The Righteous Judge
A Simple Message
“Judge not, that you be not judged.”
– Matthew 7:1
Judgment is one of the most important and pivotal topics in religion. All religion and human spiritual belief has to deal with the concept of judgment in one way or the other. Christianity is unique in that we, as believers, are asked to simply remove ourselves from judgment entirely. Through Christ’s sacrifice and love, we are free from being judged. To fully experience that freedom, we are instructed to remove ourselves from judging others. To be completely sanctified, separated, and removed from any judgment is, ultimately, the goal of the Christian per scripture.
We can see the cost of judgment in the very beginning of The Holy Bible.
In the book of Genesis, we are told that God speaks creation into existence, judging that each created thing is good after it has been made. We see a glimpse of the power of God’s words and God’s judgments to alter and even create the world around Him.
After the “original sin” in which Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a very interesting thing happened to them. They began to judge. Just as the serpent promised, they indeed did become more like God. They started judging among good, evil, shameful, appropriate, clothed, and unclothed. Why was this so sinful, though? Because while Adam and Eve may have now understood the concept of judgment, neither of them was qualified to actually issue a righteous judgment.
How could they be, when there was still so much they did not and could not know? How could they possibly be fair, righteous, and accurate judges of anything? I would then ask you, dear reader, how do we expect to be any better judges than they?
Judge not is the command given to us, because, just like Adam and Eve, we are not qualified to be righteous judges.
There is one Righteous Judge, and He has made it clear that his goal is to avoid exercising judgment by providing the grace we need to be freed from it.
If Christ Himself would rather show grace to everyone than to judge anyone, why should we be so quick to judge ourselves and others?
Instead, let us allow Christ to be The Righteous Judge, and allow ourselves to live a judgment-free life.
Jason Shockley is an evangelist and teacher passionate about uplifting others through the word of God.
