“We should be rigorous in judging ourselves and gracious in judging others.” ~ John Wesley
We have all heard the phrases “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” and “don’t judge a book by its cover.” One of the many flawed characteristics of being human is that we learn to judge others early in life. How quick are we to judge? Studies of first impressions have determined that people don’t just judge you quickly. They judge you, literally, in the blink of the eye — in a tenth of a second, to be exact.¹ When we judge others, it creates this false sense of power within, but unfortunately, when we judge others, we lose every time. Whether we judge ourselves to be better than or less than the subject of our comparison, we lose, and so do they.
The tendency to look at the flaws in other people’s character vs. our own goes back to the beginning of creation. Every human being is born fatally flawed and self-centered to the extreme. We continuously fret over how things are going to work out for ourselves. When people threaten our welfare, we are quick to point out their weaknesses in an attempt to stack the deck in our favor. This sort of powerplay means there will always be a victim of our wrath.
In John 8:7, Jesus tells the crowd, “7Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” What happens? As a result, the oldest people in attendance were the first to drop their rocks because their own character defects convicted them.
In Matthew 7:3-5, Jesus says, 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your siblings’ eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your sibling, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your siblings’ eye.
If we are honest with ourselves, we know that we have no business being the judge, jury, or executioner of anyone. Only God is in a position to judge the sins of others. When we catch ourselves pointing our finger at someone else, we must be quick to realize there are three fingers are pointing back at us. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use wise judgment when dealing with others, but it does mean it’s not our job to throw them under the bus and determine what they deserve or don’t deserve in life; that should be left up to God or those granted such authority. The last I checked, you’re not God, and neither am I. Our job is to love everyone, including our enemies. It’s impossible to express love toward someone if we are busy pointing out the splinter in their eye, all the while sporting a telephone pole sticking out of our own eye. It’s time to drop the rock!
My Creator, thank You that my sins have been forgiven, and there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. I confess that there are times when I have been critical of others, forgetting that my own sins were scarlet, but by Your grace have been washed white as snow. Lord, I want to live a life that is pleasing to You. I pray that Your new-life within may display the grace and love of the Lord Jesus towards others in the same way that You show Your grace and love towards me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, AMEN.².
Leave a Reply