Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
We tend to use judgment of others as a way to distract ourselves from ourselves. We get worked up and exercised about what others are doing not because we care so much about righteousness, but because it gives us something other than our own weakness on which to focus. Our judgments allow us to believe that we are better than others, to think, 'At least I'm not like him or her.' And herein lies the problem with judgment. We do it for the wrong reasons.
Wherefore He does not say, ‘Do not cause a sinner to cease,’ but do not judge; that is, be not a bitter judge; correct him indeed, but not as an enemy seeking revenge, but as a physician applying a remedy.- Saint John Chrysostom
We are fundamentally unable to be helpful to others in overcoming their own faults when we are still blinded by our own. Removing the splinter from the eye of our brother may seem more appealing than the deep surgery needed to remove the wooden beam from our own eye. We should in fact realize that in our condition it is not a good idea to perform this surgery on ourselves or on others, lest we both end up blind. Instead, we should seek the healing of our vision from Jesus. And it is with his direction, power, and compassion that we may then address the splinter in the eyes of others.
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.
We see the Pharisees constantly making bad use of judgment in the Gospels. They do so not to help, but to condemn. They condemn not because they are primarily concerned about righteousness, but in order to distract themselves from the deeper demands of righteousness in their own lives. Instead of being like them we are called to receive the forgiveness of the massive debt of our own unrighteousness and then, when we see others who still owe something, desire their own forgiveness as well, rather than that they be held to account in a way which we ourselves were unable to bear.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
We are called to have hearts that desire mercy and not condemnation. We ourselves stand in need of this mercy as much as anyone else. Even if we are not guilty of great crimes, we should recognize that this is by the grace of God, without which "there but for the grace of God go I."
Jesus has forgiven me more than St. Mary Magdalene since He forgave me in advance by preventing me from falling. I was preserved from it only through God’s mercy!- Saint Therese of Lisieux
In the economy of the Kingdom we can only receive mercy, or any gift, to the degree that we are willing to become vessels of that gift to others. We must let the flow, which originates from the Holy Spirit, gradually widen our ability to desire and give to others what we ourselves have first received.
We do well to remember that we do not earn the blessings God desires for us. They are rather based on a promise which he himself made, and without conditions. But we accept it in the same spirit in which it was offered, not demanding that we or others are worthy of it, but instead, receiving it with gratitude. In this way we will overcome or need to be judges with evil designs (see James 2:4), and instead join Abram as pilgrims of the promise.
Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him.
Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
Abram took his wife, Sarai, his brother’s son Lot,
all the possessions that they had accumulated,
and the persons they had acquired in Haran,
and they set out for the land of Canaan.
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