December 31, 2020
Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
~John 7:24~
So many judgement calls being made around the world. I am not just talking about within the people who do not know Jesus, sadly I see it happening within the Body of Christ itself. The problem with making judgement calls is learning to make the right ones. Jesus tells us not to judge one another according to how they look. Its almost as if He was using the phrase "Do not judge a book by its cover." Jesus tells us to judge according to righteousness. The way we are to determine if a person is righteous is summed up in one question: Does this person truely love the Lord? Jesus is the only way we are considered to be righteous, by following Him. I'm sure you can remember the time Jesus asked Peter three times in a row if he loved Jesus. Peter responded; "Yes Lord; You know that I love You." Jesus replies to Peter with; "Feed my sheep." This was a request for His disciple to make more disciples and feed His flock with the word of God. We know someone by their love for God by keeping His commandments; "If you love Me, keep My commandments." (John 14:15)
We keep His commandments by following Him, doing as He says, ridding ourselves of ungodly mannerisms and living the will He has for each of us to live. We also show our love for Christ by loving eachother; "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
Loving one another means setting aside foolish thoughts, grumblings, gossip and complaints towards one another. Just because we do not agree with someone does not mean we have a right to judge or speak in secret of their way of life. We must remember Jesus sees everything and what someone chooses to do is between them and God. What we choose to do we are going to answer for when judgement day comes. There is no escaping that. The Lord instructed us to judge in a very simple way. We know someone by their fruits. Are they feeding Jesus' flock as He instructed them to do, just as Peter went on to do to the day of his death? The fruits will be seen or unseen. They will be noticable by the way people thrive around you or if only you yourself are benefitting from what you do. Our job as followers of Christ is to longsuffer, to be patient, to be caring if one needs our help and to show the light wherever we go so that when someone sees or hears us they see Him. When someone decides to judge a person by their appearance and thinks they have all the understanding but the person whom they judge has none, they are not living in the light of the Lord Jesus. We can see by example when Job had lost all he had and he began to question and judge the Judge Himself. God decided to not take pity on Job or explain Himself, instead He fired back with truth about just how little Job really knew; "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding." (Job 38:4)
These long chapters of God's response to Job left him speechless, honestly it left me speechless too! He knew he had nothing further to say. God always wins. The next time we feel like we are to judge a person by how they may appear, let me remind you that person may love Christ far more then yourself. They may serve the Lord every single day whole heartedly and focus on the salvation of those around them, bearing all kinds of wonderful fruit for the kingdom. We do not truely know a person's heart, only God knows. He is the Judge; "Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing." (II Timothy 4:8)
If we focus on the righteousness of God in others, the truth of if they follow Jesus or not, we will end up not wasting time on things that is not our job to discuss. We will end up feeding more people with the word of God and watching them grow in Christ. We will then let the Lord do His own job rather then trying to do it for Him.
"But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7)
My friends, let's not judge a book by its cover. We may just cause Jesus to be disappointed when we do.
Prayer:
Gracious God, thank you for teaching me the simple truth of loving You. I pray that I am to bear good fruit for Your kingdom and to humble myself before You each day. Show me how I can judge less and love more. I want to follow You Jesus, not just to say so but to do so. Instruct my way today Lord, direct my steps where You need me. Help me to focus on the heavenly task in front of me rather then focus on what others may be doing. I am so grateful for Your grace and mercy. I am thankful for new days and new opportunities to serve You. I praise You and want to show Your glory to those around me. For You gave me the chance of life, show me what I can do to grow in You. Thank you Jesus, guide my stubborn feet. In Your forgiving Name I pray, Jesus Christ. Amen.