The message at church today was from Luke 6:30-37. I'll let you grab your Bible and read it for yourself. Here are the things that stood out to me this morning. I hope I can remember them and apply them to my life.
God's mercies total in the millions~why do I to sit on my pity pot? Keep a daily record of God's mercies and review it often, giving thanks each day for them. Remember how God has been merciful to me and then next time I get ticked off at someone who I think has wronged me, show that person mercy just as God has showed me mercy. This is the mark of a Christian...a Christ-follower.
When we judge others with contempt, this is not righteous judgment. This is judging another in order to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps as better than they are. When we make rules for others and hold them to our own set of rules of righteousness, this is judging wrongly and it's legalism. We must examine ourselves before we point out the wrong in others. The one who mourns his own sins has no room to judge others. That last statement really hits home. It's convicting.
We are called to judge, to "discernment". There is a big difference between judging someone with contempt and discerning between good and evil for the sake of protecting oneself or loved ones from harm or theological error.
I think about Facebook. It's so easy to sit on my high horse and judge others. I see it happening all the time on news posts where the comments can get very nasty. I often find myself judging these people who make nasty judgmental comments. Perhaps I am doing the same thing they are doing. I am judging them with contempt for what they have said about the original post. I think in my heart how much better I am than they are because, after all, I am not making offensive comments about the person in the original post. Oh my word! This is bad! I hope I can remember this sermon the next time I read stuff on Facebook or other social media that makes me want to puff myself up and become judge and jury.
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