A great deal of judging goes on in
the average church, doesn't it? I have
wondered on occasion if judging other church members is not the chief indoor
sport of some people.
Let me key in on two principles
that we must apply if we are to remain Christian in our dealings with other
church members.
First, we must start with
ourselves. We read in Matthew 7:3-4,
"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but
considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 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?"
I was playing baseball in high
school when a strong gust of wind blew some dirt in my eye. They had to take me to the doctor. I will never forget how the doctor bent over
me, put a special magnifying device over his eye, and particle by particle
picked the dirt from my eye. But suppose
the doctor had something in his eye to prevent him from seeing correctly? Now I'm in danger. Before the doctor could help me, he would
need to help himself. The principle is:
when it comes to judging, start with yourself.
Secondly, get all the facts. John 7:24, "Judge not according to the
appearance, but judge righteous judgment."
So often we become a judge and jury and render decisions on others when
we don't have all the facts or we judge them based on "what we think we
see."
Some years ago while taking the
girls to school; one of my daughters opened one of her school books which had a
particular picture with a caption that read, "What is it?" One of the girls guessed a sucker. I guessed an ice cream cone. When my daughter revealed the full picture,
it was a can of shaving cream with the shaving cream coming out of the
can. We based our answers on what we
thought we saw. We went by appearance
rather than full knowledge.
So if we are to be Christian in
our dealings with others, we must first start with
ourselves, and then make sure our judgments are based on all the facts...not
what we hear or think we see but on what we genuinely know.
What to do:
✞ The religious crowd judges others; the Christians judge themselves.
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