Judgement

"Did you see that guy?  He just cut me off.  The dirty little *^*&^$*&^%!!!  What's his hurry?  Probably some jerk who thinks he's something."  Mumble, grumble.  


Minus the curse words, I have heard my own thoughts and the above statements are not far off.  Of course, I do get rather ironically "tickled" when we arrive at the same stop light together.  Then, I remember times that I've been in a hurry and I was doing the bad driving, cutting in and out of traffic, rushing to class, afraid to be late and frustrated that the person in front of me appears to think they have all day to get wherever they're headed.  Can't they see I'm in a hurry?  Better yet, I think they're in my way on purpose!  They saw my turn signal, and, even though they really didn't need to, they turned the same direction as I needed to go just to stay in my way.  HOW RUDE!


Wait a minute, here.  You mean to tell me I can judge what another person is doing even though I'm not in their skin?  I can sit in my car and excuse my bad behavior and not excuse his?  What's up with that?  What about the other non-Biblical rules we all "live by"?  The code we think is all that important is often broken by those strangers who "should know better" even though they aren't from around here or don't have a reason to know, OR, perhaps they have some extenuating circumstances that may force them to break our rules.  Hmmm, what to do?


You may know from some previous posts that I've been having my devotions out of the Apochrypha.  You know, Psalm 151, Judith, Maccabbees, etc, those heretical writings that were not allowed into the cannon of scripture.  Here are some verses that may help shed a little light, or at least enforce a position that the scripture explains elsewhere as well:

7 Blame not before thou hast examined the truth: understand first, and then rebuke. 8 Answer not before thou hast heard the cause: neither interrupt men in the midst of their talk. 9 Strive not in a matter that concerneth thee not; and sit not in judgment with sinners.  Sirach 11:7-9

We do not excuse sin.  We don't even sit in the seat of judgement.  We are humans and thereby are prone to mistakes, misjudgements, and all sorts of other ills.  Does that mean we should not sit on a jury?  Absolutely not. It means that in the course of our daily lives, we should work to refrain from being the judge and jury of our fellow sojourners.  We may not agree with them or what they do, but we leave that judgement up to the One who will judge all.