The Devotional - 1012 - Judging and the Wisdom of God

The Devotional – 1012 – Judging and the Wisdom of God

We have these quips like; “barking up the wrong tree” or “sizing up the situation” but if we seriously look at what we are doing it is judging or being judged. If we are barking up the wrong tree we have judged wrongly, if we are sizing up the situation we are about to judge wrongly. The problem is at least for the most of us with a judging spirit is… how do we STOP judging others as it seems to me that in every moment of encounter there is opportunity to judge. Therefore, if this root of bitterness is resident in our heart then we live in the defeat of sin even before our mind thinks and the words fall out of our mouth.

Comments and Challenges:

James 4:11-12

No doubt we could have included these two verses in James with the humbleness of the Wisdom of God of yesterday but it is important at least in my thinking that by separating this section we can see that judging is active worldliness in the heart of a believer. It stems mostly from our days as an “unbeliever” it is a root of sin that goes to the very core of who we are spiritually. People who judge are weak or in other words they have lost their “spiritual vitality” note Hebrews 12:12-17. It is important that we read this section of Hebrews to see the point here.

In the face of those around us, judging causes us to be spiritually feeble kneed and limp in our spiritual walk, it also causes us to walk crookedly like one who has a dislocated joint. Judging is a lack of faithfulness in God and a crushing distrust in people. Proverbs 25:19 explains this well. To have confidence in people who judge in troubling moments is like an aching tooth or a foot out of joint, (spiritual concentration or consideration is lost to the distraction of judging). 

The opposite of pursuing a path of crippling judgment is to pursue peace with everyone. Failure to do so will end with fleshly visions of more worldliness and therefore those whom we seek to bring to the LORD will not see or understand holiness, much less see the LORD. Trading off our birthright in Christ for a moment of bitter judging is foolish and the recovery from this sin is sometimes serious lose in many families and churches throughout Christendom.

Like most of us I have talked with many people who say that they are saved but no longer go to church or mingle with family members who are saved because of some failure in life that has been judged. It could be that the judgment was correct; but who are we to judge unless it is simply to hold on to a pending grudge? Is our judgment “fair”? “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who then are we, to judge another?”