There are many kinds of suffering in life, and we see this as we go from text to text in the Gospel of Matthew. It is helpful to know these different aspects of suffering.

1. A STUDY OF SUFFERI
G I
MATTHEW 1-7
BY GLE
PEASE
1:18-19
Here we see the suffering that comes because we do not know what is going on.
We feel like things are all wrong when, in fact, they are going just as God planned.
Joseph is suffering for he has jumped to the conclusion that Mary is pregnant by
another man, and he has to lose her by divorce rather than lose her by stoning. It is
a tragic situation, and he had to be filled with grief and anxiety. This represents the
emotional suffering we suffer when we misinterpret what is happening to us. It was
really wonderful, but he thought it was awful. He was greatly relieved when the
angel set him straight on what was going on, and so we see that one of the greatest
cures for suffering is knowledge. He was cured of his anxiety by knowing the truth.
The truth set him free, and that is often the case with the things that give us anxiety
and worry. If we know and understand what is going on we get relief.
He was trying to minimize the suffering and disgrace, and that was noble of
him. It is not wrong to deal with evil in a quiet and hidden way. It used to be that
pregnant girls would be sent away to another city to have their baby, and there
would be gossip, but nobody really knew for sure what was going on.
ow it is right
out in the open, and the result it is accepted and more and more girl are getting
pregnant out of wedlock.
His plan to put her away quietly was best, for nobody really gains by public
exposure of sin but the devil. It is good advertising for him. He loved Mary and love
covers a multitude of sins. The legalist would have her stoned believing that
exposing sin and making the sinner pay the penalty was the best way to be
righteous.
His assumption of Mary’s guilt was his error, and that is why we are not to judge
by circumstantial evidence. So much suffering is due to false assumptions of guilt.
Why did God wait to inform him, and not tell him right away? If Joseph would have
made the decision to have her stoned and disgraced in the community, he would not
be the man he would want to raise his Son. It was good for God to see Joseph
working through his problem to a compassionate conclusion. God could give us all
the answers ahead of time, but that would not reveal who we were, and how we were
developing to be godly and compassionate.
God had to select a man with a specific idea about how to deal with sin in order
to assure Jesus could be born of a virgin and survive. I have had couples come to
deal with the issue of adultery, and because we dealt with it privately we worked it
out and the couples were reconciled. Had we made the affair public, their shame in
being exposed for their sin would more likely led them to separate and divorce. To
minimize the suffering from sin we need to deal with private sin privately, and only
publicly with sin that is public.

2. This first suffering in the
ew Testament shows us that you can be in the center
of God’s will and still suffer many pains. We do not know if Mary suffered in child
birth with Jesus, but their is a good chance she did some. The whole experience was
nerve wracking though with all the travel and lack of room. She was no doubt
exhausted after a long day on a donkey. We have no record of anyone doing the will
of God who did not suffer some for doing so. Their suffering was quite
commonplace, for all believers have to struggle with making decisions, and getting
places, and things not working out like they hope. These were not tragedies, but just
part of life.
1:25
Most men would put this into the category of suffering. Joseph had a wife, but he
had no sex until after the birth of Jesus. This was to insure that it was a truly virgin
birth. Here was good suffering in that it was done for a very noble reason. It was
self-denial for the cause of God’s plan remaining pure and uncontaminated. It was,
however, a cost involved in doing the will of God, and so there is no escape from all
forms of suffering even in the center of God’s will. There is always some cost
involved.
2:12
God in His providence warned these men and they were able to escape.
Otherwise they would likely have been killed by Herod, and the good news would
not have been taken back to the Gentile nations they came from. We could wish that
all evil could be prevented like this, by people being warned and escaping, but it
does not happen. This had to be a special case where God stepped into history to
make sure they did escape, and it had to be for a very special reason in His plan.
Unfortunately it does not always happen. Here is suffering that was potential but
which never became actual.
2:13-15
Here we see escape again, and rightly so, for if the Christ child had been killed
there would be no point to the whole plan of God. He had to be warned, and they
had to escape. But they did not escape all suffering. They had to leave their
homeland and lose their freedom to be with family for a long time. They had to
suffer homesickness and adjust to a new culture, and who knows what hardships
they faced in Egypt?
2:16-18
Here is suffering that is just pure evil, and caused by fear on the part of Herod
who uses his power to take life. It was the result of the lack of democracy. Herod
had total power and was not limited as our president is. Here we see the terrible
result to totalitarian government. Here the innocent suffer because of a form of

