A Personal Devotional Journal

I invite you to journey with me. Sometimes we will look at short passages of Scripture and I will give my first thoughts and impressions. Other times, I will just share my thinking about spiritual issues. Always, you are welcome to comment and add your thoughts. Together, we could learn something.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

"Judging Others" Matthew 7:1-5

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

 I have heard people use this verse inappropriately to say that we should never be discerning or under any circumstance condemn that actions or attitudes of other people -and if we don't judge others, God will not judge us.  That is not what Jesus is teaching.  One day each of us will stand before God and give an account.  Sin is still sin.  Evil is still evil.  This is not talking about how God judges us, this is talking about how we judge one another.


Jesus is simply pointing out the obvious, that none of us has all of the facts and information on other people -we are not in a good position to judge other people's motivations.  We often don't even grasp what motivates our own hearts.  So, we should allow God to judge the motivations of the heart -He knows what we don't.  Our mandate is not to root out sin in the lives of others -our mandate is to invite people into right relationship with God and teach them to be followers of Jesus.


In the mean time, we should be concerned about our own internal reality.  We should be more concerned and more discerning about what is wrong inside ourselves.  


There is a principle here that is similar to the Golden Rule.  If we are demeaning and condemning of others, we can't expect others to treat us compassionately.  On the other hand, if we are compassionate and merciful and gracious, others will be inclined to treat us similarly.

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