The Judas Goat: How to Deal With False Friendships, Betrayals, and the Temptation Not to Forgive by Perry Stone

Author:Perry Stone
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Relationships, Religion, Christian Life, Spiritual Growth
ISBN: 9781621365211
Publisher: Charisma Media
Published: 2013-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

From the rebellion of the workers of iniquity,

Who sharpen their tongue like a sword,

And bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words,

That they may shoot in secret at the blameless;

Suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear.

—PSALM 64:2–4

The tongue of the just is like silver (Prov. 10:20). It is written, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver” (Prov. 25:11). On the contrary, the tongue that speaks hateful and negative words is like a sword and, when spoken, is an arrow carrying bitter words. When believers begin forming negative opinions of other believers, they move into the arena of being a judge, which creates a judgmental spirit. Once the believer moves from viewing another believer as a brother or sister in Christ to becoming a judge, then the judge becomes an “accuser of the brethren” (Rev. 12:10). Believers are not assigned to be God’s watchdogs over the body of Christ and to go around biting everyone they don’t agree with, and neither are they to become the judge, jury, and prosecutor.

Notice that the present positions of both Christ and the Holy Spirit are those of a defense attorney and not a prosecutor. Christ is our “Advocate” with God (1 John 2:1). The Greek word for “advocate” is parakletos, which is one called alongside another for help. It was used for a person in a court who was assigned to serve as a counsel for the defense, and one who took a person’s case and would plead for them.4 Christ revealed that He would send the Holy Spirit to us as “another Comforter” (John 14:16, KJV). The word Comforter is mentioned four times in the King James Version (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7). The Greek word for “another” does not mean a different comforter but “another of the same sort.”5 The Greek word for “Comforter” is the same word translated as “advocate” in 1 John 2:1. Thus we have a helper on earth and a helper in heaven who stands alongside of us to help us in our time of sin, weakness, and distress.

Scripture is clear that Christ did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to bring salvation (John 3:17). I believe one of the reasons that Christ warned His followers not to judge others is that what we condemn in others will eventually be found in us! We read:

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

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