One of the biggest criticisms of the Christian church as a whole is that people who claim to follow Jesus are very judgmental. Now I have been told that there is no such thing as a perfect church, but we serve a perfect Master.
I started off preaching on campus at Oklahoma State because there was a guy there named "Preacher Bob" who would draw a crowd by calling people names. He would call sorority girls "whores", fraternity guys were "whoremongers", and if a woman didn't wear a long enough skirt she was a "whore" too. I was so indignant that I started preaching. I had never done anything like that before. So I just opened up the Bible, read a bit of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7) and then I would talk about it.
One of the main points behind the Sermon on the Mount is that God looks at your heart. It's not about looking good on the outside. Sometimes we are so worried about our appearances. If you think the outside is more important than your heart, just go back and read Matthew chapters 5 to 7.
I know what it was like to be made fun of in grade school and high school and it felt horrible. I also know what it felt like to be the person who is judging someone else, and it too felt horrible. I wanted to tear someone down because of the fact that I just didn't want to be there. I know of other times when I was tempted to judge others, and I was doing it because there was something else in my life that I didn't like, so I was basically taking out my frustration out on someone else. Imagine I come home from work and I've had a bad day, and then I see my neighbor going out of his house and he's about to go for a run. So I go inside and talk to my wife and I say that our neighbor is a "health nut" and he runs too much.
I am sure a counselor could explain this better, but I know that I have done this at home. I am upset about something at work or I went to the store and people were rude to me and kept cutting me off; and I end up taking out my frustrations out on my wife and/or kids. What I have found is that when I am doing better spiritually, and I am rested and feeling good I am more likely to not take stuff personally. I will shake it off, and not carry that frustration with me.
Many times we judge other people because we are not feeling good about ourselves. We aren't supposed to hate ourselves. In fact, we should love ourselves. The key is that we are supposed to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. Matthew 22:37-40 says, "37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
If you think about it, all the talents and abilities that you have were given to you by God (1 Corinthians 12) and therefore you not only have value, but you also have a place within the body of Christ that is important. God doesn't look at you as some mindless minion. You have an important role, and you need to figure out what that is. Maybe you need to pray about it. You could ask your pastor for some guidance.
What I do know is that if you find yourself judging other people, that is a symptom of something bigger inside of you, and you need to be real with how you feel. I am making a commitment today to not judge other people, and if you are reading this, I would hope that you do the same. As Christians we are no better than anyone else. We were fortunate that someone invited us to church. After we became Christians we were fortunate that we had older Christians in our life that we could learn from and imitate things from their lives.
For more information about me you can go to my webpage - preacherjames.com; and my e-mail is preacherjames34@gmail.com. If you have any questions or maybe a prayer request, send me an e-mail and I will try to get back to you within 48 hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment