Judging the Judges

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 16: Judging the Judges

Opening Thought: I find there is a weird stigma around judgement. Every time I hear people saying, “don’t judge”, I get flashbacks to watching Jerry Springer as child seeing the vulgar guests shouting at the audience “don’t judge me, you don’t know me.” Judgement is tricky because we do not want to experience it, but it seems to be interwoven into us. Some people seem to adopt an anti-judgement philosophy, where one should never judge. The challenge with this is that it becomes hard to weed out people and things in your life that could cause you and yours harm. If you don’t make judgements, you cannot discern on how to best navigate the landmine ridden reality of life. I tend to classify anything important like fire, see if you use fire in the right ways it is extremely valuable: put it in your fireplace it warms your house, put it on your birthday candles, you have a celebration, but if you put it on your curtains your house will be destroyed. Judgement is like fire, it must be used appropriately, and to learn how, we must first learn how to look at ourselves with judgement before others.

The devotional begins with: Psalm 9:7-10

The Lord reigns forever; he has established his throne for judgment.  He rules the world in righteousness and judges the peoples with equity. The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Second Thought: Judging yourself can also take some practice, mostly because we do not build people’s confidence enough in God and in the image of God that resides in them to know that self-judgement and self-reflection are not designed to beat the self down, but rather to build the self up. When you do self-judge one of the things that happens is you can often see the context to what you are judging yourself on. If for example, I were to judge myself on my grammar and spelling skills, I know from my context that I have always struggled in grammar and spelling since my youth, I took special educational program to help aid my struggles, and I also have ADD and possibly some form of dyslexia. Myself looking in, has access to more knowledge than someone just encounter my work online. All these pieces of information together also help judge my writing skills as well, because it makes it more forgiving. When we judge ourselves, we see the wider breadth of why we have errored. That doesn’t make our error correct or good, it just means we can understand and be merciful. We cannot see into the wider context of others, so our judgements need to be intertwined with compassion and mercy.

Zacharias speak about how God is the ultimate judge, partly because God is the ultimate standard. Yes, God's judgement is always right and fair, but it is also measured with God as the rubric. That is why we, in our finite reality, will always fall short. Even those who are the best of the best, will fall short. This does not mean we should not aim, rather it means we have the best target to chase, the best rubric to follow, and the ultimate goal to shoot for.

So when you end up in a situation where you must make a judgement, know that with God in your heart, your judgements will aim to do their best with what you have.

Continual Work: Don’t fear judgement, rather look at it as a way to always improve. If you find people in your life who use judgement as a weapon, remind them to look at themselves before casting stones.    

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I use to be a judgmental person; I will admit that. In many ways I probably still am. When I was young, I often would get caught up in my instinctual assessment of people rather than giving time to hear their wider story. Now that I am older I really try to remember that we were all created in the image of God, meaning that each person should be treated with the a level of care that one would offer to Christ, if Christ was before them suffering.

Rev. Jacob’s Scripture time: Matthew 25:35-40

For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

In all judgements we must remember we are looking to God as our rubric, so if we are encounter a judgement towards ourselves, you can ask yourself what would Jesus do? If you are looking at another with judgement and you are not sure how to react, again look to God for guidance, ask, what would Jesus do? When we live to right judgement, we will serve God, as it is depicted in the verse, we will move to those who suffer, who struggle and who are in need and offer healing. Judgement is the precursor to justice and mercy, but that means that judgement must be used in the context of justice and mercy, if not you might as well set fire to your curtains.

Prayer for your day: God, give us the wisdom to investigate our own hearts with a willingness to be humbled. So that when we encounter the hearts of others, we meet their spirits with humility as well. To do this we must not run from judgement, rather look to it to help up move to a better capacity of humanity built from your love. In Christ name, Amen.  

Artistic Close: If you suddenly were outside yourself and had a gavel in hand to judge you, what feelings or thoughts first arise about that exchange. Draw, write or find a way to artistically express that exchange. Here is a little image to stir your creativity.

Vintage male judge silhouette from Mr.Grant Allen's New Story Michael's Crag With Marginal Illustrations in Silhouette, etc published by Leadenhall Press (1893). Original from the British Library. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.