One of the most defining characteristics of true disciples of Christ is placing ourselves under the scrutiny of God’s Word. We make ourselves accountable to what God says because this demonstrates our obedience and humility towards Him. Sometimes, it’s not enough to just look at the surface stuff, but to also go under the hood a little. For instance, many of us, Christian or not, are judgmental towards others. God tells us in His Word that He doesn’t like this, and we have no right to judge. It doesn’t matter whether an individual has made Jesus Christ the head of their lives, God doesn’t want His kids judging anyone. We are to cut it out completely, but this is tough for some of us. No matter how hard we try, we still judge. We’re repeatedly doing the things we know we shouldn’t, and this means we must go deeper within and take a closer look at the root.
A common flaw of many people in power is to look down on those under their authority. These powerful and influential people lump those lesser in power and influence into categories. They relegate them to a station of less importance because of baseless prejudices. The predisposition to be prejudice toward certain people for whatever reason was in many cases bred from years of corrupt teaching and wrong believing. These are built-in and have informed the mindsets of people in power for generations. Prejudice is so well hidden in their way of living, thinking and behaving that they can’t detect it and continue to walk around in the dark.
Sadly, these individuals are not the most trustworthy individuals. Their prejudices have made their hearts like concrete boulders and they are without repentance or redemption. Rather than being accountable to God, they refuse to look in the mirror with blatant honesty, and they are predisposed to falsely judge others. It’s a practice that has been massively widespread, and the punitive impact on society is beyond our comprehension.
We all know leaders and people like this, and we must make note of their example, because it is one that God does not want us to follow. He doesn’t want our hearts to be smothered with self-importance and conceit. Those heavies do a number on our souls. Our Heavenly Father instructs us in Ephesians 4:32(NLT), “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.” We should make it a priority to pray that the Holy Spirit will do a work within, and that He will help us change our hearts so we can please our Heavenly Father and treat others as He commands in Ephesians 4:32.
Colossians 2:10 tells us that we are complete in Christ, who is the head of everything. When we accept him as our Lord and Savior, the fullness of all that Jesus Christ is comes to abide in us. We receive God’s seed, the Holy Spirit, and because of the Holy Spirit’s power, we can begin to walk in our destinies and accomplish everything that God wants us to. However, God is not going to force us to change. God has given us the gift of free-will, and our minds and hearts are under our own free-will authority. God will not overstep our free-will because Romans 11:29 tells us that He will never withdraw or violate the gifts He’s given. The Holy Spirit dwells within every born-again believer, but he doesn’t take over our wills. The Spirit will not hijack our minds and hearts. God commands us to renew our minds to His Word and to change our hearts, and He will not do this for us.
Jesus Christ taught in Matthew 7:2-5(NLT) “For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.”
As we can see from the teaching of Christ in Matthew 7:2-5, our Heavenly Father holds each of us personally responsible for the changes we must make. There must be a willingness to please Him, and this is always the first step in changing our ways. Judging others is to condemn or express a poor or bad opinion of a person or their behavior, and we do this because we think we’re superior to them in some way. Romans 14:10(NLT) warns, “So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” We will all stand before God one day and He will hold us accountable for our every action, deed, behavior and attitude. Nothing we do or have done will escape God’s judgment.
Judgment is to sentence, condemn, decide or call someone into question on one’s actions or decisions. Jesus Christ tells us not to do this because in return we will receive the same kind of judgment. Passing judgment on others is a refusal to see ourselves and others the way that God does. This refusal is at the root, and to get at it and totally kick it to the curb, we must confront it by being honest about it. This is what it means to remove the log from our own eye. Then we must repent, and to do this we must apologize to God in the most honest and sincere way that we can. This honest sincerity should be a Godly sorrow, a deep sadness for disappointing God.
Many of us have never gone that deep. We haven’t felt a genuine Godly sorrow for our wrong actions and poor behavior, but repentance requires it. If we ask for his help, the indwelling Holy Spirit will reveal how we’ve grieved him by our actions. Once you have discovered the internal path to this level of genuine sorrow for our wrongdoing, you will not want to grieve the Spirit again. It will be a marker for you and will come to your mind and heart every time you’re tempted to judge.
Jeremiah 17:11(NLT) says, “But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” Our Heavenly Father is the Righteous Judge. He is the only One who can judge, and He does so righteously. We can’t make excuses when it comes to God’s judgment. He knows the motivation behind our every deed. He knows when we are genuinely sorry for disobeying Him, and He forgives us, but we must not continue going down the wrong path. We must repent and stop doing the things that God says are wrong. If pleasing Heavenly Father is our aim, we’ll keep our eyes glued to what He’s doing in our lives. He’s helping us to clean up the mess in our own backyard, and we’ll be a lot happier in life if we leave the business of judging others completely to Him.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Don’t Judge Others”, written by KLizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.