Judgement: Healthy or does it cause plankeyetis?
Some people are good at seeing the best in people. My wife was always good at this, but that was not me. Though it wasn’t usually an outward thing, I was always judging people based on what I thought their motives were.
I had high standards of religious duty and I held everyone else who called themselves a Christian to those same standards. I lacked grace and mercy, and when people didn’t hold to the same strict and pious standards, I thought they were weak Christians.
I believed that it was ok to judge people, because after all, you can judge people by the fruit they bear… except that verse is not found in the Bible!! I tried to find a loophole in scripture that I could use to state my case. I stumbled on a scripture where Paul spoke about judging those inside the church, but not those outside (1 Cor 5:12). This was the one verse I was looking for to justify my actions.
“You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one.” ~ Jesus (Joh 8:15)
Why did I think it was ok? When did I become so hard and merciless?
A few years ago, Christ began revealing His love to me. Who was I that He should pour out His love for me without judgement? Christ never judged me, even at my worst. When I was at my lowest of low, He still said “I love you. Come to me.”
I never offered mercy. I never gave people the benefit of the doubt. I assumed the worst of people and rarely showed mercy because I didn’t care enough to know if they were going through a rough patch.
“Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” ~ Jesus (Joh 8:7)
I believe we are all created in the image of Christ and when someone is responding in anger, or bitterness, or acting improperly, I understand that this is not the real person. We often act in response to what we are going through, be it stress, past hurts, troubles in relationships, etc.
Love looks past the outward response and is compelled to the broken hearted. We live among the broken and those who don’t know their TRUE identity found in Christ. There is nothing good that comes out of judgement.
Further reading about judgement…
Mat 7:1-5, Luk 6:37, Jas 4:11-12, Rom 2:1-3, Rom 14:10, 1 Cor 4:5
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