Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. Romans 14:4

Do you remember the prophet, Jonah? He was unwilling to spread God’s word of impending doom against the people of Ninivah, because he was afraid they might repent, and then God would have mercy on them and not bring the calamity He warned of.

Maybe that’s the problem. Like Jonah, we’re afraid God is going to be too lenient on those we scorn, so we have to judge them for ourselves. We can’t trust Jesus to judge them harshly enough. That may not be the motive in every case, but I’m pretty sure it is many times. We judge others because we don’t trust God to do it right.

And that makes some kind of sense, since in today’s verse Paul tells us that those of us who Jesus judges are going to stand. Not, by-the-way, because we are innocent. We’re not. Not one of us is. But because God is able to make us stand.

If we’re judging others, that’s bad news. But if we’re on the receiving end of judgment—in which case, today’ verse is really good news. Other’s are going to judge us. But rather than defend ourselves and judge back, we trust God to act and judge in our behalf.

The amazing thing that today’s verse tells us is that if we were to judge as Jesus judges, those we judge would stand. They would be acquitted…on the basis of Jesus shed blood atoning for them. That sort of changes the picture, doesn’t it?

The devil is called ‘the accuser of the God’s people’ (Rev 12:10). So whose side do you want to be on? The choice is simple to see, even if it’s hard to make. Something that might help in staying out of God’s role as judge is to look at what makes up a judgmental person: Judged people judge people.

People with intense feelings of inadequacy try to find their own value in devaluing other people. Behind every judgmental person who’s either quietly shunning us or actively accusing us—behind that self-proclaimed judge there is a lot of hurt and pain that has led to them respond in their own brand of judgmentalism.

Jesus said that from the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks (Lk 6:45). So when we encounter people spouting judgments and accusations we’re really hearing the pain, disappointment, disillusionment and hopelessness in that person’s heart. That may not make their words and actions any easier to bare on one level, but at least we can see these poor souls as Jesus sees them…and He loves them.

So, beyond the obvious “pray for those who persecute (us)”-Matt 5:44 and “bless those who curse (us)”-Rom 12:14, how do we love those who judge us? We give them liberty, freedom from control, and non-judgmental love. We can only demonstrate God’s love. They have to reach out to Him for themselves. [We’ll talk about that more next time.]