Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Phillips Brooks
Devotional: 5 Ways Judging Others Blows up in our Face
This quote is a very biblical understanding of getting along with other people. The reality is that we’re all sinners and to refuse to forgive others basically implies that you are less of a sinner than them or in an extreme situation you’re incapable of screwing up the way they screw up. It’s obviously not true. Make no mistake about it, when we judge other people, it often blows up in our face. Here are five ways judging others leads to bad results.
We Notice Faults We Ourselves Have
In the Bible, Jesus pointed out that people who have beams sticking out of their eye can get all worked up about the speck of sawdust in the eyes of other people. What Jesus is saying is that the things we notice wrong with other people, we actually have ourselves. So, if we are all worked up about the fact that somebody is lying is because we ourselves either wish we could, or we have lied in the past. How ironic!
When we Judge we Open Ourselves to Judging
Whatever measure you use against other people will be measured against you. So, this means you better be clean. Obviously, this cannot happen because we’ve all fallen sure of the glory of God. We’re all sinners. You see how this all works out. It’s futile.
Lying About Judging Only Makes it Worse
Many Christians try to justify their judgmental behavior by saying, ‘Well, I’m just inspecting the fruit.’ While it’s true that Jesus said, ‘You shall know people by the fruit they bear’, at the end of the day, it’s really only God that can be the fruit inspector, not us. It’s Him because in the book of Revelation He said, ‘I am coming and I will give to every man his reward based on his actions.’ In other words, the judgment is reserved solely for God.
Judging Confuses the Sinner with the Sin
The problem when you judge other people and say, ‘That person’s a prostitute or ‘that person’s an addict’ is that you basically confuse that sinner with his/her sin. When you look at the life of a sinner, that person is obviously doing many other things in life than just sinning. His or her sin doesn’t define him/her. Unfortunately, this is what happens when we judge other people because we just put people in boxes. God doesn’t do that. That’s how awesome God is. God loves the sinner, but hates the sin. He’s able to understand us apart from our sin. We have a harder time with that.
Judging is Bad Witnessing
How good of a Christian example are you, if you spend your time judging people? It doesn’t draw people to God’s love when you judge them. In fact, it does the opposite. It makes God look like a bully. It makes God look like a something to be feared instead of someone to be loved. That’s bad Christian witnessing.
Conclusion
Instead of trying to look at other people’s faults, the better approach would be to look at Christ in every person. When you look at the person in front of you as containing Christ, the love of Christ had an easier time expressing itself in your life. And make no mistake about it, if you’re trying to witness for God, you are to attract more people through love than through judgment.
