Are we to judge or not?

Luke 6

Thank you so much for all of your kind responses. I am very pleased that so many are fasting with me during this time, and that the Lord has already been meeting so many as they spend time with Him. If you haven’t been very successful yet, don’t waste time beating yourself up simple start today. God still wants to meet with you.

Judging is one of those controversial subjects that not only confuses but gets so many into trouble. Jesus is very clear in this chapter that Jesus is condemning of hypocritical judgment. But if all judgment and condemnation are wrong isn’t He, by making such a statement, being hypocritical? That would be the the thinking if you simply interpret this scripture in light of itself. True judging is about loving with pure motives and speaking the truth in love. Jesus did it all the time as we will see as we continue to read Luke.

As Christians we must have a clear right and wrong. If there are no moral absolutes such as; murder is wrong, adultery is wrong and so on, then there would be no reason for prisons, no reason for life long commitments in marriage, or other mores or folkways that help keep society together. We must be able to judge what is right or wrong based on God’s word, interpreted by God’s Word not our opinion. If you have questions, think about the book of Judges in the Old Testament. While a judge ruled Israel and held the people accountable to a righteous walk the people lived godly lives and prospered. After the judge died “each one did what was right their own eyes”, the result chaos, slavery, societal degradation.

As Jesus was preparing to speak about judging he set it up this way, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.” He was telling us what you do must be motivated by love. What parent, who loves their child, allows them to consistently act out of control or disrespect people. What friend would allow their friend to abuse their spouse or alcohol or drugs? If you really love you must judge, but you judge out of a heart filled with love, wanting your child or your friend to become the best they can be rather than allowing them to live well below their God-called potential. To do anything else is to not walk in the truth.

How do you know you are judging out of love? Jesus answers that question as well. We check our own hearts our own motivation, “Brother let me remove the speck out of your eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye.” In other words, check to see why I am responding with judgment. Am I responding because I truly love this person or out of some wound, rejection, or fear? Am I jealous of this person or do I want the best for them. The truth is revealed when we look at our own heart motivation.

Without loving righteous judgment of our own hearts our lives would be in chaos. If we do not judge others challenging them to walk the walk we really don’t love. It is the motivation of our hearts that Jesus is talking about here. If we are hypocritical then we are merely religious trying to raise ourselves up at the expense of putting a brother or sister down.

We all judge people many judge ourselves more harshly than anyone else could judge us. The question in both cases is what is your motivation? Do you love enough that you are willing to lay down your life for the person? Or are you simply beating yourself or others down with false judgment? It is funny how many people I talk with who are more harassed by the thoughts in their heads about themselves that what anyone could possible say to them.

In both cases, take this time of fasting to ask the Lord to help you to have a pure loving heart, to see the way the Lord sees and to love enough to speak the truth our of a heart of love.

Tomorrow - Luke 7