Judge not, that you be not judged

During our 35th year class reunion, I met a classmate of mine whom I had not seen since graduation. During all the years of my Engineering degree, I used to avoid him because he used to have blood-shot eyes. And here I was, face to face with him. Not knowing what else to do I started talking and listening to his story!

Let us say his name is Babu. Babu was the son of a tailor and it seems every day he used to help his father in his shop, stitching buttons and button-holes. He had been so sleep deprived that his eyes were always red. Every year Deepavali came around our first semester and that was the time his father also was overbooked and his son’s assistance was important for his business. Because of this Babu had failed in many subjects. One day he decided to talk to his father and had said, ”Appa do you want me to be a tailor or an Engineer? At this rate, I will fail in all subjects.” His father realized his folly and released his son from the commitments. From then on Babu had devoted all his time to study, passed all the arrears and finished with all of us!

When I heard his story, I was ashamed of myself. While I was thinking that he was a drunkard, he had been the dutiful son, helping the father to meet the commitments of the family. Now Babu appeared very noble in my eyes! Quickly judging somebody and jumping to wrong conclusions is a malady affecting all of us!

The Bible says in 1 John 4:1a,” Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.” Any kind of ‘testing’ involves some kind of assessment and coming to some conclusion. We have to at all times, separate the right from wrong and good from evil. So what did Jesus mean when He said in Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

Jesus was not advocating a hands-off approach to moral accountability, refusing to allow anyone to make moral judgments in any sense. Jesus was addressing the hypocrisy and the self-righteous attitude of the Pharisees, who were quick to see the sins of others but were blind and unwilling to hold themselves accountable to the same standard.

My friend, many times our ‘judgement’ of others flows out of our self-righteous and ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude and that is what Jesus is pointing out today. May we all look within at the ‘plank’ before we look at the ‘speck’ in other’s lives!

Categories: Weekly DevotionalsAuthor: Hephzibah StephenDate: 26th October 2017 Share: newsletterDisplay date: 11th October 2017

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