Got Ears? Then Don't Judge.

“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37 New King James Version NKJV).

A guy is waiting to be interviewed for a job when he hears someone yell, “Get out of my office!” A fellow comes out of the office quickly and says to him; “Whatever you do when you go in, don’t make any comments about the fact she has no ears” the man says. When the receptionist invites him into the office the guy sits nervously in a chair waiting on the interviewer. When the lady doing the interviewing enters the first thing he notices is the fact she does not have any ears. Remembering the advice the other man gave him he focuses on her eyes. “You have very pretty eyes,” he says to her trying to get some brownie points. “Why thank you, I just got these new contacts last week,” she says. He then says, “I should have known they were contacts.” She then asks, “How would you have known that?” He says, “Because you don’t have any ears to hold glasses on.” He did not get the job either.

To form an opinion after careful observation or consideration is the definition of the word judge. We do it on a regular basis without even realizing it. When Jesus told the people not to do it He was putting it in the context of our opinion about other people. We form opinions about people as we observe them. We judge them by age, size, hair color, gender, dress, looks, facial expressions, and even smell. We also judge them by their actions or inactions, by what they say or do not say. Then Jesus says not to condemn them once we judge them. Then Jesus said if we do find ourselves condemning them then repent and seek forgiveness for it. Jesus says it is better not to form opinions to begin with and we will not have to worry about seeking forgiveness for condemning them. It does not come naturally; just like the guy seeing the woman with no ears and wearing contacts. Judging comes naturally, forming opinions come by choice. Let’s work on forming opinions and let Jesus do the judging. He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Sorry, just could not resist it).