Devotion 

Don’t Judge 

Frances Taylor 

This is a pretty consistent theme in the New Testament. Jesus certainly makes it clear that judging is unacceptable. In more than one Gospel the message is clear: don't judge. We humans do it though! We judge for lots of reasons. One of the not so nice reasons is to make ourselves feel better. If we can judge someone to be worse than ourselves, it can make us feel superior. Often people caught doing something will turn and say that it's not as bad as what "so and so" does. Other times, we make a judgment and spread whatever we think we know about another's behavior as gossip. It gives us a sense of power to act like we "know" everything. And often we are wrong in our judgments. Spreading gossip can ruin a person's reputation often without any substance behind it. We also tend to make judgments based on color, race, gender, age, ethnicity, all sorts of things that bias us. If you were sick in a foreign country, would you trust the doctors? If you see a group of teenagers standing on a corner, do you feel safe? I have seen signs on stores prohibiting more than two teens in the store at the same time. Obvious judgment based on age. For many years, men were not allowed to teach primary grades for fear that they might be pedophiles. Women were not allowed to be firefighters or police officers – except in the vice squad or working with children! In some cultures age is considered a sign of wisdom, in others it is a sign of senility. Either way, sometimes the judgment may be right, sometimes not, so it's best not to judge at all. As Paul tells us, as Jesus tells us, just don't judge.

Prayer 

Loving God, we are so grateful that you continue to love us even as we forget your laws and go about judging others instead of judging our own actions. Please help us to examine our own motivations and leave the judging to you. Amen.