”Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measurement ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote (speck) that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and them shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:1-5
“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned.” Matthew 12:36,37
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach...Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Matthew 23:2-3,13, NIV
I shall continue on after this essay as I have done before, but these are the words of Jesus on this particular matter. Romans 2 is a very worthwhile read on this. I shall only quote highlights below, but it would be wise to read the chapter in its entirety to reap the full content of the words.
The message of judging others is this: you are allowed to judge, but only if you cannot be held accountable for your own words. You cannot condemn publicly what you do in private. You cannot tell someone not to lie, then immediately lie to someone else. You cannot condemn someone else for cheating on you, when you are cheating on them. That is the message of judging not.
If you do not lie, then you may tell someone else not to lie. If you do not smoke, then you may tell someone else not to smoke. James 3:1 says, Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. Why is this? Because as a teacher, especially of these things, one will be judged according to his own teaching. A teacher must be as blameless as possible because he is teaching to be so. He will be judged not only according to his own words, but of the words he himself teaches. Whatever you say, you must be also.
Since I am writing these words, I must insure in myself that I am not hypocritical of these words, since I will be judged against them. I pray that I am living the life I need to be living to even conceive of these things.
There are many biblical passages that seem to be all-encompassing when taken by themselves, but have a much greater meaning when placed in context. Judge not, lest ye be judged is usually quoted by someone trying to get away with something, and attempting to place you on a guilt trip for judging them. Be wise. If you are not guilty of their sin, then you are free to say something as a brother or sister to them. If this were not the case, then Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 5:12 would be contradictory: What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? And how are those on the inside judged? Matthew 18:15-17 gives us a very clear answer:
If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.(NIV)
Because, like most of the ones that have come and gone before, the no-good cheating sumbich didn't wouldn't know anything about loyalty and integrity if it came up and slapped him in the face.
It's hard to find someone with even a modicum of respect for and understanding of what a "commitment" entails.
There are certainly those who are looking for physical "perfection," but there is a difference between that and looking for someone who you'd be attracted to.
I'm no beauty queen and my guy isn't Adonis, either, but I find him very attractive and he thinks I'm beautiful.
Regardless of what a person looks like, people are still going to want to see the face behind the words in their profile. I know I would never meet a man whose face I had never seen. I did that once ...big mistake. For one, because he painted an entirely different picture of himself than the one I saw in person.
And for another, I simply wasn't attracted to him. Had I seen a picture first, I'd have known that and I'd never have agreed to meet him in the first place.
I've had a comparatively few really good-looking boyfriends in my life; I've had plenty of average looking boyfriends, and a couple that were even "below average," by many people's standards. But the one thing they all had in common was that there was something about them that I was attracted to. Could be that one had pretty eyes, one had a great smile, one had a strong jawline, and couple that with good personalities and pretty soon Mr. Average becomes Prince Charming.
A man who is strikingly handsome is nice at a glance, but if he does not have the personality and character to go with it, I know I wouldn't waste my time with him. I think most people feel the same way, when it comes right down to it. Those who don't are too shallow for me, anyway.
jeanc200658 Forum Posts (1,858)
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RE: do not judge