WHY are We SO Quick to Judge Others???

“Don’t condemn others, and God won’t condemn you. God will be as hard on you as you are on others! He will treat you exactly as you treat them.” [Matthew 7:1,2 CEV]

We will be required to stand the test of the same judgment that we mete out to others. If we measure it out for others, we better be able to stand up to the same weighty measure of that judgment. The harsh code that we exact is coming to our door—it may not be for the same sin, but the weightiness of the judgment is going to be directed at us in the same way that we measured it out to others. This is why we have to be so careful in how we judge and criticize others—especially those who are outside of the Body of Christ. It is not for us to judge the world—not at this time. It is easy to measure your life against those who have not accepted Christ and feel some sense of righteousness—and therein lies the problem. You can only feel that sense of “righteousness” or pseudo-holiness by works of the flesh.

When we are truly cognizant of the fact that we are nothing without the blood of Jesus Christ—and that any good that exists in us, is because of His presence in us, we have no fingers to point; only gratitude that we are redeemed. There is no room in grace for finger-pointing, criticizing and pharisaical behavior. Grace is gracious. Grace is forgiving, and looks for ways to help, to love and to bring light into darkness—not more darkness. A rehearsal of wrongs simply adds more darkness and doesn’t provide a solution—the solution is the Gospel, and it is “Good News”, not more sin and degradation. In the midst of a problem, I don’t need anyone to come and tell me what the problem is, or to tell me how messed up I am for having the problem—I need a solution. If all that is offered is rhetoric about the problem, I will quickly determine that the offerer is useless to me, and reject any message from them. Our tactics have failed for just this reason.

We are commanded to do some things in regards to those who are not a part of the Body of Christ—none of them involves judgment. Never was the command given for us to judge them.  We are to preach the Gospel, teach them, let our light shine before them, love them, and win them. Jesus reserved judgment for the religious leaders and sects—and for His own, not for the world. We have it backwards.

“And with what measure ye mete”—is not saying that you will be judged the same way if you engage in the same sin, but that you will be judged with the same level of judgment for your own transgressions, even though in your sight they may be minor in comparison to the sins of others that you have judged. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”. If you want to receive mercy, you have to extend mercy (and you get it as as you give it--that's the measurement; just as you are forgiven, as you forgive)—and we don’t get to pick and choose the recipients based on our ideas about who is deserving of it. We love to talk about “sowing and reaping” until it comes to spiritual things—those things that God really wants us to focus our attention on.  We should extend mercy without boundaries, as did Jesus, Who died for us “while we were yet sinners”! We don’t know and see what God knows; we don’t see the circumstances that cause people to err and sin and stumble—sometimes, even while we are standing in judgment we may have played a role in causing them to sin. We can be safe if we leave that judgment to God and self-examine, and judge ourselves—asking Him to create in us, a clean heart, transforming us by the renewing of our minds. We can be so focused on others, that we miss our own “beams”. Even if they (our transgressions and offenses) are tiny “specks”, if we have judged others harshly, we will be judged as if they are monumental mountains—even abominations. Wouldn’t you just be devastated if God looked at your failure to pray every morning (after you vowed to) as if it were the sin of witchcraft?

Save yourselves.