FAITH CAPSULE: It should never be of any man’s heart to take the position of judging others.
Job 2
God wants our heart to be constantly engaged on Him. A heart that is engaged on God must be a joyful heart. Hannah testifies, “My heart rejoices in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation.” (1 Samuel 2:1) What are your heart engagements? Among all kinds of heart engagement we are to consciously avoid judging others. In your environment, is your heart the judge of every acts or man?
The word of God strictly warned us to stay away from making judgment regardless of the picture we are getting in our environments. The book of Matthew 7:1-3 warned us “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” Concluding or assuming on other people’s situation could be an indirect ways of making a judgment on others in our heart. It is only God that knows the reason for every occurrence which is not clear in the physical and it should not be for any man’s heart to take the position of judging others.
Imagine Job living in today’s world. Job was a man of great integrity and richly blessed with wealth. The word of God described him as, “…Blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.” (Job 1:1) Gaining understand of the character of Job, at the beginning of the story of Job makes it easier to read through the story of Job without taking a position of judging him to be a sinner. In this life, it is easier to take a position of a judge when a tragedy like that of Job manifest in life. The beginning of Job’s story took away what could have granted us the sentencing of Job’s adversity to be the result of sin and iniquity that he must have committed. Job was a man testified of by the Creator as a man of great integrity but the adversity presented a picture of someone that must have sinned somewhere unto God.
Job’s kind of situation is not a kind of situation which any acclaimed believer wants to live or experience. The bottom line of this for every believer is to learn and know that in the midst of painful challenges, it could be very wrong to be judging others directly or indirectly. Are you facing any painful challenge? Just as we cannot judge others judging our self should also be avoided.
Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to be focus and obedient to all of His word.