3. government which does not limit the power of its ruler. This is an evil all through
history, and one of the reasons to be so grateful for the form of government that we
have. Evil men in power will do evil with their power. Democracy is superior to
tyranny because it prevents much innocent suffering.
o form of government is wise
that does not protect the rights and lives of the people.
The worst suffering was not of the babies, for they doubtless died with little pain.
The parents had to suffer tremendous mental pain because of their loss. Their
hatred would also be a terrible burden. All of this was just evil, and it is hard to
bring any value out of it, anymore than other terrible acts of tyrants who kill
thousands of innocent people, and make life miserable for those under their power.
Self centered rulers have done much evil in history.
2:22
Here is the suffering of fear, and it is a good kind of suffering, for it makes you
choose a way to avoid worse suffering. It is wise to fear evil men, and their power to
do evil. He avoided a confrontation with him, and did not defy him to do harm. It is
folly to do so. It is wise to avoid conflict with evil powers. We see fear is a virtue of
Joseph at this point. He had the responsibility to protect the Christ child, and he
would have been a bad choice as a father to Jesus if he would have gotten into
political conflict with this ruler. There are times to fight a tyrant, and there are
times to just avoid him, and not let him know you even exist. It is good suffering to
fear evil and so prevent bad suffering. It is good to feel pain that warns you of
something going wrong so you can respond and find a reason to prevent the danger
it is warning you about.
Joseph would not have been a hero to say, “One man with God is a majority, and
so I am going to defy this tyrant Archelaus and go live right under his nose. He can’t
determine where I live.” He would have been a fool and not a hero. He was a hero
by backing off and not confronting this tyrant. This is not cowardice, but just
common sense preservation. His healthy fear was good suffering, and God chose
him because he was a man of common sense, and not a hot head who demanded his
right to do and live where he pleased.
4:1-11 The Temptation of Jesus
Here is voluntary suffering for the sake of testing and being proven capable of
facing the temptation of the enemy, and standing fast in loyalty to God. Jesus
suffered hunger, and isolation, and who knows how many other pains in his body?
He could have been sun burned and his skin all dried out, and sore throat, etc. This
was good suffering to be disciplined to face battle. It was also bad in that it was
Satan who was putting on the pressure to fail. It was a conflict with evil power.
Jesus was suffering here because He needed to in order to be prepared to be the
Savior of the world. It was necessary testing, and so he was led of the Spirit to have
this pain, and yet it was inflicted by the devil. The paradox of pain is that it can be

4. both good and evil, for its origin may be evil, but its purpose may be for good. It is
God using evil for good, or bringing good out of evil.
The principle is, any suffering that leads to prevention of greater suffering is
good suffering. Any suffering that leads to greater good is good suffering. This
complicates things, for we do not know the result of suffering at the time of
suffering, and so we do not know if it is of any value. We know that Jesus suffered
here for the good of God’s plan, and that it was good for it prepared him to conquer
Satan, and stand fact in the plan to die for the sin of the world. It was good suffering
all the way. But we do not know that about our suffering, and so it makes it hard.
Suffering’s value is relative to the final result. If I suffer surgery, but end up with
life instead of death, it is of great value to have suffered. But if the surgery leaves me
severely injured, it can be seen as bad suffering. But we do not know what the
injury will cause us to do or experience that may be something good that never
would have happened without the injury or handicap, and so we have to wait again
to see if it was good or bad. It is often a waiting game to see just how bad or how
good any suffering might be. Much suffering is designed to prevent worse suffering,
and this is good suffering. We never know at the time just what our suffering might
be preventing in the future. My flat tire that makes me late, could be preventing me
from being at the wrong place at the wrong time where I would have been injured
or even killed.
Temptation can be good suffering, but if you yield to it, then it can be tragic.
Millions yield and end up with broken marriages, or get drunk and drive and kill
themselves and others. Masses of broken people and hearts are because of yielding
to temptation. Testing is not good when you fail to pass the test. There are two
kinds of suffering connected with temptation. There is the suffering of resistance
which we see Jesus doing, and there is the suffering that comes with the
consequences of yielding. One is good, and the other is evil.
God could make sure that when we make the wrong choice and yield to
temptation that there would be no evil consequences, but that would eliminate the
whole purpose of free will, and the purpose of testing. If God stepped in to prevent
all suffering due to bad choices, then he just as well forget leaving us free in the first
place, and make us robots that would always choose what we are programmed to
do. He does not stop it because He gave us the power to stop it. We have the same
free will as Jesus had to choose to stand with God and not go the way of evil. It can
be painful to deny the self the pleasure of sin, but it is blessed suffering because of
the suffering that it prevents, and the pleasure it promotes in the heart of God and
in the life of those who obey His will above all else.
Satan can only tempt; he cannot make the choice for us. The choice we make is
our own responsibility, and we must face the consequences. You cannot blame the
devil for tempting you, for that is his nature. It is your choice that matters. You have
no one to blame for suffering that comes because of bad choices you make in life.
You alone must take the blame.

5. 4:12
John the Baptist suffered, and then died at an early age by violence, which was
evil and unjust. He was innocent of all sin that deserved imprisonment, let alone
death. His suffering destroys some popular theories about suffering.
1. That it is punishment for sin. Here is was a sin to be the punisher.
2. That it is a judgment. It was not God’s judgment, but that of an evil man.
3. That suffering make us better servants. It robbed John of his ministry
altogether.
It was not very educational, nor did it add to the sanctification of his life.
John’s parents were likely dead at this time, and so did not have to go through the
agony of seeing their son so die, and be compelled to ask Why? He died a senseless
death because of the evil in the hearts of others. The best of men can suffer the worst
of deaths is the message here. John, like Jesus, died in the prime of life with so much
potential left in him.
o Christian is promised they will not suffer such a death and
loss. John and Donald Baillie are two internationally known Scottish theologians.
They had a younger brother Peter who got his degree in medicine and was going to
be a medical missionary in India. While in language school he died in a drowning
accident. His mother was crushed, for she as a widow struggled so hard to get him
through school, and now it is all wasted by his death. If she had not had two sons to
nurse her back to her faith, she may have lost it altogether. It was tragic, and it can
happen to the best is what we know from Scripture. It ought not to be surprising
that the best of Christians can die in all kinds of ways that seem senseless and so
unnecessary. It is the real world in which we live. History is full of examples of the
most godly of people who, like John, are killed by evil people.
William McChesney arrived in the Congo in 1960. He quickly learned the
Swahili and he loved the nationals. He led many African youth to Christ, and the
people loved him. But in 1964 the Simbas went on the war path and began to kill
white men, and he was brutally murdered. He was not surprised, for he knew this
was the price he may have to pay to share the Gospel in the Congo. He wrote this
poem-
I want my breakfast served at eight,
With ham and eggs upon the plate;
A well-broiled steak I’ll eat at one,
And dine again when day is done.
I want an ultra modern home,
And in each room a telephone;
Soft carpets, too, upon the floors,
And pretty drapes to grace the doors.
I want my wardrobe to be

