Author: Carolyn Gard
Judge not, that you be not judged.” Matthew 7:1
The other day I went for a latte and when I got to the coffee shop I realized I had forgotten my phone. I almost panicked. I had a crossword puzzle to work, but I couldn’t finish it since I didn’t know the name of the band that has a backward B in its logo (ABBA) or the name of the director of
Spiderman (Sam Raimi). I then played Wordle and Connections and solved them quickly. I wasn’t finished with my latte, so what was I going to do? People watch. That’s always a good activity. Unfortunately, instead of just watching I became critical.
“That outfit doesn’t do anything for that woman. Why are those girls paying good money to buy jeans with precut holes? That man could stand to lose some weight. Why did that mother bring her kids in where they can see a case full of sweets and not let them get any?”
‘Judge not that you be not judged.’ Perhaps these people are judging me. “Isn’t that woman overdressed for Montana? Why does she look at the case of sweets and never buy anything? Has she nothing better to do with her time than work crossword puzzles?”
You get the idea. I decided to turn my judgments into scenarios. “That woman is telling the world that she is happy with what she wears, with who she is. The girls’ mothers objected to their wearing jeans with holes, but decided that they had more important battles to deal with. Despite his weight that man can probably bench press kids twenty years younger. That woman has told her kids many times over that they can have a drink but not sweets.”
The judgments I was making were certainly somewhat trivial in the greater scheme of things and probably won’t get me thrown into the utter darkness. And I did keep them to myself.
Perhaps the ultimate judgment we can make is by voting. This election, however, has brought
out some of the worst in us. I feel very strongly about my candidates, and I don’t have much charity for those who differ with me. But that’s no excuse for judging. Instead of judging I need to at least get to know the reasons that someone voted differently. Criticizing them, either openly or just in my mind, serves no purpose. I need to understand why they voted the way they did. Their reasons may make just as much sense to them as mine do to me.
‘Judge not that you be not judged’ doesn’t mean we can’t have opinions. It means that we need to know how and when to act on those opinions. One of the best ways to follow this commandment is to put love above all. That’s easy for me to write, not so easy to always carry out.
God, judging is always easier than loving. Help us to follow your lead and love more than judge.