Why We Should Never Judge Others

According to Scripture, God views us the way we view others which is truly sobering because whether we realize it or not we often judge others for things we ourselves have done at one time or another.

A good illustration would be the king who was listening to charges brought against those of his kingdom. One at a time the accusers would state their accusations then the king would decide the punishment. On this particular occasion he was told of a man in his kingdom who had committed deeds which were considered sin against God and man.

As the king listened to the charges he became angry. When the accusations were finished, the king insisted on the maximum punishment and demanded to know who the wicked man was. To the king's horror, the wicked man they were describing was actually the king, and without mercy he had just condemned himself.

Most of us wouldn't recognize our own sins if they were dictated to us and would arrogantly assume that it was someone else being described. Many times we feel resentment towards someone over something as simple as a harsh word spoken in haste on a busy day. Sometimes we carry those bitter feelings for the longest time rather than realize that we all have bad days and say things we don't really mean. Job called it "words for the wind" when he was in torment. They should be ignored.

Every day we face situations with friends and family which exercise our patience. We tend to snap at one another on occasion and we've all been guilty of it at one time or another yet when it's done to us our attitude is, "How dare you!" When we do this we are condemning them in our mind.

Jesus said that when we hate someone in our mind it's the same as murder. "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matt. 7:2)

We are instructed in the Bible to have compassion, making excuses for one another. (Romans 12:10) Michael, the archangel, wouldn't even judge Satan. "Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." (Jude 1:9)

When someone hurts us and we react with hard feelings it's like laying a charge against them spiritually. It could be our spouse, child or good friend. Do we really want to charge this person before God? Also, how many times have we done the exact same thing, regardless of whether it was before or after being born again? Anyone who has read the words of Jesus knows how the Lord feels about a hypocrite.

We need to try making excuses for each other just as we would want someone to make excuses for us. Ask God to forgive those who sin against us (Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors) and tell Him that we forgive it and ask Him not to charge them with any offense on our behalf. In doing so, we have judged mercifully and God will be merciful in His judgment of us.

When someone deliberately says or does something to hurt us we should think back over our own life. Have we ever done that? Even if we haven't, do we really want to charge them before God? Besides, most of the time the person who hurt us apologizes and in the end we'll be glad we were patient.

God sees and hears everything that happens in our lives and how can He judge us differently than we judge others? When we show mercy and compassion towards others we receive mercy and compassion from God.

There is a difference between judgment and discernment. We are instructed to judge those we associate with so as to avoid being influenced by worldly or ungodly people. However, this type of judgment is one of discernment and not condemnation.

As Christians, we are all in the process of being conformed to the image of Christ and until that process is complete we are all still very human and prone to sin.

Therefore, before we shake our head or click our tongue at another person we need to stop and consider the fact that God is waiting to hear what we have to say about it. The way we react to the situation could very well influence the way God reacts to us when we stumble.