6. Of neatest, finest quality,
With latest style in suit and vest.
Why shouldn’t Christians have the best?
But then the Master I can hear,
In no uncertain voice, so clear,
“I bid you come and follow me,
The lowly Man of Galilee.
“Birds of the air have made their nest,
And foxes in their holes find rest;
But I can offer you no bed;
o place have I to lay my head.”
In shame I hung my head and cried.
How could I spurn the Crucified?
Could I forget the way He went,
The sleepless night in prayer He spent?
For forty days without a bite,
Alone He fasted day and night;
Despised, rejected-on He went,
And did not stop till veil He rent.
If He be God and died for me,
o sacrifice too great can be
For me, a mortal man, to make;
I’ll do it all for Jesus’ sake.
Yes, I will tread the path He trod,
o other way will please my God;
So, henceforth, this my choice shall be,
My choice for all eternity.
-Bill McChesney
There are different kinds of suffering, and if you take a verse that deals with
one kind and try to use it to comfort someone going through a different kind of
suffering it will seem superficial. Much suffering is discipline to get us back on
the right road, but to try and apply that truth to John the Baptist is so
superficial. This was not discipline. It was pure evil, and had no lesson to teach,
except on the depravity of man. Many pieces of a puzzle seem like they will fit a
certain spot, but when you try to fit them they are just not quite right. So it is
with the issues of suffering. You cannot take what fits in one place and make it
fit in another. Suffering can be good in certain situations but there is also the
other side where God does not carry to the skies on flowery beds of ease, but
where we must fight to win the prize and sail through bloody seas.

7. It was unjust suffering and death like that of John that made Plato reason out the
necessity of life after death. He was thinking of Socrates being unjust poisoned, but
it fits John as well. He wrote, “The ordinary good and thoughtful man does not
begin by believing in immortality for himself because he, personally desires it; he
begins rather by noting the manifest injustice involved in the death of someone else
and drawing the necessary conclusion from the postulate that this is, in the end, a
just world. Since just is not done to some in this life, there must be another
succeeding it; otherwise the very demand for justice is finally frustrated.” In other
words, if God is fair, there will be a setting of the record straight, and the making
up to those who are dealt with unjustly in this life.
There are many things which are true, but which are not the truth. The truth is
absolute, for two plus two always equals four, and Jesus is the only way to the
Father. There are no exceptions to truth, but there are exceptions to what is true. It
is true that God uses trial and tribulation to make His servants strong and
righteous. But John did not need to suffer for this goal, for he was already there,
and was the best ever. He represents those who do not have to suffer to become
strong. Angela Morgan wrote,
When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man,
To play the noblest part;
When he yearns with all His heart
To create so great an bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into tried shapes of clay which
Only God understands,
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands;
How He bends but never breaks
When His goal He undertakes.
How He uses whom He chooses,
And with every purpose fuses him,
By every art induces him to try His splendor out-
God knows what He’s about.
The problem with what is true is that it is made the truth, and this leads to
absurd conclusions that men of God who are not beaten into shape, because they
choose to go God’s way without resistance, are really not men of God. Able did not
suffer until he died, but he was righteous. Enoch walked with God, and we do not
know that he had to be disciplined into being such a godly man.
icodemus and

8. Joseph of Arimethea have no record of being pounded into righteousness. Jesus
lived a fairly troubled free life until his conflict with the establishment. John the
Baptist was not one of whom we have any record of great suffering before this
imprisonment and death. Many Christians come to Christ at an early age and
escape all the radical sins of life. They live a fairly happy life and die in old age with
no tragedy in their lives. They are not sub-Christian because of their escape from
the sufferings that many others have to endure. They are rare, but they do exist,
and the point is, you can be a good Christian even though you escape a great deal of
suffering. Children need to be disciplined, but there are children who need very
little compared to others, and they are not the worse off for needing so little.
John suffered frustration in prison, for he was doubting what he never
questioned as a free man. Jesus was the one he baptized as the Messiah, but now
because of the frustration of his limitations in prison he is in doubt. He is asking
such questions as why doesn’t Jesus get me out of here? Why do I have to suffer for
doing the will of God? In Matt. 11:1-2 we see him sending his disciples to get some
answers from Jesus to give him a greater sense of assurance that he was really the
Messiah. Frustration made Job doubt God. Frustration drives people to drink and
to doubt, and to have all kinds of nervous problems. Frustration can get to any
person, even the most godly like John.
The experience of John the Baptist shows that the deterministic explanation of
suffering which says, we get what we deserve, and all suffering is just, does not fit
Scripture or reality. This was the view of Job’s friends, but it was rejected in the
Old Testament, and is rejected in the
ew Testament. His suffering is also a
destructive blow to the most popular theory of suffering in the world, which is
reincarnation. This view says that people suffer because of a former life. John is
the only person in the Bible that was in some sense a reincarnation. He was Elijah
come again according to Matt. 11:14 and 17:12. But Elijah was a great man of God,
and not worthy of any unjust suffering, and so the theory does not fit John at all.
John suffered because evil often has the power to inflict suffering on the good. The
battle of good and evil is real, and the soldiers of good do suffer casualties.
The death of John the Baptist says much about the perspective of Jesus on death.
He did not prevent it by miracle, nor did He reverse it by miracle. Jesus did not
look upon the death of a saint as so terrible and tragic that He had to do something
about it. He even said that we are not to fear those who can kill the body and that’s
all they can do. Death for Jesus was only a temporary tragedy for those left behind,
but for the one dying it is an entrance into paradise.
4:23-24
Jesus did not select certain diseases but healed them all without exception. There
were no failures in his healing. The people had to have all levels of faith, but that
did not matter. They could have had no faith when they came but Jesus healed all.
This does not happen today in the ministry of anyone. This show that Jesus was

