Jesus looks at our hearts and judges us beautiful, clean, His own. Can we find the beauty in others? Can you choose to see them through His eyes?
“Bless her heart! She clearly doesn’t have a friend in the world. If she did, they would have told her never to wear that outfit again!”
Meet my “inner judge”. She has escaped and is on the loose again. And even when she’s captured, it’s like trying to stuff a jack in the box back down inside and out of sight.
“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.” Matt 7:1-2
“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b NLT
Even though we know that a way to escape being judged is to withhold judging others, we can’t quite get there. After all, I’m not really judging, I tell myself. I’m simply expressing my opinion. The problem is that once we start down a critical path, it’s a slippery slope. And we’ve opened ourselves up to the work of the enemy. God’s desire is always to see us built up. The enemy’s goal is to tear down.
Jesus was clear – don’t go there. In John chapter 8, He himself is cautioning others not to judge Him. As my pastor recently said, “Jesus couldn’t get a job today in His own church. He didn’t have a Divinity degree, didn’t even attend Bible school, never owned anything of real value, traveled around with a bunch of misfits, hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes. He needed a haircut and He never married.” That resume would have been quickly tossed into the “no thanks” pile.
All we have is our paltry human standards as criterion. And that’s a pretty pitiful set of guidelines. And we forget that we are subject to those same standards from those around us. Everyone but Him.
So how do we avoid becoming the judge once we’ve shoved her back in the box? Don’t carry the box around! Burn it on the altar of your heart! It’s not my job to assess and pronounce sentence on those around me on every issue from fashion to lifestyle. It IS my job to love them, pray for them, and share the Word and the joyful acceptance by God of who we are with them. It’s up to Him to address those things that are not pleasing to Him. And my guess is that the fact that those shoes do not go with that dress is really of very little interest to Him.
As a parent, the Father is none too pleased to see one of His children judged critically. He is pretty protective. And He has chosen to use some pretty odd folks along the way. I’m pretty sure John, hanging out in the wilderness, clothed in animal skins, got a lot of folks talking.
I will choose, Lord, to see those around me with new eyes. Eyes that watched the crowd mock you while He chose to see me as beautiful, worthy of your death on the cross. “
If you judge people, you have no time to love them. Remind me today Lord, that you alone are appointed and qualified to judge. Help me “burn the box!”
By Deb DeArmond, MyPurposeNow
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Thank you. This is beautiful truth. And I want it to penetrate my heart. (It has to pass through my tongue first, thankfully). So important, as you so eloquently said to use that time wasted on voicing our opinion/judging to love instead. Free up the time and space to love. Great stuff. Thank you again. gratefully….
Elizabeth -.God is a filler not a forces. When we make that space for Him, He gladly fills it. Thanks for the insights shared.
What a good reminder and so fitting to what the Lord is speaking to me—Love hard and love fast! And when we love, there is no room for judgement. Thanks for your words!
Great wisdom in your words, Deb. Thanks for reminding me of my calling.
Deb, thank you for your wisdom very well stated. This is so me. I don’t mean to judge, but my thoughts just go there. I find myself doing the imaginary slap on the hand, to say stop doing that! I especially liked your prayer at the end that states, “I will choose, Lord, to see those around me with new eyes.” I will life up this prayer the next time I am tempted to slap my hand.
I love that “replacement therapy!”
Yes and amen, sister!
What an awesome post! So beautiful! Thank you!
Thank you! I’ve prayed for God’s best and little by little I am receiving thru helpful guides like this!!! God bless you! Yay for burned boxes!
Deb,
I, too have a judement problem. I can think of a myriad of things in my mind about people–even those I work with and go to church with. It is only when I truly try to understand them & realize where they’ve come from–& see them as God sees them–a Child of the King–that I can love like He loves!
Great post!
I love how you’ve balanced that natural tendency in yourself to see detail and have high standards with making the details you seek and the standards you hold HIS version of them. So much more powerful to let God be strong in our weaknesses than to fight the weaknesses all the time!
Thank you for your words of wisdom. This was a beautiful post. I totally need to work on the inner book of judges in my head. This was great encouragement and helped me to see things from how my Heavenly Father sees them.
Hannah – we can get there! Making the decision is the first step. Blessings, Deb
Deb, I love how you shared this struggle so honestly. I wonder, though, if judgment itself is a sin. After all, Jesus was pretty critical of certain things in his time on earth. And God the Father is a judge for all the universe. If we’re created in His image, there’s some of that in us too – and it has to be a good thing since He said we’re fearfully and wonderfully made. So, it makes me wonder, how could the one who struggles with being critical use that tendency to be more like Christ? What did God mean when He made us like Him? Like you said, it’s not to condemn… which jives with scripture since He came not to the world to condemn but that we might live through Him. I don’t know if this makes sense at all, but I just have a huge passion for us as Christian women to put our energy into finding out what God meant in designing us with all the tendencies we have…. how can we press into using them in life-giving ways rather than fret over the fact that we have those tendencies? What do you think?
Laurie, what great questions. We are to be like Him, but we are in an imperfect body with a sinful nature. He asks us to discern or understand good from evil, lie from truth, and so on, which we do through His word and His spirit. This is so we can live more consecrated lives, walking more fully in the Lord’s will for us. Judging others is definitely not in His will for us; it is not the role God has assigned us. Thanks so much for the comments and the conversation!
I agree – we have to discern good from evil, and walk in His word and Spirit, and not hurting others. I have to say, though, that judging isn’t in itself evil or of the flesh. Solomon was a judge. Deborah (and all the other leaders in Judges) was a judge. Moses judged on issues of contention in Israel. We have righteous judges in our own day here in the US. Jesus himself judged pharisees and sadducees for their inaccurate reading of scripture and the limits they put on Israel. God even asks us to “open our mouths, judge rightly, and plead the cause of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:9). Perhaps the issue for someone who naturally criticizes and judges others is less “how can I stop doing what I do naturally?” and more “how can I reveal the heart of God in this tendency? How can I use this natural critical eye to bring life to the world around me? How can I live this tendency without allowing it to lead me in to sin?”
P.S. here’s where I got my verses above… http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=%22judge%22&t=NASB
People need to wake up & smell the devil…he is clever beyond measure. He created ‘religon’ & made it the ‘opium of the people’. To put them to sleep in their pews.
Rise Up! Shout praise to the Lord Jesus! Find your human spirit, call on God to enter you, repent, ask Him to lead you to the way, the reality, & the life.
He is a Person. May you find Him today. And His people.
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It’s not my job to assess and pronounce sentence on those around me on every issue from fashion to lifestyle. It IS my job to love them, pray for them, and share the Word and the joyful acceptance by God of who we are with them. It’s up to Him to address those things that are not pleasing to Him. And my guess is that the fact that those shoes do not go with that dress is really of very little interest to Him.
<3 this. wonderful post. very very (in)couraging.