“ Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”
This week we are uncovering those sly little foxes, that can hinder our walk. We are talking about those character traits, those responses, thoughts, actions etc that can often be overlooked or simply ignored. Today I want us to look at judgementalism. This one seems obvious, but I don't want us to be so quick to overlook the subtlety of this trait, because, chances are, it’s manifested in more ways than one and even if you think you don't appear to others as judgemental, we must also consider where our heart goes in the matter; for it is the response of the heart that God deals with.
Jesus dealt with this mindset over 2000 years ago, and it is no surprise that the teaching is still relevant in churches today.
St.John 8;
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
In this teaching Jesus is speaking directly to the church, the Pharisees are those who are blinded by tradition and who seek to exercise the letter of the law, void of any kind of mercy or grace. The Pharisees did not bring the woman to Jesus to be saved, they were looking for her to be killed for her sin. As well as, a way to make a fallacy of Jesus’ ministry. If the Pharisees could prove that Jesus would disobey or break a law, then it would disprove that Jesus was, in fact, the Son of God because God does not break his own laws, and there would be a disconnect between who Jesus said he is and who God is. however, by the Pharisees so quick to cast judgment and so eager to execute they did not realize that in casting judgement upon the Woman, that they were also casting judgement upon themselves. And this is what we sometimes miss when we judge, the fact that quick judgement and judgement void of the wisdom of God is dangerous.
As Sons, we are to have the same response that Jesus had. We don’t impute the sins of others to their charge, rather we intercede, we love, be a bridge, a doormat or whatever is necessary to save the lost from hell and to restore them back to God. we should never consider the judgements and opinion of men as final, God has the final say and it doesn't matter what sin or how many times, if God says they are retrievable, then you go and retrieve your brother.