Judging Others
“Do not judge or you will be judged.” Matt. 7:1
Author Ken Sande defines judging as “looking for others’ faults and, without valid and sufficient reason, forming unfavorable opinions of their qualities, words, actions, or motives.” Otherwise, it simply means “looking for the worst in others.”
One of my favorite little poems is about a lady waiting to board a plane. She sat down with a good book, a bag of cookies and a drink. As she was reading, she noticed the gentleman next to her was reaching in her bag of cookies and helping himself! With each cookie that he ate, she became more and more irritated!
She couldn’t believe the nerve he had! What type of person eats a complete stranger’s cookies without asking!?! When there was only one cookie left, the man simply smiled, broke the cookie in half and handed half to her. She was appalled!
When they called her flight, she quickly gathered her things, boarded the plane and found her seat. She then reached in her bag to get out her book and what did she find? HER bag of cookies! She was mortified that she had judged him for eating what she THOUGHT to be her cookies, when actually she was eating his!
Have you ever done anything like that? Have you ever judged someone without valid reason? Or maybe made an assumption about someone without knowing all the details?
It is so easy to look for the worst in others, especially those we are around the most. John tells us, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” In other words, know all the facts!
I love the words of Mother Theresa: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” And I believe the opposite is true as well. If you are so busy loving people, you have no time to judge them! Let’s be so busy loving, we have no time for that!