Do Not Judge
"Do not judge so that you will not be judged.
2"For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.…Matt 7:1-2
This verse says if we judge another then the same is going to come back upon us. This can happen by our actions or what is in our own mind. To counteract this we need to know the mind of Christ in our lives. To bring a comparison to mind, is when man meets woman, he doesn’t really know her. But spending time with that person over time a man will get to know her and fall in love with her. The only way we can have the mind of Christ to keep our minds and hearts clear is to fall in love with our Lord Jesus Christ. How do we have that intimacy with our Lord? The answer is getting to know Him on a daily basis. The reaping of this great relationship is we won’t be prone to be judging others.
Luke 6:37
"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Who hates being judged? I know I do. I would love to leave a legacy in this world of being a righteous man. We are all sinful by nature. It is imperative we don’t judge another to avoid being condemned. This doesn’t mean by us not condemning that we aren’t going to be condemned. The world is full of smutty sin that we can so wrongfully be accused of ill acts which goes into a dark place of destruction. This hurts our very being. It’s only by grace we can forgive. Sometimes the damage has been done to where we are at the point of despair. At this point of desperation we need help from God ultimately but also other believers who can have faith and trust in the one who has been deeply hurt.
Luke 6:41
"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?
In the past, I have had people judge me, only to find out as time prevailed that something worse was in their own life. Has this happened to you? I am sure that we don’t want to show up everyone’s unholy acts. The result could be showing up your extra unholy acts. The only way we can remove planks in our own lives is confessing them to the Lord Jesus as sin in your life. The same with those who have, as it were, saw dust in their eyes, That is, small things that may be hindering your relationship with Jesus Christ.
John 8:7
When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."
Remember this part of scripture! They were stoning her because she had committed adultery. But Jesus had stopped them, ok you think you haven't sinned. you throw the first stone. “Please don’t throw stones at me…” we might all say. But how many stones have we thrown at someone today. We are all sinners saved by grace.
Romans 2:1
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
Here is the proof. when you judge you are condemning you. Because you do the same as the person of whom you judge. It is clear it’s not your responsibility to judge. but God’s only.
Romans 14:10
You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.
If you are judged remember that we all are going to appear at the judgment seat where we will be judged. To make our lives easier to live on this planet that God gave us, we need to leave the judgment to the heavenly realm when we appear before a Holy God.
Romans 14:13
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.
Judgements can put a stumbling block in our lives which can stop ministries of which that person could have been successful in reaching people for Jesus and God’s heavenly kingdom. Do we really want to do that? I think not! I think that God and his angels would be very displeased and anti God honouring.
1 Corinthians 4:5
Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
When the Lord comes He will know our hearts. Even the motives of which we may have. We are exhorted to judge nothing, i.e, a big fat zero. It’s not for us to bring it to light whatever is hidden in darkness.
James 4:11
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
It is finally clear we shouldn’t speak or judge a brother or sister. Most importantly we need to follow Christ. We today have the Holy Spirit in our lives. We don’t want to be going ahead of our Lord and judge others before we go to heaven. Judgement belongs to God only. Therefore we must wait until then for judgement. Then we’ll see.
