Hey, this is John Galantis from the Cleaview Today Show checking in with you guys to plug our new show, How to Read Biblical Hebrew with Dr. Abadan Shah. It's a video podcast. You can watch it right from your favorite podcasting app, and we're releasing new episodes every single week. You don't have to be intimidated about learning Biblical Hebrew.
We're going to start with the alphabet. We'll start with sounds, basic grammar. We'll work our way up. But our guarantee is this. If you follow this podcast and put in the work, you will be reading the Old Testament in its original language in no time.
Again, that's how to read biblical Hebrew with Dr. Abadan Shah. Links in the description.
Now let's start the show. Judging people is wrong, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Or does it? Unpacking this and more coming up right now on the Clear Vee Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr.
Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. John Gale David Williamson. And there is a disturbance in the forest. I do not like being on this side of the camera.
David, welcome to the show today. Thank you. It's good to be sharing the couch with you today. Thank you. It's a nice, comfortable couch.
Yes, it is. I will say. We're going to launch in and enjoy this conversation about judging other people and what that means. But before we do that, I want to introduce to you who is talking to you today. If today's your first time joining us for the show, and John does a great job of this, so I'm going to try my hand at it today.
Okay. Joining us is a professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show, Dr. Abadan Shah. Dr. Shah, welcome to the studio today.
It's good to be here. It's good to have David here. David does so many things for us, assists me in my classes that I teach at different places, of course, at the church, with the youth ministry, along with Ryan as well, in the music ministry.
So many, many things he does, along with helping produce this Clearview Today show. But today we have another. Helper on board here who helped design this studio is Nicholas Shaw, our son. Shout out, Nicholas behind the switcher today. Yes, good to have him back.
Absolutely. We're continuing our conversation from yesterday's episode about judging people. You know, we began that conversation yesterday. And when people think about judging, they sort of have a lot of, I guess, snap judgments that come to their mind. What does it mean?
What doesn't it mean?
So we're going to see biblically, you know, from the book of James, this series, especially these past few episodes, have been so helpful in walking through how to live the Christian life. James does a great job of unpacking how to live out your faith. You know, sometimes people think that the book of James is very simple. Like Martin Luther, the German reformer, said that. The book of James is like the epistle of straw.
Really? Yeah, he almost opposed it being in the canon, but thank God he didn't. He wasn't successful because James is anything but an epistle of straw. There's so much depth. It's like an iceberg.
You see the surface and you think, oh, that's not much. But when you look under the, below the water surface, you see a massive block much bigger than what's seen from the outside.
So also the epistle of James, it is grounded into rock-solid truths coming from the Old Testament. With the understanding of Jesus Christ being the fulfillment, all of that.
Now how do you apply that to your life?
So do you just throw away the law? Because now it's found its fulfillment in Christ? No, to the contrary, the principles still apply. There are still prophecies to be fulfilled, especially regarding Israel, but the principles still apply.
So When we come to the passage about judging, it is based on the Old Testament principles that God is the ultimate judge. And so the standards of judgment are not set by us, they are set by God.
So Keep that in mind. This is not just, hey guys, we shouldn't be judging. Oh, no, you know, I have a right to judge, you know, sin is sin. Go deeper than that. Let's step into the Old Testament and see Who God is?
He is compassionate. He is merciful, but he's also holy. He's also a God of wrath. He's also a God who judges. I feel like those conversations are often shallow.
Anytime you get to the realm of judging, you have people that will throw out the phrase, only God can judge me. Or, you know, they'll quote, judge not lest ye be judged. Like, we shouldn't judge other people, otherwise, you know, we're going to be in trouble with God. But really, that's not what the Bible says. Right, right.
So, when you see here in James chapter 2, it gives us some information about. You know what happens when you start judging.
So, this is a very simple example. My brethren. Do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. Do you really think that's a Epistle of straw. Do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I mean, just the title itself tells you this is not just, hey, we're not quite sure about this messianic thing. Yeah. You know, he died, buried, rose again. My half-brother, we're still trying to figure him out. We're dipping our toes into the Christian water.