9. opposed to all suffering caused by disease, and none of it was the will of God. All
disease is of the kingdom of evil, and not of His kingdom of light. There are no good
diseases. The weakness of the healing movement is that they take a text like this and
try to impose it on all of life, and it will not cover all of life. It was not the experience
of Paul, for example, that all were healed, even though he had the gift of healing.
There is no record of anyone with the gift healing all they touch. There is the reality
of the Christian who is being disciplined or judged, and is thus suffering, and who
will not be healed unless they repent. In I Cor. 11:30 we see sick and dying
Christians because they were abusing the Lord’s supper. They were not healed but
judged.
There is also the fact that Jesus did not heal everyone everywhere, for there
would be no sickness left in that whole part of the world had he done so. The man
who could not get to the fountain was healed, but others were there and Jesus made
no attempt to heal them all. In other words, there were unusual occasions when
Jesus did heal all, but it was not always the case. In any healing event there will be
some healed and others not, and it has nothing to do with their faith or lack of it
often. There is no reference to faith involved in this text. In Heb. 11 we see great
deliverance for some, and other have to suffer terrible, and all are people of faith,
and so faith is no guarantee of deliverance. Look at 11:35-39 and see that faith does
not mean escape for all. They had just as much faith as the others, but they had no
deliverance as the others.
ot everything has meaning, but we give it meaning by
how we respond to it, and how we yield to God’s will even though we do not get the
miracle.
5:4
To mourn for the right reason is good suffering, for it is pleasing to God and He
will comfort you. To mourn for one’s sins is good, and leads to forgiveness.
5:10-12
Here is paradoxical suffering. It is bad because it is unjust and the innocent are
made to suffer by the evil forces. But it is good for it is pleasing to God and will be
rewarded. It is not God’s doing, but comes from the world of evil, but God will make
it right. This is suffering that comes, not from sin, but from the lack of it. It is
righteousness that is being made to suffer, and not unrighteousness.
5:21-22
Murder throws us into the category of suffering that is not God’s will at all. He
forbids it, and to suggest that He also planned it, and ordained it to happen, is a
blasphemy against the holiness and love of God’s nature. A house divide will fall
said Jesus, and it is folly then to say His own house is divided, and that God ordains

10. the very thing that He forbids. Murder is one hundred percent out of the will of
God. But it happens all the time, and so we have to admit that much in the world is
not the will of God. The anger that Jesus condemns here is also not the will of God,
and has it origin in man and not God. The same is true for suicide which is anger at
the self and such self hatred that it leads to self murder. This is not God’s doing, but
the result of their own bad self-image. God does not want anyone to hate themselves
and take their own life. Any violation of God’s law and will leads to suffering, and
none of it is a part of His will, as if He planned it, or wanted it to happen.
There can be a place for anger and resentment in unusual situations. Michael
Metrinko was held in solitary confinement for over 4 months in Iran. He gave up his
3 pack a day habit because he wanted to stay irritable in relation to his captives. He
wanted to have some control, and not just yield to the guards. He kept his aggressive
edge and did not let his reservoir of resentment get exhausted. Studies show that
those who feel they have some control of the situation are the best survivors. Jesus
would not be opposed to such anger being used for the good of survival. He is
dealing with your relationships to people on a daily basis in normal life.
5:23-24
Here is suffering due to not doing what is necessary to patch up a broken
relationship. It is so common that people are in conflict while they hate it because
pride keeps them from going to make up by confessing and forgiving. God says he
does not want you coming to Him until you get that relationship settled. It is
hypocrisy to pretend you are in a right relationship to Him when you have not worked
at getting into a right relationship to your fellow man.
5:25-26
Here is suffering due to stubbornness. One has an obligation but he does not do
what is right, and in the end he has to pay what is a higher price yet. Do what is
right is what Jesus is saying. If you blew it pay for it and get on with life. Do not try
to avoid it for you will have to pay in the end anyway. It is the refusal to
compromise that leads to much bad suffering. Do not blame the devil, or the will of
God. This is your doing and set it straight or suffer the consequences.
5:27-30
Here is the battle with lust. It is suffering that is natural in its early stages, for lust
can just happen and not because you seek it. What you do with this energy will
determine if is becomes really bad suffering. If you yield to lust and break the law of
God by having sex outside of God’s will, then you will suffer guilt and who knows
how much anxiety. Jesus says if you can cause yourself some good pain that keeps
you from the bad pain of disobedience to God then do it, for it will be the best pain in
the long run. Any pain is good if it keeps you from the pain of judgment. Self denial
is painful, but it is good pain when it is chosen to please and obey God’s will.

