Overcoming a Judgmental Spirit

Memorise: “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matt 7:2)

Read: Matthew 7:1-5

In 2 Samuel 12:1-14, king David passed judgement on the offender in the hypothetical story brought before him by Prophet Nathan and that judgement was effected on him.

Extreme care and caution must be exercised whenever you find yourself occupying the seat of a judge.

To avoid falling into this pit, let us learn a few lessons from today’s reading. Firstly, since the way you judge others will determine how you will be judged, always put yourself in the shoes of those you judge. See every opportunity to judge others as an opportunity to make your judgement favorable.

Secondly, let mercy and fair play be central in all your judgements. See judgement time as an opportunity to show mercy like God.

Matthew 5:7 says, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy”. One reason some believers are unable to receive mercy is because they withheld mercy when it was their turn to be merciful. Another lesson is, refusing to be a hypocrite.

A hypocrite is one who has errors but instead of attending to them, he begins to address the errors of others. As long as you can see the errors of others and talk about them but neglect yours, you will succeed in helping them to prepare for Heaven while you may never get there.

“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matt 7:5).

Yet another lesson from this passage is that usually, critics have bigger errors than the ones they set out to correct. So whenever you sit down as a judge, look out for your big flaws. You might not easily see them but they are not hidden from others.

Before you criticize others, first criticize yourself. For every fault you see in your spouse, look out for five in yourself. In addition, let the error of others always make you self-reflect. If you have not corrected yourself, don’t correct others. The right to correct erring individuals is earned.

Have you earned this right? If you have criticized and corrected yourself, then it becomes a crime if you fail to correct those who err. But if your life is replete with flaws, yet you focus on the flaws of others, you are wanted by Heaven’s court for hypocrisy.