An opinion piece...."What is wrong with judgement"...that is all.
Every so often something I hear, day in and day out in the world, just winds up stuck like a burr in my mental socks. This is one of those things, so bear with me as I vent.
You hear the phrase "who are you to judge me?" used all the time, but are we really thinking about the answer to the question? After all, what is so bad about judgement? We ask drivers to exert good judgement every time they drive. We hope our young people exert good judgement when choosing a mate. We trust our law enforcement to exercise good judgement (hopefully) in the execution of their duties. So what is wrong with exercising good discernment and rendering informed judgments?
You could make the argument that people mostly use the phrase when people are publicly judging issues that have to do with their private lives and I certainly agree that we need to tread lightly there. However, our private lives are not as private as we think they are. Decisions we make about our "personal business" have a way of rippling outward from ourselves and affecting the public. People who choose to abuse drugs are making a personal choice, but the public consequences are staggering. Parents who make the personal choice to poorly parent their children saddle society with unruly, undisciplined, lazy, selfish adults. In fact almost all of our "personal decisions" have far reaching "public consequences".
Perhaps the answer to the question of "who are you to judge me?" Is simply this, "I am the person who has to live in the world partially formed by the outcomes of all your personal choices." As such I reserve the right to exercise my discernment in judging the merits of my fellow human beings actions. In like fashion I also realize that I am also subject to the judgement of my fellow world citizens and have to be both humble about how I judge and about how I receive judgement. Jesus' admonition to "judge not lest ye be judged" dealt exclusively with the issue of eternal salvation, not social responsibility. So, judge your neighbor, but do it humbly and lovingly knowing that we are all in this together and as much as others are answerable to us for their decisions so too are we answerable to others.
You could make the argument that people mostly use the phrase when people are publicly judging issues that have to do with their private lives and I certainly agree that we need to tread lightly there. However, our private lives are not as private as we think they are. Decisions we make about our "personal business" have a way of rippling outward from ourselves and affecting the public. People who choose to abuse drugs are making a personal choice, but the public consequences are staggering. Parents who make the personal choice to poorly parent their children saddle society with unruly, undisciplined, lazy, selfish adults. In fact almost all of our "personal decisions" have far reaching "public consequences".
Perhaps the answer to the question of "who are you to judge me?" Is simply this, "I am the person who has to live in the world partially formed by the outcomes of all your personal choices." As such I reserve the right to exercise my discernment in judging the merits of my fellow human beings actions. In like fashion I also realize that I am also subject to the judgement of my fellow world citizens and have to be both humble about how I judge and about how I receive judgement. Jesus' admonition to "judge not lest ye be judged" dealt exclusively with the issue of eternal salvation, not social responsibility. So, judge your neighbor, but do it humbly and lovingly knowing that we are all in this together and as much as others are answerable to us for their decisions so too are we answerable to others.
Pastor Rus.
Comments
Post a Comment