WHEN THE PEOPLE came to their seats in the theater, they found a man sprawled across them…
When the people told the man that he was occupying their seats, his only response was an inarticulate guttural sound. The people summoned an usher who told the man that he had to get up because he had the seats of the people in the aisle. The only response was that inarticulate guttural sound. The usher said, “He’s drunk, so I’ll call the police.” The police came. One of the policemen said to the man who lay across the seats, “Fellow, get up, you’ve got these folks’ seat.” No response. Then the police said, “Look fellow, who are you and where are you from?” The sprawling man finally managed to say, “The balcony!”
THOUGHTS: One of the easiest things and yet one of the most dangerous things that one can do is render judgment when the facts are not known. According to Jesus, one who sets himself up as a judge positions himself to be judged. “For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged” (Matt. 7:2).
However, it is not judging to take the Word of God and in a loving way (Eph. 4:15), show a person that something they believe and/or practice in religion is not in harmony with the Word of God. It is not judging to declare, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
It is not judging to emphasize that fornication, adultery, homosexuality, greed, and drunkenness are sins that can rob people of the hope of heaven (Eph. 5:1-6; Gal. 5:19-22). It is not judging to affirm that being in the Lord’s church is necessary for salvation, because Christ “is the Savior of the body” (Eph. 5:23), which is His church (Eph. 1:21-22).
It is judging to engage in a carping, caviling, censorious attack on someone’s reputation that is done in ignorance of the facts; the kind of judging that is fathered by gossip and whose mother is slander. This kind of judging is done by a “plank, log or beam carrier” who seeks to remove a “mote or a speck” from someone’s spiritual eye.
Taking God’s Word in an effort to rescue one from religious error or sinful practices is not judging. A personal condemnation of someone based on gossip, slander, or innuendo, is the judging that Jesus condemned. (Tom Holland)
KneEmail: “Judge not, that you be 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. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye”(Matt. 7:1-5; cf. John 7:24).