“Judge and be judged!”
Those are the convicting words I read this morning during my devotion found in Matthew 7. Jesus is in the middle of giving his famous “sermon on the mount” when these words are spoken. Verses 1-3 say, “Judge not, that you may not be judged. For with whatever judgement you judge with, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?”
Ouch! I don’t know about you, but as my eyes scan over each word in that passage I feel myself shrinking smaller as I sink down into godly guilt and conviction. I mean how long does it take us from the moment we get out of bed in the morning before we break this command? We probably make it without judging up until we check our social media feed. As soon as we get on our phone, the ever so familiar desire to compare ourselves with others and sinfully judge people comes at us with an almost unstoppable force. But why is this the case? Why do we find it so easy to give in to this sin? Well there’s a few reasons for sure.
One is that we are sinful humans who love justifying our own lifestyles and behaviors by comparing them to those of others. It gives us a sense of false comfort when we know that other people are more screwed up than us. In reality, for us Christians the apostle Paul has some words to chime in with. 2 Corinthians 10:12 says, “But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding“. Other translations substitute the words “without understanding” with “they are unwise”. Why are we without understanding and unwise when we compare ourselves to one another? Because we are using a false standard. The standard is not how much less sinful you are than the person whose Facebook you are creeping, but how utterly YOU fall short of the perfect standard and law of the Almighty God. That is the standard in which we gain true understanding and wisdom. Praise the God of grace in heaven that He provided a law-fulfilling, standard-meeting, and sin-bearing savior for us in the person of Jesus Christ. Without Him justifying us before our Holy God by faith we would be without hope and in danger of eternal destruction.
Another reason its so hard for us to obey this command is because our culture promotes judging and comparisons! Every which way we turn there are advertisements drawing us in and making us feel like our lives are inadequate. T.V. shows and movies make us feel like our relationships aren’t like the ones we watch, or that our homes and material possessions aren’t what they should or could be which leaves us feeling empty of peace but full of envy. Magazines make women feel insecure and ugly, causing them to change their appearances for the sake of conforming to what society deems as “beautiful”. We live in a culture so detached from the godly principals and morals that founded this country that its sometimes hard to realize just how far we’ve drifted. 1 Peter 3:3-4 says, “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” Apparently our culture and our Lord have conflicting views towards beauty. God see’s through it all straight to our heart, and that is where true beauty displays itself in its purest form. We don’t need to strive for approval, attention, or affirmation, because we have it in Christ and our true beauty will be realized when we are spending eternity with Him in heaven.
I want to end by saying this. Although the Bible clearly speaks out against sinful judgement in the way we’ve been talking about, it also speaks about Godly judgement that is not sinful. Gods Word in Galatians 6:1 tells us to confront our brothers and sisters when they are living in sin with gentleness and love for the purpose of restoration. Its okay to challenge each other and talk through our struggles and temptations. We desperately need that kind of accountability in our lives to grow in our faith. How do we know if we are sinfully judging or godly judging? I’ll use a simple illustration. Let’s say someone you know is known for being a liar. They even have a label that says “liar” on their shirt. Sinful judgement is gossiping about that person which adds to the liar label. Godly judgement is the act of trying to help remove it. We participate in this very real illustration every time we slander someone behind their back. It can especially be harmful when we tell someone who has never met the person with the label that they are a liar, because now the person you are telling has a predetermined judgement towards the label wearer because of how you added to it. Does that make sense? I’m sure there’s a better way to explain that but I think you get the point. We can see people as they are, or see them as they could be. We can view them from our sinful lens of judgement, or view them through the lens of grace and love. The choice is ours and its one we have to make and struggle through every single day. I pray God helps you to have His heart towards people and that you have the strength in Him to resist adding to the labels that our world so gladly puts on them. I hope this has shined some light!
Shine the Light and Write 