I was talking with a friend at work. The subject of horoscopes came up, and he being a Christian, made a statement that made me questioned his take on the subject. He stated that the woman he is now dating sure does act like a Sagittarius because he has known several Sagittarians and they all act alike.
My reply was – “why are you listening to the stars about your life, shouldn’t you be listening to the star maker?”
The question stopped him in mid sentence – “What do you mean? I just read it for entertainment purposes.”
“Well, you just said that she acts like all other Sagittarians that you’ve known…tells me that it might be more than entertainment purposes, that’s all”
“Well, then, don’t you find it fascinating that the stars could tell you how someone behaves?”
“No. I find it more fascinating that a God is more concern with my life then He is about nature.”
The reply was classic and in fact, it made me smile, “You’re taking this to a whole different level than where I want it to go.”
Notice that I didn’t send him off to Hell for reading horoscopes nor I didn’t stop fellowshipping with him; I didn’t even bring embarrassment or shame to him. All I did was made him think of his action, that’s all I was there to do, to have my dear friend think through this issue.
I couldn’t judge this brother for what he was doing for the simple reason that I’ve done stuff too that the Lord would have given me a second look for. I merely questioned this friend on a particular issue that as a follower of Jesus Christ, it should be looked at again. In other words, Jesus, if face with this situation, wouldn’t have condemn my friend, so why should I? Nevertheless, there’ll be some individuals who would see me as judging this person and that is what is bothering me.
It’s my opinion, but too many people use “judge not, and you won’t be judged” and have no real clue of what it means. That is to say, they use it to either hurt others or get others to shut up when all they are doing is pointing out something that is questionable, or even give them permission to judge the people who are offending them. And God forbid if they get caught in a sin, for they quote this line as if it vidicates the sin.
Anyway, the Lord didn’t mean to have His words used to abuse people when He spoke them some two millenniums ago.(a side note: I believe that this is what causes the most greif for Jesus. After twenty centuries, people still don’t get Jesus and who He is and somehow feel it’s their sacred duty to used the Lord’s words to beat up or shame weaker individuals or groups)
When Jesus spoke these words so many centuries ago, He wanted us not to make hasty decisions, especially when it comes to people. For if we judge someone rather harshly, whose to say that we won’t be handed the same treatment? I guess it comes down to what goes around comes around; so choose to apporach someone extending all the grace and mercy we can dish out. Wouldn’t we want the same shown to us on a particular bad day?
I have chosen to live my life with a God centered reality – everything is answerable to God, my actions, my words, my thoughts, my motives as perverted as they sometimes are, (of course all under the umbrella of His mercy and grace; I’m not much into wearing a hair shirt and I don’t see the point of self flogging when I don’t measure up to my standards.) So when someone accuses me of being judgemental, it goes to the core of me…it should go to the core of any Christian as well who is accused of such actions. I want my Father to judge me, not Ted down the street, although Ted down the street maybe a witness at my trial to testify whether or not I’m living as a Christian should live, whatever that may be. It’s my Father who I want to please, not out of duty, but out of love. But in using this as a motive for my actions, I may offend someone because their action may offend the Spirit and I may be the vessel at that time to raise a concern so that’s why I need to cling to mercy and grace and be wise with my words, and not to bring dishonor to the Father through an impatient tongue.
Having all said that, why do we often put ourselves in the saddle of a moral high horse and feel that we can judge anyone we want to? Is it because we feel that we have some sacred duty to our religion to ridicule and shame some brother or sister? Could it be that we’re not understanding what is being said when they speak? Why must we make some rash and hurtful decisions? From a personal outlook, I know this; sitting atop of a horse that stands eight feet at the shoulder, is a long way to fall – I know, I’ve been there many a times, that’s why I try my darndest to saddle up a Shetland pony!
I close with this, in the Book of James, the author tells us of the importance of controling the tongue. If we are using the tongue to show how religious we are, then are we following the example given by the prophet Micah – are we loving mercy? Are we acting justly? Are we walking humbly with God? From the Book of James, are we tending to the orphans and widows? Are we keeping ourselves clean from what the filth the world hurls at us? Or do we want to point out someone’s elses shame that may not be at the same undrstanding that we’re at?
Discretion of words is better than fluancy of speech, so choose wisely friends, the words of your heart so that God gets the glory and no one is hurt with petualnt decisions.
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