How do you like being judged by others? Do you wish the judgmental eyes would not glare at you? Do you judge others in the same way you wish you were not being judged? Why not leave the judging to God?
At some point in our lives, we all have judged someone else, and we have all been judged by someone else. We are a very judgmental culture. We condemn someone for bad behavior, lower intellect, or simply making choices different than we would prefer.
We judge drug abusers and alcoholics. We judge people based on the way they dress. We judge a person based on how many body piercings or tattoos they have. We judge people on where they live. And, yes, we still judge people based on their racial or ethnic background.
Why do we judge people so harshly? The simple answer is pride. We want to feel as though we are better than others. We want to put ourselves on a pedestal. Our own self-importance and self-righteousness entices us to put others down, making them lower than ourselves.
We know it’s wrong. But we justify it by saying, “I just can’t help myself.” Oh, that we knew how true that statement was. We can’t help ourselves. We need to ask God to change our hearts. We need to submit to His Spirit, allowing Him to make the change in us. We need to continually ask Him to make the change.
Why? By judging and condemning others, we condemn ourselves. You see, when we judge someone based on their choices, we condemn ourselves for our choices. When we condemn someone for being an alcoholic, we condemn ourselves when we have one too many drinks. When we judge someone for their racial or ethnic background, we condemn ourselves for judging a child of God.
And make no mistake about it, judging others because others are judging you is not acceptable. We are called to be like Jesus. We are called to show the world who He is. We are called to be His hands and feet and have His attitude toward others. We are called to be different.
I pray we all give judging others. I pray we stop condemning ourselves before God. I pray each one of us determines to be a representative of Jesus, showing Him to everyone we meet. Stop judging. Stop condemning. See others as a child of God. Stop making excuses. Choose to be like Jesus.
Romans 2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
Marty Pressey 