Judge or Inspector?
To judge with accuracy and justice requires knowledge concerning the purpose of a person's heart and the motivation of their mind that is not available to another person. All too often, we even try to hide our own intentions from ourselves.
As Christians, we are, with God's help, to judge ourselves and not others.
To others, we are to show the same grace, mercy, and love we were shown by God before we accepted the reconciliation He offers through Jesus Christ - in other words, while we were still antagonistic and rebellious toward Him.
Without criticism or judgment, however, we can be fruit inspectors.
To inspect is to check the readily available characteristics of appearance, behavior, and consistency that are found in public view.
While only God can know the internal motivation of a person, we can, through Scripture, recognize some basic characteristics about what people say and do. This, through understanding and prayer, can help us know who has wisdom worth listening to and who we should not be influenced by. We can only control our own behavior, not that of others.
I hope to share some scripture to help identify the fruit that we see displayed through the day, both around us and online, first in the mirror, then on the screen.
If we regularly recognize and turn from our own shortcomings when we see them, we can respond with grace and mercy to others when we see our same faults elsewhere.
Proverbs 20:11 T4T Even children show by what they do whether they are good or not; they show whether their behavior is honest and right or not.
Proverbs 27:19 T4T When a person looks in the water, he sees his own face; similarly, when we look at a person’s behavior, we know what he is thinking.
