He's at the Door

James 5 cont’d:

…strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. 

Have you ever had to appear for jury duty?  If you haven’t, you most likely will.  You sit with a crowd of people waiting to see if you’ll be picked for the jury, and as you all file in and find your seat, the judge comes into the room in his robe, and takes his place at the front.  Then the selection process begins.  It’s long, it’s sometimes boring, and it’s always annoying to be pulled away from work to see if the judge is going to choose you or not.

Did you know the Lord is our righteous judge?  He’s not like the judge at jury duty, the one who decides whether or not we’re guilty of a speeding ticket, or the one who checks to see if we’ve done everything “by the book” and therefore worthy to go free.

The Lord is coming, and he will judge all of us. And the warning in these verses is that while we wait, we are supposed to strengthen one another…not complain against each other.

Our judgment will come as the Lord looks at our hearts, and the actions that came out of our the attitudes of our hearts. 

Our hearts must be strong in faith, strong in love, and strong in purity.

How do we make sure that the Lord, our Judge, chooses us?  He already has, through his son Jesus Christ.  He has taken our place as the guilty one, and all we have to do is surrender to him, and when the Judge appears at the door – we don’t have to fear that his gavel will come down in a guilty judgment.

We have been set free to live.