By Dean LuskIn one of the men's bathrooms at Wall Highway Baptist Church's sanctuary building is
a sink that will not dispense hot water. In the past I've turned the water on and let it run for a full minute (which is a pretty long time if you just want hot or warm water) without feeling so much as a slight increase in temperature. This is surely a discouragement from washing one's hands, but I always do that regardless. I promise.
Some time last year I heard the facilities maintenance guy comment that there is not a hot water line running to that sink. I immediately felt personal embarrassment that I'd never bothered to look underneath to see that there was only one pipe running from the wall to the sink.
No matter what I tried and no matter how long I let the water run, I would never have been able to get warm water from that spigot. On the surface, though, since there are two valves on each side of the faucet, one would think that one side would produce hot water and the other cold. Its appearance is completely deceptive.
Have you ever wondered how
Jesus could say, "
Do not judge others and you will not be judged," and
just a minute later say, "
Just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions" (or maybe a faucet by its water)? This is far more harmonious than many people care to see, though the first phrase is used, often incorrectly, as ammunition by people who want to attack Christ-followers as hateful, vengeful, or unloving.
Any thoughts on the fact that those two statements are not mutually exclusive?
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Comments (15)
That is a cool parallel; I like it. :)
I like the verse "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?" - 1 Corinthians 5:12
That verse about judging a tree by it's fruit is for those inside the church.
That's why I hate it when people hold Non-Christians to "Christian standards"
That makes no sense at all.
A very good point.
The command to be not judge does not mean that a Christian can never tell someone else that
they are wrong. (Jesus told all sorts of people that they were wrong, and Paul even called
out a fellow apostle--these were not judgmental actions.) What it instead means is that a
Christian should never tear someone down.
There's a large difference between judging someone, and holding someone accountable
to actually practicing what they claim to believe.
[Edit: some weird formatting glitches going on here.]
Such a very simple premise for a very poignant post.
I've often heard one reference or the other,
always failing to realize how exactly the referee was distorting the context.
Lovely Post, Lovely Parallel :)
I think there is a big difference between judging, and sharing the truth in love.
Let say a brother in Christ was lying to his wife about something he was doing, and you know it. You would go to him and say "Brother, this is what you are doing, this is why, according to the Bible, you are wrong, and you need to fix it". You would not go "Stop or you will go to hell and by the way I just told your wife" (I was just in this situation, thats why I am using it).
IMO, if we judge others harshly, we bring harsh judgment from God upon ourselves.
But if we show love, grace and mercy, God will show the same to us.
Wow! Thanks for posting this!
Interesting post! And good question. Is judging different from identifying, if we mean by judging telling someone that they are wrong based on the little we may know about them? Judgmental people do not tend to be Christlike.
I think the "judging" that Jesus is referring to in verse 1 is more 'condemnation' than making a moral judgment.
I think when Jesus uses the term "judge," He is referring to judging their salvation. It's like saying a particular person is going to hell, or another person is going to heaven. Jesus says not to do this because we are not God, and we cannot judge other people. However, Christians tend to be an unusual breed and you will be able to tell who they are by their actions.
Much madd love,
Christian
Right after Jesus said judge not, he says to "first" take the beam out of our own eye and "then" we can see clearly to "remove" the speck from our brother's eye. So Jesus is not telling us to never judge but to not judge hypocritically.
@musterion99@xanga - I agree. Judging another person is often necessary but do not judge as a hypocrite. Before admonishment there must come a judgment and Christians are told to admonish one another when an error is made. See the lesson in Matthew 18:15-17 and Titus 2:15.
The entire "Judge not lest you be judged" thing is WAY too skewed by people's understandings. It isn't telling you that you can't say, "You're a terrible person!" It's saying you don't judge who is and isn't going to Hell and who is or isn't receiving both God's divine mercy and everlasting love.
It has NOTHING to do with how a person acts or how they dress.
I think it means that you can't be an idiot and hang out with hurtful people- and what I see as sin are actions that are dishonest, painful, born out of revenge and hatred or the desire to control. I think judging is condemnation, taking the spiritual law into your own hands.
I think I know this firsthand. I found out that my privacy in my community was being violated on a regular basis and that my father in law had employed a friend to spy on me, and lie to me. In addition this person was frequently negative, jealous and mean. She never told me directly about what was going on behind my back, put me down, dismissed my accomplishments, and betrayed the confidence of everyone she knew. I judged her for a long time. Called her bad names in my head, wished the same pain she put on me but worse. I cut off our friendship. The judgment part was the hatred I felt for her. The "identifying" part was the cutting off of our friendship. You have to understand that people who are fueled by misery and deceit are just going to bring the same into your life. However, you have to surrender them to God, let the go, pray for them and wish them wisdom and growth. You can lovingly confront, and if that doesn't work, walk away. But you can't punish them hurt them or enact rage upon them. If they have broken the law, take legal action, if they are menace to the lives of people other than yourself, legally- take action. But I think it's about walking away in love and prayer. Not attack, revenger and counter revenge. Leave that to God.I must say that I agree Jesus meant not to judge hypocritically but consider this, as human beings can we ever actually do this? I don't believe that we are fundamentally evil, I feel just the opposite. However, I feel that our nature is so flawed that I don't feel I will ever achieve a state of grace that will justify my judging others. That said, I admit that I do, indeed, judge others, I just believe that I am always being hypocritical at those times because this tendency is part of my flawed nature.@musterion99@xanga -
@revm1124 - There's a lot more scriptures advocating us to judge than just that.