Righteous Judgment

In John 7:24 Jesus states, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."

It is so easy to fall into the trap of the enemy when it comes to judging others.  The enemy would like us to believe the worst of everyone so that we immediately put up walls around our heart.  If we think the worst of others, then we won't reach out to them.  We will begin to believe the lie of whatever perception we have of others which causes disunity.  This is especially harmful when we do this in our own church.  

Even within our own group of volunteers this is easy to do.  We see one another each week.  Some of them we know, but most of them we don't really know.  Because we don't have a relationship with some, it is easy to come up with a perception of those people because of the way they look or the way they seem.  We need to realize that these are not "righteous judgments."  

Before we know another person's heart, we ought to pray those evil perceptions away.  Ask God to help us to be able to be unified as one body working together for His glory.  Be reminded that "the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Sam. 16:7b)

Two practical ways we can drive these judgments away is to pray for the individual we are judging and to be bold enough to go up to the individual and begin to develop a relationship with them.  Be honest with the person and find out that they are probably a lot like you!  

Psalm 133:1 states, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"