Or you will be judged.

While I feel that I have a pretty good handle on such theological issues as substitutionary atonement, and while I would say that I think I have as much of an understanding on the Trinity as one can have, it's those little things, concepts a child could probably understand with no issue at all, that always seem to get me.

Like judging.

A child can understand that you should not judge someone because the looks of something can not always be trusted to inform you about the truth of said thing. It's easy. Take the sky, for instance. Bright blue, no clouds, blazing orange sun. Sometimes that look means arctic cold, and other times it means Amazon heat.
The reality is not effected whatsoever by how it looks.
Looks, we know, can be deceiving.

And for the majority of my life I think I thought that's all that judging was about.
"Don't judge a book by it's cover" and you should be good.

But then I was talking to my mother one day and the issue came up and she said, "Well, in the same way you judge you will be judged."
Now, I have never had a problem with that concept or verse, for I always was just like, "Well, just make sure you are holding yourself to that same standard. And no excuses."
What my mother said after that, though, made me think about it in a completely different way.
"No, what that means," she said, "is that if you judge someone about something, then someone else will judge you about the same thing. For instance, if you judge someone based on what they were wearing, then people will, no doubt, judge you for what you're wearing. It's like that."

Oh.

Oh.

That puts the ball a little more in your court, now doesn't it?

Blast.

Because, even if I don't ever think, "Oh they must not be worth much because they don't __Fill in the blank__,"  or even if I am never claiming someone is bad or good or whatever based on an assumption not founded in truth, I can still be walking all over the place, casting my judgments here and there, and really, creating a judgment upon myself that someone, someday, will fill.

For in the same way that I judge, I will be judged.

Period.


A few weeks ago my girlies were over for Bible study and one of them shared a situation they were dealing with involving someone referring to them using nasty language.
Naturally that brought up the concept of what we say.
In spite of the fact that our culture is wrought with flippant language, sarcastic language, jibes, etc, anytime you read in the Bible about the way we talk, the repercussions are anything but casual.

"But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matthew 12:36-37)

Wolfies, that's serious.

"The tongue has the power of life and death..." (Proverbs 18:21)

It's no wonder, if those two passages are true, that God says through Paul, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful in building others up..." (Ephesians 4:29)
Because, maybe I am crazy, but I just am thinking that our words mean more, do more, cause more ripples, in the heavenly realms than we think they do here on earth.
I think they are more binding...
 Because, if our words can build someone up...the opposite is most definitely true. Our words can rip them down. Implode them. Cause to deteriorate.

Like, have you ever thought, that much like the judging issue where you kind of create this judgment upon yourself to be fulfilled by someone else, you can maybe create a role for them to fill by what you say to them.
 You can speak an identity upon them.....?

Think about it this way, if I say I think you are a jerk, and everybody says they think you are a jerk, you are probably going to end up being a jerk.
Or, unfortunately, I know people who have been called terrible names while growing up...and....they usually end up fulfilling that name.
Like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Now don't go thinking I am one of those Name-it-and-claim-it people. There are things I want and could claim claim claim, and God, in his love and better understanding than mine, would never give that to me.
So I don't believe that theology.

But this naming thing.
God gave Adam the job of naming things.
I think there is something in the naming process...

Ok, so I am crazy. I can deal with that.
And if you have hung around this blog long enough you know I think these schemes every now and again and you should take them with a grain of salt and come back later when I am back on my rocker.
: )

That being said, I guess it just has me thinking that I REALLY should probably not judge someone because someone will be judging me that way and, likewise, I REALLY should not be describing people in unsavory ways because, well....I don't want to create a role for them to fill. I don't want to cast that on them. IF there is one bit of truth in what I just told you, I can have a heart enough not to ruin someone like that.
Ruin them by making them, in the long run, be a judge of me or others, or ruin them by casting an identity on them that is not of the Lord.

Nope. This year, I will resolve not to do that.