Shall We Condemn Someone Before Hearing from Him? 

 

[212 words]

The Pharisees sent officers to arrest Jesus, but after they heard Him teach, they could not bring themselves to arrest Him, for they had never heard anyone speak like Him. The Pharisees then blasted the officers, asking if they were deceived, and that none of the rulers or Pharisees had believed in Jesus, and that the crowd did not know the Law. 

Little did they know that at least one of the Pharisees did believe in Jesus, and finally that Pharisee spoke up, 

“Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”” (John 7.50–51). 

They did not realize that they had not questioned Jesus fully yet. However, Nicodemus did realize it, and he also realized that they did not follow the Law in so doing, for it taught that they should investigate such matters before reaching a verdict (Deuteronomy 17 and 19). Also, King Solomon had written, “He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him.” (Proverbs 18.13) 

Many people do as the Pharisees did, they hear a rumor and accept it as fact. What do you do? 

Don Ruhl
via Keltonburg church of Christ
Smithville, TN 

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