No, I mean, he didn't know what they're talking about. I didn't realize that Martin Luther said that about the book of James. Is that an opinion that is still around in scholarship today? Like, James is, it's meant to be in the Bible, but it's kind of, eh, it's a little weaker. It's not around like vocally, but it is there.
Really? Especially among people who emphasize the grace of God in our salvation. I believe that salvation is by grace through faith, not of works. I totally get that. But when James talks about this.
Faith without works is dead.
Some of the people who hold that kind of a view have a big problem with that. They go, okay, let's get to Romans now. Let's go to Galatians. Let's go to Galatians. Skip ahead.
Yeah, because this book is troubling because they're like, How can my faith be dead? Without works?
So I'm bringing works into my salvation, and they're misunderstanding, misunderstanding the book of James. Wow. There's a guy that is currently, I've seen him on different platforms, and I'm not going to name him because he doesn't need the notoriety, because he doesn't. Preach anything worthwhile. But he believes that.
James misunderstood the gospel. He didn't truly understand what the gospel was, and that's why he told the church in Acts: don't do this, like sexual immorality, and eat things with blood or things strangled. And then also, that's why he wrote in the book of James the stuff about faith without works. He says that he doesn't really understand the gospel in the book of James. And this.
So-called preacher got it. Right. And the so-called preacher's giving his courses on what it all really means.
Well, of course. Yeah. Now you can buy his book and order his works on Amazon and yada, yada, yada. Golly. How the audacity.
I was about to say the naivety. Audiency. I was. I was. I'm amazed that someone would say that about a gospel, like a writer of the Bible.
Like, they didn't understand. They didn't understand the gospel. You know, this sense of confidence that sometimes people have that they can say things about scripture or they can say things about the foundational principles of our faith or core doctrinal issues. It's coming from arrogance. You know, I get scholarship, but I don't think I know who you're talking about.
This person doesn't even have scholarship. But it comes from a place of arrogance and a belligerent spirit, which is not coming from the Holy Spirit. And I think we need to have a lot of humility. Begin by studying the Word of God. Begin by not just studying as in like finding some quick Bible study here and there.
I mean, if you want to go deep, let's go deep. Let's get into the nitty-gritty of what it means, you know, what those each books are all about. Right. So, going back to the book of James, when James says that, I mean, there's so much packed in there. We're not going to unpack that.
But we're going to move forward. And start reading verse two because he says, For if there should come into your assembly, A man with gold rings in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes. And you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him. You sit here in a good place. and say to the poor man, You stand there or sit here at my footstool.
Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges? With evil thoughts?
So If anyone comes in to your assembly, assembly, what is an assembly? This is the gathering of the early church. They're not going to the temple, or maybe they go into the temple still, but it's not, it doesn't have the same meaning because Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that's going on in there now. Right. So they do go to the temple.
I mean, Peter and you know, John went, but it had a different meaning. Right. But The assembly. This is a place where Everyone is welcome. There is an equality there.
There is a sense of You know The ground is level at the cross. But if someone comes in who is wealthy, someone comes in who is checking out the faith and they are a person of notoriety, you you invite them to sit in a good place. Is there anything wrong with that? Absolutely not. If somebody comes in here, I'm not going to mistreat them, especially if they happen to be an elected official or if they are somebody who is well known.
If they come and say, hey, just want to reach out and say thank you for being here with us. Does that mean that I am giving special preference? No. No, I'm just saying Hey, you took the time to come here. You're checking out what's going on.
Thank you. Or you're coming. Because you heard about what's going on in our church, thank you, right? And there's an opposite version of that partiality where if you see someone who's rich and you were like, Oh, I know what I'm gonna do with you because you're rich, you think you're better, I'm gonna put you down here. It's the same thing, and that happens a lot, it's a reverse prejudice.
So I tell pastors, you know, don't do either of those things. Don't have prejudice against the poor, but don't have reverse prejudice against those who are wealthy. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: And it makes me believe if James is including this in his letter that this was happening. He was writing into the situation that was already going on. And do we have evidence of that from other writings or other scholarship?
