Here Come Da Judge!
By Pastor Jim May
All of us have found ourselves being judgmental at times. It’s a natural thing to make quick judgments of another person based upon our own pre-conceived beliefs and personal standards for dress, appearance and mannerisms. The first time you meet someone, you always find yourself sizing them up. Are they dressed right? Is their hair combed nice? Are their clothes dirty? Are they outgoing or introverted? Do they meet my standards? Do I meet their standards? We are always comparing ourselves to others and measuring them by ourselves.
This is why we are often told that “We need to make a good first impression.” I’ve seen it happen in the church when a stranger walks in. No matter how hard we try to be friendly, and try to love people, no matter who they are, the color of their skin or their background – it never fails that we still find ourselves passing judgment.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing for we also have a built in self preservation instinct that warns us of any impending danger to our bodies, our minds or our feelings. I’ve seen a lot of people in the church who wore their feelings on their sleeves because they have been hurt before and they are on guard lest it should happen again.
When people walk into our church it is a natural thing to move with caution. That’s one requirement for protecting yourself from becoming involved in something that will be destructive in your life. Those people that died in Guyana under Jim Jones would have been much better off if they had been a little more judgmental in choosing a leader. I believe that America would have been a lot better off if we had been much more judgmental of our presidential candidates before our last election. Sometimes judgment, right judgment, can be a great asset. Of course there are times when judgment can be dangerous, especially when we make too many assumptions.
Illustration:
In 1884 a young man died leaving his grieving parents behind. They decided that they wanted to establish a memorial to their son so they went to Harvard University to speak with the president of the university, Mr. Charles Eliot. When they walked in they had not special appearance of being wealthy or education, so Mr. Eliot was not very impressed. When they told him that they wanted to establish a memorial to their son, Mr. Eliot quickly thought that the best they could do was to set up a scholarship fund.
"Well, we were thinking of something a little more substantial than that...perhaps a building," the couple said. In a very patronizing and unbelieving manner, Mr. Eliot brushed the idea aside because he just knew that these common people could not afford to build a building at Harvard University. Then he dismissed them and said that he had other pressing business to attend to. The next year, Charles Eliot learned that this plain, common couple had gone elsewhere and established a $26 million memorial named Leland Stanford Junior University, better known today as Stanford University! Eliot’s quick judgment went down in history as one of the worse decisions ever made by a Harvard president.
Judging the appearance of other people is as common as rain and we often make snap decisions based upon that alone.
Illustration:
On such judgment was made by Dodie Gadient who had been a teacher for 13 years. She decided to travel across America and see the sights she had taught about. Traveling alone in a truck pulling a small camper trailer, she took to the open road. One afternoon, as she was rounding a curve on I-5 near Sacramento, CA in rush-hour traffic, the water hose blew on her truck. She was tired, worried, scared, and alone. In spite of the traffic jam she caused, no one cared enough to stop and help her.
"Leaning up against the trailer, she prayed, ’Please God, send me an angel . . . preferably one with mechanical experience.’ Within four minutes, a huge Harley Davidson motorcycle drove up, ridden by an enormous man sporting long, black hair, a thick scraggly beard and tattooed arms. Acting as though he knew exactly what he was doing, he got off his bike and, without even glancing at Dodie, went to work on the truck. A few minutes later he boldly stepped into the path of a big truck that was stuck in the traffic and convinced the driver to attached a tow chain to the frame of the disabled truck and trailer and pull it off the freeway onto a side street. Then he went back to work.
The schoolteacher was too intimidated and dumbfounded to say anything; especially when she read the paralyzing words on the back of his leather jacket: ’Hell’s Angels -- California’. When he finished working, she finally got up the courage to say, "Thanks so much," but couldn’t find the words to say much else. Noticing her surprise at the whole ordeal, he looked her straight in the eye and mumbled, "Don’t judge a book by its cover. You may not know who you’re talking to." With that, he smiled, closed the hood of the truck, got on his Harley, and with a single wave, he was gone as fast as he had appeared.
We also make judgments based upon our own perception of what someone else should be as well, and the consequences can often be very devastating.
The story is told of a young boy who about 10 years old and attending a Baptist church in his hometown. He grew up in a time when people were very judgmental about the length of your hair and the way you dressed. When the body went to the church and asked if he could join the choir, he was rejected as being too rebellious. On that day that young man began to drift farther from God and deeper into the world. He felt the rejection of the church but the worldly crowd was quick to accept him. In just a few years he began to sell records and to gain in fame in popularity and in 1977, at just 42 years of age, the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presly, left this world as a worn out, sick man who died as a result of prescription medicine overdose. He left behind a vast fortune, but he was a broken and sad man and probably left this world without Christ.
Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. Does that mean that we should never judge one another? Many have used this scripture to say that even the courts of our land have no right to pass judgment upon men, especially when it comes to the death penalty.
This verse does not mean that we should never pass judgment on another no matter what. It is God who established the Law and who also gave the punishments for those who break that law. Without law and judges we would live in anarchy. Judgment and punishment for crimes is a very necessary thing and is the only deterrent that will keep criminals at bay.
It is God that establishes governments, even in the church. It is not unscriptural to call a brother or sister into question when the laws of God have been broken.
Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:12 that we should …”know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;” How are you going to know whether your brother or sister in the Lord is doing the right thing unless you judge their works according to God’s Word? We are not told to never judge anyone, but we are told that when we judge, we should use the right criteria for judgment.
