We
all are judged. Whether we admit it or not we live in a society that judges
people. You can look at what’s popular on TV and it’s full of people judging: The Voice, America’s Got Talent, American
Idol, Survivor, So You Think You Can
Dance, and Big Brother to name a
few. I am a huge sports fan, ask any person why their sports teams didn’t win
the championship and we have a list of complaints.
I
love to watch the drafts of professional sports and it’s all about judging a
person. While every job has this, these drafts show all your strengths and
weakness. They say what you do well and what you do horrible in. On top of
that, there are stars with a ton of potential but have some character flaws,
sometimes it keeps them from making millions. Could you imagine being judged in
primetime television?
Everyone
is judged. Paul is one of my favorite biblical authors, yet this is what people
said about Paul: he has no power or authority, he is an extremely good writer
but once you meet him he is unimpressive and a lousy speaker. Man, this is what
they said about the writer of a dozen or so books in the Bible and his
teachings are still looked at widely today? People didn’t like Paul? As Rodney
Dangerfield would say, “I get no respect.”
Everyone
is judged, but how do you respond to being judged? Paul responded to this in 2 Corinthians
10:11-12, “Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we
are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present. We do not dare to
classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they
measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they
are not wise.”
Paul
looked at the actions of his enemies. Rather then looking at people the way God
looks at them, they had typical human standards. This is like the armchair
quarterback syndrome. I can watch the Lions and tell everything that is wrong
with the team, but I also never played football other then a year of fully
padded flag football. In other words, I have no way to truly judge how good or
bad the Lions are. Human standards often fail us.
It’s
funny when we look at churches and judge them by numbers. People can judge
churches by how many people come in the doors. While there is a little truth to
this it can miss the whole point. I had a friend share this info from Doug
Fields, it went something like: judging if a church is doing well by numbers is
like saying how is your family doing and you respond 4.
When
we as Christians focus our goals by human standards we can fail a ton.
Succeeding in the world is not the same as succeeding to God. When Christians
judge based on human standards rather then Godly standards it can make us look
like a fool.
What
gives us the right to judge? Do we have the standards of God when we look at
other people? Does God care more and think someone is successful by how much
money they have? Does God care what kind of car you drive or home you own? Does
God care about what type of electronic devices you have or the clothes you
wear? Does God care what degrees you have? If these things don’t matter as much
to God, why do we put so much emphasis in them?
If
we look at the world the way Jesus did, it would change our perspective on how
we view life. Do you need to look at life and the world differently? If so,
what do you need to change about how you judge?
Have
a great day.
