Matthew 7:1 (NKJV) — “Judge not, that you be not judged.”
Matthew 7:4-5 (NKJV) — “4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Remember the old adage which says people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. In these difficult times in which we are living with this pandemic gripping the whole world with fear and uncertainty, people need our love and not our judgement. You know we see a tramp sitting on the side of the road looking totally hopeless and destitute and we tend to say” “Look at that lazy man, why does he not go out and find work and become a respectable citizen and be of use to society?”
But often we have no idea where he comes from or his background. Maybe he was a top lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, a professor, and then one day while driving his whole family down the road a truck drove into him and killed his family and left him on his own and he just couldn’t get to reconcile himself with the tragedy and then he just gave up on life. Jesus asks you and I basically how would we react in a situation like that?
I remember clearly a story that I once heard about a university reunion. All these extremely successful men in their business field and sporting fields had come together at a very top-class dinner. They were all wearing tuxedos and all looking very smart. During the celebration banquet, one of the men said that he had lost his wallet and it was full of money and they just could not find this wallet anywhere.
So they said: “Let’s all take our jackets off and make sure none of us have taken that wallet by mistake.”
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But one of their party said he refused to take his jacket off so straightaway they judged him, and they assumed that he was the thief, so they insisted that he take off his jacket. Eventually reluctantly he took his jacket off and they saw that the man was not wearing a shirt. You see, what had happened was that he had fallen on hard times and his business had gone bankrupt and he didn’t have any money. So, he managed to borrow a tuxedo, but he didn’t even have a shirt to wear underneath it. Eventually they did get the thief, and it was one of the waiters.
You and I must be very careful that we don’t point fingers especially when we don’t know all the facts.
So let’s rather just love our fellow man; let’s encourage each other and let’s never judge a book by its cover.
God bless you
Angus Buchan
