Don’t Judge Me

By Cindy Koch –

“Judge not, that you be not judged. 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? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye’” (Mat 7:1-5)

Have you ever met a judgy Christian? Those that think they have everything figured out. They are enamored with their own expressions of faith, so much that you should imitate exactly what they do. But if you fail, if you don’t follow in quite the same way, then they must zealously remove the speck from your eye.

But, judgy Christians, do you not notice the log that is in your own eye? Do you not see your self-centered righteousness that ignores your very own blatant sin? Yes, it is much easier to see the thing you hate outside of yourself. But it is a much harder, a much more honest endeavor to see the deadly wickedness inside your very own soul.

But those that have been judged, do you not notice the log is your eye too? Judging those who have judged you first. Each of us is drowning in the judgements of others, suffocating under the judgment of God, unable to save ourselves. There is no one righteous, not even one. Not in the church. Not outside of the church. All are under the judgement of God according to their own righteousness; which is none.

But whether annoyed by a speck or impaled with a log, there was One who cleared our eyes so that we can all see. We can now can look outside of our own thoughts and actions to trust a Savior that has been judged. God judges, “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Christ answers, “It is finished.” And the judgement is final. Jesus Christ is judged as sinner. You, are judged righteous on account of him.

Now, we are free from worrying about the judgement of God. We are free from the judgment of men. Because we are judged on account of Another. His mercy calls us righteous, in a way that we could only receive. In truth we are all sinners with huge logs and lots of specks in our eyes. In truth we are beloved sons, righteous in every way because of Jesus. So, we can pray confidently with David, “Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.” (Psalm 7:8) Not because I removed all impurities from my eye, not because I removed the things from my neighbor’s eye. Rather, only Jesus Christ is the clear blameless integrity that is in me.

So, go ahead. Judge me.

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John J. Flanagan on April 30, 2018 at 6:10 am

In the original linguistic text of the Bible, the word “judge” was more accurately closer to the word “condemn.” Jesus warned us that only God can condemn, and that all of us are sinners, often doing the same sins which we accuse in others. This makes us hypocrits and guilty of spiritual pride. In my own opinion, we all judge others instinctively and habitually. We ourselves are sometimes self righteous and weigh our personal sins as lower than the sins we perceive in others. When we do this, we become aware of the reality that we are fallen creatures still, and every bit in need of grace just as our neighbor caught in sin and exposed to everyone.

We look down on someone caught in a sin of the flesh, joining the chorus of accusers self righteously and too often without the compassion and mercy Our Lord has called us to discern.

On the other hand, we can be falsely accused of being “judgmental” and perceived that way because we simply share what God’s word tells us about sinful acts. The Christian who merely says homosexuality is wrong, same sex marriage immoral, or lying and cheating are sins, well they can expect to be branded a judgmental Cretin, a bigot, a bully, or an intolerant individual to be despised.

It is true we cannot judge(condemn) someone to eternal damnation because of sin. We must realize that God, in His mercy, may at sometime bring this person to salvation in their life. We cannot know their eternal destination, nor their hearts. Only God can judge in this sense of the word.

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The Jagged Word

Don’t Judge Me

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