“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’ when all the time there is a plank in your eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  Matthew 7:1-5 NIV

This scripture passage is very clearly about judging others.  The Bible tells us if we want to be forgiven of our sins, we must forgive others who have sinned against us.  It tells us here in this passage that if we do not want to be judged we must not judge.

I’m not proud of this, but I used to be really judgemental.  I always thought that you could judge a book by the cover.  I would hear that someone had done this or that and pass judgement on them for their behavior.  On several occasions  I made the mistake of saying something stupid like “well that’s terrible, I would never do that”.  Well guess what.  I did that.

When the devil steps into our lives, we don’t know what we will do.  I had mentioned a few days ago that if you leave a little crack for the devil to sneak in, that he will come in and take over.  Sadly, that is exactly what I did.  My sporadic church attendance, lackluster prayer life, and occasional Bible reading left my doors open.  Then as I began to associate with friends who were not Christians and were quick to tell me that they said their prayers at night and didn’t really figure that they needed church and Bible reading and all that stuff,  I really began to set myself up for a soul invasion.  The devil was having a great time with me.  When I went to church, he kept my mind on all the things I should be doing.  I was so filled with these thoughts that I couldn’t tell you what the sermon was about.  When I went to church, the devil kept me totally distracted.

Now yesterday, I told you about how my husband went to church with me and then started wanting to go for Sunday School and on Sunday night and Wednesday night.  Well as we began to commit to going to church every time the doors were open, something happened. We started reading and studying the Bible.  We prayed frequently.  We both began to change.  I was made aware of how I had been so judgemental in my past.  I was made aware of how I had done the very things that I had thought were terrible when others had done them.  I had judged people  for their behaviors and years later I had exhibited the same behavior.  Wow!  This was not good.  I had to fix this.

Through a good pastor preaching God’s word, a good Sunday school teacher who prepared awesome Bible studies for us on Sunday mornings, and developing a closer relationship with my savior, Jesus Christ, I was able to get rid of that judgemental attitude I had.  Now, of course we are never perfect and it still tries to creep in sometime but I have to remind myself that it’s not my job to judge others.  I need to leave that to God.

I do, however, want to take a moment to point out the difference between judging and inspecting fruit.  My former pastor used to say we are not to judge, but we should inspect their fruit.  The Bible tells us that as Christians we are to exhibit the fruit of the spirit.  It tells us that others will know us by our fruit.  This means that we are to exhibit peace, patience, kindness, love.  If you see someone who is bitter, angry, plotting evil but professing to be a Christian be careful not to judge them.  This is not your job.  However, the Bible clearly tells us that we should go to them and speak to them as a brother in Christ.  We need to make them aware of their behavior.  We need to try to help them to get back on track. If they refuse then the bible says we are to disassociate ourselves with them.

Don’t judge those around you.  If you start to judge, do a self-assessment instead.  How are you doing?  Inspect your own fruit.  Are you being the Christ like example that God wants us to be?  Also be careful to never say never.  I think that challenges the devil to say “oh yeah? Let’s see what I can do to make you do that”.  If you see that a Christian brother or sister has lost his or her way, go to them with loving kindness and encourage them to repent and get back on track.

One thing I have learned, is that when we judge others we usually have no idea what they have been through or what they are going through.  If you realize you are being judgemental maybe you should offer them words of encouragement or try to share the gospel with them.

Now the scripture passage following this is the one that says “don’t throw your pearls to pigs”.  Remember that no matter how lovingly you may try to speak with them and encourage them that they may reject God’s word.  That’s okay, just move on to the next person.

We can’t “fix” other people, we can only fix ourselves but we can pray for other people.  So remember if you know someone that is exhibiting behavior that is unbecoming to a Christian, first and foremost pray for them.  If you know them well enough to speak to them lovingly, pray about it first.  If you feel that God is leading them to talk to you then pray that they will be receptive and that God will give you just the right words to say.

So as you go through the day, be sure you don’t have a plank in your eye and have a great day!