HOW ARE YOU TREATING JESUS?

“JUDGE NOT, AND YOU WILL NOT BE JUDGED: CONDEM NOT, AND YOU SHALL NOT BE CONDEMED: FORGIVE, AND YOU SHALL BE FORGIVEN:” LUKE 6:37

I used to have a pastor who preached that it was ok to judge others as long as you were willing to be judged yourself; he used this text as “proof” of that twisted theology.

As radical as such teaching may sound to you, most of us subconsciously live by such a standard. Have you noticed how critical people are these days? Have you experienced the backlash of some other person’s misguided anger and unhappiness?

Few people are willing to cordially overlook mistakes. It seems we are all searching for the opportunity to judge and be offended. It seems to this writer, that we are gleefully looking for the brokenness of others while seriously denying our own.It’s been said “there is no free lunch”, but in America today, if your business or personal dealings are marred by human error, there may be indeed opportunity to cash in on the humanness of the other party. Too many people have the attitude, “Fall short of my expectations and I’ll sue you, if I don’t get the amount I am suing for, I know I can collect something!”

Such attitudes contribute to the destruction of individual lives and businesses. However that reality doesn’t matter just as long as we can deposit our “earnings” into our personal bank accounts. I wonder what ever happened to the Golden Rule. I wonder what ever happened to charity. A mistake in business is reason to retaliate; an error of another driver is reason to retaliate; thoughtlessness of our neighbor (even if it has never happened before) is reason to retaliate, the humanness of our spouse is all the reason most people require to break the marriage covenant.

Even within the Church, there is no room for personal error. We seldom grant one another “room to grow in God”. We expect “our brother or sister” to live on a much higher plane than we can attain ourselves and when they fail, we gleefully try to work their failure to our advantage. When we discover the pastor isn’t perfect, we don’t talk to him nearly as often as we talk about him, usually on our way out the door. We forget the past good he has shown toward us in our quest for something better. When we discover the “Church” isn’t perfect we leave to find the mythical perfect church, not understanding that WE ARE THE CHURCH and our own imperfection taints the next group of believers we join as soon as we arrive.

How much happier we would all be if we could love God with all we are and love one another more than we love ourselves. One can never be happy living with an entitlement mentality. How much better off we would all be if each one of us would only take the opportunity to love and forget; to refuse to take advantage of one another even if we are in the “right”. If only we would we would choose to love; choose to understand; choose to be slow to anger and quick to forgive.

Today, I challenge you to live by the Golden rule; treat others the way you would most desire to be treated; try to be as understanding of the failures of others as you are your own; choose to build bridges rather than walls, commit to strengthen relationships rather than sever friendships. Lastly, remember; whatever you do to the LEAST of your brothers, you’ve done to Jesus. Amen!