Judging

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. – 1 Corinthians 4.3-5

Putting up with being judged by others can be a tough thing. It seems sometimes that there are Christians out there just looking for a chance to be offended. No matter how hard we try to do right and not offend others some folks just seem ready to judge us.

It is important that we strive to keep our testimony pure and clean and to not be a stumbling block to others. That is our reasonable responsibility.

But we can only do so much. What do we do when we are unfairly judged?

We do what Paul did. We don’t let it rattle us. We consider it a small thing not worth our time or energy. We are never going to make everyone happy. We can’t do everything to please others. Believe me, I have tried that route and the more we placate people like that the more they demand. We are going to always feel like failures. We can’t write people’s concern off without regard – but they really are not our judge.

God is our judge. Paul makes that clear. If I am right with God and my ways please Him I can trust that His judgement is all that matters.

That also means I need to be careful about how I judge others. Paul even talks about judging ‘before time.’ I don’t know all that is going on and what God is doing.

The point is pretty clear. Unless we have truly been offended or a Christian friend is in obvious open sin we are best just to leave it to God. He is well able to sort it.