Recently I had the opportunity to work with a couple of kids who happened to have lots of friends and neighbors over at the house. It was a whirlwind of kids! 

I still needed to get some work done with the kids that I was there for, so I came up with a plan. I would get all the kids on the family’s trampoline and give them a task to do. They would all do the task, and a couple of the kids would be judges, making the therapy tasks a type of competition. This worked great except that the kids were awful judges!

For example, I would ask the kids to do a somersault, and the judges would score. What I did not anticipate was that the judges would give a numerical value to the performance based on how much they liked or disliked the performer. 

One particularly athletic kid did the task perfectly but got a zero or 1 out of 10 because the judges did not like him. And someone who could not complete the task could possibly get a 10 out of 10 because they were liked. The game basically became a popularity contest.

In John 7:24, Jesus states, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

What if we had to be the judge dealing with our own choices and actions?

Could we, without partiality, measure our lives by God’s word?

God’s word says, “Love your enemies.”

Me (as the defendant): I try not to be mean or gossip about my enemies.

Me (as the unrighteous judge): Good job, and you did not hit your enemies either! Wow!

Me (as the kid on the trampoline): I don’t like my enemies AT ALL, so even if they tried to be nice to me, I’d still give them a zero!
 
Me (as the righteous judge): Am I really LOVING my enemies? Who is my enemy, and how can I show them God’s love?

Let’s try to be a little more judicious in how we are living and how we are following God’s word. Let’s try to be a little more thoughtful about how we treat God’s children. 

Good thing God is a perfect judge. 

May God bless you,

Bro. P