Judgment!!! Can We Handle It?

In today’s culture judgment is ingrained in us, everywhere you look, there are even entire programs devoted to judging and judgment. While God gave us judgment for good we have once again perverted it and use it incorrectly. God gave us judgment for accountability and to spur us into prayer. We must be careful of the things we are judging, they are usually the very things we struggle with.
The Word of God says not to judge according to one’s appearance in John 7:24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” The people in Jesus’ time were having a difficult time really believing that He was the Christ. They were expecting some big, fancy political leader to come and establish a kingdom in this world. They were not expecting the son of a carpenter from a little fishing town like Galilee. See in their incorrect judgment of the appearance, many missed the truth of who He really was and still is.
Matthew 7:1-2 “Judge not, that you are not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. That makes it very clear, with the same ruler we use to judge other people, we will get judged. That is a tough pill to swallow for me because of the harsh way that I have judged people. In our attempt to make ourselves feel better or look better, we are down right nasty! God made us all individuals with our own likes and dislikes, style, taste, appearance and talents. This year I started watching American Idol for the first time. Here is the thing though, no matter what we may think of those people up there doing their best, God loves them and He loves the way they look and sing. In fact He loves the way all of us look and sing and well do everything else we do and that makes us all pretty equal in my book.
I absolutely love John 8 and my favorite part of that text is the very beginning. There is Jesus going alone to the Mount of Olives to pray no doubt. When He returns to the temple the scribes and Pharisees approach Him with a woman who was just caught in the “very act” of adultery. The law says that she is to be stoned in Leviticus 20:10 so they wanted to see what Jesus would do about this situation, they were trying to trick Him. This is so cool, when they threw this at Him he just stooped down and began to write something in the sand in His cool, calm and collective way. He didn’t say anything for some time and then He stood up and said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” They were all convicted and left from the oldest to the youngest. Then He tells the woman that she is free to go cause no one accuses her and then He tells her to go and sin no more. Awesome! In this text we really get a good feel for how we are to respond to the world, love and compassion, setting captives free not condemning like the Pharisees’ and religious leaders of the day.
He continues later in the text in John 8:15-16 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. He shows us first by action what we are doing wrong and how to do it right then He says it, He always lives the example first. That is the most important thing is living the example. Sometimes we will be the only Bible people will look at or we’ll be the only Christ they see. We must live the example all the time or else we’ll loose them. Isaiah 58:6 tells us the “fast” that God has chosen for us is to undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free and break every yoke. How can we do any of that if we are too busy judging people to get to know and love on them? So judgment....can we handle it?