Is good being done, or evil?

Is good being done, or evil?

"He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored." - Mark 3:5

Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath. A person was there with a crippled hand, maybe with arthritis. The rulers of the Jews knew that Jesus would want to heal him, they knew the heart that Jesus had for the hurting. And they also knew that this would break their rules they had made for keeping the Sabbath. Jesus cut right through their hypocrisy, to the core of the matter - either we do good or we do evil, we save life or we kill. Jesus did good, and healed the man. The hypocrites did evil and went out plotting how to kill Jesus.

From the Pharisees perspective, seeing Jesus doing good should have opened their eyes to the fact that their little rules were not the whole story. Jesus pointed them to the root issue - was good being done, or evil.

So often we condemn what we do not understand. Jesus tells us to go to the core issue - is good being done here, or evil? So, in the body of Christ, we should not judge each other but recognize where God is doing good, and at the same time recognize where the enemy is doing evil. This is the criteria - not whether or not something fits our own little box of rules and perceptions. God is sovereign and He works outside of the box.

"Lord, help me to not be judgmental, but to look at the core issue - is good being done, or evil. Where good is done, You are at work, and that is where I want to be. In Jesus' name, amen.