Judging

What is judging?
judge
noun

• a public official appointed to decide cases in a court of law.
  synonyms: justice, magistrate, sheriff, jurist
• a person who decides the results of a competition or watches for infractions of the rules.
  synonyms: adjudicator, arbiter, arbitrator, assessor, evaluator, referee,ombudsman, ombudsperson, appraiser, examiner, moderator, mediator
• a person able or qualified to give an opinion on something.
  synonyms: adjudicator, arbiter, arbitrator, assessor, evaluator, referee,ombudsman, ombudsperson, appraiser, examiner, moderator, mediator

verb

• Form an opinion or conclusion about.
  synonyms: form the opinion, conclude, decide;
• decide (a case) in court.
  synonyms: try, hear;
• give a verdict on (someone) in court.
  synonyms: adjudge, pronounce, decree, rule, find
• decide the results of (a competition).
  synonyms: adjudicate, arbitrate, mediate, moderate

Is it alright for me to size someone up and make a ruling on who they are based on their looks, their beliefs, their sexual orientation, etc. The more I looked at what I do, the more I realized just how hypercritical I was being. I was basing my thoughts, my judgments on that person on their outward appearance, I can't see their heart, I can't see their struggles, I can't know the pain they have, just because they believe differently doesn't mean I am any better then them. But Jesus calls us to love one another. If I was judging that person how can I love them.

I realized the more I judge them, the more I was going to be judge. If I judged them on their looks, know what that means I will be judged on my looks. If I judge according to their beliefs, I would be judged according to mine, I tended to say it was alright to say this, because I was a Christian, but guess what I still bleed the same as them, Jesus laid down His life for everyone, not just the ones that would chose Him, but for all sin in this world. He calls us to absolute surrender, to stop making judgments on others, but to love them just as He did and does.

How dare I put myself before someone else. We are to walk and live according to how Jesus lived. My prayer was to make me more like you Lord, but when it came time to do that, I want my way. I have to tell people they are sinning, but is that my responsibility? It surely isn't mine when I have logs in my own eyes. How can I be the one to help someone when I fall daily, when I am blinded by my own logs?

I believe our call is to love the wounded, to bring food to the hungry, to love even the ones that are lost, because when we have done so and someone asks what makes us different then the ones that spit in their faces, what makes us the way we are. The answer isn't that I am better then you because I am a Christian, it is because Jesus has called me to lay down my life for even those lost.

I will tell you a story. I help a college professor, he is retired now. He is a homosexual, now if he is practicing who knows, not my concern. He worked for a christian college and went to church. He asked the church ministry group to help him move out of his upstairs apartment. They came and based on who he was, the clutter he lived in and many other things, well they where less then best. I was asked to help him, instead of rushing out of their based on the filth God called me to go above and beyond. Yes it was a struggle, it wasn't easy, but I heard God say that my reward wouldn't be here on earth, but in Heaven. This man was hurt by the men's group that had come in and judged him and the lesson wasn't in the judgments of his life style, but on how God calls us to love just as Jesus loves the sinners.

It is so easy to judge, but so much harder to love without judging.

Before I wrote this I read many others things and I stumbled across one blog that said we have to judge in every day life, it is just part of us. We judge the distances cars, or if someone is turning right or left and I realized that we are not talking about that, but the judgement that we place on others based on what they are, or who they are. I also read one that stated that judging is actually a way to make us feel better in our own views, religious choices, etc...

I want to challenge you to take the Geoff challenge. I am working on this myself. Love even the ones that we have judged in the past, not based on our thoughts, but based on what Jesus has called us to do. Love them right where they are at. Love them without judgement, let God minister to their heart, you just love them based what Jesus has called us to despite their past, despite what they have done, despite there sexual choices, despite what they wear, love them as Jesus does.

The choice is yours, either you allow Jesus to change your perspective on others or you do what you have done all along. Isn't it high time that we allow God to turn up the heat in our own lives to purify us.

Matthew 7:1-3

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 

2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “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?