Judge This

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

JUDGE THIS

Matt 7:1-5

7:1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3 "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? 4 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? 5 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.

NIV

If there is anyone that we ought to judge it is ourselves. However, it is much easier to see the faults in others than it is in ourselves. Besides, what are we supposed to do about the instruction that Matthew records that Jesus said that if our brother is caught in sin we must go to him and confront him? But then we are not to judge him, just go to him and show him the error of his ways. However, even if we are to do that, we still have to first make sure our brother cannot come back at us and say that we are doing either the same sin or even worse. Before we do anything in the way of showing anyone that they are sinning, we better make darn sure we are not sinning, and how can we do that, being human? In Fact, that is what Jesus is saying. First, we need to get rid of that blatant sin in our lives before we go nit-picking some little offense in our brothers’ life. Why are we so interested in someone else’s sin anyway? The only thing that we can think, is that could make us feel better about ourselves. Oh, look how that person is behaving, surely that is not how Christians behave, we don’t do anything like that. Oh really? We have our own faults to work through and so we need to keep our eyes focused on us first. We need to let all the judging up to Jesus. How do we stack up or hold up under the judgment of Jesus? We know that just a little later in this chapter he told some who profess to follow him, to take a walk, even those who profess they are doing good deeds, driving out demons, or prophecy in his name. He talks about if we know his word and do not put it into practice we are in trouble. So, here is the putting into practice of these words. We do not judge anyone, and we do not look for anyone’s sins. We focus on our lives, what are we doing wrong, and what are we doing right. Of course, our sin is forgiven, but even that has conditions in that we must forgive others their sins. In some sense, it is live and let live. We are all in the same boat, and we all are in Christ. How can we love our neighbors as ourselves if we are looking for their sins, and not ours? There is so much that we should be doing that we are not and so much that we are not doing that we should. So, again it appears in some form or another that we simply need to see ourselves as we are and not bother looking to see how others are. It kind of boils down to living and letting others live, and knowing that Jesus is the judge of all of us.