JUDGING OTHERS PROPERLY

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. (Matthew 7:1, 2) NKJV

Our Lord evidently does not condemn that honest judgment which, for our own safety and for the good of society, we are compelled to form of men and women with whom we come in contact. Such judgments are inevitable. But He does condemn that disapproving and uncharitable judgment which is always finding fault, always neglecting the good and dwelling on the bad, always spreading unfavorable and inaccurate reports, which are often founded on very superficial and insufficient grounds.  In other words, gossip!

How true it is that we are measured by the measure we use for others. There is a remarkable retribution in life, which is the judgment-seat of God. The evils we inflict on others, like the Australian boomerang, which becomes almost a speck in the sky, come back to ourselves. If you are generous in your estimate of others, you will be estimated generously. If you are mean and stingy, others will treat you in the same spirit.

We are all would-be oculists! Nothing pleases us better than to try our hand at recovering motes of sawdust, as well as splints, from the eyes of others, while we are indifferent to the beams of timber which obstruct our own vision. Christ is always saying to us, "Cast out the filthiness from the holy place"; and as His light falls deeper and deeper into our nature, it must reveal hidden evils which need to be put away. Let us be true to the inner light, and then with tender and chastened spirits, from which all consciousness of superiority has departed, we shall help others to be rid of their own obstructions.

In Matthew 7:15-20, Christ gives us the infallible test. "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

He suggests that in every age there will be those who care for the fleece more than for the flock, and who come into the fold under a most winsome and bewitching guise. Beware of such people, and judge them, not by their doctrine, but by their fruits. The Devil is the most orthodox theologian in the world: "I know Thee, who Thou art, the Holy One of God."

By their fruits you will know them. You cannot judge what a man is by hearing him repeat a creed; but as you observe his character, his disposition, his behavior; not in public, but in private; not for a day, but for a year, you can come to an almost certain judgment as to whether God or self be the ruling master of his inner being.

PRAYER

Make us merciful, Heavenly Father, in our judgments of others. May we think no evil. May we be patient with and forgive one another as You forgive us.  In Christ’s name I pray, AMEN.

God’s Daily Promise

Promise #10:
I have given you a new heart and put My own Spirit in you.  

Ezekiel 36:26-27 (WEB) 
26 I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.