Matthew 7:1 NIV
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
Are You Opinionated?
It is one of the most natural of all human
behaviors, judging others. We may not
let people in on what we are thinking but we are constantly critiquing and
evaluating. We make determinations regarding
the lectures of our professors, the performance of our servers at restaurants,
the job done by our hair stylists and the conversational skills of those we
meet at parties. We judge the effort
given by our co-workers, the intelligence of our doctors, the creativity of our
friends on Facebook and the friendliness of the clerks at supermarkets. We give everyone we meet a quick
evaluation…how well they have dressed, how they smell and how they look. Often we pride ourselves on how accurately we
assess others…their honesty, skill levels and worthiness of our time and
friendship. Fans who have never played
above fourth grade baseball somehow know more about baseball than major league
managers and millions watching football on TV believe they would not have
thrown the “stupid” interception or made the bad pass the point guard made
because they are smarter than the players they are watching.
A part of being human is the capacity to judge the
skill and effort of others as well as ourselves. Adam, even before he sinned, was given the
task of naming all the animals based on his evaluation of them. We see in the Bible a number of examples of
judging, evaluating and assessing the motives and decision making of friends
and co-workers. King Saul famously
decided that young David, his general, was a risk to Saul’s throne and that
David’s popularity among the people of Israel might go to David’s head. Saul came to the conclusion that David was
greedy for power and could not be trusted so he tried to kill him. Was Saul right in his determination? Did Saul see something in David that
warranted his concern? Perhaps there was
a smirk on David’s face when the women of Jerusalem sang about his exploits in
front of King Saul. Maybe David was not
as respectful in the way he addressed Saul as Saul thought he should have
been. Whatever evidence Saul had though
for judging David disloyal and a traitor, the King later realized it was not
sufficient to warrant his mistrust. He
later admitted to David, "You are more righteous than I," he said.
"You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly.”(1 Samuel
24:17 NIV)
One of the problems with judging others is that we
may be dead wrong in our evaluations and a friendship or alliance that could
have been wonderful and beneficial might be lost. Family relationships can be destroyed by our
judging. Absalom, one of David’s sons
became enraged when his half-brother Amnon raped his full-sister Tamar. Their father David didn’t do anything about
the crime though despite being king and having the power to punish Amnon any
way he wished. After three years,
Absalom gained his vengeance on Amnon and had him murdered. This did not settle the account fully though
in Absalom’s mind. He decided that David
was wrong in this for not taking up the cause of his sister and thus not
competent enough to be king, that he was an unfair and unjust ruler. He began to gather evidence that David was
not just in his other dealings. Absalom
interviewed men and their families as they entered Jerusalem on visits and
asked them what they thought about the justice in the land with David as
king. “Did he treat everyone
fairly?” “Did David play favorites, only
advancing the careers of those from Judah but disregarding the needs of those from
other parts of Israel?
For four years Absalom criticized his father’s
fairness as king. He would get up
early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever
anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision,
Absalom would call out to him, "What town are you from?" He would
answer, "Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel." Then Absalom would say to him, "Look,
your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to
hear you." And Absalom would add, "If only I were appointed judge in
the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I
would see that he gets justice." Also, whenever anyone approached him to
bow down before him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him and
kiss him. Absalom behaved in this way
toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he
stole the hearts of the men of Israel. (2 Samuel 15:2-6 NIV) With Absalom, the judgmental attitude toward
his father festered into hatred that careened out of control. Not every critical thought morphs into
disgust and loathing. Some just fade to ambivalence and disinterest. However, never does a critical and judgmental
thought disappear from the mind. It
always leaves its mark; always damages in some way our personality.
Two of the Disciples, James and John, responded with
rage to the lack of interest in Jesus and His ministry shown by the leaders of
a Samaritan village and they made a rather troubling request of Him. When the disciples James and John saw
this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to
destroy them?" But Jesus turned and
rebuked them, and they went to another village. (Luke 9:54-56 NIV) This was an extreme reaction to a mundane
occurrence. It is not like these people
were ripping into Jesus or wanting to stone Him to death. They just weren’t interested in hearing Him
because He was going to Jerusalem. Was
this the only collection of people who had some sort of reason for turning
aside from Christ? Of course not! But James and John for some reason believed
they were far worse than all the other critics and skeptics of Jesus. Our Lord rebuked them for their judgmental
response to the Samaritans. We can be
certain that there was a much bigger concern of James and John than that these
poor villagers didn’t want Jesus lecturing them about religion. Perhaps racism was at the root of their
criticism…perhaps it was their nationalism rearing its head in them…they were
not happy that the Samaritans had a bad opinion of Jerusalem. Whatever the case nearly every time we become
judgmental, there is something behind our criticism that fuels it. Something that runs much deeper than our
sense of fashion, political beliefs or loyalty to God!
Jesus’ command during His Sermon on the Mount is
unequivocal. We must not judge
others! "Do not judge, or you
too will be judged.” (Matthew 7: 1 NIV) Luke quotes Jesus almost exactly the same way.
"Do not judge, and you will not
be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.” (Luke 6:37 NIV) This
is an astounding demand of God. We all
are so good at judging others. Not only
that, our criticism is always warranted or so we think. Yet it seems that our Lord does not care how
smart we believe we are or how wise we decide our evaluations, we are not to
judge others critically. Of course this
is not saying judgments are never to be made.
Those in places of authority are directed by God to make judgments when
the law is broken. Murder, vandalism,
theft; God puts it in the hands of those in authority to judge crimes and
determine guilt or innocence. God has
established Law as a protection for us from the evil in people’s hearts. Jesus is not dealing with authority judgement
in these passages. He is commanding
against personal judgment.
Let us be clear about this. There is never a time when a Christian, who
is not in a position of authority under the law or as a part of his or her occupation,
is given permission to judge the character, motives or actions of another
person, whether that person is Christian or non-Christian, in this life. To do so puts us in direct opposition to God
and His mercy. If you or I judge
someone, the Lord will judge us and we would be hard-pressed to find an
instance where God’s judgment was pleasant.
Yet our Lord has made us judging people, with critical minds and
discerning hearts. Why is it that, if we
are not to use those skills unless we are circuit judges, we have the
instantaneous judging mechanism up and running all the time?
Our mind is wired this way by God that we might be
skillful at prayer, quickly seeing what we need to bring to God and able to
join with the Lord in what He shows us.
If you see an area of weakness in someone or a moral flaw, you take that
to God as soon as you become aware of it.
Your professor is giving a boring lecture, pray for God to help
her. A friend has been gossiping about
you, bring it to the Lord for Him to fix.
Your parent prepared something for dinner that is not very good, pray
for God to help your parent do better. A
hotel clerk is snappy with you and it is irritating, rather than snap back at
her or talk about her rude behavior with your wife or co-worker, bring her to
the Lord for healing. One of your
relatives clearly doesn’t like you and treats you disrespectfully and you want
to “tell her off.” You cannot. You must talk only with God about her and ask
the Lord to change her ways. The person
of any use to God is the one who prays. God’s
way for us to help people is by letting Christ work through us and He will
never do so if we judge them or criticize them.
Have we ever helped anyone with our criticism? We probably have often hurt them with our
criticism, but helped them…most likely not!
We can be certain we have never
hurt anyone with our prayers, but we have most assuredly helped every one of
those we have prayed for God to come alongside and build into perfection! Greatness in our Lord’s Kingdom is never
determined by our ability to see the faults in others but by our faithfulness
to pray for each person God brings our way.
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