To judge or not to judge, that is the question.

I was having a conversation with someone a while back and they said to me "it is our jobs as Christians to point out someone's sin."

that didn't sit well with me and I've been thinking about it off and on ever since we had this discussion. I attended a church where the pastor always says the two main things that we as Christians are to do love God and love others. And this got me thinking.

Over and over we are told not to judge others but what does that mean and how can we stop? First, let us start by looking at our selves. Second, understand that we ourselves are always sinning and not any better than those we judge. Thirdly, except that we are also always in a position to better ourselves.

Let us look at Matthew 7:4-5

4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Looking at this statement we notice

Jesus is making a very distinct point. To take the plank out of our own eye when means to look at our own sins and our own short comings. As we look at our own lives, sins, and shameful nature we take the focus off the other person. Now, what happens when we do this? We are forced to realize that we are not any better than the one we were trying to correct. As we look at our own faults, sins, and weaknesses we come to the conclusion that we need to reprove ourselves for them and reform.

Reprove is to reprimand, rebuke, or scold and reform is to improve, or better oneself. By doing this R&R, so to speak, we start our own journey at self focus. Realizing we are not any better than the person we were attempting to fix or correct. Now, before you start to think this is simple and a once and done deal I hate to break it to you, but I don't think it is. See we as humans cannot help but sin, it is in our nature to do so and we can find lists throughout the Bible. Romans being one of the many states several examples. Romans 6:6 speaks of a body ruled by sin. Again in Romans 7:14 We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. Then again Romans 7:25 states we are slaves to sinful nature.

Since we are in a constant battle between self and sinful nature we will always have some form of log in our eye. The battle of pulling the log out is never ending. Sadly, we live in a fallen world and are fleshly creatures who still occasionally sin.

Don't be discouraged there is hope, Romans 6:14 tells us sin is no longer our master, because we are not under the law, but under grace. 1John 2:1-6; 3:6-10 and Romans 6:2 states there is hope for those who follow Christ and do not make sin a lifestyle choice. We learn that we are always in a position to reprove and reform. That by being always vigilant about our log we should always be turned into ourselves never free to look at others and their sins.

Hey you! You have something in your eye, but so do I.

What do you think? Do you agree? Have another opinion? I would love to hear it.

*The bible verses were used from the NIV verson of the Bible.