Judge not - Love Thy Neighbour

I am relieved to see you clicked on this video because it means you might be thinking the same way I am or having some thoughts on the subject...

A little disclaimer first: Let it be known I am just saying my own words, not citing anyone and much less teaching anything, I just felt it was a good idea to voice my opinions on this subject but I don’t have any intention of changing your mind about anything if you feel I am going against your beliefs. I do want to point out however that I did form my views for this speech entirely from what I read in the Bible…

And I know you are now wondering what on earth am I talking about. Well, a few days ago I got this comment on one of my vlogs, and far from being offended it amused me a bit and gave me the idea to talk about this…in a nutshell: someone commented they liked my vlogs but were sorry to see I read books like Harry Potter...like saying it was something "bad" for me to get into.

I don’t want to get into what is “good or bad” because that is very evident, as Christians and humans with conscience we know what we ought and not to do. That much is clear. There is no gray area.

BUT, that does not give us the right to look down on others for doing things we ordinarily would not do ourselves. 

One of these days I was reading Mark 14: 1-9…it relates to the time when a woman came to Jesus and anointed His head with a very expensive and precious oil. And even the disciples, PEOPLE who FOLLOWED Jesus began judging that action as wasteful and unwise, almost making it sound like she was sinning…

That is what I have seen in the Christian society we live in nowadays. Brother judging brother…but on what grounds? Who are we to say what is right for the other to do? Jesus expanded on this so much in the Gospels, everywhere you read He made sure to remind us that we are “no one to judge the other”. (Matthew 7:1) The reason is that whatever we judge others on either we are doing the same thing now or will end up doing the same thing eventually. To prove this we have a very enlightening verse in Romans 2:1. And if this is not clear enough for us to understand just how useless and unnecessary it is for us to pass judgment on each other then we can read James 4:12…there is only ONE just enough to judge…we fall short of Him in every measure. 

I remember I read this example from a book by Max Lucado, he explained that reaching God’s kingdom is like jumping and reaching the moon: something impossible for humans to do. Yet when we boast with other people about how “good we are” it just looks like we tried jumping and it turns out we jumped just a little higher than someone else and that is why we feel all righteous and good, yet we forget that if is it was on our own strength that we had to reach that moon it would not matter that I reached higher than you because I would still be an eternity short of actually making it. So there is simply no point in comparing ourselves or feeling we are better because on some level we are all the same: Our only salvation is His sacrifice on the cross, something we could not have achieved on our own. And my scriptural backup is Ephesians 2:9

Going back to the story in Mark. Jesus read the people’s hearts and called them out on it and He said something precious: “Let her alone”, and I want to piggyback on Jesus’ words right there because it is so sad how we are driving people away from God just because they don’t do things the way we do or the way we believe is right. Jesus looks for intention, for motive, and it is only He who can see and read what those motives are inside the heart of each person. Yes, there might be people doing things for the wrong reasons, and even “good things” like going to church and vanishing any forms of worldly entertainment etc., and yet they are doing it for religion, to be seen by others, and not for love. While there might be others that don’t wear skirts to church or read the Word every single day etc. but they are doing their best and with the correct motivations. We just can’t know, we don’t all have the same convictions and until He calls us home to Him and gives us our glorified bodies we can only do what He said in His Word when it comes to treating others and that is “LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF” (Matthew 22: 39)

God loves you,

Dear Ordinary Caro