Meditation:
Judge your Judgment
Bro. Biju Itty, Surat
“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. For with what judgment you judge,
you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”(Matthew 7:1,2)
The LORD Jesus had the Pharisees in mind, who thought they were both judge, jury, and executioner. They had invented a system of morality by which they constantly condemned, criticized and censored anyone who did not come up to their standard. They were unmerciful, unforgiving and uncharitable in their fault-finding mania.
Jesus effectively said, “Do not judge and criticize and condemn (others unfairly with an attitude of self-righteous superiority as though assuming the office of a judge), so that you will not be judged (unfairly) [AMP]”. The expression used in the Hindi Bible also means - do not “accuse”, “arraign”, “incriminate”, “cast blame upon”, “inculpate.”
Avoid Self-Destruction
The parallel text in Luke 6:37, 38 is self-explanatory. “…Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom…” So it is in our interest to be forgiving, and charitable and to beware of hypocrisy.
Yet, our LORD is not forbidding all judgement, because He says in John 7:24 - “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” 1 John 4:1 explains, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Righteous judgement combined with Christian charity is a holy thing and precious like pearls, not to be given to dogs and hogs. We must discern and avoid scoffers and wicked men lest we get shame and harm for ourselves. Let us instruct wise people, and teach just men who will become wiser and increase in learning (read Prov.9:7-9).
C. H. Spurgeon says,
“Use your judgment, of course: the verse implies that you will judge in a right sense. But do not indulge the criticizing faculty upon others in a censorious manner, or as if you were set in authority, and had a right to dispense judgment among your fellows. If you impute motives and pretend to read hearts, others will do the same towards you. A hard and censorious behaviour is sure to provoke reprisals. Those around you will pick up the peck measure you have been using, and measure your corn with it. You do not object to men forming a fair opinion of your character, neither are you forbidden to do the same towards them, but as you would object to their sitting in judgment upon you, do not sit in judgment upon them. This is not the Day of Judgment, neither are we His Majesty’s judges, and therefore we may not anticipate the time appointed for the final assize, nor usurp the prerogatives of the Judge of all the earth. Surely, if I know myself aright, I need not send my judgment upon circuit to try other men, for I can give it full occupation in my own Court of Conscience to try the traitors within my own bosom.”
John Macarthur sums up,
“We must make judgments, beloved; but they must be proper, righteous judgments. We must discriminate, and we must deal with sin in the life of another brother or sister. But we must never be judgmental and critical, because we set ourselves up as some self-righteous judge. And I’ll tell you frankly, folks, it all comes down to an attitude. And I say this because I really believe this. It all comes down to an attitude. Are you criticizing, are you evaluating, are you discerning, are you discriminating in order to know the truth, and honour God; or are you doing it to exalt yourself and hurt somebody else? Ultimately, it comes to that decision.”
Practice Self-Restraint
Remember how Moses in Egypt, tried to reconcile two of his fighting brethren. How he was pushed away by the wrongdoer - “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?”! Then, at this saying, Moses fled and dwelt in Midian for 40 years. Our LORD wants us to consider and remove the plank in our own eye, before searching for and attempting to remove the speck (an ‘atom’ as in the Greek text) in our brother’s eye.
Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana said in a public speech on July 23, 2022,
“We see the media running kangaroo courts at times on issues even experienced judges find difficult to decide. Ill-informed and agenda-driven debates on issues involving justice delivery are proving to be detrimental to the health of democracy."
He said that the propagation of biased views, overstepping and breaching of responsibility, the lack of accountability, and frequent transgressions, particularly on electronic and social media, lead to social unrest.
"Looking at recent trends, it is best for the media to self-regulate and measure their words. You should not overstep and invite interference, either from the government or from the courts. Judges may not react immediately. Please don't mistake it to be a weakness or helplessness. When liberties are exercised responsibly, within their domains, there will be no necessity of placing reasonable or proportionate external restrictions," he said.
There is much wisdom in this judge’s words because it echoes our LORD’s words.
Taking a cue from Elihu’s words to Job, let’s train our ears to test wise and unwise words, just as our palate distinguishes between desirable and undesirable food (Job 12:11). G&P
