Devotion #2: Judgment

As humans, our judgment is a crucial tool in our lives. When the alarm clock goes off in the morning, we use our judgment to decide whether or not to hit the snooze button. We use our judgment to decide what to wear and we use our judgment to decide if caffeine is needed for the day. Then we get to our cars, and our judgment plays a major role in our driving. It is then that we judge whether or not we need to go just a little bit over the speed limit when we see our ETA, and we use our judgment to decide if it is safe to change lanes. I could keep going on and on with different examples of how judgment is something we use every day. However, judgment is not just used for situations. We also use our judgment toward other people. Every day, whether we mean to or not, we judge other people, but as Christians, we have a responsibility relating to our judgment. 

Romans 12:3 states, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” 

This responsibility I brought up earlier relates directly to how we judge others. Verse 3 starts off by reminding us that none of us are better than the other. We all live in a broken world, and all of us deal with the repercussions of sin. Because of that, in the eyes of the Lord, we are all on a level playing field of sorts. All sin is evil in the eyes of the Lord, and not one of us is more sinful than another. As Christians, we have accepted the gift of forgiveness for our sins. So, in the eyes of the Lord, we have been forgiven and saved from His judgment.  

This is where we could be tempted to look at others who have not accepted Christ into their lives and cast our judgment on them for their choices, beliefs, and actions. We need to remember that we were right there with them before we accepted Christ, our sins are equal to theirs in the eyes of the Lord. Our duty as Christians is not to cast judgment on the person, but to help lead them to Christ as we have come to Him. Our faith in God is the only thing that saves us, and it is the only thing that can save others.