I mean, was this a common thing where people would walk in and be wealthy and then be ushered into a position of prominence? Oh, yeah, and the Greco-Roman world, of course. Really? Of course. And again, as I said, nothing terribly wrong.
What is wrong is what happens next. Because Then you say to the one who is poor in filthy clothes, you stand there. Or you sit here at my footstool.
So it's not just the prominence placed on this person, it's the mistreating of the other. Right. I think that's where the judgment comes in. Because sometimes Christians can almost like, you know, just 'cause you're rich, just 'cause you're poor doesn't mean you're going to heaven either. That's right.
Sometimes I found a lot of rich people who are very generous and do not say a word about what they're doing. And I found very poor people who are very stingy.
So you cannot say One or the other makes you a better person. Right? It reminds you that it has to do with the heart because you can find a poor person who is very stingy with what they have. You can also find a rich person who is very stingy with what they have. And the opposite is also true.
You can find a poor person who shares what little they have, or a rich person who is very generous with all that they've been given.
So it comes down to the matter of the heart, not what's in the bank account. That's right.
So be careful about that. In our church, I go above and beyond. If I see somebody who is visiting for the first time, if they're wealthy, hey, thank you so much for being here. If they're poor, Same thing. I will say, Hey, so glad to see you.
You know, hey, Blue, come back. We have something. And sometimes I'll go even a step beyond to say, especially if I sense that a person may be sort of unaware of what's going on, I'll go a step beyond to say, Hey, just know that we have services on Wednesday night as well. You can come join us for that if you would like to. Love to see you come.
And you can see that all of a sudden they go, Oh, you're trying to be nice to me. Yeah. I'm like, Yeah, of course. Yeah. And then people who are around.
Me and that person at the time who are either church members or they are also visiting, it also speaks to them to go, oh, he noticed. He did not Shun this person or mistreat them just because they were rich or poor. Yeah. I I make sure I I do that on purpose, almost overdo it in a way. To communicate that, what happens to us as believers when we fall into this trap of, or fall into the sin of really, of partiality, when we find ourselves showing undue deference or mistreating a group of people?
I mean, James says, you know, have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Judges. It means now you're sitting in judgment over this person and judging their motives, judging their hearts, judging their, you know, how much can they do for me? Or how much You know, can they contribute? Yeah.
And that's not a good thing, especially in a church context. Yeah. I kind of wonder if James, like, was, especially in this passage, was very much like saying, hey, don't judge based on how they look or what they make or what you even perceive that they look like or make, because he knew. Like, he knew his brother was God. And it's like, I knew him growing up.
I thought this whole time, this guy's just a lunatic. Maybe he, maybe he knew partially. I don't know exactly. No, we don't know.
So I wonder if it's kind of like that, where it's like, for all of my life, I judged this person who was actually God.
So maybe don't judge everybody based on what you think about them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, James having walked that himself. I think that's a good point.
I made a snap judgment about my half-brother when he was who he said he was. Yeah, he was not just a crazy radical who had the messiah syndrome. Yeah. He was the son of God, and I totally missed it. And almost missed salvation.
If Jesus hadn't come and visited James personally after he resurrected and before he ascended, we don't even know if James would have been saved. Yeah. Yeah. So important for us to be careful. how we treat people.
And I know that's that's difficult because You will get labeled no matter what you do. I've had people say, Oh, you cater to rich people. I'm like I I'm nice to them because They help us share the gospel. And then I have people say, man, you only care about the poor and the needy. I'm like, well, because that's what we're supposed to do, right?
Right. So I'm like, I can't win. We'll take both of those people who have said that about you, put them in a room and lock the door and let them figure it out. Because one of you both can't be right, or you both are right, and neither one of you has realized that. How do you.
That's a I don't know. That's crazy. I mean, whatever you do, the person's going to focus on the opposite thing. They're going to find fault in it. If someone's listening to this and they recognize perhaps I have been a judgmental person, perhaps I have been mistreating people or looking down upon people.
Maybe I haven't said anything. Maybe I haven't outwardly acted with discrimination toward them. But in my heart, if I'm being honest, I am. Discriminating against groups of people or background, people with certain backgrounds. How do we move past that?
How do we course correct? All of us have prejudice against other people. We need to face the facts. We need to stop being, you know, kind of high and mighty as if we don't do it. We all do it.
I do it. You do it. We all do it. So face the facts and say we all have that judgmental spirit inside of us. We judge people based on color.
We judge people based on their clothes. We judge people based on education.
So we need to be careful how we do that. Recognize that all of us are who we are by the grace of God. I mean, simply by the grace of God. That I'm sitting here. And not locked up in a prison somewhere.
It's by the grace of God that you're sitting here in your right mind and not in a hospital somewhere. It's by the grace of God we're getting to do this rather than You know lying in a s in a gutter somewhere.
So, once we understand that everything that we have is by God's grace. Then Recognizing that our hearts are sinful and all that we have is by God's grace, then we can take the next step, which is. I want to be. simply a Conduit. To show God's grace to people around me.
And God loves it when I do that. You know The Bible says truth and mercy, truth and mercy.
So that has been my motto. Yeah. In some ways, you can say that, not in every way, but in some ways, my motto and how I help people: truth, truth, truth, mercy. Showing compassion, especially to those who may not deserve it. Yeah.
And who may not appreciate it, but showing compassion. You shared that with us before about, you know, this is the balanced approach, truth and mercy. In fact, you had a message titled Truth and Mercy. And that was such an important and such a revolutionary concept because so many people gravitate toward one or the other. They gravitate toward extremes.
We're all truth. We're proclaiming the truth. This is the truth. This is what the word of God says. And there's no mercy involved at all.
And then other people are on the mercy side of things and it's just all love. And Jesus loves you and he accepts you and da da da da da. And yes, Jesus does love you, but without truth, I mean, there's no sanctification. There's no moment of salvation. There's no growth in the Christian life.
So you really do need both. You know, to make it a little bit more practical in the church setting, especially in a. I would say traditional background churches or Mm-hmm. More in the rural south There's a big deal about how you dress up for church. I want to talk about that a little bit because that's tough.
Because, in a sense, you should. dress up. When you go to church, mhm. Especially if if the The circle in which we live. are sort of people who are daily working you know, in in in kind of hard labor or Kind of blue-collar work.
People dress up. But then there are people who are working dressed up jobs All week, they want to dress down a little bit.
Okay. And I understand that. I think there's there's there's points to be made on both sides. I think when it comes to church, because of the nature of what we are doing, Maybe a little bit of Dressing up is better. I'm not saying go suit and tie.
I'm not saying you need to wear a jacket every time or a s coat. in a suit jacket. No, but Dress nicer. Than not. And I know there are people who are like, no, man, I like to go casual.
I mean, that to me is, and I get it. In college setting, type or young adults, you know, that's that makes them feel like at home.
So I'm not going to fight with you on that. But even those clothes, Don't just Come into church like he just rolled out of bed. I think it's always a good idea in those settings to kind of evaluate what the culture and the people around you are doing. Because if you go in there and you're doing something completely opposite to what you see everybody else doing, then what's your purpose? Are you trying to draw attention?
Are you trying to prove that you don't have to do what everybody else does? Because then you're kind of doing it all for the wrong reason. But if you go and it's more of a laid-back type thing and people really don't care, Then, hey, dress how you want.
So, like you said, in our church, it's not that you can't dress down, because on Sunday nights I'm wearing a hoodie, I'm wearing this and some like tennis shoes. But Sunday mornings, I know that the dress is to be dressed up a little bit more, maybe something more like this, or something like what Ryan's wearing. And to Go against that just for the sake of proving that we're a casual church kind of seems more. Prideful than helpful. Do you think that's that's a heart behind it often, Dr.
Shaw? Is that there's a like I'm trying to prove a point.
