Judge Not!

May 23, 2022

Devotions:

“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”

‭Matthew‬ ‭7:1-5‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” ‭Romans‬ ‭2:1-4‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Mercy is to reign over judgement. We can judge an action but the attitude and motive behind the action we do not know. Jesus said to return blessings for curses. When someone seems be doing wrong we need to reach out in love towards them. Paul in Romans says that when we are judgmental it is because we are doing the same thing. God did not judge us but sent Jesus to take our sins on Himself and pay the price for our sins. If God were to judge us we would never make heaven. He does not pass over sin but offers us a way out. Jesus said to look to our own faults and be delivered from them then we would see clearly to deal with the faults of others. When we point out others faults we are not empowering them to overcome the faults. They may have been trying without success to get free and all we do in judging them is to heap condemnation on them and bury them deeper in their weakness. So we need to speak good about people to build them up and help them get set free.