I’m human, from the roots of my freshly covered grays to the bottom of my heart – my heart that is “deceitful and wicked and beyond understanding” according to the Bible.
And while you and I may
have grown up and grown older…we are all still to some degree that same foot
stomping two year old as likely to demand our own way, to judge without mercy and to withhold righteous judgment out of fear.
And we are prone to read a
command like don’t judge and use it to justify our resistance to hearing truth from our brothers and sister and also use it to keep from speaking God’s truth
in love when all along if we held the greatest command closer to our heart and let its truth resonate within us and pour out of us we’d see a revolution in
this place…and what is that command? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength…and love – truly love your neighbor as yourself.”
Love is patient and kind
and doesn’t envy. It’s not boastful, prideful, or rude. It doesn’t insist on its own way or get irritable or resentful. It is sad when wrongs are done and
so happy when truth prevails. Love bears all things, believes and hopes and endures through all things and when everything else fails and fades and passes
away love remains.
That is why we can come to
one another and hear truth – be discerning, lift high the cause of Christ – and do it all – even when it’s hard – for the Love of God.
And so, when we come to a verse like, “Judge not, lest you be judged” let’s not use these words for our convenience. It is neither a command to never to judge or to avoid judging – it’s a command to judge without hypocrisy. Plank-free judging.
How then can we have a plank removed? We can no more remove a plank from our eye than we could perform our own Lasik eye surgery. Only someone with perfect vision can remove our plank – and we know that person…
Read the rest of this post about judging and let me know what you think. I hope this and other Dwelling Richly resources are helpful and encouraging for you.