Who's the judge?

We all do it, don't we? We make judgements all the time, even when we don't realise it, but are we right to do so?

We've all heard the phrase,

"Take the log out of your own eye so that you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's",

but we rarely remember to do it. We are very quick to judge other people and situations. Even if we are not actually judging others directly, we do it without realising that we are. For example,

"I may have done: ... but I'm not as bad as ... or at least I don't..."

Get the idea?

I have had many life events where I have been wronged, some in private and some in public. I hoped, time and again, that they would be punished, after all they deserved it, especially the big wrongs.

As hard as it is we do need to try not to judge. If we all took judgement into our own hands, we would soon find ourselves in a state of anarchy and we would all be living in hell on earth and none of us would be safe.

Here on earth, we need to trust the system of democracy, that those who have done wrong will be punished according to the laws of our land. But what if they don't get caught? Or they get caught but don't get punished? Or get punished but not how we think they should be? (There we go, judging again!)

Let's look at where the phase above comes from. Matthew 7: 1 - 5 Jesus warns us that we will be judged by the measure we judge others and if only we took that plank our of our own eye we will see more clearly.

In reality this means that when we are perfect, we will be able to judge others. Of course, this is never going to happen. None of us is perfect and, therefore, we cannot expect to ever remove that log.

As a Christian, I know that ultimately, those who escape justice on earth will not escape it for eternity. I know that God will call us all to account for the things we have done wrong no matter how large or small.

So I wonder, can we trust that God will make things right in the end? As we begin this New Year, can we resolve not to make judgements? Can we take on board and accept that ultimately, God is judge and He will have the last word? That in the end, we will see justice?

I'd like to encourage you to try to accept that He will put it all right in the end. If you do realise this, you will enter this year with an unexplainable peace. The peace of God that passes all understanding and gives us an inner joy. Amen

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash