Tuesday; August 28


          When Jesus was establishing His church on earth, He reminded His disciples of a danger of human nature.  In the Sermon On The Mount He said, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” (Matthew 7:1).   Through the years this passage has taken a beating when we feel like we are being unnecessarily critiqued, but I am not sure that is the focus of the admonition.  Yes, we need to be making assessments of people’s actions based upon the objective standards of things like law, ethics and Scripture; but when it comes to judging the motives or evaluating superficial elements of people’s lives we need to be very careful because it is natural for people to return kind for kind.  If we demonstrate grace and mercy we can hope that we might benefit from that same standard; but, we can count on harsh criticism to be applied to us when we do it to others.  When we are caustic of others we should expect it will be returned to us. 
          I need all the help I can get.  I do enough things that will get me in trouble with others, so I need to rely upon the kindness (and grace) of others.  No, showing mercy to the people around us won’t ensure they will do the same to us, but if are judgmental we can expect to be returned to us – often in a harsher measure than we mete out them.
          Think About It!

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