The selfishness of judging

We look at people all around us and everyone is doing their own thing.  In our daily lives we face frustration towards those around us.  Whether it's a person skipping the red light, whether work is not handed in on time or even work done incompletely or unneatly.  It might be the way people talk, look, think or do.  The fact of the matter is that we get frustrated and judge people daily based on these principles.

One of the best known movies of our time was Pirates of the Caribbean: The curse of the Black Pearl 2003.  Johnny Depp played the role of a very humorist pirate captain.  Close to the end of the movie he and two of his crew members was fighting in a cave against their enemies... the rest of their crew that stayed behind on the ship saw that danger was approaching and decided to leave Jack and the other two crew members behind and sail away.  When they exited the cave victorious, the two crew members were very angry that the rest of the crew left them behind.  Jack however said something that had unmistakable value. "They did what was right by them, you can't expect more".

Now think of the philosophy behind all this.  Why do we judge?  By what measure or standard do we see people to act right or wrong?  The answer is simple but shocking; our own standards.  Yes, we judge people by what we believe to be right or wrong.  A bit selfish don't you think?

Jesus is very clear on this in John 7 where the Pharisees were rebuking Jesus for healing on a Sabbath.  Jesus had an interesting argument.  From verse 21 Jesus hammered them on the fact that they would circumcise people on the Sabbath... according to them it was acceptable because it was not considered work but rather joining someone to the faith and church.  In the same way Jesus saw the man's healing.  That the man's faith was strengthened and his relationship with God restored... so then it can't be wrong to heal on the Sabbath.  Immediately we see that Jesus direct the crowds attention away from the action being performed and rather fixing it on the motive behind the action.  In this instance it was both the restore and build up whats broken.

John 7:24 "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

Imagine a world where we realize that everyone, whether in our eyes it was the right or wrong thing to do, start realizing that people only do what they think is best and that we should rather look at their motives than the actions they perform.  Don't you think our world would have less misunderstandings and a lot more love and patience towards one another.  Honestly, we have no right or reason to judge, because just as you find fault with what others are doing, so others also will find fault in what you are doing since everyone sees and experiences the world differently.

Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;..." 

The command was never to see whether people are acting and living right, it was simply to love those around them.  Let's look at whats going on behind the scenes and the motives behind actions rather than throwing stones on what we think we are seeing.