To judge or not to judge

-
Pastor’s notes for 8 Feb 2015

I hope you have been enjoying the WHAM Bible reading challenge. If you haven’t started, do not lose heart. Just join in this week.

Last Sunday’s WHAM verse(s) of the week was
3 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? 4 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? 5 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. (Matt 7:3-5)

I selected it as it is in the context of a sadly oft quoted verse, taken out of context and with the wrong attitude:  “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. (Matt 7:1-2)

Verse 1-2 seems to teach it is not our place to judge anyone. And verses 3-5, that to do so would make us hypocrites as none of us are sinless. But is this the case?
Verse 6 set in the immediate context of verses 1-5 indicates that Jesus asked us to make a judgment and be discerning on how we interact with those who may treat holy things with disdain.
Jesus is not teaching us not to pass judgment, but to be wise and fair in our judgment of others. And with good measure he adds that we need to be humble in our approach - and realize that we should not judge others more harshly than is warranted or by a standard that is different from that which we judge ourselves.

To some who might be thinking along the lines of “then it is best I do not judge at all …”, that is not an option. What we should be striving to do is to learn and know God’s standard (the context is the “Sermon on the Mount”), strive by God’s grace to live by that standard and make help each other live by those standards.

But let us do our best to do so with grace and mercy, and remember that ultimate judgment comes from God and not us. Jesus’ parable in Matthew 18 might help – it ends this way …

And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? (Matt 18:33)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forgiving the Church (Henri Nouwen)

-
Had to post this up! Another gem from Henri Nouwen that is so relevant for today! I have highlighted in red what especially resonates with me as it has bothered me for years that there is a fast growing number of Christians who think they can have Christ without the church. Then back to work. I have finalized my magic routine fro this Sunday - now just need to practice and coordinate with "the Weeman" so our acts flow smoothly from one to the other. Forgiving the Church When we have been wounded by the Church, our temptation is to reject it. But when we reject the Church it becomes very hard for us to keep in touch with the living Christ. When we say, "I love Jesus, but I hate the Church," we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the Church seldom asks us for forgiveness, at least not officially. But the Church as an often fallible human organization needs our forgiven...
Read more

The Ideal / Perfect pastor

-
Image
The Ideal / Perfect Pastor .... from various sources :-) I had better not add my own lest it be misunderstood. LOL The Perfect Pastor The perfect pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes. He condemns sin roundly but never hurts anyone’s feelings. He works from 8am until midnight and is also the church janitor. The perfect pastor makes $40 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $30 a week to the church. He is 29 years old and has 40 years experience. Above all, he is handsome. The perfect pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and he spends most of his time with the senior citizens. He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his church. He makes 15 home visits a day and is always in his office to be handy when needed. The perfect pastor always has time for church council and all of its committees. He never misses the meeting of any church organizat...
Read more

Geoffrey Woo Ramblings

-
Image
It was nice to reconnect with Geoffrey via Facebook (Yes FB has it's positives) earlier this year. I first met him more than 25 years ago! And I got to know him and his heart when we served together in a special SU Camp. That was the year too I first got to know my good friend Allan Yong. Allan Yong became an inspiration for me (a good role model of a man of God on fire for God ... and he still is) especially in the area of youth work (but that is another story) Anyway Geoff (now may be known as Geo?) made a big impression on me as well. Down to earth and to me a bit of an "eccentric"! A "greenie" before being green was "an in-thing". He would cycle practically everywhere on his bike, often turning up sweaty! :-) But he had a passion for Jesus that was very evident (and I hear that this passion has not waned but has kept growing! Praise God!) One major thing I picked up from him that still has remained as a huge impression on me was his deep sense ...
Read more