John 7-8

John 7:24

Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgement.

It seems the older I get the less harsh I've become in my judgements. And I see this as a very good thing. When I was young and without any life experience I found it easy to see everything in clear black and white. To my youthful way of thinking gray was the devils play area where compromise happens.

Please don't misunderstand my change to be reflective of my shifting my worldview to the current culture of relative truth or of no absolutes. But over the years I've learned that I don't always know the real circumstances in every situation where I think I see a "violation" of a right standard. I'm learning to temper my "confrontations" with more love and understanding and grant grace in those situations where I might have once jumped in and slammed somebody over the head with the law. This verse doesn't say I'm not to judge. I just need to be very careful when I do, that I judge rightly.

This brings me to an internal issue I've been thinking about. I have been an observer of a situation, of which I am not a party to, involving somebody I really don't know all that well, that I have prejudged without knowing all the details. I haven't gossipped about this or even mentioned my thoughts on the situation to anybody else. Do I say anything to that person about how bad I feel for making such a judgement? Or since they don't even know about what I've judged in my heart do I just keep it between myself and God, confessing my jump to judgement without all the facts?

I'm thinking the last option. Clearly if I had talked to others about it I would not only have to confess to that person, but also have to issue a press release to retract my wrongly judged perceptions. Can you just imagine if that's really what people did when they judged something wrongly? Boy it would sure cut down on the gossip, don't ya think?