WHAT DOES JESUS MEAN?

When He Says: "Do not judge?"

I saw that a friend on FaceBook liked a post about judging.  In American culture today judging has become synonymous with condemnation and therefore hate.   As a Christ follower there are so many arguments I can make against such thinking.  The problem is we Christians have very probably been far too judgmental.  Before knee jerk reacting to that, would you mind hearing me out? I think you'll really like what I have to say here, and even if you don't perhaps you'll do some thinking about it anyway.

So let's look at the text in question:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“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?  How 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?"

Matthew 7:1-4 

If Jesus was saying this to us today he might say, "Don't judge a book by it's cover."   Jesus isn't saying, "Don't make any judgments, ever," he is saying, "Don't make snap judgments based on what you can see on the outside."   Not only that, but Jesus is saying, "Be careful that you are seeing your brother clearly, and not merely accusing him of being guilty of a sin that is really YOUR SIN."   One sure sign of a manipulating/controlling person is they accuse others of being guilty of committing the sins THEY, themselves, are guilty of committing.  

When God sent the prophet Samuel to Jesse's house, to anoint the second king over Israel, he told Samuel to pass up one of Jesse's sons because men look at the outside, but God sees the heart.  Because God sees the heart then he knows about a person's past.  God clearly sees our brokenness and what has broken us.  

I love the way Dietrich Bonhoeffer says it:

"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."

Perhaps, or actually, probably, the world, when demanding we not judge them are telling us something we need to hear?  Maybe, just maybe, we need to stop judging the book covers (lives) of prostitute people, substance abusing people, LGBT people, and other sinner people we don't like, and actually READ the books of their lives (Get to know them, and their lives).  I know we need to stop letting the sins of others get us all upset and bent out of shape.  Who has greater power the sinner to sin, or Jesus Christ to save and free the sinner?  My friend Sandy Dolan Gross asked me this question out of the blue one day:

"Do we really believe the power of the fall is

greater than the cross of Jesus Christ 

to save and restore?"

If we believe that Jesus Christ defeats the world and it's sin then we should focus on God's power to overcome sin.  If we have the cure why do we go on cursing the sickness?   Why do we not simply give the cure, and let Jesus worry about the rest?  

I'll let God's word finish out this post:

"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. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.  So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?"

Romans 2:1-4

Just Some Thoughts

Lonnie