The Judging Game

"You lie in almost every sentence you speak, that's terrible."

"You disobey everything your parents ask you to do, what kind of son/daughter are you?"

"You NEVER tithe?! You greedy pig."

"You've stolen over $100 in food, that deserves hell."

"Sleeping with your boyfriend/girlfriend is the worst of them all, how can you live with yourself?"

"Gossiping about your friend makes you a hypocrite and an untrustworthy human."

"Drugs are going to ruin your life, there's no way you call yourself a Christian."

     I guarantee you that everyone reading this blog post right now has probably said something along the lines of something above, or close to it. We've all encountered a person who is perfectly relatable to one of those lines above. Want to know the tragic thing? None of those phrases should ever cross our mind or pass our tongue, no matter who that person is.

     A woman made a mistake, a mistake that could possibly take her life. She slept with another man who she was not married to. According to the law, she deserved stoning as her punishment. The religious leaders of that time caught her and dragged her out to an area where a Rabbi was teaching. This Rabbi had been speaking of things that were against what the religious leaders believed and taught, and he was considered a threat. The woman was thrown on the dirt ground in front of this Rabbi, awaiting what might happen next. The men who dragged this woman out to the stoning area spoke to the Rabbi, saying "This woman has committed an act of adultery. According to the law, she should be stoned. What do you have to say about it?"

     This Rabbi picked up a stone from the pile laid before him. He tossed the stone in the air a couple of times above His palm, catching it, and looked at the religious leaders. "If there are any of you who are without sin, you may throw the first stone." As the Rabbi said this, the religious leaders began to slowly, one by one, drop the stones in there hands, and they walked away. The woman was told that she was forgiven of her sin by the Rabbi that day.

This is a story in the Bible of Jesus and the Pharisees (John 7:53-8:11), I suggest you read it.

     Judgement is a trick fo the devil that makes us think that we are in a higher position or in a spiritually higher place than another person. We make up a false reality of that person in our mind and take it as fact. This is something that we as Believers need to end.

     If someone is not a fellow follower, judgement is not allowed to be cast on them. We believe in a completely separate law than them, and our law is not a law that they follow. If they do not follow the law that we follow, we cannot hold them accountable for that law. It is a simple fact. We can't hold a Chinese man accountable for a law that is only in the U.S., simply because he is not under the U.S. law, he's under China's.

     A gay man cannot be judged or ridiculed for his beliefs or sexuality if he is not a believer in Jesus Christ the Almighty. He can't. 

     On the flip side, it is our duty and role as brothers and sisters to keep one another accountable. If my brother, Tom, has a habit of never telling the truth, it is my job to talk to him about it and hold him accountable. This is allowed because we are both under the same law of Jesus Christ. I am not judging him, I am identifying sin in his life and helping him overcome that.

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

"When you are too focused on looking down on everyone and judging them for their sins, you cannot gain the courage to look up at the One above you."