Gracious Judgement

Well, I am officially in the full swing of busy life, trying to maintain the balance between school, work, social time, bible studies and personal Jesus time. I like going to bible study because you can get a different perspective and different insight. I started going to a bible study at my school half way through last semester and I am very much enjoying it. It’s nice to talk to other people not in my program.

We have been going through the Sermon on the Mount we this week we were at

Matthew 7:1-5

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 own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

First thing that is assumed from this passage that as Christians we are not to judge, period. But what so many people fail to do is look at the context of this verse. In all reality it is not telling us to not judge at all but rather Jesus wants us to stop judging the way that the world does, with a critical heart. Jesus wants to remind us and give us a little wisdom too. The measuring stick that we judge other people by will be the same stick that we are measured by. We are very good at pointing others faults out and putting the measuring stick up to them but when it is put up against ourselves we fail to see what the other is seeing.

The next part is what is amazing. Jesus decides to tell us what our hearts do because we fail to realize or recognize it. Our hearts are very quick to judge others rather then first examining ourselves. We really only see in that person a small amount of their sin but can see ours in full. Our sin is the plank in our eye. When we come to realize how massive our sin is and how GRACIOUS God has been towards us we start judging people with grace not with a critical heart.

The most amazing thing about this whole statement is that Jesus was the one who said it. He being perfect has every right to judge critically because he is perfect. Yet out of his love he decides to give it to us. We did not deserve it. When we come before the cross and realize the plank that we have in our eye we will start to see the love that he has for us and also the love that he has for others.

It is with that LOVE that we are to judge others with.