11. 5:31-2
Divorce has caused more pain than can be measured. It is all bad suffering for it is
not God’s will that anyone have such a poor relationship that it ends this way. Even
when adultery is involved it is not God’s will that divorce is demanded. It is just
permitted. So here is suffering that may lead the partners to better marriages, but the
pain of it all is still bad pain that is not the best for anybody. If you are happily
divorced, it still would have been better to have been happily married and never to
need a divorce.
5:33-37
Some people add a lot of suffering to the world by making promises they never
keep. It can become a habit and the devil is delighted and does all he can to keep you
locked into this mode of hurting others by false promises.
5:38-42
Resistance to evil causes so much suffering. It leads the other to get even back and
so there is an endless chain of suffering and nobody ever wins. Revenge leads to non
stop suffering.
5:43-47
Lack of love is a major cause of suffering. God loves his enemies and the result is
the world is full of blessings for the evil people as well as the good. The rain and the
sun do not discriminate, but people often do and refuse to show love and so the
enemy goes on hating and is never won to be a friend.
6:25-34
Therefore is a key word here for what Jesus is going to say is related to what he
has just said, and what he said was men cannot go two ways at the same time. You
have to make a choice between God and money. It is either the things of the Spirit,
or the things of the flesh that will dominate your life. Therefore, he goes on to say
do not pour all your nervous energy into the material side of life, and worry about
the things for your physical well being. That is a valid and vital aspect of life, but if
it becomes your master you will hate the spiritual side of life, and you will miss the
best. But if you seek first the kingdom of God, you will get the best and the rest will
follow as well. Do not give up eternity for time, but get eternity for time comes with
it.
In the context it is the issue of spiritual versus the physical or material. Make
sure you care for what matters most is what Jesus is saying. The material is valid,
but it does not deserve first place in your life. If your worries focus on the material
things of life you are a materialist, and you are engaged in trivial pursuit as a way of
life. If you care about the kingdom of God you are in pursuit of the eternal that will

12. never pass away. If you seek the spiritual you will not lose the material, but if you
seek the material you will lose the spiritual.
Worry is a paradox, for it is both forbidden and encouraged depending on the
context. Here it is forbidden as it relates to being so concerned about the
materialistic side of life. The basic meaning of the Greek word merimna is to care.
But you can care so much that you become anxious and develop fears. It can start as
a valid concern and care, but become so extreme that it becomes a very negative
emotion. It can cause you to lose sleep, and be filled with anxiety that is harmful to
the health. This becomes anxious care that is negative. But you can care about
things in a way that is positive too. It can mean to consider well. Hallmark is
famous for its slogan, “If you care enough to give the very best.” This is good care,
for you give careful consideration and want the best card that expresses your love. It
is good, that is, if you do not fret for hours and get full of anxiety over it, but to care
for a brief time to make sure you get what is right is good. A careless grabbing of
just any card can be thoughtless, and may be embarrassing when the card turns out
to say something you did not mean to say.
Worry comes from the word merizo-to divide, and nous-mind. To worry is to
have a divided mind. You cannot make a decision for you just do not know which
way to go. Jesus is not saying we are not to care what we eat or drink, or wear. He
is saying do not be in a stew over these things so that you are in a negative state of
mind. Fear can take over and people are driven to have abnormal anxiety that
pushes them to overwork and nervousness. Jesus says that if you want something to
care about, care about what you can do for the kingdom of God, and get out of the
rat race of keeping up with the world’s quest for things.
If we do seek first the kingdom of God, and our primary care is for the things of
the spirit, what will this care be called? It is the same word as is used for the
forbidden care of worry. So it is not the emotion of care that is wrong, but the
object of it that can be wrong. The emotion is good and a virtue if directed toward
that which is eternal. In other words, it is right and good to worry about the
kingdom of God and what you will contribute to the getting of God’s will done on
earth as it is in heaven. Jesus worried about what worry could do to the believer,
and that is why he is teaching this message. Paul was worried about what false
doctrine could do to the churches, and that is why he wrote his epistles to deal with
the issue and keep the church from corruption. Worry can be the best thing when it
has the right focus.
In I Cor. 7:32-34 we see the word care used in both a negative sense and a
positive sense depending on its object. You can care for the things of the world, or
the things of the Lord. One is not good for it is worry that is harmful, but the other
which is worry, or care, for the things of the Lord is good. The same Greek word is
used for both kinds of care. It is not the care that is bad, but the focus can be
directed at the wrong object. It is not wrong to care about your mate, but it is if the
care becomes a dominant worry so that you have no time and energy to devote to the
first priority of the kingdom of God. Any worry that puts the things of the Lord on

