February 22 - Judging Others

Jesus was judged by different kinds of people when He was on earth. It came because of His fame. For those who had heard His teachings, they began to wonder where did He acquire all those teachings and the extraordinary wisdom that He possessed. They had no clue about where His miraculous powers came from. People were entitled to their opinions about Jesus, however, their opinions would not change the fact about Jesus. He was who He was despite of how others looked at Him.

People of His hometown judged Him with contempt and they took offense with Jesus. Familiarity breeds contempt. Jesus commented that prophets were without respect only in their own villages, tribes and families. The fact that Jesus had grown up before their own eyes and that they had known Him and His family well took away the mystery of who Jesus was. This gave rise to unbelief and as a result, Jesus did not do many miracles among them except laying hands and heal a few sick people there. They had driven Jesus away from their town and Jesus then went to the surrounding villages, amazed at their unbelief.

King Herod, when heard of the fame of Jesus, came to the conclusion that Jesus was John the Baptist coming back to life. His judgment came from a guilty conscience for he had killed an innocent man earlier. When one is burdened with guilt, wrong judgments are easily made. That is why we should confess our sins before the Lord and have our conscience cleansed. This would help us to make correct judgments and decisions. Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse our guilty conscience so that we may think clearly. We need our conscience to tell us about right and wrong.

Judging others is often times an exercise in futility. None of us has perfect knowledge. Our opinions are clouded by our unbelief, our prejudices, preconceived ideas and our sins. It is dangerous to make our conclusions about other people and then to act upon them. Jesus suffered contempt, misunderstanding, prejudice and offense from those who were closest to Him. Our misjudging may hurt others through no fault of their own.

Judging others is an action that could come back to haunt us. Jesus teaches us not to judge because if we do so, we would be judged by others also. This is a reactionary sin that lashes back at those who judges. Judging one another is the quickest way to destroy a community. The best way is to accept people as they are and leave the judging to God the Judge.

Do you have the habit of judging others? Ask God for forgiveness and stop judging.