“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” -Luke 6:36-37

The widespread publicity led to a very unlikely arrest – the suspect was a Catholic priest. His church was appalled but stood beside him, saying they knew he could not be the bandit. They signed petitions, held protest marches and came up with his bail. But the police were certain they had their man. All of the eyewitnesses positively identified him. And the news media dug into his past, to find that in a previous church he had left under a cloud because of financial irregularities in the parish. For a priest he had a pretty expensive lifestyle – his own apartment and a fast car. His church was probably standing up for him because otherwise they looked like dupes.

As people across the country watched the story unfold on the news, they were positive this priest had pulled a fast one. He probably had a sociopath personality so he could rob banks and preach the next Sunday without feeling any guilt. No one outside his congregation was standing up for this guy. But then a funny thing happened. The REAL Gentleman Bandit was caught red-handed. As it turned out, he was the spitting image of the priest. It’s just that he WASN’T the priest. The priest was released, his church threw him a big party, and the news media and those who had prematurely judged him felt a little sheepish.” Source: Rev. David Holwick First Baptist Church Ledgewood, New Jersey

The other day in my devotion, I came across these verses, Luke 6:36-37 and it made me think how many times we make criticisms or judgements without complete knowledge of circumstances. Many times the criticisms we feel or speak are based on facts; we can be right and wrong at the same time if our attitude is not one of mercy. 

A critical spirit is harmful to our witness because the world is watching and listening to us and they will not believe that we show a God of mercy and kindness unless we show those traits ourselves.

Jesus begins by saying “Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Many people believe that Jesus was saying that we should never make any kind of judgement or evaluation about right or wrong in other people’s lives. When Jesus commands us not to judge others, he does not mean that we should not evaluate others actions, beliefs or teachings. What He is forbidding is an unmerciful, critical, fault finding evaluation of others. This is the attitude of harsh condemnation and not of loving correction. This attitude tends to hurt more than to heal. Jesus wants us to be very careful and be very loving in our evaluation or judgement of others faults.

Jesus in effect is saying that we are to evaluate and respond to other people’s shortcomings with mercy. We are to lovingly correct when it is necessary but we are not to condemn people or disparage them. We are not to look down upon them in our hearts or tear them down with our words because when we do that we are judging them in the very way Jesus said not to judge them.

Our goal in life in Christ is to build up people who are like Jesus. We are to be a people who show mercy, kindness and forgiveness to others especially when they fall. We should not condemn the weakness or failures of others. But neither will we ignore or excuse sin. We need to be understanding, compassionate, merciful people who will lend a helping and hopeful hand. Jesus tells us that we should not judge unmercifully so that we will not be judged unmercifully.

God’s abundant mercy in my life allows me to walk in freedom, peace, and joy. If we don’t show mercy and have a critical attitude, we will forfeit those things ourselves.

Jesus is saying that we can be especially blessed to receive mercy in the same way. He says that we will have mercy poured into our life abundantly, “a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.”

When you are kind, positive, good toward your enemies, and merciful, withholding judgement, we share the image of God. We are kind of like God, compassionate, tender hearted, and forgiving, we manifest Godly qualities.

My prayer is God will free us from the prison of our judgement so that we can receive and share His grace. We want to give a good measure of grace so we can in turn receive a good measure back from our ever merciful God. Enjoy a wonderful spring. God bless.

In His steps,