so KoDESH!!!

Messianic people you know the ones I'm talking about. They're walking around at a party telling everyone that they're TRUELY KODESH and set apart. You know the people that make judgments on your life without having ever really talked to you, saying that you're spiritually immature when they never really struck up a conversation about a spiritual matter. They're usually the ones that brag about how much they fast or pray or how long they have been walking in the Holy Spirit and point out how you should be Holy the way that they are Holy. These people that talk a big game and do a lot of work to polish the outside...but are often blind to the reality.

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get. 'But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner! 'I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” - Luke 10


Seems contradictory no? That the one who is a total mess is in a better place than the one who boasts about his good works and judges everyone else? How does that passage start: And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt. The past few weeks have been rough on me if I can be candid. It's like there were those who sought out friends of mine, close people, and filled them with words about how flawed and unholy I am. How I am not like other people in so much I consider myself a regular flawed dude. I'm the first to admit my flaw, and I am very much and very deeply flawed. Do my flaws mean that I am not saved? Not at all. Do my flaws mean that I do not stumble, merely because I am forthright about them? No.

"Imagine yourself in the vicinity of the Garden of Gethsemane on a warm April night 2,000 years ago. As you watch, a man walks up to Jesus and begins kissing him. You would probably conclude, “How this man must love the Master!” Shortly after this you are shocked to hear another man bitterly cursing Christ. Now your conclusion would be, “How this man must hate the Master!” but both times you would be wrong. Judas, the man who kissed Christ, really hated him, and Peter, the one who cursed Him, really loved Him."- Dr. H. L. Willmington

The only one you should be comparing yourself to is Christ, with the caveat that you occasionally look at your former self to acknowledge that God has begun a work and you and has brought you closer to Him.

Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment- John 7
When you casually glance at someone laughing with a group and fostering a sense of community with them, can you get the picture of someone behind the scenes sitting for hours ministering with broken and hurting people, pointing them back toward Christ? Do you judge that because you don't openly see from across the internet that the right hand is not doing things to the standard of the left hand, that it is not part of the body? Is this righteous judgment?
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.  But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.  But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.- Matt 6
Be careful out there. There is a form of pride that masks itself as righteousness. It pretends to be holiness and it can deceive you into thinking that you are a great crusader of the faith, when you are wielding a sword against your brothers and sisters of faith.