Who Are We to Judge?

Do we ever pre-judge people? Labelling some as scum or unworthy, and seeing others as good and deserving? How does our vision of people match up with God’s grace shown to this criminal?

It’s hard for me to categorize myself in any extreme — neither a murderer nor righteous. Since I don’t identify as either, I think of myself to stand in mediocrity. I must confess though, there are times my pride subtly pushes my standing into the “good” area. It’s easier for me to release my judgement of another person than of myself. To convince myself that someone can be considered ABC because of XYZ is rational. To admit that I’m a worse person than I think I am, is painful.

Erroneously, there are times I catch myself thinking “I’m a pretty good person” because I use a relative standard, not God’s. I love this illustration of good/bad standings that my brother showed me — something he learned from his time with P2C.

In which tier do you see yourself?

If you were the gatekeeper to Heaven, where would you draw the line between who goes to Heaven, and who goes to Hell?

Our decisions here on Earth do have an eternal impact. Our actions here on Earth do have an eternal impact. Once we’ve broken one law of God’s, we have broken all of them. In our sinful nature, we cannot call ourselves worthy of going to Heaven because we are imperfect. Growing up, I didn’t truly believe this because I didn’t understand the gravity of sin. When I began to feel guilty, feel uncomfortable, feel ashamed of sin though, I knew, that only by the grace of God, am I allowed to be with Him. Thank God that the line between those going to Heaven and Hell does not run horizontally to separate any of the tiers, but rather vertically, to capture people of any tier who turn to Him and put their trust in Him.

If we come to the Lord humbly, will He not then say that we will be with Him in paradise?