By Al Behel
“...His eyes sees every precious thing” (Job 28:10)
Many of us will remember an old hymn we sang if we grew up in the church entitled, “There’s An All-Seeing Eye Watching You.” The song reminded us that every step that we take this great eye is awake. The chorus was an ominous warning to all of us:
“Watching you, watching you,
There’s an all-seeing eye watching you.”
Frankly, I didn’t like that hymn. It was scary to think that God was watching every move that I made, trying to catch me breaking so law of His so He could give me another black mark.
We have some fellow-Christians who are like that. They see themselves as experts at discerning the actions of others and the motives behind them. They monitor every sermon, announcement, and prayers and are ready to pounce on others with that judgmental eye. Rather that “bringing in the sheeves”, they are too busy watching others and pointing out their mistakes. They are good at stretching a tight rope for others to walk.
Churches have been divided and believers hurt by people who think they are doing God’s bidding. We have seen division over silly things, all driven by individual pride and self-righteousness. Opinions have been elevated to fact, traditions to gospel, and selfish ambition to a distorted view of serving God.
I’m glad God will be our Judge. God does have an all-seeing eye and is aware of our failures, but He also “sees every precious thing.” Simon Peter is remembered by men for his faults which we use to justify ourselves, but God saw a different side of Peter. Jesus commissioned him to the greatest work any man can do and he succeeded, not because he was perfect, but because he was faithful.
While we may see the sinner in the saint, God sees the saint in the sinner.
He admits broken people into His kingdom and heals their wounds. That is our mission as well. The woman taken in adultery (John 8) was a potential follower of Jesus and Rahab “the harlot” was worthy to be included in faith’s hall of fame as someone God used (Hebrews 11).
I once read a poem that reminded us that “there is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it ill behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us.” The heart of Jesus is a heart of compassion and love. No wonder he commanded us “to love one another as I have loved you.” When you are tempted to be harsh on others, just stop and pray for greater love in your own heart toward them.
“...His eyes sees every precious thing” (Job 28:10)
Many of us will remember an old hymn we sang if we grew up in the church entitled, “There’s An All-Seeing Eye Watching You.” The song reminded us that every step that we take this great eye is awake. The chorus was an ominous warning to all of us:
“Watching you, watching you,
There’s an all-seeing eye watching you.”
Frankly, I didn’t like that hymn. It was scary to think that God was watching every move that I made, trying to catch me breaking so law of His so He could give me another black mark.
We have some fellow-Christians who are like that. They see themselves as experts at discerning the actions of others and the motives behind them. They monitor every sermon, announcement, and prayers and are ready to pounce on others with that judgmental eye. Rather that “bringing in the sheeves”, they are too busy watching others and pointing out their mistakes. They are good at stretching a tight rope for others to walk.
Churches have been divided and believers hurt by people who think they are doing God’s bidding. We have seen division over silly things, all driven by individual pride and self-righteousness. Opinions have been elevated to fact, traditions to gospel, and selfish ambition to a distorted view of serving God.
I’m glad God will be our Judge. God does have an all-seeing eye and is aware of our failures, but He also “sees every precious thing.” Simon Peter is remembered by men for his faults which we use to justify ourselves, but God saw a different side of Peter. Jesus commissioned him to the greatest work any man can do and he succeeded, not because he was perfect, but because he was faithful.
While we may see the sinner in the saint, God sees the saint in the sinner.
He admits broken people into His kingdom and heals their wounds. That is our mission as well. The woman taken in adultery (John 8) was a potential follower of Jesus and Rahab “the harlot” was worthy to be included in faith’s hall of fame as someone God used (Hebrews 11).
I once read a poem that reminded us that “there is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it ill behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us.” The heart of Jesus is a heart of compassion and love. No wonder he commanded us “to love one another as I have loved you.” When you are tempted to be harsh on others, just stop and pray for greater love in your own heart toward them.
- Al Behel preaches for the Great Smoky Mountains Church of Christ in
Pigeon Forge, TN. He may be contacted through the congregation's
website: http://greatsmokymountainschurchofchrist.com/
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