that the Pharisees were prejudiced by the law? Barbara observed:

The Pharisees could not receive life from Him, because they were too busy defending the law.

I hope that you are looking for life, not law. I pray that you are more interested in the purity of faith, authentic spiritual activity and fruitfulness. I encourage you to see past what you can see with your natural eyes - the traditional and familiar trappings of current-day churchianity.

Don’t settle for less than the real thing! Embrace The Real One this season.