Why Accepting Anyone Else’s Judgement is Unacceptable

Written by Erin Richer

In Cuba there are these flowers—weeds, actually—that blend right into the brown brush around them unless the sun is shining directly through them. Without the light there is absolutely nothing special about them; in fact, you wouldn’t even see them to mention them. But there are these special times of day when you can take the Ridgeline trail and the mountainside will be dressed head to toe in glistening shades of pink glowing flowers. It is absolutely spectacular.

I’ll never forget the morning I first discovered them. I was looking down, concentrating on a project I was working on. When I looked up and saw the spectacle, I wondered how on earth I hadn’t seen them before. I looked back and there wasn’t a single glowing flower to be found. I turned ahead again and saw them everywhere. I inspected the flowers closely and realized that the mountain behind me was covered in the same exact flowers, but I was standing between them and the light. Suddenly a Scripture I had been pondering came together like magnetized puzzle pieces and I understood:

“Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.” (1 Corinthians 4:1-5 NASB)

Do you know what is hidden in darkness? All of the righteousness of Jesus Christ that clothes us. The beautiful creation we were made to be—a battered-by-sin creation perfected by Christ’s righteousness, given to us in exchange for the cross—it is hidden as we let people stand between us and the Light. But…

That all changes when we let no one stand between us and our Father. When we let no one judge us, but stand squarely in the presence of a God who says that in Christ, we are made perfect, in Christ, we are amazing, in Christ, we are everything He created us to be from the foundations of the world—then we shine among humanity. And when we do it together like a field of blazing flowers? We are a breathtaking scene. The glory of God becomes undeniable in and through us when nothing and no one obstructs it's light from us.

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