To Judge or Not to Judge?
Have you noticed how often we use critical judgment in our daily lives as an assessment of our and other people’s choices? Judgment is a necessary part of determining a course of action, but it is not always helpful or constructive.
For example, we judge whether to drink coffee or tea in the morning, whether the weather is going to be agreeable with our plans, what restaurant or vendor has the best service and quality for the money. We sit in traffic, judging how quickly the light or the line of cars ahead will turn in order to make it to an appointment. We judge what exactly someone meant when he or she spoke, and even whether their words were meant to commend or to criticize.
However, in seeking a favorable outcome between persons, we can take critical judgment too far. I may catch myself desiring the response of another to reflect what I hope will be an accurate appraisal of my own correct position. In this way, judgment becomes a means to elevate my view while casting the other person in the light of being less informed or even inferior. Mutual understanding takes a back seat to being “right”. When that is the case, am I not making myself the center of the exchange? Am I not using biased judgment and even sinning against my brother?
Only God is the perfect unbiased Judge. Only God is able to remain completely invested and completely objective at the same time. God is the wise Judge who intimately knows not only our predicament but also our heart’s deepest posture. Because of Christ’s death on the cross, we who were sinners by nature have now been reconciled to God!
But we still live in a world affected by sin. As far as humans go, when we are hurt by a person or situation—and especially when we continue to hurt—we become biased participants.
That is why the central issue in taking steps of forgiveness is releasing the role of Judge to God.
In a conflicting situation, not only must I be honest about the hurt, infraction, offense, or disagreement and how it affected me (always confessing to God but sometimes to another too), I must also recognize that my hurt makes me an unmerciful judge. After acknowledging the pain, I must release—commit—to God the right to judge.
In the same way that Christ, dying on the cross, prayed to His Father, “Into your hands, I commit my spirit”, so in forgiveness we yield--commit, entrust, surrender--to the Father our need for retribution or compensation, for judgment of sin. It is not a passive “giving up”; it is an active and willing surrender.
How many times do we judge matters in our own favor, rather than allowing our Heavenly Father to be Judge? What if, instead, we could become people who continually forgive? People who walk in mercy, givers unreservedly giving because we were undeserving recipients of grace…not abandoning truth, but rather extending mercy.
In Romans 12:1, the apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy…” (NIV) The Passion Translation put it, “Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God…”
Everything I have is already a gift from God, not only because God is good, but also because God is working all things together FOR the good. Even the wounds of a friend. Even trials and disagreements, because they prune and sharpen us. (John 15:2)
What if, in light of the mercies of God, we could withhold judgment and let God be God? What if we chose to entrust…to yield…to commit judgment to Him? What kind of freedom would that bring?
“Do not judge, lest you be judged. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Matthew 7:1
Oh Lord, please keep me from standing in your place as Judge! Help me to use the same measure of grace and mercy with others that You have poured out on me. With Your help, I want to be a person of grace who walks in continual forgiveness. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.
Other Scriptures referenced: Romans 8:28, Prov. 27:6, James 1:2-4