“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. Matthew 7:1-5
Last night, one of my eyes started irritating me. I could tell there was something in it and no matter what I did, I could not get it out. I was hoping it would work its way out overnight, but I woke up and it was worse. I had a long drive to Savannah for work today and along the way, I was contemplating what I would blog about this week. Then, my eye flared up again and I felt something sitting behind my eyelid. I thought of this Bible passage, and I prepared my thoughts for the blog.
Have you ever been judged? How did it make you feel? In my annual performance review at work, my supervisor may bring up the areas I need to improve on, but I generally already know what they are, so am not offended. But what about when we are unfairly judged; when someone points out our flaws based on their perception of us or based on their standards? I do not feel that is right and I get upset about it. How about you?
Here, Jesus tells us to not worry about the speck in our friend’s eye when we have a log in ours. Jesus wants us to examine our own motives and behaviors instead of judging others. Often, the traits that bother us, we have ourselves and do not see them. It is so easy to criticize others, but so hard to take criticism ourselves. In my full-time job, I perform many audits of the performance of individuals and teams. It is easy to point out the areas needing improvement. I must watch my approach. I am not better than them, I do not know the circumstances around what has happened or what has not been completed. Jesus’ statement, “Stop judging,” is not a blanket statement to overlook wrong behavior of others but a call to be understanding, rather than negative. I have a judgmental personality and must be more aware of it all the time. I catch myself judging others and am not proud of that trait.
His statement is focused more on the kind of hypocritical, judgmental attitude that tears others down in order to build oneself up. Before criticizing someone else, think about the fact you do not know what motivates their behavior or habits that you feel are bad. An old Indian aphorism says it best, “Don’t criticize another man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.” If you think about it, we do not really know a lot about most of the people we associate with. We may know them well at work and how they act, but not much about the rest of their lives. What we know is only what they choose to share with us.
Look at all your Facebook friends. They are portraying a persona online; they may not even be close to the type of person they are or what their lives are like. Do not be quick to judge them or their lives. Sometimes the ones who criticize the most are the ones with the lowest self-esteem. It makes them feel better about themselves if others seem worse than they are. What motivates you to be critical of others? Be honest with yourself.
Go out and be less judgmental. Leave the judging to God. Work on building people up instead of tearing them down. And now, I need to get this log out of my eye.
