Posted: Jun 15, 08 4:14pm
Matt 7:1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
If this doesn't scare the shit out of you as a Christian, then you don't understand it.
Look back on your thoughts today, yesterday, this week. How many times did you see someone you've never met and think to yourself something like, "That man's definitely a criminal!" or "That woman-ha! What a slut!"
(If you've never had these thoughts, congratulations. Make sure you continue never, ever watching television.)
I like to think of myself as grace-ful, a believer full of God's grace who allows that grace to others around him. (Did I also say how humble I was?)
Then this morning I saw a piece on Talk Soup mocking a show on MTV, "Shot of Love with Tila Tequila." I'd heard about it but had never watched it.
Here's a summary of the show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Shot_at_Love_with_Tila_Tequila
Talk Soup showed a scene where Tila visited the family of a finalist in the contest. They were all seated around the dinner table. Tila opened her mouth wide and kissed with first the son, then the mom. The entire family (mom, dad, at least 2-3 sons) stood up and surrounded her, all apparently waiting for their own tonsil boxing from Tila.
By now I was scrabbling for the remote and moaning, "Must...bleach... my...brain...." Errgh. So very much not my cup of tea. Or mouthful of tongue.
So.
Do I call this woman a slut? A skank? Everything in me says they're titles she deserves.
Of course, at this point I'm careful not to recall my many past episodes of promiscuity. See, that's different, it's ME involved. (I have an excuse here somewhere....)
So. I judged Tila for doing the same things I'd done. "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged."
I was no better than she was.
While sex is an extreme example, use it as an example, a ruler, to draw a line through your life and see where you have judged others for the same things you are guilty of.
This is one of the hardest tools of faith to use. For every cut we make on another by judging him or her, we make the same cut on ourselves.
Yet if we embrace this tool, it cuts away the bondage of legalism, comparison and bitterness.
It's when we acknowledge our sins to God and to another, when we embrace our brokenness, our necessary incompleteness, our complete inability to get anything right in our own strength, when we walk daily in honesty, that's when we find the tool grows lighter, easier to wield, and we endure more easily the depth and pain of the cuts, which never, ever go away.
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Lord God, may I always measure with a generous cup so in turn I may be measured generously.
