Judge Not

Judge not,that ye be not judged.- Matthew 7:1 KJV

I have mostly Christian readers of my blogs, but I also reach out to unbelievers. I like reading about peoples lives and their views on it. I enjoy the lines of communication that I make through the blogosphere, especially when it becomes one on one with email.

I get messages from people who thank me for not being judgemental. I will tell you though, that process has taken years to achieve.

I got saved in June of 1980 as a result of reading literature connected to a Christian publication. as I have posted before, I will not give the name of this publication, seeing I see some legalism and hate coming from it nowadays. I see a contradiction of the gospel message coming from it. For years I had thought that it was the authority for my Christian education. I learned a lot of Bible, but little love. I was very judgemental because of it. As a result, I couldn't get along with people from other denominations, let alone those who didn't profess to be believers.

We as Christians are to follow the example of Jesus, not other people. The best way to find out the example of Jesus is to read His Word and find out what He is like. We find that people we tend to shun, He embraced. He never told anyone to clean up their act, then He would associate with them. he was more concerned about the condition of their soul, and felt their life would clean up afterward. Even though we sing "Just as I am" if the anybody with a bad reputation would come into worship with us, we have a tendency to wonder about their ulterior motive.

I once heard a former pastor say during a message that we should go into the projects and win the lost there, instead of having them come into church and polluting those in service. As I say, he is a former pastor.

You can't win the lost if you don't associate with them.