Judging

Matthew 7:1 "Judge not, that you not be judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged..."

Maybe I'm just dense or something, but whenever I read this I always thought it meant "Judge not, that God will not judge you."

When I thought about it, though, two things came to mind. First: God judged Jesus so that He didn't have to judge us. In fact, God does not judge us though we deserved it. Second: I realized that Jesus may have been talking more about how we interact with each other.

By "judge not" I do not mean that we simply turn a blind eye to any and every thing that anyone does that is contrary to the character of God. "Judge" in this case means to condemn. That's not our job.

But if we go around passing condemnation on others - first it's not right. We should be praying for them, not judging them. Until they die there is still a chance they will repent and turn to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

But I was just thinking that if our attitude towards people is condemning, won't their attitude towards us be the same? Sure, we need to encourage each other to let the Holy Spirit transform us into God's image. But Scripture tells us to gently lift someone out of sin. Isn't that how we want to be treated when we fail?

So just don't be too quick on the judgment trigger finger. You may find yourself on the receiving end from others. Instead be like Jesus who was condemned unjustly and responded by praying for the Father to forgive them, and then laying down His life for the very ones who judged Him.

Pastor Tom