How often do we judge people? Have you ever done that? Have you ever been on the other side of being judged inappropriately? Thinking…why don’t they see my heart? Judging…

Let us look into the Book of James and see what it says:

"Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law ... But there is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?" (James 4:11-12)

Wrong judgements. Have you been on the receiving end of someone judging you? How does that feel? I remember when we were in Hilo. I was driving into church. We were meeting at the Boys and Girls Club. There was a man passing out leaflets at the beginning of the roadway as we entered the driveway to the church. So every car stopped and he gave them a leaflet. I finally queued up to him. So, I rolled down my window and said to him, “Thank you.” And I looked at the leaflet as I was driving away. It said, “Don’t come to this church! Pastor Wayne is a fraud! He is someone who is not what he says he is! He is an alien!” And I thought…Okay…now everybody thinks he is an usher. But, really what he was doing was judging other people. We have been on the receiving end of that and we don’t like it.

On the other hand, have you been on the other end passing judgement a little too soon or too impetuously. My favorite story about misjudgement (which some of you may have heard before) is about the lady who was waiting for a flight at the airport. She had to wait quite a while so she decided to buy a book and a bag of cookies to pass the time. Well, she sat in the airline’s courtesy lounge to rest and read in peace. Beside the woman’s armchair was another armchair with a small table between the two. A man was sitting in the adjacent chair reading a magazine. As the woman sat and read, she reached out to the table and took out of the package sitting there. Just then, the man reached out and took one of the cookies too. She was irritated but she didn’t say anything. She thought, “The nerve of this guy! If I was in the mood, I’d punch him.” Well, she reached out and took her second cookie. When she did that, the man took one also. Well, this went on for while, each time she took a cookie, the gentleman sitting next to her would take one too.  She was infuriated but she didn’t want to cause a scene.  Then there was one cookie left. “What is he going to do? This abusive man!” she thought, in a huff. Well, the man reached in and broke the last cookie in half. He ate half of the cookie and walked away. She thought, “What a slimy guy! I can’t believe it!” Well she left the last half cookie and went down to the boarding gate. When she got into her seat on the plane, she looked into her purse to get her pair of glasses.  To her surprise, her package of cookies was in her purse, untouched and unopened. She felt so ashamed. She was wrong. She has forgotten she had put her cookies in her purse. And the man was sharing his cookies with her without feeling angry or bitter.

Judgement…. We need to be careful.

Many times we have a tendency to pass judgement before we should. All of us have been at both ends. It is like this exercise in the church called jumping to conclusions. In fact, there is a whole regimen of exercises for this “Me and My Big Mouth” series…Here it is:

·        Jumping to conclusion.......................... 400 calories

·        Passing the buck.................................. 200 calories

·        Making mountains out of molehills........ 150 calories

·        Adding fuel to fire................................ 150 calories

·        Opening a can of worms...................... 150 calories

·        Putting your foot in your mouth............. 300 calories

·        Flying off the handle............................. 500 calories

·        Pushing your weight around.................. depends on how much you weigh!

If you think about, we Christians should be the thinnest people in the world with that kind of exercise regimen...it is one of our favorite pastimes! We have all been involved in that…grumbling, gossiping, lunch table conversation about other people.  You see, according to the Bible, those are just different variations of passing judgement, yet the Bible tells us “not to pass judgement on a brother.” Because there is only one who can pass judgement.

So what is passing judgement you ask? Passing judgement is writing someone off. An example of that is when you call someone stupid. That is coming to conclusion, sort of pronoucing a sentence or a verdict, that I am done with you…or that you’re finish. The Pastor said that; he is bad! I am not going to that church!  We seem to forget that people make mistakes. People are not going to “freeze dry” in their mistakes and be like that for the rest of their lives. They still can change. But when we judge them, we pass a sentence on them before its time. There is only one person that can judge them and it’s not you or me!

Important Point: There is only one judge…God. We are not!

1.                 PASSING JUDGEMENT belongs only to God.

“But he said, 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn’” (Matt. 13:29-30).

You say, “But how about these people in the world who are strange and are from another world? They are weird.  They are not like us. What do we do with them?” The Bible says that we are going to be people placed in the perverted world. We are placed to make a difference, not to misuse our judgement. Instead, we need to be discerning in how we judge others. What do you do with these people? Our perceptions are not correct all the time. We have to be careful in judging others…like the example of the lady in the airport. She thought she was right but she was wrong, and she used her judgement incorrectly.

“Therefore do not go on passing judgement before the time but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s heart.” (1 Corinthians 4:5)

Important Point: Be real careful in judging others.

·        Start with YOURSELF.

As it says in the Gospel of Luke…

"Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:42)

Judgement begins in ourselves. The Bible says to examine yourself. Blame is a variant of judgment. Blame robs you of your ability to change. You can be a Christian for ten years and sometimes the discernment becomes blurry. For example, an older lady was watching her young neighbor hanging her family’s laundry. She noticed they were not clean. She told her husband, “What’s wrong with that woman?  Doesn’t she know how to do laundry?  Her clothes aren’t even clean!”  Well this went on for days; each day the older woman criticized her neighbor’s laundry skills.  Until one day, the older woman looked out of her window at her younger neighbor’s clothes and they were clean. She remarked on it to her husband, “Looks like our neighbor finally learned how to properly do laundry.”  And in response, her husband said, “Or maybe it’s just because I got up early and washed our windows this morning.”  Ah yes, judgement.  When we don’t discern how we judge, we become gullible to the world. We can’t decide between what is right or wrong.

Important Point: Use correct judgement instead of incorrect judgement in every decision you make.

2.     Situation à PonderàWise judgementàObedience: Correct Judgement

There are going to be situations that you come to in life where you have to decide what to do. What do you do first? Ponder. What does it mean to ponder? It is thinking through the situation before deciding to do anything; thinking through a situation and mixing with your faith – that is pondering. After pondering comes wise judgement. With faith, you ponder the situation before deciding what to do.  In the end, you become obedient to God’s desire for your path towards correct judgement.

On the other hand, using incorrect judgement…

      TemptationàConsideràSin: Incorrect Judgement

Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. Then she considered while deciding things. Then she fell into sin. The more she thought about it…considered eating the fruit…the closer she moved towards sinning until she finally did. Eve used incorrect judgement in her situation and after incorrect judgement comes sin.

3.     Right àWrong

“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

When you first become a Christian, you can discern from right or wrong.  Choose what is right instead of wrong to have better judgement.

      preciousàworthless        

“Therefore, thus says the Lord, “If you return, then I will restore you—before Me you will stand; and if you extract the precious from the worthless, you will become My spokesman.” (Jeremiah 15: 19)

     wiseàunwise

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.” (James 3:17)

We need to be careful about passing judgment.  As humans, and particularly as Christians, we have a tendency to pass judgement on others when the Bible clearly tells us that only God can pass judgement on people, not us.  On the other hand, we are encouraged to look at ourselves carefully and be discerning.  We need to ponder situations and think upon them while mixing in our faith to fully understand how God would have us to see that situation, so we may practice wise judgement and eventually, obedience.  If we do not ponder things, and instead consider the temptations that the Devil often presents us, those considerations often lead to sin.  We need to use our discernment, not to judge others, but rather to determine between right and wrong, the precious and worthless, and the wise and unwise.

DISCUSSION SUGGESTIONS

1.      What are the variations of judgement ?

2.      What is wrong judgement?

3.      How do you use judgement correctly?

4.      What are the three important points in the message? Give examples.

5.   What are the general important points in the message? Give examples.