13. the back burner, and takes the priority in your life is a negative worry. Any worry
that puts the Lord’s will first is good worry, for it means you care enough to give
your very best to the kingdom of God.
In II Cor. 11:28 Paul admits that he has daily care for all the churches. In other
words he had worry about all the troubles they went through, and all the problems
they had to overcome to stay on the right course for the glory of God. Paul worried
about the false teachers that tried to take the Christians back under the law. He
worried about the internal conflicts in the churches. Was he doing wrong? Of
course not. This is legitimate worry if you care about the kingdom of God. It would
be wrong not to worry about such matters. By the way, the word Paul uses is the
same word that is used for negative worry. Worry about the right things is not a
different emotion than bad worry. It is the same emotion but directed toward
different matters. Some things are right to worry about. Paul was a worry wart for
the Lord, and this was good. If he was worried about how he looked in last years
sandals, however, he would have been out of God’s will.
In Phil. 2:20 Paul says of Timothy, “I have no man likeminded, who will
naturally care for your state.” Timothy was a worry warrior with Paul. His worry
kept him faithful to be a fighter to keep the faith pure against all corruption. All
Christians are to care enough to worry about one another like this. In I Cor. 12:25
Paul uses the same word to urge Christians to have the same care for one another.
Do you worry about a brother or sister getting caught up in some cult? Good, for
that is something you should care enough about to worry. It will motivate you to do
something about it, and this is putting the kingdom of God first.
ot to care, or
worry, about anything or anybody is just as bad as to worry about everything. You
need to make wise choices about how you use your nervous energy, and choose to
worry about the things that matter forever, and not the things that will soon pass
away.
If you find yourself floating across a river thinking you are clinging to a log, and
then discover it is a crocodile, I thinks the Lord would expect you to do a fair
amount of worry about your temporal situation. You cannot avoid some worry
about the material realities of life. It is just that Jesus wants to steer you away from
making that the focus of your life. Look to higher values to worry about. You do not
have to feel guilty about worrying over some trivial matters, but just make sure
these matters do not become habitual and dominate your concerns. If they do, you
become a worldly Christian.
Seeing how this word is used helps us better understand what Jesus is teaching.
He is not saying we should not bother to plan for the future, for if we do not plan to
plant our garden or field we will have no harvest in the future, and then we will
have something to worry about. We need to plan, and have the wisdom to see the
future and act accordingly. David Seabury in his book How To Worry Successfully
says, “Worry is the process of working your way out of annoying situations into
satisfying ones; an essential method of growth; a means of achieving happiness. It is
over-anxiety that injures us.” This is the essence of what Jesus is getting at.

14. What Jesus is rejecting is the mind set that revolves around the care of the body,
and neglects the care of the mind and soul. Do what you have to do for the care of
the body, but then let it go and trust the Lord to provide. Do not give your life to it,
but move on to higher things and make those your primary cares in life. The
workaholic, for example, is often out of the will of God because he or she devotes the
majority of their energy to the providing for the body. They already have more than
enough of things for the body, but instead of then giving energy to the things of the
kingdom of God, they go on devoting all of their energy to continue to get the things
for the body. It is a warped value system, and that is what Jesus is trying to get
believers to avoid. It is excessive concern for the things that pass away that is folly.
It becomes an obsession, and it makes you a captive of the material world. Jesus
wants you to be a captive of the spiritual world.
Bad worry just burns up energy for no good purpose, or for a secondary
purpose. It is driving with the break on. Good worry burns energy for purposes
that please God and benefit man, and with the faith to believe that the material
needs will be provided for without demanding the major devotion of your life. Jesus
is saying, give your energy to the kingdom of God and trust God to care about your
basic needs.
There is an Eye that never sleeps
Beneath the wing of night.
There is an Ear that never shuts
When sinks the beams of light.
There is an Arm that never tires
When human strength gives way.
There is a Love that never fails
When earthly loves decay.
7:1 F
Their is suffering because of judging and because of not judging. It is a complex
subject.
I once went to hear a speaker and came away feeling my faith was very weak. He
prayed for a new Cadillac every year and he got it. I never had that kind of faith,
and I was deeply impressed. The mans name was Hobart Freeman. He had a book
on the Old Testament that was published by Moody Press, and he was highly
esteemed by the Southern Baptists. He founded a cult, however, called Faith
assembly, and his teachings led to many death. He was a seminary professor and
come to the conclusion that everybody was wrong but him. His delusions of
grandeur led him to fall from the favor of many. The Full Gospel Business Men’s
Fellowship took him in for awhile, but then dropped him. He began to teach that it
was a sin to go to a doctor.
His health and wealth gospel was popular and he had 17,000 people in his

15. following. Children began to die because parents would not take them to the doctor.
His own grandson died in 1980. He blamed his son-in-law for his lack of faith. He
told one women with cancer that if she went to a doctor she would burn in hell
forever. She did not go and the cancer killed her. By 1984 there were 90
documented deaths in the movement. He went further and said it was a sin to wear
glasses. This led to some losing their drivers license.
o one was allowed to question
his judgments, or to ask why his limp from childhood polio was not healed. To
claim a healing and then take medicine was a denial of the faith. In 1984 he got
bronchial pneumonia and died at age 64 without help of a doctor. His movement
still lives on.
How to we apply the statement not to judge to this man and movement? We can
judge is the teachings are based on Scripture, and we are expected to make such
judgments. But we cannot judge that he was not a Christian because of his radical
ideas, even if they are not supported by the Bible. Christians can be foolish, and
they can have all kinds of ideas that seem foolish to us, but this does not mean they
are not Christians. Being wrong does not mean one is not saved.
o Christian is
right in all things all the time. I can reject his teaching, and I can think of him as a
fanatic, but I cannot judge that he was not a child of God.
Being judgmental can lead us to suffer all kinds of unnecessary problems.
William Bachus in the book Telling Yourself the Truth shows how false judgments
cause much self-imposed suffering. He tells of the little boy who goes down the street
jumping and feeling a sense of delight as he clutches his nickel his mother gave him.
But he meets a playmate who has a quarter, and suddenly his delight is gone, and he
runs home and begs his mother for a quarter. She give it to him and he is again light
hearted and happy as he goes jumping down the street. Then he meets another
friend with 50 cents, and again he is robbed of his joy, and returns home in sorrow.
The next level will be a dollar, and on and on it goes, for he will never have as much
or more than everyone else.
Here is a person who is ruining their happiness by judging. He is judging that he
has no basis for joy and contentment as long as somebody else has more that he has.
This judgment has locked him into a vicious circle he can never escape, for their will
always be somebody with more.
We bring suffering on ourselves when we are harsh in judgment, for we are
judged in the same way we judge. If we will not forgive, then we will not be forgiven.
We are self-condemned when we do not have compassion and deal with people in
grace, always ready to forgive and restore to fellowship all who repent. This is
God’s way, and if it is not our way, then we will have to pay the price. It is not
God’s will, nor can Satan make us be so stubborn. It is our choice to refuse to be
Christlike. If I say of another that they made a mistake and I will not let it go, then
when I make a mistake others will not let it go, and I have put myself into a prison
of my own making.
The condemned judging has to do with your attitude toward others and not

