Measure Yourself, Not Others.

"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 7:2

Judgement has been on my mind a lot this past week. I knew that judgement needed to be my next blog topic as it has been on my heart this past week, however I continue to stumble on my ideas and thoughts for this particular topic. Today as I read an exerpt from Oswald Chamber's, "My Utmost For His Highest," on this particular topic, I knew that his words describe judgment better than mine. Instead of writing my ideas, I will share Oswald's as I think he gives a great reflection of God in his writing.

Oswald writes...

"Jesus' instructions with regard to judging others is very simply put, He says: "Don't." The average Christian is the most piercingly critical individual known. Criticism is one of the ordinary activities of people, but in the spiritual realm nothing is accomplished by it. The effect of criticism is the dividing up of strengths of the one being criticized. The Holy Spirit is the only one in the proper position to criticize, and He alone is able to show what is wrong without hurting and wounding. It is impossible to enter into fellowship with God when you are in a critical mood. Criticism serves to make you harsh, vindicitve, and cruel, and leaves you with the soothing and flattering idea that you are somehow superior to others. Jesus says that as His disciple you should cultivate a tempermant that is never critical. This will not happen quickly but must be developed over a span of time. You must constantly beware of anything that causes you to think of yourself as a superior person.

There is no escaping the penetrating search of my life by Jesus. Every wrong thing that I see in you, God finds in me. Every time I judge, I condemn myself (Romans 2:17-24). Stop having a measuring stick for other people. There is always at least one more fact, which we know nothing about, in every person's situation. The first thing God does is to give us a spiritual cleaning. After that, there is no possibility of pride remaining in us. I have never met a perosn I could despair of, or lose all hope for, after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God."

In another entry Oswald goes onto say, "Who of us would dare to stand before God and say, "My God, judge me as I have judged others?" We have judged others as sinners ---if God should judge us in the same way, we should be condemened to hell. Yet God judges us on the basis of the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ."