Matthew 7:1-5 (MSG)
1 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. 2 That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. 3 It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. 4 Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt?
5 It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.
The judge lifts the gavel, prepared to declare her judgment on the case that she has just presided over. She looks over her glasses with brow furrowed and a frown on her face. As she strikes the dark wooden gavel on the table, she declares her decision rendered. “Guilty”…followed by the prescribed sentence in order to pay restitution for the crime committed by the offender…but does judgment only occur in a court of law? Of course not!
You’ve seen it happen too, that moment when a supposed “Christian” has passed judgment on a person or situation. They cross their arms in indignation, placing their nose in the air in an act of contempt and then insinuate that if one were a “true Christian” they wouldn’t do what just happened, and perhaps this statement is followed by an equally contemptible comment laced with false pity or compassion which holds no measure of care or love, “we’ll just have to pray for them”. We all know that comments like this get tossed around from time to time in our home churches and truthfully, actions of people from Jesus’ day and actions of people in our day has not really changed all that much. Don’t misunderstand what I’m trying to say, for I do not want to become another judge in a long list of hypocrites, though dare I say that there are times in my own life where I have worn the coat of indignation and hypocrisy myself, and I’m here to say that it’s never a pretty picture.
Jesus had much to say about such attitudes. To say that it’s wrong to assume judgment on another believer is an understatement especially when one neglects one’s own faults, failures and temptations. He points out that it’s like focusing on the speck in someone’s eye when we have this unflattering, ugly, sin throbbing plank of wood in our own eye socket.
Ever get something in your eye? I have. It hurts. The eye waters, the face contorts, the hand moves to cover, rub, and dislodge the piece of dirt or eye lash trapped on the eye ball. How then could anyone have time, metaphorically speaking, to focus so much on someone else’ discomfort when a nasty, sin riddled plank is protruding from the eye?
Judgment is not the job requisite for us sinners saved by grace! Judgment is reserved for God alone…that doesn’t mean that we don’t care for one another and hold each other accountable as brothers and sisters in Christ, but what it does mean is that we stop the gossip, we stop the bad habits of looking at everyone else’s faults and failure instead of seeing our problems and faults staring us in the face. The Holy Spirit does the convicting, not us. God does the judging, not us. I believe there would be many more new believers seeing God if His people would stop the judgment, the bossy attitudes, and sometimes the downright hypocritical nature that is evident when greeting new visitors coming into our churches.
When Jesus came to this Earth, He did so not because we deserved anything but judgment and death, but because He loved us…He still loves us! We didn’t deserve this love given to us, we still had logs wedged in our eye sockets, so to speak…but grace was extended to us. Perhaps this is what we should consider the next time we think to pass judgment on another person because of the way they dress, the way the talk, or the way they act. Let’s extend that grace to others…and allow God to do the convicting and the judging.
–Just a thought for today!
Pastor's Ponderings 