So often we live like we hold eternal judgements in our hands. We make decisions about people and think things about people that are not our decisions to be making. Ultimate judgement is God’s job.
47 But even as Jesus said this, a crowd approached… 49 When the other disciples saw what was about to happen, they exclaimed, “Lord, should we fight? We brought the swords!” 50 And one of them struck at the high priest’s slave, slashing off his right ear.
51 But Jesus said, “No more of this.” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.
52 Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come for him. “Am I some dangerous revolutionary,” he asked, “that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? - Luke 22:47-52 NLT
Like Peter, we are so quick to fight. When someone comes to attack, we are ready. We are ready to block and cancel people out of our lives and out of a life. We are ready to defend what we hold dear and stand up for what we believe in. And like Peter, we are not good at doing this. I'm guessing he took his sword and went for the head but only got the ear. Thankfully, Jesus put it back together for the man. Jesus and the disciples were not going to put up a fight… at least not yet. Jesus had to go to the cross, suffer, and die. But he rose again from the dead and is alive today. He is coming back one day, and when he does he will “fight.” I write fight in quotes because fighting against all powerful God is not much of a battle (at a word it all happens).
Earlier in the gospels, we read about how the disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans (Luke 9:51-54). It wasn’t the right time for that. But they were quick to judgement.
As Jesus taught, we should not judge others lest we be judged. (Matthew 7:1). It's the popular thing to not judge others. We think, "just do what you want, man." "Keep to yourself." "Stay away from me." Just don’t judge others. But, oh, if you disagree with me, you are canceled. You can’t hold that belief. You can’t hold that opinion… your so judgmental.
We are so judgemental. And we do have to judge. And when we do, we have to do it in love and humility. We have to judge rightly. This is hard to do because our perspectives get in the way.
Do you know why other people’s problems look like a speck in their eye (Matthew 7:3-5)? Because you are so far away from the situation. It’s small from your perspective. But if you got closer you might get a better perspective and you might actually bump up against them with the 2 by 4 in your own eye. Then you’ll realize, ah oh, I’ve got something I need to deal with too!
We naturally fall into judging others. We point out the “smallest” things. We sometimes do it in the name of truth. Sometimes we do it to make ourselves feel better. Other times, we do it because we want to avoid the flaws in our own life. We think, if we just keep the focus on other people I don’t have to deal with my issues. These are hard ways to live.
You Can’t Judge the World for Eternity but we can hold each other accountable.
We need to judge as we want to be judged. We want to have a correct understanding of the situation and in love and humility we want to understand what his happening. Then, we want to help eachother live the lives they wants to live. That means, if you are a Jesus follower, that we want to help you do that better. It also means that if you aren’t a Christian, then we can’t keep you to the same standard as someone who claims to be a Christian. This is what the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5:12.
So leave the ultimate judgement for Jesus and be wise in your daily judgments. In love and humility judge right and help people get on the right side of the ultimate judge, Jesus, and his ultitmate judgement.