Who Am I To Judge

“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. “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye[c] 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." Matthew 7:1-5

To be honest, I debated using the Message version of Matthew 7. I settled on the New Living Translation version, but my goodness the Message version just convicts you. The Message version of Matthew 7:1-5 reads: 

"Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor."

The part of this version that hit me the most was the phrase "holier-than-thou". Some questions that go through my mind when I read that three-word phrase are: 

• Do we judge others because we think that we are better than them, or do we judge others because we are not happy with our own lives and feel the need to tear someone else down to make ourselves feel bigger and better? 
• What gives us the authority to judge others when we have our own things that we could easily be judged upon? 
• Where is our heart when we judge?
• What makes us this way? 

Why we do, feel, and act the way we do at times even though we are a believer and, clearly, His word says that this is not something that shines who He is to the world. 

First off, we need to remember that we are all sinners. It says in Romans 3:23-24, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Falling short of His glory is not just for the believer, but for the non-believer as well. The only difference, when we feel guilty and a sense of conviction, we know that is God tugging on our hearts. When we judge others we should feel the silent sting of conviction in our hearts and think, "Why did I just say, do or think that?" We have to get to the root of why are we feeling that way. 

Social Media is such a wonderful connector, but can also be an incredible divider. We see the "picture perfect" life. We can feel the happiness exuding from the person and we begin to resent them and resent our own lives because we want that they have. We want to marriage, the baby, the happy family, the nice house, the job that allows you to travel, the start-up business that is flourishing, the best-selling book... we want what they have. They are living our dream life. What we don't see are the failures, the miscarriages, the infertility, the break-ups, the rejections from the publisher, the blood, sweat, and tears to get to the position they got to, the bankruptcy that almost cost the family everything... we only see what is chosen to be put out there for the world to see. At times we work to create this "fake persona" or a "Version 2.0" of ourselves so we do not feel like we have failed or so we do not feel left out. This gets to the root of why I think we judge. I think we judge others because we are not happy with what we have in our lives. We are not looking at or counting the blessings and being thankful for what we do have. 

When we judge others we have to look at where our heart is. Is it in the world or is our heart with wanting to be His light in the world? In 1 John 2:15-17 he says, "Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from Him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity." The Message version of scripture really tell you gently does it? Judging others for what they do have and what you don't have is pulling you farther from God. It creates bitterness, self-loathing, impatience, unrest, and so many other negative feelings and emotions that you can begin to think that God has simply abandon you.

God has not abandon you my sweet sister, He is simply waiting for you to come to him with your wants and desires. He is wanting you to stop looking to others and look to Him for what you need and what you desire. 

What are you desiring that you do not currently have? Where is your heart in moments of jealously and want? Who are you judging right now in your life and why? These are not fun questions to look at my friends, but sometimes we need to take a good, long, hard look in the mirror and realize that we are not angry at the person we are jealous about, but angry at ourselves because we feel as though God is answering everyone else's dreams but our own. As always, I am praying for you my sweet sisters. 

In Him and For His Glory

Cassie