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| Share Agape for the week of October 6, 2003 |
| You Get What You Give "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Luke 6: 39-42 One of the most quoted passages from the Bible is "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged." Unfortunately, it's usually taken out of context, and we're lead to believe that what Jesus was telling to be permissive. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every day every one makes judgments. And not all of them or bad. For example, a woman walking alone on the street may make the judgment that a man is following her, and hop into a nearby store to prevent what she thinks might happen otherwise. A man may judge that there are signs his best friend falling away from God; in response, he brings up the topic with his friend. In both instances, the Bible congratulates us--it does not condemn us. In fact, the Bible clearly says that we should recognize false teachers and prophets (Mat. 7:15, Mat. 24:24); to spot them as Jesus told us to certainly requires judgment. The Bible also tells us that when we see other Christians sinning, we should confront them with the problem (1 Cor. 5, for example). Jesus also spends quite a bit of time making judgments, particularly about the Pharisees. And in various other ways, throughout the Bible, we are commanded to use judgment. Therefore, what Jesus is condemning here must be something a bit different. If you look at the original wording, you'll find that it really means to be critical, to be fault finding, to condemn without all the evidence. Now, I think we've all been there. We may blame it on grumpiness, or just "being realistic," but we've all had at least a few days where we've been quick to find fault with others. Sometimes we even go out of our way to seek people's mistakes and faults. But that's exactly what Christ tells us not to do. Some people make a career out of finding fault in everything. I'm convinced they do this because they've been hurt in the past; finding faults in others becomes a sort of defense mechanism for them. Instead of taking their hurts to Christ, they wallow in them and become bitter and distrustful. Yet, this is exactly what Christ tells us not to do. God doesn't want us to judge other people, because only He can see into their hearts and know their motivations. Have you ever been accused of something you didn't do? Have you ever been accused of behaving a certain way when in fact you were trying to behave in just the opposite way? Then you know exactly why Jesus tells us not to find fault in others. By the same token, think back to the times when you were "just absolutely certain" that a situation was a certain way or that a particular person had done something�only to later discover you were wrong. Such situations happened to us all--another reason Jesus tells us not to condemn others. And if we stop judging others in this manner, Christ tells us we won't be judged unfairly ourselves. If we forgive others, Jesus says we will be forgiven. If we give to others, he says we'll receive in return. I don't know about you, but that's motivation enough for me! I need all of God's mercy and forgiveness that I can inspire! Yet, Jesus says if we give forgiveness by the teaspoon, we'll only get back that tiny amount in return. And if we hand out forgiveness by the overflowing truckload, we'll receive huge amounts of forgiveness in return. Recently, I found myself quite impressed as I read a pastor's account of his own struggles with judgment and forgiveness. "I began to understand that I had become in many ways like a Pharisee�" Pastor Larry Sarver writes. "It seemed that I could find something wrong with every other church and every other pastor or ministry. I would often be critical or harsh toward believers and unbelievers. Subtly and slowly a critical spirit had entered into my heart and my life and God was greatly displeased." Pastor Sarver goes on to say how important it is that we Christians confront this "critical spirit." It hurts others, because those who aren't Christians see us behaving in a worldly manner and assume that Christianity is all a bunch of bunk. It hurts others, because often enough our words get back to those we're criticizing. It hurts us, because an unforgiving and critical attitude puts barriers up between ourselves and God. It also hurts MORE ~~~> |
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