Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Matthew 7:1-2 (NIV)
Have you ever noticed not judging others and forgiving others are not in the Ten Commandments? Considering how important these virtues are to many, don’t you think that is a little strange?
I mention this because many times we try to be forgiving and nonjudgmental by treating them as simply “what we are supposed to do to be a good person.” And when we do, we run into conflict immediately for good reason. For example, when we try to forgive someone who has wronged us in the past, we immediately feel, “But that person does not deserve to be forgiven. They should pay for what they did.” And we are right. The Word of God makes clear there is such a thing as right and wrong, and that when others do wrong, they should be held accountable. So when we say to ourselves, “that person should pay for what they did,” God actually agrees with us. Our inclination not to forgive, then, actually comes from God. It is evidence of the sense of justice imprinted on our souls by God.
But the reason we should not judge is that God has chosen to not to judge us. And he has done so in such a way that we can only experience the benefits of his decision not to judge us by freely extending non-judgment to others. So choosing to judge others is not a sin in the usual sense. Rather, It is an act of disqualifying ourselves from the forgiveness God has freely made available through Jesus’ death on the Cross by our decision to disqualify others. By holding someone accountable for their sin, I am telling God to hold me accountable for all my sin.
And this is where the power to forgive really lies: understanding how forgiven we really are. Or shall I say: how much in need of forgiveness we really are. For you will only be able to forgive to the degree you realize how much you have been forgiven. So the next time you are struggling to forgive, ask God to show you how much you have been forgiven.
Photo by Lisa Yount on Unsplash
D. Patrick Collins 