<p>4:5 <i>Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come</i>- Any feeling OK in our own conscience <i>now</i> is irrelevant compared to the fact that the final judgment is not <i>now</i> but <i>then</i> when the Lord comes. The appeal to judge nothing before that time is directed very much at ourselves in our self judgment, rather than warning against judging others. We are not to judge, not simply because it is beyond our competence, but because <i>now</i> is not the time to judge.</p><p><i>Who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts</i>- Judgment of others is impossible because we cannot see the hearts of others, nor can we see in darkness. There is an element to which judgment will be public; and hidden things will be made manifest not only to those being judged, but to all of us. The real intentions of others will then be known by us all. And this is necessary to prepare us to live eternally together. The judgment process in that sense is for our benefit and education, rather than because God needs it in order to gather information. The same word for &quot;bring to light&quot; is used of how we can now live 'in the light', with our whole body as it were full of light and having no dark parts (Lk. 11:36; Jn. 1:9). This is the whole sense of our having been 'enlightened' (Eph. 1:18; 3:9; Heb. 6:4; 10:32 s.w.).</p><p>We can live in the spirit of judgment day right now, if we allow the Lord's light to operate as intended. He will reveal the hidden things of darkness (the human heart), and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts (1 Cor. 4:5). Of course He knows these anyway; but He will make them manifest <i>to us</i>. The judgment seat is for our benefit, not God's- He knows our lives and spiritual position already. The day of judgment is to purify us (Mal. 3:2)- not ultimately, for that has been done by the Lord's blood and our lives of faithful acceptance of this. But the fire of judgment reveals the dross of our lives <i>to us</i> and in this sense purges us of those sins. Without the judgment, we would drift into the Kingdom with no real appreciation of our own sinfulness or the height of God's grace. The judgment will declare God's glory, His triumph over every secret sin of His people. The heathen will be judged &quot;that the nations may know themselves to be but men&quot; (Ps. 9:20)- self knowledge is the aim, not extraction of information so that God can make a decision. And it was the same with Israel: &quot;Judge the bloody city... (i.e.) shew her all her abominations&quot; (Ez. 22:2).</p><p>At judgment God &quot;shall bring forth thy righteousness (good deeds) as the light, and thy judgment as the noon day&quot; (Ps. 37:6). The sins of the rejected and the good deeds of the righteous will be publicly declared at the judgment, even if they are concealed from men in this life (1 Tim. 5:24,25). This is how men will receive &quot;praise of God&quot; (1 Cor. 4:5; 1 Pet. 1:7; Rom. 2:29). The wicked will see the generous deeds of the righteous rehearsed before them; and will gnash their teeth and melt away into condemnation (Ps. 112:9,10).</p><p><i>And then shall each man have his praise from God- </i>The praise, in the context, would be for the counsels of their hearts. This is exactly the sense of Rom. 2:29, where the same word is used: &quot;He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not of men but of God&quot;. This is how critically important it is to be spiritually minded; this is the essence which the Father looks at. And yet &quot;praise of God&quot; at the judgment recalls the Lord's parable of how we shall be praised in that day for having fed, clothed and visited the suffering Lord Jesus in the form of the least of His brethren. With such an awesome prospect ahead, we will not be interested in being judged positively by men; and neither will their negative judgment of us mean anything much.</p><p>Whilst we ourselves will feel the need to &quot;confess to God&quot; (Rom. 14:11,12) our failures and unworthiness, we have shown earlier how our Lord will not mention these to us, but instead joyfully catalogue to us those things which have so pleased him in our lives. This will be to our genuine amazement: &quot;Lord, when..?&quot;. Keeping a subconscious inventory of our own good works now will surely prevent us from being in this category. 1 Cor. 4:5 speaks of us as receiving &quot;praise of God&quot; at the judgment, presumably in the form of praise for the good works which we are not aware of, as outlined in the parable (cp. Ps. 134:3). &quot;Praise&quot; suggests that our Lord will show quite some enthusiasm in this. Not he that commends himself will be approved cp. The listing of good deeds by the rejected, &quot;but whom the Lord commendeth&quot; in as it were listing the good deeds of the accepted (2 Cor. 10:18).</p><p>There are some instructive parallels here:</p><table border=0 cellspacing=5 cellpadding=0 width=50%>    <tbody>        <tr>            <td>            <p>&quot;Bring   to light&quot;</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;Make   manifest&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td>            <p>&quot;The   hidden things of&quot;</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;The   counsels of&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td>            <p>&quot;Darkness&quot;</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>&quot;The   hearts&quot;</p>            </td>        </tr>    </tbody></table><p>The hidden man is therefore &quot;the counsels&quot; of the heart. How we speak and reason to ourselves in our self-talk, this is the indicator of the hidden man. This will be 'made manifest' to the owners of those hearts, the Greek implies. &quot;All things are naked and opened&quot; unto God anyway; the second coming will reveal nothing to Him. The making manifest of our hidden man will be to ourselves and to others. The purpose of the judgment seat is therefore more for our benefit than God's; it will be the ultimate self-revelation of ourselves. Then we will know ourselves, just as God knows us (1 Cor. 13:12). Through a glass, darkly, we can now see the outline of our spiritual self (1 Cor. 13:11,12), although all too often we see this picture in the spiritual mirror of self-examination, and then promptly forget about it (James 1:23,24).</p>