No judging

 

Our daughter lives in a city about two hours away from us. Because of a set of circumstances, she came to stay a week with us.  It is always a blessing when she stays here and I wanted to do something special for her, so I washed and waxed her car.  While I was finishing her car a man walked down the street with his two dogs. One of his dogs defecated in the middle of the street. Our eyes made contact and he pulled a poop bag out of his pocket and picked up the feces. We smiled and nodded at each other as he went his way.

I started thinking, would he have picked that up if I wasn’t watching him? He probably

would have just left it there was my thought. I basically started judging him and making assumptions about his motives of which I knew nothing about. I have to be so careful about judging someone else’s actions. Maybe you have to be careful of this as well

Jesus said in Luke 6:37, “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” When we consider all that is going on in our world right now, there are divisions arising among family members, even within the body of Christ. People have their opinions on how things should be done and if others don’t agree, divisions start to develop. We may start judging people’s actions and even go as far as standing in judgment of their attitudes of which we know nothing about.

In these days of divisions on all levels of society and in the church as well, let’s be less critical and more compassionate and understanding. May we remind ourselves of what Jesus said in Luke 6:36, “Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.”

 

Pastor Marty