Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric September 8
The Problem with People and Their Behavior
Matthew 7:2-5 “Why do you see the speck that is in
your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how
can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when
there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your
own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s
eye. ”
A commentary on this passage on the internet said this:
“The world has largely closed
its ears to the message of the Gospel because Christians can’t seem to get
their own house in order before telling everyone else how to clean up theirs.
That’s pride. And God hates pride more than just about any other sin.”
The link between judgement is the
key to what Jesus is talking about here.
As soon as I judge, I consciously or unconsciously make a decision that
someone is more and someone is less.
That is pride and pride is sin.
Jesus is not saying that we can’t
make judgements about behavior. We have
to make decisions about helpful and unhelpful behavior. But often, we equate the value of the
behavior with the value of the person.
As soon as I do that, I violate an important Christian principle – the
principle that all persons have infinite worth.
If we all have the same value and I devalue you, I, by definition
devalue myself. This is why Jesus says
that judging others brings judgement on yourself. He isn’t being punitive. He doesn’t want me
to bring judgement on myself by judging others.
All of that makes sense to me
intellectually, but in reality, it’s really hard to keep the value of people
and their behavior separate. It’s even to hard to do it for ourselves. Our culture constantly puts different values
on people for many different reasons (wealth, fame, race, age, job, etc). Our
culture also tends to equate people with their behavior. People guilty of bad behavior are put in jail
and then are treated like caged animals. Perhaps not as dramatic but also
unhelpful is when I decide that someone is “not worth my time.” That decision hurts me as well as the person
I judged.
One thing that helps me keep people
and their behavior separate is reminding myself, when I’m tempted to judge,
that given a certain set of circumstances, I could display the same
behavior. This requires brutal
self-honesty, but it is the dose of reality I need to keep me out of
judgement. It actually does more than
that. It clears the way for a much better alternative – compassion.
Question: What helps
you stay out of judgement?
Prayer: Jesus, thank you for your warning about how
judgement can hurt others and ourselves. Teach us how to move from judgement
toward compassion.
Prayer Focus: Spend some time praying for your own deepest
needs today.
Song: Sly and the Family Stone – Everyday People
No comments:
Post a Comment