“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”
Matthew 7:1
I have a habit of judging people by what they say, do, or by what they look like. Quite often, I have to reprimand myself to make room for grace. For example, I was sitting in a restaurant one day, when I saw a young woman walking across the street, skimpily dressed and leaving very little to the imagination. I felt self-righteous anger and immediately made a judgement concerning her intentions. You see I was fully clothed, long sleeves and all, and I judged that young woman, whom I had never met and did not know by what she wore. I applied my measly, self-righteous standard to who she was and to her worth in my eyes.
Matthew 7:1 cautions: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” He reminds us that with the same measure we use against others, that same measure will be applied to us. Consider this, usually we judge people by what we perceive externally, but God judges the heart despite what he sees externally. If God were to judge your heart today, what would he find? And if God were to apply the measure you use against others on you, how would you fare? Here is a clue, apart from Christ, none of us have any righteousness of our own.
Making room for grace requires acknowledging that we are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Making room for grace requires a grateful heart. Radical gratitude reminds us that it is by grace alone that we have been saved, and this grace is a gift of God (Ephesians 2: 8-9). Making room for grace is recognizing God’s sovereignty in human life. He is the potter, we are the clay, and he knows how to take marred clay and reshape it into what seems best to him (Jeremiah 18:4), not into what seems best to us.
As you examine your own heart today, whom have you judged? What measure did you use to disqualify them from God’s love and grace? Now listen to the Holy Spirit, repent of your sin and ask the Holy Spirit to create in you a clean heart. Ask the One who never sinned, Jesus, to fill your heart with gratitude for what he did for you on the cross. Finally, ask God, to help you acknowledge his sovereignty over human life. He is God, we are not, so let us extend the same grace to others that we ourselves have received. AMEN.