Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Judging Others

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are."

It is easy to judge and not take a good look at ourselves. It is easy to think well, she____________________ , he________________, or at least I did not_________________. At least I did not fill in the blank was a favorite thing to fling at my parents when I was in trouble as a teen. Seriously, I was not as bad as my cousin, their friend's child, or some teen on the news. As if ever uttering those words helped my situation!

I think as a busy adult, it can be hard to take the time to measure where our heart is, where we are compromising according to God's Word, how we are sinning. And though confessing our sin to the Lord and repenting of our sin is not only crucial to our Christian walk, it brings immediately healing to us. And face it, maybe we don't want to examine our hearts because we do not want to examine what lurks there. After all, if we confront it head on, we might have to make uncomfortable changes in our lives.

John Wesley put it this way, “We should be rigorous in judging ourselves and gracious in judging others.” Easy to say, hard to do.

Somewhere between the feel-good, prosperity themed sermons of many mega church pastors and you are a worm messages of legalistic, Pharisaic pastors is the Truth. We must seek truth and put it into action in our lives.

Jesus warns us judge not lest ye be judged (I still remember it in King James English from my childhood.) In context (and in the ESV) He said,

"For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?"

So as we go about our day, our week, our life...let us extend love, compassion, kindness, and thank the Lord for the love, compassion, and kindness He extends to us.

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