How to Juggle the Consistent Battle of Judging
Republished from He Will Be Worth the Wait, February 23, 2023.
Judging is such a simple thing to do.
We see someone whose hair is unbrushed and the first thing we think is why didn’t they take two seconds to run a hairbrush through their hair? Or on a more serious note, we see two kids in class cheating and our initial thought is maybe if they had been more studious like me and studied they wouldn’t be doing that. Now don’t get me wrong; I am not encouraging cheating in any way. I am just saying how easy it is to judge someone.
As a Christian, I think judgment is a tricky subject. We are called to be righteous and encourage others to do the right thing. Still, we are not called to act more holy than anyone else. I suggest we take a look into what the Bible can tell us on how to juggle our nature to judge.
- John 8:7: And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. Full Passage
- Now, you might be reading this verse confused about how rocks getting thrown has any correlation with judgment. If you look into the full passage, you see a woman is about to get stoned for the sin she had just committed. Jesus instead challenges whoever has never sinned to throw the first rock. I love this verse because it is so relatable to everyday life. We cannot judge because we have sinned just as much as the person beside us.
- Matthew 7:2-5: Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Full Passage
- As I said before, I believe a lot of Christians struggle with judging because we do feel a sense of pride that we are saved and no longer doing the “bad” sins. Now I laugh as I type that because pride is a sin as well; it just isn’t smoking, cussing or any of the other “bad” sins. As Christians, instead of feeling that pride, we must look at ourselves and grow as a person.
- Psalms 96:13: Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. Full Passage
- Overall, we must remember we are not the ones placed here to judge; God is the most righteous judge, and that is all we need. He is a judge without bias.
I pray that this leaves you feeling more aware of judgment and how to fight back at it with scripture.
If you judge people, you have no time to love them – Mother Teresa
