3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
6"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
I know that I am in no position to judge others, but it comes so naturally as soon as I see someone. But when we judge, it shows that we have little faith in God. We also presume to do or think what God thinks. God is the ultimate judge, and unless we have lived sinless lives (which is impossible), we must follow God. We must continue to obey God's laws, where we are to love those as we love ourselves, and to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. As we judge others, it is clear that we place ourselves before God.
We can also judge people in a way that make them into our idols. We can give people no credit or too much credit, but all are forms of judgement.
We are called to be wise in our discernment, and this wisdom only comes from the Word. May we continue to ask for Godly wisdom rather than putting our trust in our own wisdom.
4 comments:
Thanks for sharing Esther! I really do not want to be judged according to how I can be capable of judging others.
So much good could come if I could only follow the words of this passage. I wouldn't be taking valuable time to dwell and judge others. Instead, I could use that time in God's word or in prayer thanking him for the grace he gives to me. I also think it would open up my heart to love others more and cultivate more compassion and understanding and grow in the grace I extend to others.
Esther, what an interesting point. That whether we think too little or too much of certain people, we are judging them. And you're right. We need godly wisdom from the Bible to guard against our sense of judgment that is indeed flawed and out of place.
thank you for such a wonderful, honest reflection, esther. i realized from reading this passage just how natural and instinctive it is for all of us to judge each other.
i think this tendency to judgment is rooted in the worst of all sins--human pride.
judging another person is all about comparing them to yourself. if a person does such and such, we feel "superior" if we DON'T do that thing OR
we feel "superior" if we DO such and such when that other person doesn't.
but this looking at others and comparing them to ourselves is exactly what we must not do.
we only see the outward sins, anyway. the worst sins are inward, the ones no one can see.
others may practice such and such a sin, but most certainly, we practice, in the deepest recesses of our hearts, other sins, maybe even more despicable.
so we can see that the act of judging others, seen in this light, is evil indeed. who are we to say anything about anyone when we are so fallen ourselves?
the instinct to judge must be cut off at the root, and that is only possible through consistent fellowship with Jesus.
in His presence, we are reminded that there are really no "degrees" of sin. in the end, no matter how outwardly respectable and "good" we appear, we are all one and the same--unworthy and exceedingly sinful.
Yea..I think it's really hard to love someone with my judgement. We keep on judging on others and love them just for a moment. We even judge their amount of love to us(outward)and then give them only that amount of love not following God's unconditional love. I should remind this kind of judging is a sin.
Post a Comment