The judge who chose not to judge

You should think of us as Christ’s servants, who have been put in charge of God’s secret truths. The one thing required of such servants is that they be faithful to their master. Now, I am not at all concerned about being judged by you or by any human standard; I don’t even pass judgment on myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not prove that I am really innocent. The Lord is the one who passes judgment on me. (verses 1-4)

Read 1 Corinthians 4:1-7

It hurts when people judge us. Because when someone judges us, it is almost invariably a negative assessment of our worth. They find fault with us, put us down. Who gave them the right? They don’t even know us that well.

Which is sometimes a good thing! If they knew us as well as God knows us, they could really go to town on us! Because God knows everything there is to know about us. Every last detail. Imagine what our critics would say if they had that kind of inside knowledge.

Isn’t it a good thing that people don’t have that kind of knowledge? God is the only one who knows us that well; he is the only one who can judge us. But, because we are in Christ, he refuses to do it. He knows us intimately and still loves us. He accepts us as we are, loves us, and begins to change us into being what he has made us in Jesus: his new creation.

So it is not our task to judge each other. Rather, we are to see ourselves, and each other, as being at the foot of the cross. In God’s love.

Father, I thank you that you could judge me but, for Jesus’ sake, do not. Please help me to be more like you in the way I look at those around me. Amen.

by Bob Turnbull, in ‘New Strength for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1998)

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