16. about being discerning about issues and values and truth. Judging can be good. In
Luke 7:43 Jesus says to Simon that he made a correct judgment. It was wise, and
that is wisdom is all about, the ability to discern what make good sense. In Luke
12:57 Jesus says, “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?” In other
words, Jesus is saying that it is an obligation sometimes to judge, for we have the
responsibility to evaluate and make value judgments as to what is the right thing to
do. In John 7:24 He refers again to making right judgments. We have to be thinkers
who look at the evidence for what is the best choice and this means to be judging
options all the time.
Judging of a persons views can be legitimate, but even this has to be done in a
way that it does not become slander. The rumor got started that Thomas Harris, the
author of I’m OK, You’re OK, had committed suicide. Somehow this rumor got to a
prominent Bible teacher who used it in his sermon which was made public. He
pointed to Harris’s suicide as proof of the bankruptcy of his psychology. Much to
his dismay he learned that the report of his death was greatly exaggerated. Harris
sued him for slander and won a considerable out of court settlement. You need to
have the facts when you make a public judgment of someone.
Suffering comes to the one judged, for they have to suffer the negative attitudes of
the judging person that adds to their guilt and shame. The judging person now has to
suffer the same bad attitude in judgment for his bad judgment. God has to discipline,
and He does not like it any more than parents do when they have to discipline their
children, and so we even add to God’s pain. This whole business of judging causes a
lot of stress. Judgmental people are often good people, but they are perfectionists,
and they add to their own problem as well as others by not being flexible according to
grace. The law is still their measuring rod rather than the grace of God in Christ.
Craig’s father was a petroleum engineer and a genius in his field, and he expected
no less from his son. Craig could never quite measure up. When he got a partial
scholarship it was pointed out that he failed to get a full scholarship. When he was
getting his first B in his third year of college, which would mean he would not have
straight A’s like his father, he tried to commit suicide. A friend saved him, but he
lived in constant stress of trying to be perfect. He was judged as being unworthy by
someone else’s standard, and he suffered terribly. This sounds terrible, but we often
do not see that in some measure all parents are putting this kind of pressure on their
children. “The other fellow’s sins, like the other fellow’s car lights, always appear
more glaring than our own.” We see the sins of other through a magnifying glass,
and our own through the wrong end of a telescope.
The great pastor Dr. George W. Truett tells of the young lady brought before the
church board for violation of the church covenant. She was about to be dropped from
the roll of the church until the pastor said, “Let us also call the church treasurer and
have him read the record of the giving of every member, and let us vote to drop
everyone who has violated God’s law against covetousness.” That bombshell cleared
the air of accusers.

17. People are in all different stages of growth. You have to measure not where they
are, but how far have they come, and are they going the right direction. I heard a new
convert swear in church once, and it was a shock, but I realized he was just beginning
his walk with Christ. If a deacon would have done it, it would be terrible, but this
young man did not realize what he was doing, and was not even aware he was doing
anything wrong.
A preacher once visited a farmer to invite him to church. “I’ll never go to that
church, because I know some of the members don’t live any better than I do.” Some
time later the pastor bought a pig from the farmer. He selected the smallest run the
farmer had. He told the farmer, “I plan to show this runt to everyone and tell them that
I bought it from you.” The farmer protested, “That’s not fair; I’ve got much nicer hogs
than that.” The pastor replied, “If it’s fair for the church, it’s fair for the hogs.”
Many a man has had to ear his words of judgment like Pastor Gilmore. He wrote
of his experience of being on one of Percy Crawford’s famous boat excursions. The
evangelist on board was not very good he thought. He said to his date that he would
never amount to anything, and that he had a zero future. His date got angry at his
negative remarks and there was no good night kiss that night. The evangelist
happened to be Billy Graham. Graham has had thousands of negative judgments
about him, but God just goes on using him to bring many into the Kingdom. The bad
judgments hurt the judges and not the one they judge. If you study the great
evangelists from Paul up to the present day, you will discover they all had many who
judged them as being enemies of the Kingdom of God, but they were the ones God
used to build the Kingdom. This shows that there will be much judgment of those
who are judges who violate this warning of Jesus. So much unnecessary suffering is
caused by those who do not heed these words of Jesus.
Has God deserted heaven,
And left it up to you,
To judge if this or that is right,
And what each one should do?
I think He’s still in business,
And knows when to wield the rod,
So when you’re judging others,
Just remember, you’re not God.
The whole chapter of Romans 14 makes it clear that we are not the final authority
on what pleased God. Others may have strange ways to worship or do many things in
life, and they may eat different things and go different places that we would not, but
that is between them and God, and we are not the judge of their behavior. One thing
we know for sure about what God does not like, and that is people who are
judgmental about other people. If I judge that a man is not a Christian because he
speaks in tongues, I can expect that he will judge I am not a Christian because I do not
speak in tongues. I will be judged on the same level that I judge, and if it is mere
subjectivity with no foundation in Scripture, then I will have to suffer unjust

