Luke 6:37-42
Judging Others
37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
39 He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.
41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Jesus is, of course, right about us not to judge others...When I find that I am judging others, I tend to want them to do more things like me, or to do it my way, or for someone to choose or do this the way I do...When correcting, criticizing, or judging someone I lean toward my own biases and my ways of doing things...By being biased toward my point of view, I can judge others on their faults, and their flaws, and their failings, while sometimes and most often, forgetting about my own failings, faults, and flaws...When I say say why don't we look at something this way, I really mean let us look at it my way...I have sinned when I can clearly see the flaw in others and not my own...When I judge someone, I am really not loving them...I sometimes seem to forget about the plank in my own eyes...