A young couple moved to a new neighborhood, and as they ate breakfast the next day, the young woman noticed her neighbor hanging her laundry outside to dry.
“Look at the dirty laundry!” she exclaimed to her husband. “She doesn’t know how to wash properly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.”
Her husband, remaining silent, continued to observe. Each time the neighbor hung out her washing, the young woman criticized her neighbor’s cleaning skills.
A month later, the young woman was surprised to see the neighbor’s wash hanging out, looking remarkably clean and bright.
“Look,” she said to her husband. “She’s finally learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this.”
The husband replied, “I actually got up early this morning and cleaned our windows” (an internet story).
Jesus says, “Judge not that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1).
Sowing and reaping come to mind.
Jesus continues, “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye. … You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:2-5 ESV).
“Most of us can be quite judgmental,” says Mike Robbins, a writer. “It seems to ebb and flow based on my own level of confidence, inner peace, and fulfillment.”
We try to bring people down to our level so we can feel better about ourselves, Robbins says, and we “project” our stuff onto other people. He gives an example: “If we have not accepted our own arrogance, we will notice lots of arrogant people around us and have a very hard time with them.” He says judging can be helpful if it makes us more aware of our own need to nurture love, acceptance, and reconciliation.
“The average Christian is the most piercingly critical individual known,” Oswald Chambers says. “Criticism serves to make you harsh, vindictive and cruel, and leave you with the soothing and flattering idea that you are somehow superior to others. … I have never met a person I could despair of, or lose all hope for, after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.”
“True judgment should be done with a desire for restoration rather than shame,” someone said.
St. Paul says “But he that is spiritual judgeth all things” (1 Cor. 2:15).
Jesus saying “Judge not that you be not judged” means we can expect to get back from other people the same kind of judgment we apply to them, while Paul saying “judge all things” refers to “spiritual discernment, using God’s standards to test and understand things with the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” sources say.
