Righteous JudgmentSample

We should judge with righteous judgment.

A few years ago, I got an infected hair follicle. It was so strange. The doctor told me that it was probably infected because of a shampoo I was using. After all, guys like me prefer the all-in-one shampoo. You know, the one that’s shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and motor oil. It was so bad that all my hair in that spot fell out, and it took a few months for it to grow back.

At that time, I was a youth pastor. For several weeks, I would go to church wearing a beanie to cover my head. I knew that some people might complain about it, but I’d rather have them complain than see me without the beanie. Just as I had suspected, someone did make a fuss about it! During a meeting, my pastor told me that wearing that beanie was offensive to some congregants. The muscles in my throat tightened. I took off the beanie and explained to him why I had been wearing it all this time. He understood.

That person who complained had judged me and judged me wrongly because they assumed that by wearing the beanie, I was choosing to act irreverently, when I wasn't.

Thinking about that instance reminds me of something Jesus said in John 7. This time the Jews were angry with Jesus because he had broken the law by choosing to heal someone on the Sabbath. They would have preferred that Jesus respect the day of rest and heal that person some other day, but Jesus wanted to show that compassion-giving is better than commandment-keeping. Jesus said to them, "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with righteous judgment."

Did you catch that? Jesus says there’s actually a right way to judge others. So what does that look like?

Well, when Jesus calls us to judge, He’s calling us to distinguish between good and evil in order to form an opinion that’s rooted in God’s Word.

We need to be careful not to jump to conclusions about people and their intentions prematurely. We judge with righteous judgment by carefully listening to the reasons behind their actions.

Have you formed an opinion about someone based on their appearance? Have you judged someone without being interested in their motives? When we do that, we are judging based on appearances instead of judging with righteous judgment.

If you are also guilty of judging unfairly, confess that sin to God, who will forgive you and help you judge with righteous judgment.