Lesson One: Judge Not? What A Famous Saying!
Devotion #5: Decide not to Decide
Pastor Chuck Lindsey
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:1-5 (NKJV)
We all want grace!
Have you ever noticed how gracious we are with ourselves? When I do wrong, I am always so understanding and gracious with myself. For example, when I have had a long day, and I come home impatient, irritable, and unkind, I am quick to assure myself, “It is ok; everything is fine; it is understandable to be a little irritable after a long day.” When my wife has to say, “Hey, you have been pretty dumb tonight!” I am again quick to show myself grace and say things like, “Well, I did not mean to get so upset,” “It was not my intention,” and “I just had a rough day.” I am always naturally so gracious, so patient, and very understanding with myself.
Sadly, I am not naturally this way with others. Instead of being gracious and kind, understanding, and patient, I can find myself immediately jumping to “quick conclusions” and “snap judgments.” Instead of giving the grace that I give to myself (and want others to give to me), I begin to think the worst, “They are just awful; I cannot believe they call themselves Christians. Ugh! That is the kind of person they are! Rotten!”
What if I gave others the same grace that I have been given? What if I gave others the grace that I want? What if I gave others the grace that I often give to myself?
I confess to you that as a Pastor, I have had to learn, quite painfully, that my initial judgments are almost always wrong! I learned this the hard way early on by making wrong initial judgments about people, their character, their motives, their hearts, and their thinking. Time and time again, as I heard the story or got more information, I saw just how far off I was. It caused a lot of trouble. It happened so much that I finally made a decision. I made the decision to not make a decision! I decided that I did not know or understand or see clearly. I decided that I would not come to a conclusion until I was able to get as much information as possible to really understand the situation or the person involved. If I cannot gather more information, I (try to) default to grace. I default to, “There has to be more to this story. I am sure there is an explanation.” “They must be hurting or in trouble in some way.” I try to give the grace that I would want given to me.
The decision here is simple. I have come to the settled conclusion that I am not the Judge who sees all, and therefore, I am not able to judge fairly, righteously, and without partiality. Only the Lord can do that. I am limited in every possible way.
This truth leads me to Him to help me see people the way He does and to show the grace that I would want to be shown to me (the grace He has shown to me) to the people in my life.
Maybe we give up on our quick judgments and instead go to the One who sees all, asking Him to help us see and understand. It is all for His glory and the blessing of others!