‘JUDGMENT IS MINE’
‘Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come.’
How very hard it is not to judge! That critical faculty is born in us; it is natural for us to bring all things we hear or see before the bar of our human judgment. God has given us this faculty, and we cannot help using it. It cannot be altogether wrong for us to use it.
I. There is a grave danger in the exercise of this faculty, a danger lest we should abuse this power, to set ourselves up as teachers, as if the right of delivering judgment had been committed to us. There is a danger lest we should judge harshly and uncharitably, to the hurt and detriment of others; from imperfect knowledge presuming to condemn the actions and motives of our neighbours: and it is against this sort of abuse that St. Paul warns us. It is not without a cause that this warning is given, for we know what an amount of harm it does in our days; how strongly people resent it, what an amount of unhappiness it causes, how wide of the marks our judgments often are! Very often those who are the most severe judges of their fellow-men are blind to their own faults, ignorant of the fact that what they condemn in others is the very thing of which they are themselves most guilty. They show an astonishing lack of self-knowledge, which would have enabled them to show greater charity and generosity. Those who have the deepest knowledge of themselves are the most humble and pitiful and merciful in their judgment?
II. The best self-knowledge does not enable us to fulfil the functions of the perfect judge.—Our knowledge is only partial and limited when we regard others and their circumstances. Judgment is God’s prerogative—not man’s. ‘Judgment is Mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.’ ‘The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son.’ ‘Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come.’ It is worth while to notice that those who deal harshly must expect to be dealt harshly with themselves, while the merciful shall be dealt leniently with. Let us be patient with the faults and failings of those round about us; let us remember that we are shielded perhaps by the nature of our work and calling from many temptations which prove too strong for our fellow-men. Let us be not so ready to find fault as some are, and more ready to give praise; and if we have to give blame in the course of our duty, let us do it as kindly as we can, considering ourselves, our many weaknesses, our faults and sins.
III. God hath appointed a day when He will judge the world.—Nothing escapes God’s notice. A day of justice and judgment is drawing near. We forget in our impatience that with God one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack, as St. Paul reminds us, concerning His promise. It is a needed warning, a reminder that we must have patience. After all, God’s inexhaustible patience and self-restraint are the very strongest proof of His majesty and power, for where there is boundless might, it is there you will find immovable calm and the infinite patience of conscious strength. God’s plans are worked out in some such way as this, with infinite patience, with dignity, and with power.
—Rev. W. A. Norman.
Illustration
‘Does this seem to any of us a small matter, this matter of passing judgment upon others? It is not a small matter. There were few things about which Christ Himself spoke so gravely. He said, “Judge not.” He said that those who presume to take upon themselves the responsibility of judgment would themselves be judged most severely. Well would it be for us if we could be cured of a fault which very specially besets the religious mind. There is probably nothing of which we shall hereafter be so thoroughly ashamed as of the premature verdicts that we have allowed ourselves to pass upon others. Would we could abandon the habit! Our own lives would be brightened and the whole atmosphere around us would sweetened. The difference would quickly be felt in the Church, and by the world.’