Matthew 7:2 gives us a hint at the kind of judgment that God expects each of us to have for one another, “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
What this verse says is that we must not judge one another based on our own prejudiced information. Our judgment must always be based solely upon what is found in the Word of God. I cannot judge your heart, for only God truly knows the motives behind what you do or say. But what I must judge is your actions, what you do and what you say.
It is not sin to judge someone as being a sinner when there is sin in their lives. But it is wrong to judge them and think that we are better than they are because we don’t do what they do, go where they go, or say what they say. The great divisions in the Body of Christ are always the result of Pride. Pride says that I am better than you. Pride says that I know the truth and you don’t; that makes me better. Pride says that you are condemned because you don’t believe like I do.
2 Corinthians 10:12 says, “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” There is no man on this earth that is good enough to be used as a standard by which all others are measured and judged. Not you, not me, not any preacher, nor any teacher. There is only one standard by which we must all be measured and that standard is the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Word.
So, if I am going to judge another, what must be my criteria? The only judgment I can have is whether their actions, words and deeds line up with what is taught in the Word of God. If their personality is different, that’s between them and God. If their motive for working for the Lord is different, that is between them and the Lord. If what they are doing lines up with God’s Word, then I must leave judgment to God. It’s only when they deviate from the Word, that we have a right to judge their works, inspect the fruits of their lives, and then judge whether they are living for God or not. But we never have the right to condemn them.
What will be the standard of our judgment when we face the Judgment Seat of Christ? That standard will be based on two things: 1) What is our relationship with Jesus Christ and 2) Did we obey the Word of God while we walked this life? We will not be judged according to what anyone else says or thinks. It’s all about what Jesus thinks.
So if you are going to judge another, then the only two things you can base your judgment on are the same things that you will be judged upon in the end. Whatever judgment you judge by will be the same judgment by which you are judged. If you want mercy at the judgment of Christ, then give mercy now. If you want to be judged according to Grace, then judge according to grace now. None of us wants to be condemned at the judgment of Christ, so we must not condemn others now. That’s God business and His alone. Too many people have left the church and embraced the world because some Christian condemned them. We are not called to live under condemnation. We have been set free by the Blood of Jesus. I may judge your works, but I can never judge your heart. I may call your works sin, buy it is not my place to condemn you as a sinner. The Holy Ghost will do the convicting; all I have to do is do the preaching and teaching. The Holy Ghost can change the motives of your heart forever; the best I could ever hope to do is change the thinking in your mind for a moment.
The problem is that none of us ever has a perfectly clear conscious, and none of us has lived a life without sin, so every one of us has a tainted perspective on life and the things of God. Though we all attend the same church, serve the same Lord, read the same Bible, hear the same messages – no two of us ever thinks the same all of the time. We all have our prejudices, our personal convictions and our own standards of holiness by which we live and serve the Lord. But not one of us is perfect, and never shall be in this life.
That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 7:3, "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"
You and I have no clear vision of what the perfect will of God is, so how can we condemn another? Any time you think that someone else is doing wrong, and you want to judge or condemn them, think first of where you are coming from. What’s not right in your own life? When did you become the standard of perfection? If I can’t even get the things out of my own life that hinder me from serving the Lord, what gives me the right to try to remove it from someone else? How do I know that I’m not seeing my own sin rather than theirs? The problem may be in me, not you! I can’t right see how to get the little problems out of your life when the big problems in my own life are standing in the way!
Isn’t that what Jesus means when He says in Matthew 7:4, "Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?" A speck of sand in your eye causes so much discomfort and blindness that you can’t even focus long enough to remove anything from someone else’s eye. The sin, and the things that cause you so much trouble in your own life keep you from having the ability to remove sin from another. You have to do your best to clean up your own life and leave the rest to God. Let Him do the cleaning. He’s the only one whose blood can wash away sin anyway.
Jesus used some strong words to those who would condemn others, when they are already condemned themselves. Matthew 7:5, "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye." Nobody likes to be around a hypocrite. You can’t trust a word they say and you hold everything they do as suspect because there’s always an ulterior motive.
You see this play out in marriages sometimes, or in the family relationship. Anytime your teenager starts acting super nice, you better beware – something else is working behind the scene. Lady, if your husband walks in the house carries out the trash, cooks dinner, washes the dishes, does the laundry and let’s you go soak in a bubble bath the whole time – you know something is afoot! He’s buttering you up for something; you had better beware!
Hypocrites are in the church; they’re in the home; they’re on the job; they’re everywhere. Are you one of them sometimes? Don’t be quick to judge anyone else. Remember those fingers point right back at you if you aren’t careful.
There’s an old saying that goes like this; “What goes around comes around.”
You will have to judge many things in this life. You’ll have to judge the actions of other people. You’ll have to judge whether a friend is a true friend or not, whether someone is telling the truth or not; whether they are guilty of crimes or not; whether they are living holy or not, and many other things. but you cannot judge their heart, and you should never condemn them as being unworthy. Only God knows the heart.
Sadly sometimes we are called upon to pass judgment and condemn criminals to prison or to death because of crimes they have committed. That kind of judgment is right and God won’t condemn us for doing that. But even then we don’t have the right to judge their heart. That is a matter between them and God. We can only judge deeds and actions.
So be careful in how you judge others. Make sure that you use the right criteria, and most of all, remember that you too will have to face the Righteous Judge one day. Judge others the way that you want Jesus to judge you – with mercy and grace.
