judging others

You live life however you want to. It’s all about you. You are the only one that matters. Your opinions are always right. You build yourself up while putting others down. It’s your way or no way.

Have you ever met someone like that? I hope you aren’t married to one. It’s bad enough when you have one in your family. If you must deal with someone who lives like that, then you know firsthand how difficult it is. You also know how many times they have hurt you. I’m sorry if you have.

To make matters worse, they will lie about you and spread lies. Truth is whatever “they” believe. They tend not to have any true friends. And the ultimate insult is when they go to church and claim to have accepted Jesus Christ into their lives. They give love a bad name!

I have known a few. Most people probably do, too. I have thought about one of them, in particular, standing before God. I wonder if He will say, “Depart from me. I never knew you.” Now, I’m not judging them, but it is biblical to judge the fruit of their life. And I gotta say, it’s sour!

When one accepts Jesus into their life, it should change them. They should trust him to help them deal with whatever demons are slow to come out of them. There may be reasons, valid ones, as to why they are full of hate, but after inviting Jesus to rule and reign in their life, they need to let those things go.

“Christian” means follower of Christ. If you claim to be a Christian, then you should strive to be like him, full of love. Loving people as you love yourself after loving God first. Reading his word, the Bible, learning what truth really is, and walking it out daily.

If you are one of these types of individuals, then I pray for God to help you and let him do a work in you. You can overcome anything going on now and anything that happened in your past that might be causing you to be resentful or, perhaps, jealous of others and their lives.

Don’t be a person who gives love a bad name. Be known as one who, no matter what, loves. And one who walks this planet with the presence of God about them, demonstrating the fruits of the Spirit. If you do, you will probably find others wanting to be around you instead of avoiding you. He’s got this because He’s got you. Give love a good name.

¹⁶You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. ¹⁹So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. Mat. 7:16-20 (NLT)

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Cor. 13:1-3 (NIV)

²¹“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²²On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Mat. 7:21-23 (ESV)

The eight year old girl had just visited her father in his downtown office. The elevator stopped a floor below her father’s and a gentleman got on. The young girl got scared. By the time they reached the lobby she was in full tears and screamed as she ran out. Those who were in the building lobby that day looked and saw the man standing in the elevator. They imagined the worse, but the real horror was about to come.

Most likely the black gentleman didn’t do anything to the little girl, but those in lobby held an impromptu court hearing found the man guilty, and sentenced him to an immediate death. But they didn’t stop there. Word, their version, of what had taken place quickly spread, and the next thing everyone knew, Black people were being killed.

Today, as I write this post, it is the 100 year anniversary of the worst race riot in America. Some call it, “The Tulsa Race Massacre”. Even our own air force was brought in to bomb Black Wall Street and the surrounding area where most Black people lived in Tulsa. I remember seeing, in one of my early history books, a photo of two flat train cars with bodies stacked high across it. They took them out of town and buried them somewhere, most likely, in a mass grave.

I was born and raised in Tulsa. I am proud to call it, my hometown, yet that day in my eighth grade history class, I bowed my head in shame. Later, when I was in college, my history professor told us the event had been removed from the books, but he told us the above story anyway.

It does no one any good to try to hide the past. If you do, you and or others can’t learn from it. The saddest part of this story is how it begin. That men looked at the skin of another and assumed the worse. Most will say they aren’t a racist, but aren’t there times when you see someone, who perhaps looks different from you and you adjust your speech, your actions, or at the very least, your thoughts? Racism, despite the individual generating it, is an ugly thing. I think it makes God so sick to his stomach.

We were all made by God, and are descendants of Adam and Eve, so honestly, how can anyone be a racist toward their own family member? And if we all had the love of God within us, there would be no room for racism. To those who died 100 years ago today, I am so sorry. It was wrong, and I will never forget.