18. subjective judgment as well.
7:6
Here is a case where we have to judge and discern if what we are doing is good
sense. If you are facing an angry crowd that hates you, it is not the right time to try
and force your convictions on them. You may have the truth, but it is time to be
patient and not waste your efforts on those who are not ready to receive. If they will
be as appreciative of your truth as a pig is of a pearl, then do not cast the pearl. If
people are not receptive it may be time to shake the dust off your feet and move on.
People need to be receptive before it makes any sense to share the truth.
7:15f
False prophets are everywhere, and in this chapter that starts with a warning
about judging, Jesus also tells us to be judging all the time as to who is a false
prophet. We are to judge them according to their fruit. He can look just fine and
sound just fine often for he will quote the Bible just like Satan did to Jesus. The
externals are all there to fool you, and so you have to be discerning. If they produce
conflict, perversions, and fanatics, and their life style if off center, you can see that
they are not sent of God. A true prophet will produce fruit you can trust. Spurgeon
pointed out that talent and success cannot be our criteria for judging, for a false
prophet can be brilliant, eloquent, and get an enormous following. The test is their
loyalty to Christ and the Word of God. False prophets are notorious for success in
deceiving large masses and so success is not a valid measure.
Martin Lloyd Jones says that false teachers may not even teach anything that is
evil. They do not go around shouting 2+2=5. They just leave out basic truths that are
essential to the Christian message in Christ. There is nothing offensive to the natural
man because he leaves out the need to submit to the Lordship of Christ. He has tons
of good ethical and moral teaching, but no repentance and no cross. He is false by
what he does not say, and not by what he says. It is a paradox but it is possible to be a
false prophet and not teach anything that is false.
Jesus says that the false prophet may even do wonders and miracles, but that is still
no proof that one is of God. If Jesus is not Lord, and salvation by faith in him alone, it
makes no difference how many miracles there are. They are often exciting and have
mostly truth to share, and only hidden small false ideas that do not become large until
people are sucked in by the truth. Often the false prophet is a true man or woman of
God who gets so filled with pride in their success that they go off the deep end and
think they are the key to all wisdom and truth, and this leads them to become fools by
establishing themselves as the only hope. Pride leads them into folly and they become
false prophets spouting their own ideas as if they were God’s Word. Many, if not
most, false prophets are trained in the church and they know the Bible quite well. That
is why they capture the following of many Christians. Almost all cults have a

19. following of true Christians. You may find people in every cult who really love the
Lord and His Word, but they have been deceived.
Sun Myong Moon, founder of the Unification Church or the Moonies, was raised
in a Presbyterian home. Jim Jones accepted Christ in a Nazarene church and became a
charismatic pastor of a Disciples of Christ church. Moses David, founder of the
Children of God came out of a Christian and Missionary Alliance background. Paul
Wierwillie, founder of the Way was an evangelical and Reformed pastor. All follow
the same pattern. They feel they have superior insights to the rest of the church. They
take a position of infallibility and none are to question their judgment. They often
develop a very caring and loving group that feel special for they have what others do
not. They use the phrase let by the Lord a lot, and they feel they are the insiders in the
kingdom of God. It all revolves around pride. They may have been true prophets
before, but their great success in healing, in bringing in money, and having such fame
leads them to neglect their families and get involved in affairs, and just blow the true
Christian life to pieces. Derek Prince stated, “If you want to know if a man is a true
apostle or prophet, don’t look at the miracles in his ministry; see if he pays his bills at
home and if the woman he’s traveling with is his wife!”
Not to judge pride that leads astray is to sin, and so it is a sin to judge and a sin not
to judge. It all depends on the issue whether it is right or wrong. If I know a con man
is ripping off people by his false plan of investing I have an obligation to not only
judge him, but to share that judgment with others to save them for his evil scheme.
Jesus blasted the system in the temple of ripping people off, and he blasted the
Pharisees for their robbing of poor widows. It is an obligation to save people from the
forces of evil when we have the facts that show it is evil we are fighting.
A false prophet is not one who has some mistaken interpretation of the Bible, for
there has to be many such in every denomination. Christians are divided on how they
interpret many things in the Bible. They are not false prophets to each other, but just
have a different perspective. Pretrib, midtrib, and posttrib are all Christians, but they
see things different. They can’t all be right, and so two of the three are wrong, but
they are not false prophets for there is not enough evidence to prove which of the
three is correct. It is an open question to be debated, and people will come out in
different places. It is not an issue vital to salvation and so their is no false prophet
label added to them. People can be wrong about a lot of things and still be Christians
if they never lose their foundation in Christ. He is the Rock on which they build, and
if so, they will not fall. Cults have this is common that they feel they are the only true
people of God, and all others fall short.
We are constantly judging for we do not like the way ideas are presented all the
time by anyone. We do with them like we do with food. We buy a dozen ears of corn
and throw the outside away, and after we eat the corn we throw the cob away. We
do not swallow it all, and so it is with ideas presented even in church. Their is
subjectivity going on all the time, and we take what fits us and our life and we
discard the rest. We are making judgments all the time as to what fits us.