Judge Not  by Marietjie Chase

Yesterday I witnessed something in a bussiness setting that seemed to be a spiritual lesson.  An employee did something that was obviously not standard operating presedure. When the manager instructed the employee in the correct procedure, the response was: "Don't judge me!"

I found it a very odd response and could not help meditating on it for the rest of the day. Has that became the matra of the nation, the world, the church? Wrong and right has gone to the grave alongside logic and common sense. If there is no winners and losers, would we watch football? If all are winners and all are wonderful, what is the sense in a Nobel Prize or an Oscar or a Gold Olympic Medal? If there is no wrong or right, no judgement, then why have traffic rules or laws, for that matter?

There is judgement when you do wrong. There is praise when you do right. God wrote it in the Book, Nature bears it out and our own sense of justice inside of our being cries out for it. Our perception will change rather quickly when we are personally touched by injustice.

"Judge not, lest you be judged" the Bible says, but read the rest "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."  Our discernment on a matter ought to be Godly, Biblical and objective. It may be that a religious, condemning, judgemental spirit gave birth to a lawless, faithless, foolish generation.

When our judgement is based on assumption, personal taste and preferences, we have fleshly and even evil judgement. This could cause us to side with the accuser against a brother, a sister or a stranger. Since God is the only one who knows the heart, His judgement is the only true judgement. That is the reason the Bible calls us to judge actions, or fruit. Try the spirits by it's word's, it's fruit. Discern people's motives, hearts, spirits by their actions and words but then line it up with the Bible.

There are two great extremes in this matter.

One side are the "No Judgement" camp where all discernment is taboe and even the demons may be embraced. There is no negative, no dark shadows, only light, positives, a supposed blank page.

The other extreme are those who judges everything without fear that they may ascribe the deeds of God to the enemy. The harsh, negative, condescending, condemning attitude sucks the life out of everything.

Where is the balance? Where is God's true judgement in this? Can we bring back the fear of God, please! Could we all come to a fresh appreciation that we serve God and that He does not serve us or our agendas. Then we can begin to agree with God on matters. When God clearly calls something evil in the Bible: Agree with God! Example: murder, gluttony, slander, gossip - all evil, wrong, sin. And when God does not call something evil, let us be careful to pass our own ideas of as God's.
Even the Apostle Paul stumbled over this one.