Well, some people are not doing that. I don't think so. I think some, in some settings, the churches try to create an environment where you feel at home. And so, and I think that's fine to do that. But even then, wear a nicer pair of jeans.
Right. Okay. And again, I'm not going to get into whether you have holes knee jeans because that's the style now.
So I guess you can wear that. That's no problem. That doesn't bother me.
Some of those hold jeans are worth 10 times the price of mine without holes.
Some of those holes are expensive. Those are expensive jeans. By all means, wear them.
Okay. Because. That's probably dressing up. What I'm saying is, just don't just like roll out of bed and just show up, like, hey, I'm casual, and our church is casual, and that's what I like about our churches: we're casual, yeah, we are. But make sure your clothes are clean.
Yeah, I'm fine. If you want to wear jeans and a sweatshirt to church, no problem there. I don't have a problem with that. Just make sure that the sweatshirt is nice and clean. Right.
Make sure. It's a Polish shirt nice and clean. Maybe what if you just wear a t-shirt in your church? I have no problem with that. Just make sure it's a nice, clean t-shirt.
Don't just like the crumpled up t-shirt you just pulled out of the dryer and just fished it out of the bin. It's got holes in it, stains down the front. Yeah. Unless. that homeless look, right?
I mean, that some people have. I mean, maybe, but I feel like that is trying to prove a point as well. I mean, I don't know what to say.
So styles have changed and they change every every time you turn around. But if that is the look that shows that you are really taking the time to dress well, I mean, by all means, do it. All I'm saying is. Uh make yourself you know, go above than just you're working in the yard or just Today's your day off. I'm going to chill.
Yeah. Dr. Shaw, we've got a just a few minutes left as we're as we're thinking about this conversation about showing partiality. As people have been listening and they're recognizing, you know, I've been guilty of this, I've been struggling with this, or maybe they didn't even realize that before this conversation. What are some practical steps they can do to sort of move in the opposite direction to not show partiality?
Well, we have much to cover in this lesson, but we're going to take that up in the next session, next episode.
So make sure you come back and listen to what we have to say about James chapter 2, verses 5, all the way to verse 13. But just as an application for this first half, I would say. Remember who you are in Christ. You have been saved by grace through faith. And You are You are who you are by the grace of God.
So live with that sense of gratefulness. Live with that sense of understanding. towards other people. And sometimes, you know. You may be right when you judge people a certain way and they turn out to be that way.
I totally get it. You know, I've had people say, like, well, my first impression was right because this person turned out to be a scoundrel. I'm like, yeah, you're probably right, but you at least gave them a fair shot. Right. Yeah, that's true.
I did. I wish I hadn't. I was like, I know. but they cannot ever say that you did not give them a chance. that they have a choice.
To live up to whatever their heart is, but at least you give them a chance.
So don't judge people too quickly.
Now, don't misunderstand this. If it's about somebody coming into the church body who is. Who has ill motives? who has ulterior motives, by all means. Let the Holy Spirit guide you.
Pick up on those things. and then make sure you take necessary precautions.
Okay. So don't misunderstand me there. Like, oh, if somebody wants to come and hurt our children, yeah, we give everybody a first chance. It doesn't work like that. Right.
You know, you use the discernment God has given to you to take some actions. Absolutely. But having said that, we're talking about. In an average setting Don't judge a book by its cover.
So good. And we're going to pick that up on tomorrow's episode. Guys, thank you so much for joining us today. Make sure you jump in tomorrow as we continue this conversation on judging people as we pick it up from the book of James. Same time, same station.
Big thank you to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. Thank you, David, for joining us on the show today. Happy to be here. I mean, I'll still be here just behind the booth for the next couple of shows. And I'm going to try to do the last part like John does.
We got a few things coming up here at Clearview, but one of the most important things coming up, March the 28th, which, if this goes out tomorrow, is coming up very soon, is our apologetics conference. You can register online at clearviewbc.org, and there is a very big announcement. I cannot speak about it, but let's just say you're going to want to be here. That's all I can really say. Absolutely.
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