Judgment...

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono

"Do not judge so that you will not be judged."--Matthew 7:1.  Jesus, beginning His teaching on the concept of judging and how we ought to judge others.  Simply put, we are talking about the concept of judgment.

Judgment.  This topic I must admit is one of my soapboxes because this is a verse that has been used and abused and taken way out of context by so many Christians, possibly and probably even myself included.  That being said, the question we need to ask ourselves is what is Jesus really trying to tell us here in regards to judgment?

Judgment.  As we look at Matthew 7:1-5, we see that Jesus gives us some instructions in regards to judgment. In verse 5, Jesus tells us to take the log out of our own eye so that we will see clearly enough to take the speck out of our brother's (or sister's) eye.

Judgment.  The fact is life is full of judgment calls.  Scripture is clear about the fact that we must discern (judge) what is good and what is evil.  Does figuring out what is right and what is wrong not require a certain amount of judgment on our part?  Those who accuse us of "judging" them, are they not making a judgment call themselves by making the judgment that we are judging them?

Here is the point.  We do have to be careful with out judgment calls.  The key to making good judgment calls in regards to our brothers and sisters is making sure you have all the facts straight.  Furthermore, learn to ask questions before jumping to conclusions.  Before making our judgment calls, we must separate our emotional reactions to the situation and use logic, reason, oh and not to mention prayer before dealing with a brother or sister in Christ in regards to any situation.  If we don't go to God and His Word first, we will surely make poor judgment calls and even make situations worse than they need to be.  An unfortunate consequence of this could be severed relationships with our brothers and sisters.

Finally,  remember that with whatever standard we judge, with that same standard, we will be judged.  Ultimately, we need to make sure that the one and only standard we use when making judgment calls is God's divinely inspired Word.  When we do this, this will help us see clearly enough to make accurate judgments of any given situation.  If there is a situation that you are dealing with, my encouragement to you is to go to God in prayer and to His Word before dealing with it.  Doing this will help make the situation so much easier to deal with. I guarantee it.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!