Judgment
Judgment is for God, and not for humans. “Thou shalt not judge!”
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Luke 6:37
Perceiving wrong
Perceptions are based on attitudes, beliefs, and habits, which may be
biased and distorted because they’re derived from the unique past experiences
of an individual. They’re all processed and interpreted by the thinking mind of
that individual.
Wrong predicting
In
1901 Wilbur Wright said that man would not fly for fifty years. Henry
Ford’s banker was told by a lawyer: “The horse is here to stay, but the
automobile is only a novelty—a fad.” The manager of the Grand Ole Opry fired Elvis
Presley and said: “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son.” And a Los Angeles surgeon
said, “For the majority of people, the use of tobacco has a beneficial effect.”
Just
as the Wright brothers, Henry Ford, Elvis Presley, and the medical community
were not afraid to go forward with their own visions, instead of relying
on the opinions of the skeptics. These so-called experts all had their wrong
predictions.
Judging and executing
Judging others and rebuking sins can surprisingly lead to
committing more sins, instead of stopping and restraining sins.
An Illustration
In Houston, Texas, a
man using his gun robbed diners in a taqueria restaurant. The robber was on the
verge of leaving that restaurant when he was shot 9 times by a vigilante diner,
who then helped diners recover their money robbed at that Houston taqueria
restaurant before he disappeared. The police later discovered that the
suspect’s weapon was only a “plastic gun.” Texas police began searching for
that vigilante diner, with that “you-took-my-money-I-took-your-life” mindset of rebuking sins.
Indeed,
many in the process of judging others commit their own sins. That’s a testament
to the prevalence of sins in everyday life and living.
Judging and presuming
An Illustration
On
July 4, 2022, a 25-year-old Black man in Akron, Ohio, was shot 60 times by 8
policemen. The news was widely reported in the media because the victim was a
Black man and the police had presumably used “excess force” to gun him down.
The victim, who had no previous criminal
record, was initially stopped at a routine traffic stop. Maybe “racial
injustice” and “excessive use of police force” told the victim to get away. So,
he chose to get away.
Driving away his car and being chased by
the police put him in another mental situation that told him that the police
would use excessive force because he was a Black man. To “stop the police
chase” he fired his gunshots at the police car chasing him.
After stopping his car at some point, the
man left his car and started running away. While running, he suddenly turned
around without his gun, and he was shot 60 times.
Another
Illustration
Recently, in the trial of those accused in the
killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a victim gunned down while he was running on
the street, the defense attorney said Ahmaud had “dirty toenails”—a “presumption”
that he had committed a burglary that made him run away and led to his being
killed by the defendants. The defense attorney’s “dirty toenails” presumption
enraged the court and Ahmaud family members. It was widely reported in the
media throughout the United States.
Does it mean that anyone with
“dirty toenails” is a criminal, or has the propensity to become one?
So, any “presumption” that
someone has done something wrong without any strong evidence can cause anger.
The Bottom Line
Judging
others is wrong due to incorrect perceptions and insufficient knowledge of
others.
Living
by faith, you leave your judgement of others to God, and forgive their
wrongdoings to gain God’s righteous judgment of you.
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