And Then I Bang Me Gavel!

Posted on March 26, 2019 by America's Keswick in Freedom Fighters

“Do not judge lest you be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” — Matthew 7:1-2 (NASB)

The absurdity to this scene in the movie “Life of Brian” is uncanny. You may not be a fan of this particular movie but like all comedy, there’s a hint of truth to it. Our klutzy character, Brian, falls from a window during his escape from Roman soldiers, knocks a street preacher from where he is standing upon a wall (no one liked what he was saying anyway), receives a round of applause and the crowd’s gaze. As a Roman solider looks on, Brian, in a panic, begins his discourse.

“Don’t pass judgment on other people or you might get judged yourself.” And as an onlooker asks, ‘What?’, Brian will repeat himself, sorta. “I said don’t pass judgement on other people, or else you might get judged too.”

“Who me?”, says our onlooker.

“Yes” Brian replies.

“Oh, thank you very much” and off goes our beloved onlooker.

“Well, not just you, all of you” and as Brian continues, he’ll begin to babble about considering the lilies in the field and the birds not having jobs. Eventually someone will call him out, ‘Oh he’s making it up as he goes along.’ (“No I’m not.”)

Now, like I said, it may not be a movie you’d like but what the scene represents to me is how we can all misunderstand Biblical principles and take that misunderstanding and pass it on to others around and make a case for our interpretation to be the correct one…like judging others perhaps.

When Jesus was speaking about judging others, He wasn’t saying we don’t make judgments about people. When you go to pick a spouse there’s gotta be standard that you go by and some things you need to observed about that person before you present yourselves to the altar to say your “I do’s.” If there wasn’t a judgement call made in that case, you could wind up with someone nowhere near compatible with you and chaos would surround you the rest of your days. Although it isn’t too uncommon for us to look at spouses and wonder what we got ourselves into when times aren’t so praiseworthy.

Judging in itself really isn’t a bad thing. It’s when we judge someone in a condemning way that it moves into a “Who do we think you are” posture. Jesus would say this about the whole matter, “And do not judge and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned” (Luke 6:37). Now, after reading that verse do you sense an attitude of forgiveness to it? If you do that’s great because if you don’t, the Apostle Paul has a bit of a rebuke for you.

“Therefore, you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgement, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.” (Romans 2:1-2)

With this in mind we gotta understand that everyone’s journey is different and the Spirit of God may just be working on them with a bit more difficultly than it did with us. In my own case there was seven years of praying going on by way of my wife’s Bible study mates before I gave up my addictive lifestyle. Up to that point, people’s judgement of me was that of a hopeless addict on his way to Hell. In my own little way, I am so glad that God looked into me and knew that I didn’t really wanna be that way. After all, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam 16:7).

I like what Jesus says to Nicodemus after the infamous John 3:16 verse, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him” (John 3:17). Now don’t be misled, there’s a judgment coming but it ain’t gonna be us doing the judging. We need to keep that in mind as the world around is seemingly going completely toys in the attic. So, before you go for that speck in your brother’s eye make sure you don’t clobber him with the log that’s in yours.

At the end of the day we will have to realize that God’s throne seats only One. All accounts will come due and an answer to only one question will be needed. What did you do for Jesus? And with that, I bang me gavel.

Written by Chris Hughes: Chris, a graduate of The Colony of Mercy (11-2003) has been married for 25+ years (Kathy), has a married son (Kevin) and a daughter in college (Karen). He has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008.

The Daily Bible Reading: Proverbs 8-9, 1 Corinthians 16| You can download our 2018 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here

Daily Quote: “Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others, we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. – Revelation 21:3