Judgment Abolished

Abolish (def) - to end the observance or effect of (something, such as a law): to completely do away with (something). On our Christian journey, we realize we have things in our lives that haunt us by coming back again and again. There are some things that need to be done away with completely because they will ruin your walk with Christ and taint the very faith we must live in. One of those things is Judging others. The kind of judging I am talking about is not where we try to see the good or bad in something so as to make a choice. The judgment God's Word is speaking about is judging another's thoughts or actions and trying to be God in their life.

Jesus spoke to this subject in 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. 38 Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”39 Then Jesus gave the following illustration: “Can one blind person lead another? Won’t they both fall into a ditch? 40 Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.41 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 42 How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

The first words out of His mouth speak to us being judged if we judge someone else which shows our "position" when we judge. The second set of words tells us about our forgiveness if we forgive. Jesus then goes into the very act of "giving" and the result of giving is getting. As He ties it all together we get the impression that this is an "all in" way of living and to avoid it hampers our walk. Jesus also alludes to the problem of our eyesight in a judging situation, and He shows us an illustration of a flawed direction leading to fallng in a ditch and the one who is causing it is a blind person trying to lead another blind person.

Keep in mind, the ground is level at the foot of the cross and what Paul wrote in Romans 6:23 is real and Biblical. Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. To forget our sinful condition is to try to judge someone by being their god and we are doing it from a very flawed position. I have people trying to read my thoughts all the time and they try to use my facial expression or my lack of speaking as a way of distinguishing my thoughts and they usually are 100% wrong in their evaluation. Paul told the Corinthians why they could not judge in 1 Corinthians 2: 11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. Judgment has to come from God and God alone, and God chooses to forgive because of what was done on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin. God gave Jesus for my sins and the thought of anyone trying to put themselves in a position of judgment is wrong at the highest level.

Judgment leads to gossiping, which is our attempt to read a person's intentions and come to our own conclusion about what is true or not. Proverbs 11:13 says it well 13 A gossip goes around telling secrets, but those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence.

If you want to know the effect of a gossip, just look at the carnage that gossiping has done in our modern-day churches. Lives have been destroyed, yes, I said destroyed, because of malicious gossiping. and yet it continues. Gossip comes from a heart of judgment, which is the main point in the above scriptures, and shows a very immature person of faith, who needs some guidance and help. Why? Because further in Luke 6 Jesus calls that person a hypocrite.

Time to move away from this form of worldlines and allow the Holy Spirit to give a discerning heart a chance and see what God can do from this new way of living. The Bible is clear on this matter, so our choice should be easy in growing beyond this worldly way of living. God is the pure judge, so don't interrupt what He knows, and stop trying to read another person's intentions because you cannot know their heart. Only God does. In this case of judging others, we should abolish this judging heart from our lives and worry more about what God wants to do in our lives. Jesus is leading the way and we just need to follow.

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren