Here Come Da Judge!!

Luke 6:37“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.

Jesus is giving us some insight into the great responsibility of being a judge on life matters. Of course, Jesus had “experienced” judgment by the religious leaders who followed Him around and tried to condemn Him at every turn. Judgment can come from two different standards; Human standards and Godly standards. Jesus said that judgment is not something even He does as He said in John 8:15 You judge me by human standards, but I do not judge anyone. So if Jesus is not judging, what “right” do we have to judge? NONE. That doesn’t usually sit right with most people and the “power” to judge is not a power easily given up. What does judging by us cause? It causes great hurt, anarchy, hate, evil, and many other ungodly things. So who is the prompter when it comes to judging, God or satan? I think you can see it is satan!!!

Judging sets one person up higher than another person and puts them in a position to look down on someone else. So judging does not come from God because He apparently sees us all the same….sinners. But God’s grace forgives that sin so we can walk in true freedom and grow in that grace. Paul spoke wonderful words of truth to the church at Ephesus when talking about this freedom. There can never be unity if one person is judging another person, because judgment “belongs” to God, not us. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. 4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is no room for judgment in the verse above and the end result is unity…unity…unity!

The presence of Judgment is the lack of fairness. Paul wrote to the church at Rome and said in Romans 3:6  If God were not entirely fair, how would he be qualified to judge the world? We are sinners, remember? So, we are not capable of being”fair” at all, because our attempt at fairness is distorted by our fallen attitude and life. To think we are different is to think we are not sinners at all and think that we have the right to process perfect judgment on every person we meet. We do not own judgment because we can never deserve it or attain it. Usually a person who judges others is a person who is trying to live from their own standard for good and righteousness, which in a nutshell is them living a self righteous life. Jesus dealt with religious people who pulled that judgment on Him every time He turned around. And the way they came after Him was not right or Godly and it isn’t right and Godly for us either. John 3:17 says it all where it says God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

So I guess if we would look more at helping people instead of judging them we might line up with the person God wants us to be. Ouch!!! I know, I know. I just went from writing to meddling, but the meddling works on yours truly just as much as others. We have riots going on right now because of judgment. And it leads to hatred, evil, and retaliation no matter who is doing it. Jesus calls us to be salt and light and if we cannot get a handle on the judging problem our salt will be tasteless and our light will be dim.

We are called to be children of light and back in Ephesians 4 Paul brings it all into focus for them and for us. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

If we are striving to be more like Christ then do it from freedom, because of God’s grace and not from bondage to self righteousness and works. It just works!! Time to get beyond the judgmental heart and step into the light.

G.K. Chesterton wrote “fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.” Stop living in the fallacies that you can judge and get away with it because it has become your fashion and your way of life.

The Pilgrimage continues…..

David Warren