Judge not!

(Matthew 7:1)  “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

A little leaven leavens the entire lump; Judgement can become an infectious leaven if not checked. But it does not stand alone; the point of yeast is that not much is needed to influence the entire loaf of bread. Just the slightest habitual sin in our lives that we have never been able to shirk works its way into our survival and has the desired effect of handicapping those caught in entrapment. If and when it is exposed even more damage is done. We must learn to take our eyes off one another’s faults and focus on the Lord Jesus’ achievements. He alone was the spotless Lamb and without His sacrifice we would all be found wanting, there would be no exception. The sooner that becomes our reality the freer we will find ourselves to serve Him. It is an obvious conclusion that sin needs to be dealt their blows; we cannot excuse our sinful behaviour as acceptable. However I believe we have often forgotten from whence we have fallen when it comes to pointing out the sins of others and excusing ourselves for the sake of making ourselves feel better about ourselves.   

But what I find rather intriguing is how often those closest to us come against any progression we make as Christians, as they look to breakdown and not encourage. There could be numerous reasons why this happens, and we may be guilty of exactly the same mistake when dealing with others, in fact I am convinced that we have mostly erred in this area of our lives. We know that the devil goes around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour and I know he likes to sow discord amongst family and friends and even brothers/sisters in the Lord. Our character (old nature) is still something we all need to work through in our lives; sometimes we walk victoriously, whilst other times we fall privy to it; outbursts, anger, pride and the like. Nevertheless although we can never commend these traits we must accept the fact that we are still living in bodies that have a fallen nature. It is true that we no longer should be slaves to it. It is also true that we should no longer habitually practice what we once were slave too i.e. sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. If we look honestly at the list, we will all realise that we fall privy to some of those traps at times. We must however seek out grace to overcome, but if we fall, we have a high Priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities and we are encouraged to repent and seek out God’s forgiveness as He is a forgiving God, He will forgive our sin: - “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9)

But forgiveness is a two sided street; it is not a one-way! We pray “forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us”, let us be sure not to miss that crucial bit of information. Let us take to heart the purpose of a day like today, “Good Friday” the day the man Jesus died so that we could go free, it was a day filled with forgiveness. He took the punishment of sinful men and women and yet he had no sin, phenomenal! And so He taught, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

Signing off

Tyrone