If we polled most Americans and asked them if we should judge others, I would say that the majority would say that we should not. However, how many of us actually practice what we preach? I would say not very many of us, unfortunately. We have all been taught from a very young age that we should not judge others. We have all heard the scriptures, “Judge not, least you be judged in the same accord” or “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” but most of us do not do that. I know that I am guilty of passing judgement myself. The fact of the matter is none of us are blameless. We all have sin in our lives, we all live our lives in a way that others can find fault with, and we all have different values and interpretations of what is right and wrong.

The thing that most of us seem to forget is that we do not know everyone’s situation. We do not know why they do the things they do. We cannot see someone’s heart; we can only see their actions. I personally think that we judge because it makes us feel better about our own lives. We know that we are not perfect and it makes us feel bad about our shortcomings, so we find someone we think is even more flawed than we are and judge them for that. I believe that if we all had the peace and hope that God offers us, we would find ourselves judging a lot less often.

The thing is we can all be found unfit in some way. Think of it like this; if we are able to find reasons to judge others, don’t we think that others can find reasons to judge us? Of course they can. We are all flawed, and we all do things that people think are wrong. We need to focus on improving our own lives and allow God to convict us to make the changes we need to make in our own lives.

God wants us to love our fellowman. He wants us to encourage each other and build each other up. He wants us to focus on changing our own lives, and in the process we may change someone else’s life. God wants peace for all of us, and that peace cannot come to us if we have a judgmental spirit. None of us have any idea what it is like to live someone else’s life. We have not had their experiences, so we should not pass judgment on their choices and decisions.

Peace and love will come to all of us if we set aside our judgmental attitudes and accept people for whom they are. If they need to change, God will change them. It is not our job. Let Him be the judge of others. Our job is to work on our own lives and give people the benefit of the doubt. When we can truly do this and rid our lives ofjudgmental attitudes, our lives will be full of more peace than we can ever imagine and PEACE MATTERS!

~Dan~